Prof. Woods is a really nice guy with a lot of experience in the Asian History department. There is no text book required, but all of the reading is online, so it gets tiresome on the eyes. I probably spent $20 printing out all the readings (which is pretty cheap compared to the price of the text books). The readings were boring, lengthy, and sometimes hard to follow. My TA was really good at breaking down the readings though, so it wasn't completely necessary to fully understand the readings going into your discussion class.

This is a pretty straightforward class. One thing I suggest is to take your laptop to class. You will need to write down EVERY WORD he says in order to have the right amount of resources to do well on the midterm & final.

Major Tests/Papers for History 9E: Southeast Asian Crossroads:
-Map Test: you're given a map of Southeast Asia and you must be able to identify the major countries, cities, oceans, and rivers. Super easy if you study it

-Midterm: 5 identifications, 1 essay (they give you the word, you write Who, What, When, Where, & Why it was significant)

-Research Paper: 10 page research paper on anything related to Southeast Asian History

-Final: 10 identifications, 2 essays

BASICALLY: straightforward class. I had no interest at all in Southeast Asian History, but I have to say it wound up being the only class I could stay awake in. He's a nice guy with funny stories to tell. Be sure to take really good notes, and just pray you get a good TA that is nice enough to break down the readings for you.

You don't have to buy any books for this class; all of the readings are scanned and posted online. This might be great for your wallet, but after awhile..reading online just becomes horribly painful on the eyes. On top of that, I found almost all of the readings were incredibly boring and it seemed like too much as well. I think it was probably around 100-ish pages per week.

It might've been my TA only, but to do well on the midterm and especially the final, you'd have to have a pretty good understanding of the readings (which like I said was a total bore-fest) and precise notes on the lectures. Bring a laptop to lecture, and try not to play games or go on Facebook, because he talks pretty fast and I fell asleep QUICK if I tried to write down notes with pen and paper.

He gives pretty good study guides though which makes the identifications easy(5 on the midterm and 10 for the final). He also provides around 8 essay topics which involve material he's discussed in lecture and stuff from readings. For the midterm, he'll combine two of the essay questions on his study guide (one based on lectures and one based on readings). For the final, he'll combine 4 of the 8 essay questions into 2 essay prompts (2 each). One will be based heavily on his lecture, which sucks if you don't go or fall asleep like I did. And the other on the reading, and he expects a pretty solid regurgitation of the material. FYI, his lecture-essay prompts are usually asking for things like "discuss the 6 points of (a topic in lecture)" or "list and explain 4 of the 6 reasons.. blah blah" So in lecture when he starts saying "there are # reasons why......." pay attention and make sure you get those down! Because I didn't.

The research paper wasn't too bad, my TA was pretty critical and expected a lot of good work but I did ok and I procrastinated BAD.

Professor Woods is a great lecturer, but I wouldn't take the class if you don't already have some interest in the subject. You can tell he loves the material and does a good job of keeping his lectures interesting. At times, though, the lectures felt a little off topic and by the end of the course I didn't feel like I had a great understanding of Southeast Asian history altogether.

My experience with the class was also made a lot worse by having the most terrible TA at UCLA, but I guess that's not really the professor's fault.

Really knows and loves Southeast Asian history. Woods is overall a good lecturer, although sometimes the lectures can become a bit monotonous since he's just talking the whole time and the class simply writes what he says. Not a lot of visual aids, but that's fine because he makes the material in the lectures as interesting as they possibly can be. However, the class is completely graded by the TA, so your TA is crucial. I luckily got a good TA and so my experience was pretty fun. If you want an easy history GE, then take this class.

A very good lecturer. The class was presented chronologically, and there wasn't really an outline, so it's not exactly preferred for an OCD notetaker. Overall, a pretty simple class: one map quiz, one midterm, one research paper, discussion participation, and the final. The midterm and final consisted of ID's and essay questions. Professor Woods also gave out study guides, so they weren't terribly hard to study for. A pretty easy A, but I had a really good TA, who is in charge of grading everything.

Professor Woods is so passionate about Southeast Asian history!!! His lectures are just him speaking, which is hard to concentrate sometimes, so better drink a cup of coffee beforehand. Be sure to take notes because those are the only references you have to study with! No Course Reader!!! A week's readings consist of one to three academic journal articles, which are posted online. Discussion is unnecessarily two hours long, but it does help with understanding the articles, which may come back as an essay question on the study guide. For the midterm and final, Prof. Woods provides you with a study guide with the ID's and essay he would choose from. The midterm is easy, as long as you're acquainted with the study guide. The final is double the terms along with two essays, which is a bitch for your wrist, but everything is expected, and the only thing you have to do is write. The 10-page paper requires thorough research but as long as you meet its requirements, you'll be fine. Ended up with an A because I studied only the terms and essay thoroughly on the study guide. From the lectures, you can see how passionate and devoted Professor Woods is to the subject. Overall, the subject is easy to grasp and exams are totally manageable.

Professor Woods is an amazing professor. Like the other reviews have said, the subject matter is easy to understand and he communicates it very effectively. However, I wouldn't say that his class is an easy GE; it really depends on the TA, since the TA grades everything in the class. My TA gave us pop quizzes on the week's readings, so we had to keep up with all of the readings. Attendance is crucial since it's 25% of your grade. The grade you receive on your midterm and final will vary depending on the TA. One TA might grade very leniently and give you a high-90%, while the other TA might give you a mid-80%, etc. It's pretty subjective when it comes to the TA's grading your paper/midterm/final. Otherwise, the subject matter and readings that were assigned were very interesting.