I have never written a review for any class or professor before, but Mr. Wake has officially changed that for me. This class is very bizarre, the lectures are a lot of rambling. He will tell us one thing and then do another. He is bad at answering emails and there are no TA's we can reach out to instead. His grading scheme is incredibly unclear, we never got any of our tests or quizzes back unless we went to his office. Not a single grade was uploaded on canvas so there was no way to gauge our progress throughout the quarter. I wouldn't be surprised if he had just assigned everyone a random letter grade as their final score for the class. I seriously would not recommend this class.

Dr. Wake is an expert in his field and incredibly passionate about the subject. His energy and enthusiasm for the material are clear and infectious. I was incredibly excited about the course and the topics we were covering, until the tests began.

For one, the information covered is (understandably) extremely broad, however, your only opportunities to demonstrate a hint of knowledge gained from the course are on the Midterm and Final. No papers are required, and the quizzes were the exact same map over, over, and over again-- which would be no problem if it were ever actually gone over in class. Instead, it is a memory game with no context. His grading is at best "confusing" and at worst "whatever he feels like in the moment". Instructions change, things are moved around, and the point values can't be taken at face, they are mish-mashed into some amalgamation that is not quite a curve and impossible to understand. There is no Canvas component in which to check on your current score and the scores you receive are not necessarily indicative of your final score. Extra credit is available but not applied directly to anything in particular and distributed as he sees fit. You will think you are doing well in the course until the last days of the final week when your grade is finally released.

Lastly, the tangents which he goes off on are fun and interesting until you realize that they have taken away valuable class time, information which is stressed and repeated is often never seen again, and the organization of the course frequently doubles back on itself for no apparent reason. What was an interesting and new look at the history of California becomes a vague and confusing mine field in which (ironically for an Archaeology professor) all context is lost, making in difficult to follow or retain.

I would not recommend this professor unless you have a photographic memory or a high tolerance for meandering lectures, confusing directional changes, and limited chances to demonstrate your understanding of the material.

I like Mr. Wake AS A PERSON but this class is sort of GRAHHHHH.......
- All of his quizzes are map memorization-based, which I found unhelpful in actually learning about California Indian Tribal groups. However, as he states, he is a very merciful grader.

- My other bone to pick is that is lectures are incredibly boring. I think there could have been a way that he could make this -interesting- topic INTERESTING in the lecture but they were never engaging. He read off the slides. >:C

- He talks and acts just like Lazzo from Toy Story. (the evil purple one)

- Honestly, he seems just as confused as we are about the pacing of the course. He will tell us one thing and then do something else (like saying a quiz will have a word bank and then not giving us a word bank). I feel like he makes it up as he goes.

- He doesn't post grades until the very end.

--> Honestly a chill dude, perhaps TOO chill...