Dr. Kim is one of the best professors at UCLA. He engages the students in the discussion, is easily available to students, particularly the days before an exam, and he cares about the students' learning. He is passionate about what he is teaching. I never would have thought I would find the subject interesting, but he made it interesting and very understandable. If I were in this major, I would definitely take other classes with him. If you do the reading and attend the lectures (in this quarter it was zoom), you will do fine in the class. Open book midterm and final, and the papers weren't hard. The final project was fun because that is how he related the class to current events and UCLA, so it brought it all together in a way that we really understood. I would definitely recommend Dr. Kim. If you go to him during office hours, he will help you as e wants the students to learn and be passionate about what he is teaching.

I took this class as a GE outside my major and found it to be the most challenging of all my courses this quarter. Professor Kim's lectures were very boring, but you can't afford to miss them because his lecture slides have little detail. The quiz questions were often based on very specific facts, which made it hard to get good grades. I was very interested in the subject matter before the course, but he hasn't made it very interesting to learn more about.

It's a huge GE covering a broad topic, you get what you'd expect. Kim is clearly new to having a large class, and tends to way overestimate how interested his audience is in his lectures. Dry and boring, lots of academic references that you never actually get tested on. Not a good choice for an easy A.

The review given by the second person on March 12, 2016 very accurately describes the workload of German 59. BTW, the grade is posted on March 26, 2016. So, reviews giving grades prior to this date are inaccurate, and some are malicious.

Background: English as a second language, hard science major.

Grades: A (quiz: 42/45, two essays: 195/200, final: 92/100, participation: 100/100) -> 95.2%

I haven't conversed with my friends yet about grades, although I'm sure they are doing pretty well. In order to nail this class, one is expected to do all the reading for the minimum. I would like to give several suggestions to tackle each of the assignments throughout the course:

Papers: One is recommended to strictly follow the grading rubric. No sharp argument or analytical analysis is expected from my TA. I wrote my essay only using arguments and examples from the class.

Quiz: I didn't study for the quiz too much because I finished all my reading beforehand. All I did was to review my lecture notes.

Final: I was surprised that I didn't get above 95+. What I did was to read Kluger during the weekend before the final and spend around two hours on reviewing all my lecture notes.

Overall, I have a great experience throughout this class. Professor Kim is very knowledge and eloquent. He uses very sophisticated arguments and words to analyze the Holocaust literature. He is also very approachable after class. He is willing to give students insight into issues such as historical and contemporary German domestic migration. This class is amazingly enjoyable and educational, especially considering the fact that it is Professor Kim's first time to teach such a huge class.

This class was extremely analytic in the sense that you cover so many different works and points of view related to the Holocaust (and topics related thereof like trauma and guilt). The class had a significant amount of reading, which was difficult to keep up with at times (but still manageable for the most part). Seeking out Professor Kim during office hours was probably one of the best decisions I made. Not only does he clarify topic that may have been unclear during lecture, but he wants to hear your feedback and takes it into account in subsequent lectures. Also helpful was going in to talk about the essay topics (which were pretty hard). He would give me a good starting point as I often felt stuck and caught up in the course material.

There were 3 section quizzes (not hard), 2 essays (relatively hard essays; each 5-6 pages) 4 required novel, and 2 films.

I would recommend this class and professor Kim. Just keep up with the readings and try to be engaged as possible in lecture (was hard in the latter half of the quarter).

Professor Kim was the sweetest professor. His class wasn't very interesting but he was really nice and it was an easy A.