loose leaf western experience $45

course reader $10

misc. books $5 each

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I AM SELLING MY COURSEPACKS AND SUPPLEMENTAL BOOKS FOR THIS COURSE. EMAIL ME AT *************

I really enjoyed this class! I’m definitely coming from a place of bias because I love ancient history, but the content and the structure of this class really worked for me. I never actually met Prof. Philips because I took this class asynchronously, but you can tell this guy knows what he’s talking about. He does a great job explaining the material and making connections that you might not notice.

You’ll be asked to buy a main textbook, two course packs, and a few supplemental books. Don’t get the textbook. You don’t need it, since everything mentioned in the reading is covered in the lectures. By not doing the textbook readings you’ll save yourself from a lot of unnecessary work. I would recommend getting both coursepacks, but for the supplemental books you could definitely get away with pdfs or ebooks.

If you’re willing to put in time to prep for tests and to read, you’ll do great in this class! It’s a fun GE and the material is pretty interesting.

Selling Course Materials!

History 1A Course Reader Material - $5

The Western Experience (10th Edition)- $25

The Last Days of Socrates- $5

Sophocles-The Theban Plays-$5

Two Lives of Charlemagne-$5

The Epic of Gilgamesh-$5

Readings in Ancient History -$45

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Extremely interesting class, Professor Phillips is an incredible orator!
I am selling all required readings for this course, feel free to email, text, or call!
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HIST 113B is my favorite class I've taken at UCLA. The content is super interesting and I found him to be a super engaging lecturer. This is not an easy class by any means though, there's a lot of reading and he expects you to know the class inside and out for both the midterm and final. If you're into ancient history, totally take this class!

Professor Philips teaches what is likely the most boring class you will ever take. I mean truly mind-numbing. That being said, it is also incredibly straightforward with no confusion whatsoever about what is to be expected of you.

Lectures are actually comically bad. He speaks a list of facts (names, dates, locations, etc.) at you for the full 50 minutes. There are no pauses, no breaks, and no questions. This is all done with no slides or any other aid to his speech. He does not slow down and he does not repeat things. If you didn't hear it the first time, tough. As for how to spell things in the ancient languages, good luck, he does not write anything down. I cant convey in text how boring these lectures are.

For exams, you are asked to produce the definitions of a few terms that he has covered in lecture as well as a short essay. A list of about 50 terms as well as 4 essay promps will be posted prior to the exam. The exams are a selection of a few of the terms and 2 of the essay prompts (you choose 1 to write). Because of this, all the exams are very easy if you can remember stuff well. Though, the terms are only covered in lecture and perhaps only covered with a few sentences. This means that, in order to have notes for all terms, you have to nearly transcribe the entire lecture. There is no good way to research terms outside of lecture, because he quizzes you on the dates and events that he talks about in lecture, which may be different than dates and events in other sources.

If you are ok with completely mindless copying of what he says during lectures, then the class is incredibly easy. The entire grade is 4 exams, discussion participation, and a final paper. The exams are as described above and are very easy if you can memorize things. There is assigned reading for discussion (and a lot of it), but you really don't have to do it. Just look up summaries online and you're fine, its sometimes covered in lecture as well. The final paper is like 9 pages, we were given 4 prompts and could choose 1. Its mostly based on the readings and some of the prompts had material that was just not covered in class at all.

The class is a very easy A if you are good at memorizing stuff, but is so damn boring that I would almost rather get a worse grade with a different prof.

Professor Philips teaches what is likely the most boring class you will ever take. I mean truly mind-numbing. That being said, it is also incredibly straightforward with no confusion whatsoever about what is to be expected of you.

Lectures are actually comically bad. He speaks a list of facts (names, dates, locations, etc.) at you for the full 50 minutes. There are no pauses, no breaks, and no questions. This is all done with no slides or any other aid to his speech. He does not slow down and he does not repeat things. If you didn't hear it the first time, tough. As for how to spell things in the ancient languages, good luck, he does not write anything down. I cant convey in text how boring these lectures are.

