Gurval is amazing!!! This class made me want to be a classics minor!
The subject matter is interesting, and lectures are very well organized.
Not too much reading; it's useful stuff to know.

Fairy okay class. The essays take a bit of time, but really aren't too bad overall. The professor posts the lecture notes and all the study material you need. If you are interested in Roman history, it's a pretty good class to take. I took AP Latin during high school and didn't study for his final but still did pretty well. If you've translated any Latin works (e.g. Aeneid, Catullus poems), you're pretty much set.

I was very disappointed in Professor Gurval's class. Granted, he did post lecture outlines every week with lists of ID terms, which was helpful. But a lot of his selected terms were minute, irrelevant bits from lecture, like the names of Caesar's mistresses, or a site in Italy that had no real relevance except that he had been there and incorporated pictures in his lecture slides. His lectures didn't seem to follow any chronological pattern- he just skipped around. He also skipped parts of Roman History that he didn't particularly care for on that basis alone. For example, during the lecture on Julius Caesar, when he reached the point of Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River, he said he wasn't going to talk about it much because he "wasn't a war guy" and then skipped it entirely. It's one of the most important events in Western History! And he skipped it because he didn't want to talk about war! If that's the case, don't teach Roman History. He also put needless bits of information in the lectures, including the names and pictures of actors in HBO Rome. He did the same thing with the numerous Hollywood depictions of Cleopatra. His Essay prompts were also poor. The were simply yes or no questions, and didn't leave any room to make your own argument. For the final, although he gave us three possible prompts ahead of time and told us one would be on the final, they were phrased as if they were in a 5th grade classes, with elaborate fantastical situations, like "Bill and Ted have to give a report on Roman Civilization to graduate from high school. They decide to go back in their time machine to ..." you get the point. Overall, I was very excited about this class coming into the quarter, especially being a classics major, and it sucked.

So I thought, uhhh Roman history, Rome uuuuh...NO! This is my absolutely worst class. The topic itself may be interesting for some people, but me as a South campus major just don't find it interesting. His lectures are extremely boring but he is not a bad lecturer, he gives good information on the material. I always miss the Monday's lectures, but it doesn't affect me because he gives you a vocab list which you can google.
This class is TOO MUCH memorization. He expects you to know 100 terms for each quiz, out of those 100 you only use 3!!!! The readings are okay, we'll there's some that are extremely dull and BORING but others are funny :)
The essays are not horrible, there's 2 essays to do, but you have to write well :/ I thought I did okay on one of them and I got a C+ on it. Basically the first essay will be graded hard then they just want you to improve.

For me, I don't like the class, but if you like or want to know more about the foundation of Rome then take it.

Not going to lie, I actually really disliked this course. Don't get me wrong, professor Gurval is extremely informative and very knowledgeable, but the class itself was not for me. It could be due to the fact that I'm a south campus major, but I found the material and readings to be very dull. Also, there was a TON of memorization for this class. I spent HOURS upon HOURS studying for the "quizzes," and yet, I still got quite a few points off for not putting enough information (even though I wrote down everything that was said in lecture). I'm used to tough chemistry, math, and physics courses, but honestly, classics was one of the most time consuming/tough (as in WAY TOO MUCH memorization) classes I've ever taken at UCLA. In my opinion, I recommend taking a different GE course (there are some AMAZING ones out there).

Great Professor! Really knows his stuff and is passionate about it. Incorporates funny comments to lighten the mood in lecture. I was lucky enough to be in the discussion section he taught, and I feel it really made a difference. It's a little more challenging than most GE's, but you learn a lot. He is very helpful if you go talk to him one on one. Attending lectures and doing the readings definitely help, but it's not impossible to do well if you miss a few of either.

Gurval is great. He's really into his subject, so that makes everything enjoyable. His midterms and finals are really easy to prepare for. This is really a TA-graded heavy class, though, so watch out.

Professor Gurval is great! He really knows his stuff and is a good lecturer. However, if you're not interested in the topic, I can see how lecture might be boring, but it's extremely neccesary to go to lecture. I missed once so I went to his online notes which basically only have the name of the term and no explanation.

Gurval is fun but you have to go to lecture.

Gurval knows his stuff and he makes lecture pretty interesting too. He relates a lot of stuff to contemporary culture and Romans is interesting in general so the class is enjoyable. The quizzes aren't too tough since you're given the lecture terms to study and you know what passages you're supposed to read. The papers are pretty easy, you can basically just read the required readings for that particular essay topic and pull some stuff out of your ass to get an A or B. The final wasn't too tough but it's a lot to study for so get started early! Other than that you can basically study the night before for quizzes and you should be fine. Theres a LOT of readings but you dont have to read all of it, just try skimming and getting the main points, and then you can just take the important notes down in discussion. And you don't have to buy the textbook that he assigns because you won't really need it unless you just want reinforcement for the historical context of the class. You will still need the primary readings unless you find them online, in which case, save some money and just forget about buying those. Overall, Gurval is a great professor and you should take advantage of this by paying attention in lecture!

Ok, so I'm a Math major, I fell asleep in most of his lectures. They were just extremely boring and confusing to me. I got the class for my GE, and I got in with a "Ah well" attitude, and got out with the same "Ah well" attitude. Boring. I don't know if that's the subject itself or the professor.
But I think it's an easy class for GE. South campus people should take it. I didn't study at all (AT ALL) for the whole semester. I only studied 3 hours before the quizzes, and I didn't do too badly, I got one B and 2 As. Of course, it depends on who is your TA. My TA is Bethany; she's very smart and thorough, quite an easy grader. I think I did well on quizzes because I remember what she said (yeah you should have a good memory). The readings are a lot!!! I barely read anything, except for Camillus' speech, like what, 5 pages and Seneca, 8 letters, for my essays. But the required readings were like, whatever I've read times 10! I honestly doubt anyone can read all of them.
Anyway, easy GE in my opinion. If I screw up, it's because I was extremely lazy, that's all.