i got an incredible grade in this class and that is ALL thanks to my genuinely incredible TA. the professor, although kind and well-meaning, leads a disorganized and confusing class full of tangents. the class itself serves basically as a summary of plato's republic (10 books = 10 weeks), and your grade is entirely based on a take-home essay (45%) midterm, in person essay final (50%), and discussion (5%). lectures are recorded thankfully! this class stressed me out a lot bc it's so much content to memorize, but i did find value in reading republic and learning philosophy for the first time. that being said, the grading scheme is so risky and i just got really lucky with an angel TA

I did not care for this class. All you have to do is show up to discussion sections with your TA and read Plato's Republic. You are required to read this book to do well on the midterm and final (we haven't had the final yet). The midterm was take-home and was pretty chill. However, it was really time-consuming. All the questions are short answers/essays, and they're pretty straightforward since you're paraphrasing what is being asked of you. I don't know how they're graded, but I'm sure the average scores fall around B+'s and A-'s. I got an A. On the other hand, the final exam is in-person, but he gives you a copy of the exam before exam day for you to work on. It for sure relieves some stress. The final is in the same format as the midterm: free response. Haven't taken it yet, but you're allowed a double-sided cheat sheet to write your pre-written responses or whatever you want on there. Bless the professor. I've already seen the exam, and it's very similar to the midterm. For lectures, they are completely pointless to attend since he's summarizing the book and outside resources to help you interpret the main philosophical points Plato is trying to make. However, I found his lectures pretty helpful as someone who struggles to keep up with the readings. But be ready since he goes off on tangents a lot; I had to go back a few times and re-watch the lectures. Overall, it was a chill course. I'll post my grade once I get it.