Course itself was not very interesting. I did not find Ball's lectures engaging. Her homework load is pretty manageable - just readings before class, usually they were not very long although there were a couple toughies. Daily quizzes are very easy if you do the reading. You need to speak in class a total of 10 times to get full participation points, and if you don't manage that then you make up by writing 350 word responses to a night's reading - one of these is equivalent to speaking once in class. MIDTERMS: 60 fill-in-the-blank questions and a response to a prompt in 50 minutes. Definitely not easy, but if you have a good memory and just go over the slideshows a day or two before (which is what I did), the FITB's are usually pretty straightforward and you should be able to do one every 30 seconds (leaving 20 mins for the response, which can be in bullet points if you like). Manageable if you can remember stories and class presentations well, and if you are ok with fast paced tests. Overall though, I wouldn't recommend this class. Take SCAND 50 with Patrick Wen instead.

This is not an easy class. The material is interesting, but more often than not, I dozed off because the professor usually read off the slides. There was a good chunk of reading and we had an iClicker quiz on it during the next class. Usually skimming through the reading was enough. Your grade is based on three essays, and each on progressively weighs more. I'm not the best as literature analysis so the essays were a struggle for me to write so if those kinds of essays aren't your thing, I'd probably find another class to take.

I thought that Professor Ball was strict, but fair, if a little bit intense. Her lectures were really engaging, I thought they were interesting all the way through. There was a fair amount of reading, but it was doable. The most stressful part of this class was the quiz that she has *every class*, which you have to buy a clicker remote for, and which makes up a significant part of your grade. But overall I really thought the class was manageable. If you're going to take this class definitely study using the PowerPoint slides. That's the focus of the exams. Don't just randomly read through things.

The material of this class is very engaging as it focuses on analysis and interpretation over memorization of stories. Homework is manageable, but the amount of stories assigned can be quite inconsistent. Sometimes it's a few short stories or one long story, and other times it's a seemingly never-ending string of short stories. Exams are graded very fairly. Professor Ball focuses only on your display of understanding, not syntax or formatting. However, her lectures are not the most enthusiastic, so unless you love learning about storytelling, you might have trouble staying awake.

Do not take this class if you want an easy upper division, but if you are interested in the Vikings you will get a lot of their history intertwined with the films. Expect to spend a decent amount of time outside of class- 2 movies a week which are sometimes 2 hours long each, and some articles. The movies were hit or miss. Some of the movies were really hard to get through, and you still need a pretty comprehensive analysis for the exam. I thought the exams were pretty detailed and difficult for a film analysis class. You need to take notes on all the slides, movie plots, articles etc. The essays are manageable if you watch the movies but the fill in the blanks are really really hard. I wish I had more good things to say because she is a nice professor but I have nightmares about the exams.

I took Scand 40W and really enjoyed the class. The readings are very interesting and the classes give a good recap and give students a better understanding of the course. We had 3 essays which accounted for our entire grade, and the grading was lenient. What was a little annoying was the i-clicker questions at the beginning of every class which was based directly on the readings assigned, so we had to show up for class on time. This class was overall very enjoyable and intriguing.

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This class was definitely not as easy as I thought it would be. It was all light hearted and easy up till the exams, which were much harder than I expected them to be. You literally have to spit out everything you can think of in the FRQs to get as many points as possible--definitely go with bullet points rather than full sentences to add as many ideas as possible (speaking from experience...) A little side note, I was so stuck on the final take home essay because the prompt had like nothing to do with the stuff we analyzed in class and had to resort to looking through my high school English class notes... I do think she was more lenient on the grading of the final, though.

The class itself was doable. You had to submit a 350 word response and 150 word reply to a classmate to get 5 points towards participation every class or speak in class to get 2.5 participation points, for a total of 50 points max. As an introvert, I was grateful for the written option but, on a slight tangent, I think that she's a little too nice. A lot of people who spoke in class said one or two lines that literally repeated the person before them or added nothing meaningful to the discussion and still got points, which I found unfair. Her voice is also very slow and soothing(?) so I always got really sleepy in her class.

The readings weren't always the easiest to get through, but skimming them is generally enough to get through her pop quizzes. Also, do note you need to buy an iclicker (she doesn't allow the app) to take the pop quizzes. Overall, I wouldn't avoid the class but definitely be prepared for the amount of reading and prepping you have to do.

Grading Scheme: 30% Exam 1, 30% Exam 2, 20% Final, 15% Quizzes, 5% Participation

I took this class as a GE as I heard that it was super easy, but I believe scand60 may be easier. In order to do good in the class you really have to pay attention to the lectures and material that is given in class. The lectures are recorded as well, but you have to complete clicker questions in class. The two main tests were extremely hard, but I did well on the second one after studying for around 8 hours, The final essay wasn't that difficult, but I feel that it was graded a little harshly. I wouldn't recommend taking this class as a GE as it is the only class I got a B in, and it was supposed to be my easiest. Some of my friends have taken Scand60 and it seems easier.

Take this class!!
I am a STEM kid and I still LOVED this class. I took this class as a GE, and I completely recommend it. The content in this class is so different, and I learned so much. We talked a lot about heroes and fairy tales and monsters. It felt really manageable as long as I kept up with work. The teacher is passionate and patient.
Workload: Super manageable. There are readings due each class, but they are never over 30 pages and are very easy to read. Once we literally just read fun Nordic fairy tales.
Attendance & Participation: There are reading quizzes for attendance in each class that are SO easy if you just do the reading. You can miss 4 classes. For participation, you can participate live or do 10 reading responses that are 300 words and require you to respond to classmates. These are so quick once you're in the habit.
Tests: Our two midterms were online and open note. They were not too challenging as long as you go to the lectures and do the homework. There was a take-home final essay that was 1400 words.

- 40-50 pages of reading consisting of fairy tales and analysis (per week)
- 2.5 hours of in class discussion with participation mattering, unless you would like to write commentary about them before the class (per week)
- 2 midterms, one take home essay final. The midterms require a good amount of studying but are manageable, I believe the average was around an 89%.

Professor Ball was very passionate about the fairy tales, and I really enjoyed discussing them in class. She makes the content interesting and fun to learn. The midterms, without studying, would definitely be difficult to maneuver, but ample review of the presentations (very, very important) and general recollection of the tales we read should put you in the B+/A- range. Some people will say that the class may be harder than it should be, but I think a bit of effort makes this class super enjoyable and great to experience. Would 100% take again.