One of the better professors I've had. Lectures are worth going to, as he will tie together many of the ideas you'll be learning about. Midterm consisted of 10 identifications and 1 essay. Final consisted of 15 identificiations and 2 essays. As long as you pay attention in lecture and go to discussion, you should be fine. The weekly homework consisted of a long and usually difficult reading, and a question which you will write about a paragraph to answer.
Discussions are very important. Get a good TA (I had Revere, he was great). The TA's ended up grading everything in the course: section assignments, midterm, five page paper, and final. Get a good TA, get to know them well, drop by during office hours if you can.

Professor Wise is a fantastic lecturer. I don't know what other people are talking about. He asks the students questions and wants you to be involved in the lecture. He makes clear and easy analogies and he repeats the major points of his lecture at least 2-3 times.

However, if you have no ability staying awake in class, then you're going to miss everything. Professor Wise's deviations and examples which later emphasize the main points of his lecture may be too subtle for some. That's too bad for you if you can't get it, because he is absolutely awesome. This was my favorite class this quarter even when I was majorly bitten by senioritis.