TLDR: Lots of readings if you want to pass the midterms, optional final to replace 1 midterm grade, recorded lectures, mandatory discussion sections, 1 super easy project, OVERALL EASY GE IF YOU PUT THE WORK IN

Live, laugh, love Professor Smith.

I took this class because I was looking for an easy GE, and for the most part it is. If you are willing to put in the effort, the class is an easy A or B. I am a pre-med student and this class was pretty manageable. Your grade is dependent on 4 things: 80 point midterm 1, 80 point midterm 2, 40 point discussion (based on participation and attendance), and 40 point project. There is also an 80 point no harm final, where if you take it and score high it will replace your lowest mid term grade. She also released her final grade distributions, and over 50% of the class got an A- or above.

Readings:
Every lecture there is a reading that goes with it, either a scholarly article, textbook reading, or comic, which are all provided for you so there is nothing you need to buy. If you want to pass the class with an A, you have to do these readings. A good half of the questions on the midterm come straight from the readings. Readings vary in length, from 50 pages of a textbook to a 7 page article, but on average I spent about an hour or two reading and taking notes on each.

Lectures:
Professor Smith records all of her lectures. She teaches with slideshows and often uses her own pictures of different excavation sites or places she's been to that relates to the lecture. Half of the lecture focuses on the reading and half of it focuses on things relates to the readings. Honestly, you could probably pass with class with a B never did a single reading. As a lecturer, Professor Smith is great. She does go off on little tangents here and there but she is so silly, I just love her.

Discussions:
Attendance is mandatory and you get one unexcused absence. During discussions, you mostly talk about archaeology concepts and how they relate to our lives. I participated once per discussion and got full credit.

Midterms:
Each midterm was based on 10 readings and are structured with multiple choice, short answer questions (a short sentence or one word answers are good), and an essay. I flunked my first midterm (59/80) but thats because I did terrible on the essay portion. The second one I did much better (77/80) because my TA went over how to answer the essay questions after everyone failed during the first midterm. Some TAs graded the essay portion easier than others so if you have a super strict TA, it might be over. It took about 2 weeks to get our midterm grades back and she hold office hours where you can go in an look at your exam. Be warned that there will be a long line during office hours. Lots of people asked for regrades on their essays and she would put them in a pile saying she would look over them. No idea if she actually does or not.

Project:
Basically, if you followed the instructions and turned it in, you got 100%. It was super easy.

Final:
Only multiple choice and was an accumulation of everything you've learned and read. Harder questions on the post midterm 2 readings and super easy questions involving the first 20 readings. It was pretty easy (my friends and I finished in like 25 minutes) and it saved me from my first midterm grade.

I took this class because I saw a lot of reviews that it was an easy GE (spoiler, no.) I'm a math major taking this class to fulfill some history rec, and it was one of the worst classes I decided to take to fulfill a GE. The professor seems like a good lecturer, engaging and straightforward. Her lectures are nearly always recorded, that's probably the only positive thing. You get assigned 3 academic articles a week that range from 10-20 dense pages of whatever you're discussing that week. Then, for midterms, you're asked to recall specific articles-- their authors, their main arguments, and specific examples. You also have to write a short essay connecting multiple articles and what was discussed in class. To do the math for you, let's say you have a midterm in week 4: then you have 12 *dense* articles to memorize and regurgitate. That was the part that tanked my grade the most. Her lecture slides discuss the articles and also start with a summary, but I found that wasn't enough for the midterms and had to study really hard to remember each article. It also didn't help that we discussed things ranging from excavation to bone finding to Aztec civilization. The discussion section was required but fine because you just talked about what the class/readings were discussing during that week. No homework was also a plus. But basically the midterm messes you up unless you have a knack for archaeology or memorizing (which I had neither). I also think the professor knew students started taking the class because of its 'easy' reputation and increased the difficulty. I had a conflict for the no harm final (which I desperately needed to take, it replaces one of your midterm grades) and she basically said no (I practically begged). So, unless you have to take this class, I would not recommend. NOT AN EASY GE!!! NO EXTRA CREDIT!!
TLDR;
No homework, easy discussions, lectures recorded. Extremely hard and unrealistic midterms that are the majority of your grade, dense and boring readings.

Cities Past and Present was the best class I have ever taken at UCLA. She is so chill. There were 20 people in the class and we sat around each day and talked about cities- what we thought of them, how they made us feel, why people moved into and out of them, etc etc. We only had two small ethnographies to write, a two question midterm, and a final paper (plus three 10pt, 1 page ec summary papers that would bump your entire grade up by a whole letter grade). The reading was very interesting and the discussions were great. We all laughed a lot and shared our personal feelings. She has a great way of sparking converstaion and asking you to look deeper. Keep in mind, classes are laidback but you still have to do the reading for the exam. Not intensively, but you MUST cite author's names and fieldsites to support your arguments (which she gives to you- along with a study guide). I got an A+ and it's almost impossible not to. One day Prof Smith even brought in Japanese HipHop for us to listen to. Great Professor and very nice lady!

