Do not be fooled by the Fall 2015 Grade Scale. I do not if this is lies, but I am currently taking this class and the average is probably around an 82-86. In comparison to other Writing IIs, this class is not worth the numerous amount of work. Personally, I am not doing bad in this class, however, this course has become harder and requires the attention of not only a writing class, but a history class too. There are easier Writing II GE's and I would wait for them personally, especially if you are not too interested in Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic beginnings.

Despite it being widely out of the scope of my major here at UCLA, I think AN N E 12W with Professor Smoak has been my favorite class so far. Smoak gives very engaging lecture that is well-structured, thought-provoking, and pertinent to the course material. I've enjoyed every minute of class.

There is a weekly one-page writing assignment, as well as two papers and two tests to make up your grade. The tests are not overly difficult and are structured around what is covered in lecture + the weekly reading. The two larger papers are about interesting topics and Prof. Smoak goes out of his way to assist students with anything in the class. The course also satisfies a GE, Writing II, and the diversity requirement for at least the school of music.

Course: Jerusalem 10W Spring 2011

I have not even finished the quarter with Professor Smoak but I have to say that he is one of the most pragmatic professors I have had. The class becomes extremely simple with his lecture style, he is very transparent of what he expects and does a great job at lecturing main points and not trivial info. I don't know why he has not gotten many more positive reviews but if you have a chance to take his GE Jerusalem 10W you should it is a very straightforward class in which you will actually learn something but not be super pressured.

This class was pretty easy for me and reading about history is not my thing. We had to do I think two papers, a group project, and weekly short writing assignments. All of them are pretty easy and the readings are not hard to follow. The TAs are really nice and flexible (attending office hours is encouraged). The tests were also easy. It was mostly memorization I believe. The professor tells you what is going to be on the final and gives “review terms/questions” for you to make your own study guide. The group project is the most challenging task of the whole course since you come up with a writing system with 3 other people.

I do not recommend taking this class as a GE. The professor is really nice and helpful but he doesn't podcast his lectures and his lecture slides don't give a lot of information so attendance is mandatory. The tests he gives are incredibly hard and focus on the smallest details of the information learned. He even tests the memorization of the Phoenician alphabet. There is a group project with about 5 people to create a writing system, which was really difficult to do and took a lot of time outside of class. There is a final paper that you have to write about 5 pages long with a ton of requirements regarding sources, the layout, etc. The information was interesting but not enough to take it for a GE.

Easy class in general. The tests are okay, you just have to memorize a whole bunch of things like who did this, what is this artifact, when did this happen, etc,. Other than that, the tests are straightforward and easy. Smoak as a lecturer is okay, I thought his material was interesting but I could also see how some people thought it was a snooze fest. He assigns a lot of readings but honestly I didn't read a single one, all you have to do is pay attention in class and you should get an easy A.

I'm surprised all the reviews on here are so positive. Dr. Smaok is a really nice professor and is pretty fair. However, the work load for this class was excessive. It's a GE and there were two reading quizzes, weekly reading assignments, a project that requires you to go to LACMA and write about it, a large group project, a difficult final paper, a midterm, and a final. Also, he tests small details so you need to know random specific things. He did try to make it interesting but personally I found the material to be very dry. Dr. Smoak was helpful and the TA's were considerate, but overall I recommend avoiding this class if you can. It's just too much work for a GE and the material isn't material I can see myself needing to know ever again.

This is a GE with a lot of work. We had 2 papers, a museum visit, weekly mandatory discussions with turned in summary, a project, midterm and final. In addition, this class was hard. Smoak is a great lecturer and the TA was awesome, but the material was still challenging due to the majority of it not being taught in any other classes. We had to memorize facts from 10+ different writing systems, and the difficulty showed on the averages of the quizzes which were quite low, despite a high midterm average. Final was quite difficult due to the need to recognize different artifacts, all which looked quite similar. Still, it was really enjoyable.

Took 10W. Smoak is good at talking, but THIS IS NOT AN EASY CLASS! YOU HAVE TO DO A LOT OF WORK AND RESEARCH FOR THE ESSAYS! DON'T PLAN ON THIS CLASS BEING AN EASY A. That being said, take him during the spring, NOT FALL quarter. He is more laid back after the Fall quarter.