I strongly believe that this is NOT a class that should be offered at UCLA. Professor Smith seems nice and tries to be funny and relatable, but its hard to laugh in a class where the mean grade for BOTH midterms is a C. For one, the lectures are incredibly boring. She reads off the slides and when I look around, no one is taking notes, everyone is on their phones, some people are even sleeping. Before this class I was an anthropology major. Taking this class has made me change my major. For some reason, she changed our course this year. Instead of the once 2 papers, 1 final and extra credit, she made it 2 midterms, 1 final, 1 project and NO extra credit. Therefore, when I was reading reviews on Bruin Walk, I thought this would be an easier class to get an A, but no. Because she decided to change the entire course curriculum, the current reviews on Bruin Walk are not accurate. Her midterms are so specific that I studied for a week beforehand and still had questions on the midterms that made me question my entire existence. It isn't only me feeling like this, though. I asked around and found that many of the students were feeling the exact same. These exams are also the only source of our grades so it puts a lot of pressure on the tests that aren't even on half the content learned in class. If you can, do not take this class. I believe it to be a waste of time, and the content was not even interesting. But if you want to spend your Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10am learning about trash (literally) and rocks, this is the class for you.

This class was one of my favs at UCLA and was the driving factor that influenced me to choose my minor (anthro). Dr. Smith was very accomplished in her field –– almost every topic we covered included a slide or two of her in some part of the world doing research or excavation that was relevant to that site/topic. Lectures were recorded and every lecture had a review slide with key points from the last lecture. If you learn the info from these review slides, you're 80% there in terms of being prepared for the midterm/final. The exams were in person and you were expected to remember the main ideas of the readings and the authors of them, but the key info you need to know is covered in the lectures. I personally did not do the readings and found the midterm/final to be manageable. There is also very little work throughout the quarter aside from going to lectures or watching them at home. I think it was 2 projects –– creating a map of a portion of UCLA, and drawing a comic depicting the content of an anthro research paper.

Finished with 108% in this class. This is the easiest class I've taken at UCLA by far. The extra credit was a 10% grade boost and the midterm and final were very easy. Can't recommend this class enough.

Class consisted of 2 projects, a midterm, a discussion grade, and a final. The discussions had mandatory attendance and as long as you participated, you got got a good discussion grade. Projects were very easy and quick to complete. Lectures were sometimes interesting. Hardest part of the class was studying for the midterm and the final since they were based on the many readings (over 20 academic articles) we were assigned and anything she covered in lecture. She often went over the most important parts of the readings in her lectures but there was also a lot of content to cover aside from that in her slides. The exams were partially multiple choice, partially short answer, and partially essays. The essay portion made up a lot of points on the exam. For the exams, you were expected to memorize the names of authors and the main gist of their articles, but also some occasional miniscule details that could've been easily overlooked. If you get the main ideas though, you'll probably do fine. My recommendation for studying: rewatch all the lectures and make flashcards listing vocab words, dates, events, concepts, and authors' main points. Drill those flashcards even though they will have a lot of content on them and it may fatigue you. Lastly, do the extra credit early. She offers a huge boost to your grade if you do this. The extra credit is typically a trip to a museum. It's fun and well worth it.

Professor Smith is super caring and wants you to learn. She uses slides for lectures and at the beginning of every lecture she has a "study guide" slide which will serve as your study guide for the midterm and final. The two projects are relatively easy and as long as you go to your TA's office hours once before each project you should be able to get an A on them. Do the extra credit as soon as it is out as it will give you a potential 10% boost on your final grade for the class. Very chill class overall.

Overall this class was extremely easy, but I attribute that to my TA Jewell rather than Prof. Smith. While Smith's lectures were somewhat engaging and useful, she tends to stray off topic and going into a lot of detail about her own work rather than the material being covered, which is interesting I guess if you're into archaeology. She responds to emails and office hours pretty diligently, but tbh isn't the most helpful.

Grades are based on 4 papers with an optional 5th paper that takes the grade of the previous papers. Each essay is about 750 words long, and honestly, you can probably knock them out within 2-3 hours if you skim the readings and lecture recordings. Each paper is 20% of your grade, and the discussion grade (last 20%) is mostly based on attendance, but you end up sharing and contributing to the discussions naturally.

I would suggest everyone at UCLA take this course as a GPA booster, as a respite from other classes with heavier workloads, or just in general, as I personally consider this the easiest course I've taken so far, but your grades are largely determined on your TA, which I know could be hit or miss.

I overall thought this class was super interesting and easy. The class criteria were clear and simple and our grades were completely based on our composition of 4 short papers. Each paper was 750 words and corresponded with assigned readings and lectures. We were allowed to complete an optional final (which was a 5th paper) that would replace our lowest score on any previous paper. The discussion sections were also mandatory, but only have an extremely insignificant amount of weight on final grades. The lectures themselves included compelling materials but were sometimes very dry and boring. I often found myself falling asleep in class simply because the energy in the room was dry and unengaging. Nonetheless, if writing comes easy to you, I highly recommend this class. It's an easy A for anyone who can write a basic response to research papers and has an interest in archaeology or anthropology.

discussion required
4 papers (all 750 words)
optional final paper (20%) - extra credit (can only help your grade)

overall: boring class but it is a relatively EZ GE only if you have a good TA.

I took this class as prep for the Anthro minor, but I highly recommend if you're looking for a chill GE! Prof. Smith does her best to make the material (which can be dull, at times) super engaging. She's an amazing lecturer with mad jokes. The fact that this class was asynchronous with pre-recorded lectures made it super easy to catch up at all times. The grade breakdown is 20% each for four papers with an extra 20% from participating in section. There is no mandatory midterm and final! The essays are very straightforward and Prof. Smith basically outlines exactly how she wants you to write them. They're only 2 page essays, as well. As for section, it is mandatory but Prof. Smith does her best to make it fun with little show-and-tell type ways to get participation points. Finally, she offers an extra credit paper on some fun archaeology movie (Indiana Jones, The Dig, etc.) AND an extra credit final to replace up to TWO paper grades! The best part of this class was that the final mandatory paper was due week 8, so I could check out those last two weeks lol.

To be honest, this is not an easy A GE. I changed to PNP while at last I got 93/100 which is an A...... During covid, the final grades break down to four papers and discussion participation grade. Some of those papers had very tricky prompts, which lots of students deviate from what professor Smith and the TAs expected, which will possibly give you the grades you didn't intend.

Professor Smith is the most interesting professor and the best lecturer I've ever met. Her lectures were so intriguing and the workload is not that heavy. I personally like the contents of this course and probably will take other courses of her in the future. Taking her class will definitely help you learn something interesting about anthropology!

Overall, Professor Smith's lectures are awesome and the workload is not that heavy. However, the grading of the papers and the prompts of the paper can be tricky, which means this class is not an EASY A class, especially for STEM students like me. In order to write great papers and get an A in the end, you'll have to make some effort, can't miss the lectures and will have to finish the readings.