I really enjoyed Gurval's class. His lectures, while someone's dense with lot's of information were always interesting. I appreciated that he always provided PDFs of notes and topics covered in lecture-the were really helpful with review. There's is a lot of reading in this class, and yes not all of it will cater to your interests. I recommend using the Powell course reserves of the required textbooks inst read of buying your own copies. It saves you a lot of money, and you can scan-to-pdf them in the clicc computer lab.

Gurval was great. He was fiercely passionate about the material and was very knowledgeable as well as kind and easily approachable. There was no midterm, instead we had 3 tests each worth 5% of the total grade. The tests took about 15 minutes and covered vocab and a short passage from recent readings. If you pay attention in class he tells you everything you need to know and you don't need to do any of the reading except for when you're writing the 2 papers for the class. The final was similar in structure to the 3 tests for the course and was quite easy, especially since the lecture slides tell you everything you're expected to know

SELLING TEXTBOOKS: THE AENEID ($5), IN SEARCH OF THE ROMANS ($5)
*************
**********

Pretty interesting class. Not the easiest GE but also not the hardest and surprising amount of work but also not a crazy amount of work. Basically this isn't the first choice of a GE you should have, but if it's one of your only options it's not a bad class to take.

Dr. Gurval is very experienced and has taught almost every class on the Romans here at UCLA. He's a funny guy, lectures were not always super engaging but never boring, and his class felt fair. The quizzes and exams are mainly passage ID/ analysis and term ID. There were two essays (or one essay and a creative project), both graded by the TA. The essay prompts felt very basic so it was hard to do a lot with them, but the TAs seemed like very easy graders across the board. Quizzes were easy if you did the readings (we were given lists of terms to know in advance, and passages were always discussed in class). The readings are pretty extensive, but nothing too hard.
I'm selling like new copies of In Search of the Romans, the Aeneid, and the Petronius/ Seneca/ Cicero/ Plautus/ Livy texts required for the course. Text me at **********!

Hi! I'm selling textbooks for this class! Text me at **********

The Aeneid- Virgil
Used, but in good shape

In Search of the Romans- James Renshaw
Used, but in good shape (has some highlighting and underlining)

Cicero, Petronius, Plautus, Seneca, Livy- Comes in a pack of 5 books
Used, but in very good shape (basically new)

I struggled a lot with this class, but that's only because I took it freshmen year when I was sick with mono. There is a lot of reading in this class, and the quizzes and final are based solely on the readings. The professor's lectures are interesting yet overall relate nothing to the paper/final/quizzes. I would highly recommend going to discussion since that's where all the readings are actually addressed. The quizzes aren't too bad, as long as you do the readings (which I didn't). If you do, you should do really well in this class. Not an easy A, but not the worst thing in the world.

Hi everyone! I am selling all the required books for this class. Text me at 1 **********

In Search of the Romans
The Aeneid
Petronius- the Satyricon
Plautus- Four Comedies
Livy- The Rise of Rome
Seneca- Selected Letters
Cicero- Defense speeches
(the last 5 are sold as a pack in the UCLA store)

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. It was a perfect GE to take as an incoming freshmen, mostly because of the interesting professor, skilled TA's, and the fact that it can count for either your historical analysis GE or literary and cultural analysis GE.
Professor Gurval is a great lecturer, and despite the 9am class time I never fell asleep (and I am NOT a morning person). The classes were short and packed full of information, but he moved at a reasonable pace and puts up lecture outlines before each class so note-taking was a breeze. The majority of the content was fascinating and provided a lot of insight on both Greek and Roman influences on the politics, cultures, and philosophy of future civilizations.
He posts practice exams so you know what to expect on the three quizzes, and gives you the three possible essay topics in advance so you can outline them. All of the terms covered are taught in class and listed in the outlines, and if you don't understand something or feel like you need more information Wikipedia is definitely there for you.
The best part of this class, for me at least, was finally gaining an understanding of all of the references to roman philosophy, political leaders, and that pop up everywhere in literature. I would definitely recommend Professor Gurval and this class in general.

Selling required texts for Classics 10:
In Search of the Romans
The Aeneid
Petronius- the Satyricon
Plautus- Four Comedies
Livy- The Rise of Rome
Seneca- Selected Letters
Cicero- Defense speeches
(the last 5 are sold as a pack in the UCLA store)
Text ********** if interested

Interesting topics, but a lot of memorization. In general, seemed like a lot of work for a GE, but it was an interesting class. I ended up getting an A pretty easily and I may have overstudied, but there are a lot of terms and readings you are expected to understand fully.

Prof. Gurval is very knowledgeable and definitely knows what he's talking about. However,I wasn't a big fan of his teaching style. Instead of presenting the material in chronological order, he skipped around a lot, which made things confusing. Also, it felt like he was reciting information rather than actually trying to teach it. I cannot tell you how many times he just read what was on his PowerPoint slide and didn't add anymore information.

If you are considering taking Classics 20 as a GE, keep in mind that the class is a lot of work. There are a lot of readings and there's a lot of material to know for the quizzes and final. The class is a requirement for all Classics, Greek, and Latin majors/minors, so it makes sense that it would be a lot of work. If you're a non-major like me (I'm a math major), taking this class would kind of be like a North Campus major voluntarily taking Physics 1B to fulfill their physical science requirement. So I don't recommend taking the class unless you are really interested in Roman history.