Professor
Victor Bascara
1 of 2
Most Helpful Review
Professor Bascara seems to be a very nice man but I had a difficult time relating his lectures to the materials that were covered. There are abundant readings (which was expected since the class was a 5 units course) and the professor expected us to understand the main points for each readings(many of them were pretty lengthy readings that took a lot of time). We had one additional book to read for the final. Overall, the class was not extremely hard though was not worth of all time consumed reading the course articles. The lecture was unclear and unrelated that I almost felt like I was self-studying the matter. The words professor used were unnecessarily difficult and sophisticated, which made the lecture even more confusing and unclear.
Professor Bascara seems to be a very nice man but I had a difficult time relating his lectures to the materials that were covered. There are abundant readings (which was expected since the class was a 5 units course) and the professor expected us to understand the main points for each readings(many of them were pretty lengthy readings that took a lot of time). We had one additional book to read for the final. Overall, the class was not extremely hard though was not worth of all time consumed reading the course articles. The lecture was unclear and unrelated that I almost felt like I was self-studying the matter. The words professor used were unnecessarily difficult and sophisticated, which made the lecture even more confusing and unclear.
Most Helpful Review
I have a lot of respect for Professor Bascara because I can tell his thoughts are very complex and interesting. However, his lectures are incredibly dry and boring and you'll probably end up falling asleep on a couple occasions. The good thing about this class is that there is no midterm. My TA was also another plus, since he made the discussions very interesting. I think its very important that you have to be interested in the course to succeed. For the final, you should be pretty familiar with your readings and be able to think on the spot for the essay. Overall, I really enjoyed this class because of its discussion when my TA elaborated further on Professor Bascara's complex ideas.
I have a lot of respect for Professor Bascara because I can tell his thoughts are very complex and interesting. However, his lectures are incredibly dry and boring and you'll probably end up falling asleep on a couple occasions. The good thing about this class is that there is no midterm. My TA was also another plus, since he made the discussions very interesting. I think its very important that you have to be interested in the course to succeed. For the final, you should be pretty familiar with your readings and be able to think on the spot for the essay. Overall, I really enjoyed this class because of its discussion when my TA elaborated further on Professor Bascara's complex ideas.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2015 - This class was okay. His lectures are boring, and his readings were really long. His discussions were required. You had to write reading responses on the readings and lecture every week for discussion. You also had to do a group week facilitation for a week, which is basically talking about the readings for that week. His 2 essays were okay. They were graded easily by the TA. His midterm consisted of multiple choice on the readings. His final also had that but also essay questions. If you read the readings, you're fine. There's just a lot to read.
Fall 2015 - This class was okay. His lectures are boring, and his readings were really long. His discussions were required. You had to write reading responses on the readings and lecture every week for discussion. You also had to do a group week facilitation for a week, which is basically talking about the readings for that week. His 2 essays were okay. They were graded easily by the TA. His midterm consisted of multiple choice on the readings. His final also had that but also essay questions. If you read the readings, you're fine. There's just a lot to read.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - The TA strike heavily affected the course during my quarter so I believe my experience was much easier than the course was intended to be. The format of the class would have been pretty tedious: paper 1 draft, paper revision, paper 2 draft, paper 2 revision, paper 3 draft, paper 3 revision. We only got up to the 2nd revision or 3rd draft, and even then my TA (Kyla, LOVEEE them) was pretty kind when it came to grading so some students didn't submit a 2nd revision or 3rd draft. The topics got increasingly more complex but more interesting in my opinion and they weren't too hard to reach the word count. There was a super easy midterm assignment where we just made up our own questions from the readings, no final. There was a quarter long section project we were supposed to create and present but we never got to it. The class as a whole was pretty interesting and I got to learn things about Asian history that I was never aware of but Professor Bascara spoke very theoretically every lecture which made it hard to follow. He also speaks very softly so sitting in the back didn't really help. Overall, cool guy and cool class. I was lucky to be able to fulfill my diversity and writing 2 requirement without much effort.
Fall 2022 - The TA strike heavily affected the course during my quarter so I believe my experience was much easier than the course was intended to be. The format of the class would have been pretty tedious: paper 1 draft, paper revision, paper 2 draft, paper 2 revision, paper 3 draft, paper 3 revision. We only got up to the 2nd revision or 3rd draft, and even then my TA (Kyla, LOVEEE them) was pretty kind when it came to grading so some students didn't submit a 2nd revision or 3rd draft. The topics got increasingly more complex but more interesting in my opinion and they weren't too hard to reach the word count. There was a super easy midterm assignment where we just made up our own questions from the readings, no final. There was a quarter long section project we were supposed to create and present but we never got to it. The class as a whole was pretty interesting and I got to learn things about Asian history that I was never aware of but Professor Bascara spoke very theoretically every lecture which made it hard to follow. He also speaks very softly so sitting in the back didn't really help. Overall, cool guy and cool class. I was lucky to be able to fulfill my diversity and writing 2 requirement without much effort.
AD
1 of 2
