If you care about your GPA, DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. The way it is graded makes it near impossible to get an A, if you miss a single point in the class you will get an A- at best. This was not specified on the syllabus anywhere nor explained at any point during this class even after the grades were sent out.

The workload of this class was probably the least of any of my classes at UCLA so far and all of it is rather easy. This means your entire grade basically comes down to your TA and, as always, some just gave 100s on every assignment while others were extremely harsh about rough drafts, essays, and participation.

Overall, if you just want a super easy GE that you're gonna pass, this is the one to take. However, the grading system is extremely confusing and poorly communicated and getting an A is next to impossible unless you luck out and your TA give you 100s on everything. I would not take again.

Overall the class was okay and the content was manageable. However, the professor is extremely unclear about her grading policies. In order to get an A in the class, you must get an A on every single assignment as A+'s are not accounted for. This was not included in her syllabus, and no one knew until final grades came out. Overall the workload is easy, however if you get a single A-, your grade will be an A- no matter the weight of the assignment. Moreover, many of the TA's grade in a very unsynchronous manner. Some TA's will give easy 100's, whereas others are extremely strict about participation and essay grades. Overall, the professor is extremely unhelpful about her grading policy, which essentially disables you from making up scores. You are essentially being punished for doing any work below an A, as you cannot make up the work by doing great on other assignments.

Initially, I was not looking forward to this class at all. But History 1B was a lot more interesting and enjoyable than I thought.

Professor McClendon’s lectures were quite funny. She is very passionate about her work but she also tries to make it understandable for everyone as she knows that not everyone is coming from a history-oriented background.

I recognized some of the stuff from my high school classes and for all the new concepts that were entirely foreign to me, I went to office hours or read the textbook. She is open to all questions, no matter how silly they may be.

The workload of the class was manageable. There were a few in-class activities (worksheets) and a library scavenger hunt. There were no tests in the class, although we had a small in-class quiz that was only 10% of our entire grade. We had to match terms to definitions. Not too bad.

The midterm was a 4-5 page paper on one of three primary sources. We chose one and then did an analysis of it (who wrote it/why/when/intended audience/is it credible). This was not an easy essay to write. As a non-history major, I had to think really hard and attend my TA’s office hours to get help. I highly recommend going to the TA’s office hours. It will help you so much. The final was just a revised version of our midterm essay.

Don’t go into this class expecting it to be a breeze. You must pay attention during lecture and participate during discussion. Discussion participation was worth 30% of our grades.

If you want a history GE that isn’t too hard with an awesome professor, I highly recommend taking History 1B with Professor McClendon.

This class was not too hard. There was a lot of reading, expected as it is a GE. I only got an A- because I got a B+ on the first essay (we only have two essays) and it was because I didn't check my footnotes and small mistakes I managed to make. I got 100 on everything else (maybe not participation...) but it was fine. We had one quiz and I did well, but that's because I did the readings and I got a practice quiz from a TA. I'm not too bummed about my grades and I honestly really liked McClendon as a professor. It was not too hard of a class and I don't mind the A-! :) You won't ever find a really easy GE here that is open usually, and I thought it was an interesting class. Sidenote - the class was more manageable for me because part of the class lectures was online due to COVID restrictions. Take what you will from this review.

This course is alright. The material is very interesting, especially as a history major. Unfortunately, McClendon does not do a great job of explaining it. Her lectures sometimes did not correlate with the readings she assigned and they are not as in-depth as I had hoped. The digital assignments were just busy work and the instructions were convoluted, making them difficult and annoying to do. McClendon is also obsessed with YRL for some reason and you have to do some useless assignments there. The most interesting thing for me was probably the primary sources we needed to read for the discussion section. However, the discussion section itself was pretty rough because my TA was very strict. As other people have said, grading in this class is completely messed up and I'm pretty sure getting an A+ wasn't even an option. Your grade is pretty much determined by how strict your TA is. In general, McClendon wasn't really helpful answering questions either, she seemed like she didn't know what was happening in her own class. Overall, I liked the content of this course and the course itself was easy, but it definitely could have been taught and structured better.

McClendon starts off with no grading scheme or rubric so it is very unclear what the class is looking for. Content wise it is not that challenging (resembles a lot to a solid AP Euro class in high school). It is heavily dependent on your TA as there is an initial essay attempt and a final essay which is a revised version. In my section, the average for the first essay was a 33 (TA Greg Sattler) but some TAs gave 100s for completion. She gives a couple digital assignments which are pretty easy and there was one quiz for the whole quarter.

In essence, your grade is calculated based off of very few things which are not clearly articulated. It is not hard in nature, but the structure of the class is frustrating. Contact me **********) if you want the notes for this class. Good luck

The lectures were ok and the material was well conveyed, but the grading scheme was just unreasonable. Different TAs had vastly different grading schemes for participation, so some TAs just gave 100s for participation while others graded their students strictly. The professor was also unhelpful and unclear about the grading scheme as no one knew about the final grade being based off letter grades and not percentages until final grades came out. The material was relatively easy, but the way the class is structured is unorganized and unfair.

great, somewhat easy GE I took as a freshman. the class was asynchronous but make sure you watch the lectures. the readings are heavy but easy to understand and just skim. the weekly quizzes are easy with simple questions based off lecture and reading. discussion sections are chill going over the lecture and readings: the TAs ask easy questions for participation so MAKE SURE YOU PARTICIPATE (I got an A- cause I didn't really participate)! there's a final essay which was pretty easy (double spaced, 5 pages) and you answer a broad question and use lecture and the textbook to answer.
professor McClendon really CARES about the students, is PASSIONATE about history, ACCOMMODATING, and FUNNY. the class can get boring at times but there's some interesting topics and the light-ish workload is spaced out well. DEFINITELY would take this class again.