The organization of Professor Smoak was kind of difficult to deal with to be honest. He doesn't post the lecture slides online and most of the lecture during class is commentary on the minimal notes put on the slides that he does present, so it was difficult at time trying to figure out what to take notes on and what to ignore. This class is writing-intensive (as it is a Writing II course) including two main papers, weekly reading responses, and an in-class midterm and final.

For the weekly reading responses, they're mostly graded on completion and answering the prompt (I got 10/10 on most of them just writing boring responses). The weekly reading itself is another reason I'd dock the class on being disorganized. I didn't really know how the reading pertained to the class. He assigned weekly reading under the schedule but it wasn't mandatory so no one actually did it.

As for the in-class tests, the midterm was pretty hard and the final was super easy. His midterm had multiple concepts that weren't listed on the study guide (note: he tests on quotes where you need to know specific words to finish sentences/fill-in-the-blank which were pretty hard, so read the passages he puts on the study guide very carefully). I think he realized that the midterm was harder than he had anticipated, so the final was super easy (I got an 88 on the midterm and a 98 on the final, which was much shorter and a lot easier).

For the papers that we had to write, this would probably be my biggest gripe with the class. Professor Smoak and the TA's don't really help that much in writing these papers unless you go out of your way to ask them in office hours to elaborate. During section and lecture, they will tell you what they want to see in the essays, but will hardly give any helpful examples to follow. The prompts for the paper are broad and definitely confused me in the writing process because they had so many facets that I had to narrow down into a single thesis/paper. I eventually went to the TA's office hours to ask for help on this paper and while my writing itself didn't seem that much better/different, I guess it mirrored what HE specifically wanted to see, so I ended up clutching an A.

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I enjoyed this class a lot and it really helped me fulfill a number of requirements including writing II, a GE, and a lower division requirement for my planned entrepreneurship minor. The teacher was a really cool and nice guy who taught the class in a really engaging way. I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the city of Jerusalem from a few different perspectives and in different ways. His tests were pretty fair (although if he has a section where he tells you to memorize dates he wants you to really memorize dates; he actually gave us the events and we had to write the exact numbers on the midterm). The homework was just one page, double spaced writing prompt about interesting topics once a week and I thought it was really easy. Also, those writing assignments were really cool because all of what you think and write about in them led up to what you could use for your actual papers in the class which also weren't too hefty compared to other writing II classes. Overall I'd highly recommend taking this class with professor Smoak.

This is probably my favorite class that I’ve taken at UCLA. The professor is very knowledgeable and is able to explain the topics thoroughly. Being that he lived in Jerusalem for a number of years, I would say that he is certainly an expert on the material. He gives you thorough study guides for the tests, and does not expect you to know anything that he did not mention in class. There are two writing assignments, but they are not bad at all. Being that I’m not a writer, I was very concerned going into a writing to class that it would be too much of a workload and that the essays would be too hard. This was certainly not the case. The professor was more than willing to help any students with questions, and was very helpful when discussing the essay in office hours. I would 100% recommend this class, as well as any other class taught by this professor.

I absolutely loved taking this class with Prof. Smoak. He was funny during lecture and the lectures were engaging. This is probably the best class I've taken at UCLA so far. It does help a little if you have some prior knowledge to Christianity or Judaism, which could probably be a problem for some people. Since it is a writing class your TA probably plays a big factor in whether or not you like/do well in the class. I had a great TA. The workload isn't heavy: a one page reading response every week, 2 papers, 1 midterm and 1 final. The midterm and final were pretty easy (the final was easier) and not worth much of the grade but mostly meant to help you get information about your paper. Paper #2 is a research paper and required a lot of effort, but it was still interesting.

This class has a pretty light workload. Each week there is a 1 page double spaced reading response that you turn in each discussion section for a grade. There are only 2 tests and the 2 essays that you have to write are both pretty easy. However, the TAs grade harshly and the writing portions of the tests are graded harshly as well. This isn’t an easy class to get an A in, but the workload is totally doable.

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It's an interesting topic to learn of. It is friendly towards people who are not familiar with Christianity and Judaism. It is a little less friendly for the most of us who are not familiar with the geography in the Middle East. While geography isn't tested on, Smoaks refers to land around Jerusalem during lecture in a way that implies we should know about the geography. His lectures are not boring and it's somewhat important to attend them. Your TA kinda decides if you're going to enjoy this class or not. I had a terrible TA, he graded our papers hard and was condescending in section. I strongly felt that if I had a different TA I would have stressed less about this class. There's 2 papers and weekly reading responses with the second paper about your research on a building in Jerusalem.

PLEASE save yourself and don't take this class. The TAs grade the essays so harshly, and lectures are painfully boring. There are two major essays, a midterm, a final, one/two weekly write-ups that are one/two pages based on the readings/bible verses. I understand writing 2 classes have a heavier course load, but this was just ridiculous. It helps if you are currently religious because half the class is basically Sunday school and you are memorizing bible verses, but if you atheist/agnostic etc. then I wouldn't recommend this course.

I have mixed feelings about this class. For one, I enjoyed the fact that I was able to learn about Jerusalem's history - especially its connection to the Bible and the way it is intertwined with the Christian faith. The class helped me see Jerusalem from the perspective of sacred space, an idea I had not considered before. Yet, this notion of sacred space was somewhat difficult to write about in the essays for this class. As a result, I found myself struggling to write the papers. My TA was good/helpful, but also a pretty challenging grader. Thus, I would only recommend this class if you're interested in learning about Jerusalem from a unique perspective and are willing to put in a lot of time to write the papers.

I took this class as a pre-med physiology major, and loved every bit of it! As far as writing 2 requirements go, this course is the way to do it. You only have to write two papers- one literary analysis, and one research paper. For each paper you do a draft and a revision. There's also an in class midterm and in class final, which are easy! The readings are light (20-30 pages twice a week), but discussion is VERY mandatory. It's an easy A for a writing 2 class if you GO TO LECTURE (he will literally tell you what's on the exams, and sometimes give extra credit for being in lecture), and meet with your TA about the papers. This class is especially easy if you already have a religious background, the people who struggled came into it with no knowledge. There are weekly reading responses which are one page double spaced, and super easy points. Overall, a great class.