Professor Cooney is by far my most favorite professor EVER! She is very entertaining and makes each class a joy to look forward to. She really does not have much of a structure to her class it is very flexible and fluid. She is hilarious and simplifies the information for everyone so that it is easy to remember.
There is only one midterm and final. Her tests are not necessarily hard, but it is a challenge because there is not enough time to write down everything. If you attend lecture you are golden because everything is comprehensible. I did study a lot for her tests but her encouragement helps in pushing oneself to do their best. She is helpful and easy to approach and will answer ANY questions you have. I highly recommend her, even if the class is not in your major just take it for the fun of it!

Ane 15

Sell all books(brand new) for $40. Text **********.

ACTUAL COURSE: ANE 15, Women and Power in the Ancient World

She is one of the best professors I've had at UCLA. Her lectures are so entertaining and more importantly, engaging. Whenever we got to a fact or trend that she found interesting or confusing she'd always open up the class for discussion, which would often take a good 15-20 minutes and sometimes put us off schedule. In that case she just changed the schedule/syllabus instead of trying to cram things in last minute. She really tried to make the class as interesting as possible, and it showed. We compared the systems of several different ancient societies as well as some discussion of the modern world.

There's one midterm, one final, a research paper, and some discussion section points. The midterm and the final are both 2 essays, the prompt of which she sent out about a week in advance. She would give us 3-4 options, but my friend and I correctly guessed which ones she would choose based on what she focused on in lecture. Everything you need for them is in her lectures, powerpoints, and assigned readings. Also, the TA's made it very clear what they were looking for in terms of formatting and structure, so you had some idea of how to approach each prompt. The paper was 10 pages and was very broad, allowing for virtually any topic in relation to women and the ancient world to be discussed. Our TA's kept us on track by having little assignments due every few weeks, like a general summary of your topic, or a bibliography/outline, etc. All of the grading was done by the TAs. It wasn't the easiest thing to write but the TAs are very fair about grading if you understand what they are looking for.

If she ever teaches this class again, I would DEFINITELY recommend it! I was taking Physics 6B and LS4 with it, and the workload was totally manageable. It isn't a free A, but you learn so much about the power systems of the ancient world and it's something you shouldn't avoid just because it challenges you to think.

Actual class taken: Ancient Near East 15

Amazing professor! She made the class really fun and engaging. The workload is very light, and your grade is made up of a midterm, final, and 10 page paper. Professor Cooney makes boring material lively, and I know I am leaving this class with valuable information in my brain!

Excellent, fun, engaging professor! Cooney makes something ancient seem like something that we might all consider cool nowadays. She is a fresh professor whose lectures are entertaining, funny and super informative. I recommend her to anyone who is taking any ancient near east classes for the first time since she is patient and understanding since not all of us grew up taking courses like these since middle school. Grading was fair, the TA's she has are excellent and I found myself showing up 20 minutes early just to find a good seat and feeling like I was about to walk into a movie theater. SUUUUUUPER fun professor !

Professor Cooney was an excellent professor. She is a great lecturer, and also has a very cool, down to earth vibe about her. She does not take herself too seriously and was constantly cracking jokes about Egypt and especially its themes of sexuality. As for difficulty, I can't comment on her grading expectations since all of that was handled by her TA's (who were awesome and incredibly helpful). Her class format was not easy, however. Grades consisted partialy of a midterm and final, both essay format in which two prompts would be selected for in-class responses. The midterm pool of potential essays was 6 which was subsequently narrowed to 5, and the final pool was 4 narrowed to 3. The list of prompts came out 2 weeks in advance which was generous. The process of researching and memorizing up to 5 essays was tedious, but the test day selection process didn't appear to be entirely random, and I would suggest putting more time into the prompts which cover the most significant points of the course material. On top of these exams we also had a 12 page research paper which could be on virtualy any topic regarding the Middle and Old Kingdom of Egypt. Definitely dedicate a sufficient amount of time to this assignment. Many people in the class put it off until the the weekend before its due date (which was Wednesday of finals week), and I'm sure the necessity of finals study combined with the research paper brought them poor grades. A nice boost comes from 10% of your grade being participation and attendance, so definitely show up to compensate for any exam or paper shortcomings. A tip for sucess in this class is to take advantage of the TA's copious office hours. Check in with them frequently, as they will tell you straight up if your paper is up to snuff. I haven't recieved my grade yet, but I am expecting a hard earned A.

Ancient Near East 15

One of the best teachers I've had! She is so engaging and absolutely hilarious. Not to mention she's super hot. I highly recommend taking her-- she is very knowledgeable and class is super fun. Would definitely take her again!

Amazing professor! One of the hardest classes I've taken but with one of the best professor I've had. The material was difficult but she made it fun and really knew how to explain things. You have to put a lot of time into this class, it's not an easy A. I highly recommend and would definitely take any other class that Kara is teaching!

Professor Cooney is an EXCELLENT professor. Her lectures are interesting and enjoyable. She really cares for her students. One of the very best classes I have taken at UCLA and I highly recommend her courses.

I did not enjoy this class very much. The professor was interesting and engaging, but your grade depends entirely on your TA, and if you don't get a good TA you won't get a good grade. My TA was really strict and picky about each of his assignments, and that affected the grade I got at the end of the quarter. There are also a lot of readings that she posts for the quarter, and there are a lot that aren't helpful. She is a good professor but she gives all the power to the TA's, and she doesn't really check on them or pay attention to how they run their sections. Most of your grade will be based on the final paper, and again it's important you get a good TA.