This doesn't fulfill any ge requirements, but is by far the easiest course I've taken at Ucla. As long as you submit the assignments you'll pretty much get an A. When I took it I don't even think the assignments were actually graded, just checked for completion.

This is for the whole Latin 1, 2, and 3 series. Professor Beckelhymer was amazing. He is super helpful and is engaging when the material allows for it. He is very passionate about the material which can be difficult in a class like this but his emotions rub off on the students as he gets excited about certain topics. I highly recommend taking the Latin series with Professor Beckelhymer.

I really enjoyed having Professor Beckelhymer for this class. I was a little nervous going into this class based on the other review I read on Bruinwalk, but in my experience Professor Beckelhymer was nothing but professional, helpful, and caring about his student's success. He was really knowledgeable of the material, and the quizzes and cumulative exam were very reasonable and nothing to worry about.

You DO need to purchase a textbook for this class because a lot of the homework assignments for this class and the material on the quizzes were based on the appendices at the back of the textbook (some material also consisted of modules he posts on the class website). Other than that, Professor Beckelhymer assigns some discussion posts every once in awhile that are mostly about your favorite study method, and this helps prepare you for the final project (again VERY doable and easy! If you do the project at all, you will get full credit for it.)

Ultimately, I highly recommend taking this class if you have any interest in med term or need easy class units to supplement a harder course load. Hope this helps anyone who is on the fence like I was!

This class was asynchronous for this quarter, but Professor Beckelhymer made the experience as simple as possible. Each week was structured and consisted of:
(1) multiple lecture videos
(2) a homework assignment out of the textbook - this means the textbook is definitely necessary
(3) weekly quiz - pretty easy if you did the homework and watched the lectures
(4) the occasional discussion post (some weeks there was not a discussion forum though).
Overall, there was a lot of terminology to go through, but Professor Beckelhymer gave us suggestions on how to more easily digest the material. There is a final project at the end that is pretty easy, and the cumulative assessment is also pretty fair as long as you have been putting in the work throughout the quarter.
Overall, this was a fairly manageable class and was very structured. Highly recommend.

I took Latin 1,2,3 with Professor Beckelhymer and he is the best Professor I have ever had. He cares so much about his students and that they are enjoying his class and learning the material. He hosts office hours everyday I think? But is also willing to schedule meetings whenever a student needs. He is also fluent in ?7? other languages and is so knowledgeable about Latin and Classics in general. I think he's even the head of the Classics/Latin department so he's super dedicated to his teachings and really wants everyone to succeed in his classes. Highly highly highly recommend Latin as your foreign language requirement (especially if you don't like speaking new languages because all of Latin 1,2,3 is written or read) and Sam is the best professor to take it with for sure.

I liked Latin and I love this professor! He is really funny and his lectures are engaging. My only con with this class is that it goes really fast so once you fall behind be prepared to catch up. The professor is always reachable and very helpful. The ta's are great and the professor is a kind grader. A lot of studying outside of class but to be expected with a language.

Look. Do not take this class if it is online. You do not get any of the benefits of Becklehymer's teaching. It will solely be on the TA and you. The TA currently is a hard grader and does not hold up any accountability with the class grades. If you can take it without this TA. Anahita. Then go for it.

For my section, this class was "online" aka taught by a TA (Hoose). The structure of the class is "flipped," meaning you are to learn topics on your own time, and class time is meant for reinforcement. The TA lead lecture, and overall I have mixed feelings for this class. I took it for fun (hence P/NP), It IS important that you look at the syllabus since quizzes/topics expectations are listed. The TA Hoose is knowledgable and accepts questions, and is communicative with her class. The structure of the class itself is very focused (there was about only 10 students in the class by week 6), so you should expect to actively participate and answer questions if called on. I was a bit discouraged since I lost my footing in this class around week 4 (I was taking other major requirements), and could feel lost/discouraged in class. There was a lot of awkward silences when asked for responses, Im guessing out of the fear of being wrong in front of people/ simply not knowing the answer.

But, (I guess to resolve the said problem), towards the end of the quarter, the TA encouraged collaboration between peers before being called on, which helped with my confidence in the class and material.

Don't take the class online. It hasn't been helpful at all. It was advertised as online via myucla, but in person basically became required to take the class as exams were heavily pushed to be in person even though lectures were still posted online. It ultimately becomes up to the TA how you're graded as someone else noted. The TA I've had isn't bad at all it has just been very difficult to keep up, especially if you have not taken a language before.

Sam is an absolutely amazing professor, I took all three Latin classes with him. He was very accommodating during COVID and BLM protests, and genuinely cared about our mental health and well being. He is such a kind person and a great professor, although latin is not easy and the vocabulary and syntax pile on pretty fast but overall this series was very doable and enjoyable.