For exams, you are asked to produce the definitions of a few terms that he has covered in lecture as well as a short essay. A list of about 50 terms as well as 4 essay promps will be posted prior to the exam. The exams are a selection of a few of the terms and 2 of the essay prompts (you choose 1 to write). Because of this, all the exams are very easy if you can remember stuff well. Though, the terms are only covered in lecture and perhaps only covered with a few sentences. This means that, in order to have notes for all terms, you have to nearly transcribe the entire lecture. There is no good way to research terms outside of lecture, because he quizzes you on the dates and events that he talks about in lecture, which may be different than dates and events in other sources.

If you are ok with completely mindless copying of what he says during lectures, then the class is incredibly easy. The entire grade is 4 exams, discussion participation, and a final paper. The exams are as described above and are very easy if you can memorize things. There is assigned reading for discussion (and a lot of it), but you really don't have to do it. Just look up summaries online and you're fine, its sometimes covered in lecture as well. The final paper is like 9 pages, we were given 4 prompts and could choose 1. Its mostly based on the readings and some of the prompts had material that was just not covered in class at all.

The class is a very easy A if you are good at memorizing stuff, but is so damn boring that I would almost rather get a worse grade with a different prof.

TL/DR: Enjoyed this class. Fair amount of reading, but the exams are pretty fair and if you are a good note-taker you will be able to do well in the class. Definitely recommend for history majors or people looking for a good GE where you will be able to learn a breadth of knowledge you might need to know.

Full Review with grading/material/etc info here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/15vILblHwWrnV7KnB-sOFzTRnQE2QPA7nmHxj4gdNKBU/edit?usp=sharing

i took this class my first quarter at UCLA to fulfill a GE and here are my main comments
- half of this class is about memorizing names and dates!!
- go to EVERY. SINGLE. LECTURE and type LITERALLY everything the professor says. everything you need to know is from his lectures and the smaller books (the main textbook is useless). he doesn’t record lectures and he doesn’t write anything on the board (the powerpoints are basically useless). TYPE WHAT YOU HEAR AND COMMAND F LATER!!
- The workload for this class is not bad until the midterms when you have to memorize names, dates, and accomplishments of 40-50 people and then prepare 4 essays from the short books you read.
- grading is 60% exams (20% for each of 30 exams), 20% term paper, and 20% participation.
- EXAMS: he will give you 40-50 people and you have to “identify them” (essentially their accomplishments, dates, location, etc). The he will give 4 essays and you have to outline them. then for the actual exam, he will give you 8 of the 40-50 people you memorized and you will choose 5 of them to write about (talk about a lot of extra work for no reason). then he will give 2 of the 4 essays and you pick 1 to write.
- professor is nice. he gives you an INSANE amount of info in a short period of time.
- i got an A so no complaints. Not an easy GE but not an awful GE either

Grade Breakdown:
3 Hour Examinations (2 Midterms + Final) - 60%
Term Paper - 20%
Discussion Section Participation - 20%

- Lectures were in-person and NOT recorded. This was a pain honestly, because Dr. Phillips doesn't include any words on his slides (only pictures) and the information is very dense. However, if you pay attention, you can note down most important things, as he does post a lecture outline ahead of time which has all the important terms discussed in lecture.
- Exams were VERY fair, basically he provided a study guide which contained about 40 identification terms and 4 essays a week in advance of the exam. On the test itself, there would be 8 of those terms and 2 essays, you would have to choose 5 terms to identify (basically just describe what it was and its significance) and 1 essay, each worth 50% of the exam grade. There are lots of quizlets with terms already, but I recommend making your own using lecture notes. You also have to include all relevant dates which is a pain. From what I've seen, TAs were not harsh with grading
- There are readings in the syllabus, but honestly the only ones I read were the readings explicitly discussed during discussion section. You can find a pdf of pretty much everything except the B-L reading. The textbook really isn't necessary to read, but is sometimes helpful to get information while memorizing for the exam
- The term paper is due Week 8/9 and is kind of like the exam essay, but 7-8 pages, requiring citations. He gives you a couple of prompts, and it was not graded harshly.
- Discussion sections are mandatory and you just discuss certain readings, which can sometimes be long. I just tried to participate every section a couple times.
Overall: I would recommend taking this class as a GE only IF you are good at memorization as 60% of your grade is based on it. The final is not cumulative so it makes it a little easier. Dr. Phillips is not very approachable tbh, but loves to include dry humor in his lectures which is always amusing.