Overall, Anthro 2 was my easiest class this quarter, and I took it as a GE. The class is graded based on 2 essays (20% each), 1 midterm (20%), discussion participation (15%), and a final (25%). There is also extra credit for up to 5% of your final grade.
Monica is a very enthusiastic and engaging lecturer in my opinion, and she provided slides to complement her speaking. Realistically, if you copy down her slides' bullet points you should have all the material you need to succeed in the class. She provides a few bullet points at the beginning of each lecture to review the previous one, which I used as a study guide for exams. Both the midterm and final were multiple choice, and in my opinion, extremely easy. All I did to study was read my lecture notes and focus on the review bullet points the day before and received A's on both exams. Plus, the lectures are all Bruincasted, so that was awesome.
As for the assigned reading, I actually did all of it, but you really don't have to. Doing all of the reading can take a while, so I really don't know if it was worth it. She goes over the important points from each reading during lecture, so as long as you are familiar with those, you should be set.
The essays in the class were also fair in my opinion. Monica tells you the format she wants (it's a basically a compare and contrast), and encourages you to have your TAs look at your rough drafts. I personally wrote both the day before they were due (she gives the prompts 2 weeks before the due date), did not have my TA (Eden) proof either of them, and got A's on both.
The extra credit required you to visit a nearby museum and answer a few questions about it in an essay format. The visit took my probably 20 minutes to gather the information, so it's relatively simple. If you do it earlier, it counts for more of your grade.
Overall, this class is great for an easy, low-workload GE, and I highly recommend taking it!

As a person who had never taken an anthropology/archaeology class before, I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this class. The professor is an engaging lecturer and follows the slides so it's not hard to keep up. There are weekly readings but you don't really have to read every single one since she goes over them in lecture. There were two essays that were fairly easy, and a third one for extra credit. The midterm and final are both multiple choice. You'll do fine on them if you pay attention in lecture and have a grasp of the overall timeline.

Honestly the negative reviews below are not super accurate. I was in a groupme for the class that had a lot of people complaining about how hard everything was and there was this fourth year anthropology student who was always complaining which made no sense. I simply took notes on the slides in class (even though I wasn't really paying attention), studied them the night or two before the midterm and final, and I got an A. Essays were annoying, and the format isn't MLA so be careful because I lost a bunch of points on quoting in MLA, not the classes desired format, however besides that, I felt they were graded pretty easily. Overall the second half of the class wasn't super interesting to me, but the first half was. The extra credit was fun to do and was worth 5%. Not a super easy class but not that difficult.

Took this class fall 2019 as an incoming freshman and it was super manageable. Prof. Smith was nice and you could tell she genuinely cared about the topic and her students. Honestly lecture could be a bit dull at times, especially towards the end of the quarter, but it wasn't too bad. My favorite part of the class was probably the reading; she teaches alongside Lieberman's book, The Story of the Human Body, which is genuinely fascinating and very well written. My TA, Ulises Espinoza, was sub par (showed up to discussion late, didn't respond to emails, was kind of argumentative towards students), but discussion wasn't a big deal and I still enjoyed the class. Essay prompts were confusing and somewhat unrelated to class topics which was frustrating, but if you're an ok writer you'll get by. Midterm and Final are definitely a grade booster, just make sure to make a timeline and memorize dates even if Prof. Smith says you don't have to. Overall, if you're at all interested in anthro and archaeology this class is relatively interesting and a good GPA boost.

hard to imagine how I could attend every lecture, participate in every discussion, and study very thoroughly for the final and end up with a such a bad grade.

don't expect the professor to answer your emails.
do expect this to be another GE that should be easy but is graded ridiculously by TAs who seem to have a problem with every single person in your discussion section.

don't expect that your hard work will pay off in this class. if you're already enrolled in this class, well, good luck Charlie.

If u think it is a easy GE, do not take it. If u dont have interest in anthropology or archaeology, do not take it bc it will be a disaster. The stuff was so boring and made me fall asleep. i went to lectures most of the time but i did not learn anything more than my friend who seldom went attend class. The essays were graded harshly and although TA promised to help review the first draft, he got impatient and said that was all i can help by throwing me two sentences which were not constructive suggestions. Plus i got points distracted for both papers for the APA format. I swear that i checked the format online and even asked people in the writing center and did that following instructions carefully. I really wonder what is the TA's problem.

The essays in this class are graded very subjectively by the TA's and Monica didn't care much when this concern was brought up by multiple classmates. It is helpful to bring your rough draft to your TA and get feedback. Make sure to memorize important dates for the midterm and the final. Some midterm questions are reused on the final, so review them. Most if the material comes from lectures, with a little bit from the weekly readings. Overall, not the easiest GE if your TA is a harsh grader.