I really liked this class and I found it to be really interesting. There are two papers (4-5 pages) and they were straight forward and she gives you exactly what she wants to be on there. She even gives you the exact outline she wants it in. The tests are a midterm and a final. They were fairly easy if you pay attention and take notes in class because most of the material comes from the lectures. You will be fine as long as you study the night before or even 2 nights before. Make sure to memorize some important dates and have a good grasp on the timeline. There were a lot of readings, I did not do them and I was fine because she goes over the main ideas in class. I really liked my TA, he made the discussions worth going to and he really knew his stuff! So if you have an opportunity to, pick Jaimie Vela as your TA. Also there is an opportunity for extra credit which can boost your overall grade 5% so do that ASAP because that really helps.

monica is by far an amazing professor, she is both engaging and passionate about what she does and that shows in her lectures, that being said, you don't have to go to them, they're bruincasted, furthermore, DONT BUY THE TEXTBOOK, its not necessary. do the extra credit, it's very easy and honestly at least a bit interesting, the essays are straightforward and she attempts to make them interesting topics and whatnot and to some extent they are. she gives you a template and such and if you get it checked by the TA's you're practically guaranteed an A on those. anyways its a great GE and an easy one. strongly recommend

Don’t listen to any of the terrible reviews below. Monica is a great professor. Archaeology is not an interesting topic for me personally, but Monica tries her best to make it digestible. The readings are okay (if you choose to do them, not necessary). Although I will admit that the grading among TAs is variable for the papers, doing the 5% extra credit is enough of a HUGE boost to outweigh any of the damage a bad TA does. If you don’t know which GE you want to take, take this one!

I would personally HIGHLY recommend this class. I ended up with an A after not doing the extra credit (which is literally a 5% final grade boost if you do it early enough) and sleeping through a discussion section, which was a 1.5% hit to my grade. In general, I would definitely recommend taking this course if you need a GE (or are forced to for your major). The tests/papers were relatively easy for me, and you have a huge cushion for your grade in the discussion participation and extra credit.

Some key pieces of information:

-The grading distribution consists of 15% discussion participation+attendance, 20% the midterm, 20% paper 1, 20% paper 2, and 25% the final. There's also the extra credit. If you're a poor test-taker, you can make up for it with your papers and vice versa. The extra credit is also insanely valuable but involves traveling to a museum a decent drive from campus, which is why I didn't do it.

-Lectures are broadcasted. You don't have to go to a single lecture if you don't want to (although I would recommend it a week or so after your papers, so you can pick yours up). They were at times boring, but the professor tried her best to make it interesting. They were very clear, and the information was conveyed well. I was never really confused by her lectures.

-The "textbook" (it was really just a short book) can be found online for free. I did not do a single reading and was fine. There are some questions pertaining to the readings on the test, but most of the time, the questions were over articles (which were covered in lecture anyway). I'd say do the readings if they aren't articles, but otherwise don't waste your time (since the material will be covered the next day in lecture). I think there was a total of 1-2 questions on both the midterm and final where I thought to myself "if I read, I would know this."

-Both the midterm and the final were only multiple choice (A through E). The midterm was 50 questions, and the final was 75 questions. I got a 94% on the midterm and an 88% on the final with minimal studying. Watch the lectures while taking notes on them, and you should be fine. It was somewhat date-intensive (particularly for empires/civilizations and their key developments), but it was mostly conceptual with some minor memorization.

-The papers were graded by your TA, which means that you may get graded harder depending on who you get. I had Espinoza for my TA, and he seemed to grade very reasonably. That being said, I found the papers very doable (I got an 86% on the first one and a 100% on the second one). Make sure you're very detailed with a lot of specific facts from the articles, and use in-text citations when you do! The prompt itself is kinda weird (there's an overall comparison of two articles, and then you have to answer 3 questions), but make sure it flows nicely. A decent chunk of your grade is your intro/conclusion and overall writing style.

As I said before, if you need a GE, I would highly recommend this class. It was easy for me and very low-stress, which meant I could focus on the classes for my major. If you do decently on the tests/papers, show up to discussion, and do the extra credit, you'll definitely get a very good grade.

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.

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do not take this class if you're looking for a manageable or low-stress GE. While Professor Smith seems like a nice person, that does not make her a great professor. This quarter, she completely restructured the course, making it nearly impossible to achieve an A. The midterms, both averaging a C (59.6/80 and 62/80), were unnecessarily difficult for a GE course. These grades are particularly concerning given that they were the only grades available in the grade book aside from discussion attendance, which is mandatory, and a final project.

The midterms required memorization of over 10 dense articles, with essay questions demanding citations from three of them by memory, along with short-answer and multiple-choice sections, all in just 50 minutes. Although she provided lecture slides outlining what to know for the exams, they were unhelpful and vague. Many students sought guidance from her directly, lining up outside of her office, only to be met with unhelpful responses or outright dismissal of their concerns. When students lined up outside her office asking for a curve after the low averages, she claimed the grades “did not reflect how the class performed,” which was frankly insulting. Furthermore, she took an unreasonable amount of time to return midterm grades, seemingly waiting until after the P/NP deadline, forcing students to stick with a letter grade despite its difficulties.

Lectures were held MWF, often felt unorganized and rarely aligned with what was needed for the exams. Discussions, while mandatory, were chill and the final project was not difficult at all, but these were both managed by the TAs who were understanding and agreed that the professor was doing a poor job with how she managed her class. The most notable adjustment she made this quarter was replacing the 10% museum extra credit boost with a "no harm" final policy, allowing students to replace a midterm grade without penalty. However, this policy was insufficient given the consistently low midterm averages and the fact that preparing for the final felt equally unsupported.

The lack of preparation for the final exam has only added to the stress. She admitted that the final wasn’t even written yet, leaving students with no guidance on what to expect. Her attempt to be accommodating with a no-harm final has backfired, as it’s now essentially required due to the poor midterm outcomes. To make matters worse, the final is scheduled for the last day of finals week.

Despite multiple requests for adjustments like curving grades or offering extra credit, Professor Smith refused, showing a lack of understanding for the concerns of students fulfilling a GE requirement. Historically, her A-rate has been high, but based on class discussions and the long lines of students outside her office, this may change.

Despite attempts to suggest adjustments, like curving the midterms or offering extra credit, Professor Smith has declined both, which is frustrating for students simply trying to fulfill a requirement. This class might be suitable for those with a strong interest in the subject, but for anyone seeking, not even just an easy GE, but a manageable GE, I would STRONGLY advise looking elsewhere.

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.

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.

I took Anthro 2 as a GE my first quarter at UCLA. I had no idea what to expect, but I'd say this was such a nice ease into college life. The lectures are organized so well: each lecture begins with a summary of the previous lecture so that helps with repetition of the material and Professor Smith is very engaging and clear with her presentations. As for the workload, there were readings assigned that correlate to the lectures so I'd read them in advance of class just so I could be exposed to the material before Smith re-explained it better (however, you could also read the readings after lecture). The class is organized so there's two papers, 1 midterm and the final. Discussions are mandatory, but you can miss one. I found that discussions weren't too helpful for understanding the material, but they were fun nonetheless and my TA helped soothe our fears regarding the papers.
TL;DR Take this class. The material is very interesting and Professor Smith explains it very well. There's an extra credit assignment worth up to 5% and the midterm and final were both very easy as long as you show up to class.