This class was the worst class I have taken at UCLA. I know people who have taken the class from another professor and loved it, but DO NOT take this class with Vazquez. She doesn't post her slides, is the most boring lecturer ever, and creates horribly unorganized and hard tests. There's no way of knowing what will be on her exams. There's up to two hours of reading a night, and if you miss a reading you will be completely lost. The weekly quizzes in discussion were doable, but you have to do the readings thoroughly and memorize all the material. Besides weekly quizzes, there was a midterm, final, and final paper (7 pages I believe). I thought this would be an interesting class, but it was terrible and is the only B I've gotten at UCLA, and I'm a Physiology major (pre-med).

I came into the class very interested in the material, but her lectures were so dry that I ended up skipping half of the lectures and I don't think I got much insight out of it. The class itself isn't hard, mostly just memorization. Bear in mind that even as she does post slides online, they are not very informative on their own. The class also doesn't offer study guides for midterms and finals, which could be kinda confusing for a class mainly based on memorization.

Hated this class. thought mythology would be interesting... wrong. Her voice bored me to sleep, and she really has no clue how to make a proper and helpful lecture slide. She pieced together random images and quotes. New teacher who needs to improve her teaching skills, not to mention the hours of required reading every week. Don't waste your time with this class.

Between her constant sighing and otherwise depressed, sallow demeanor, Vazquez zapped the fun and life out of mythology. I would not have known that could be possible when working with such engaging material. The textbook reading is intriguing but lengthy and dense. Vazquez gives no guidelines for quizzes and exams. She is also unwelcoming and unhelpful in office hours. If you want to take mythology, wait for another instructor.

Adriana is wonderful and deeply knowledgeable about the subject matter. I would take this class again.

There were three two page papers that were neither boring/difficult to write nor graded toughly. Discussion was fun; I don't know about other TAs, but Carly Pope was good.

As a STEM major, I was really looking forward to taking this class as a GE. I was also counting on this class to be a bit more manageable than my other three classes, one of which included a 6-unit psychology course. I did NOT expect to get a worse grade in this class than my major and minor classes.

Let me start by saying this: Professor Vazquez is one of the LEAST understanding professors I have had at UCLA. I am convinced that her and the TAs believe this is a graduate-level Roman studies course, or else they would not have such ridiculously high expectations. I took this class in the middle of the pandemic (Fall 2020), and she was not accommodating at all. Her emails were stand-offish and rude, and I found it hard to get in contact with both her and my TA. My TA never elaborated on the writing assignments in our discussions, and we seemed to have conversations that were not very relevant with what we went over in lecture. Speaking of lecture, the slides were ridiculous. They were filled with pictures and sentences (very hard to read), but all of this information is useless! Our entire grade was basically based on the three written assignments (2 page papers), and the grading was completely arbitrary. We never received enough information to know exactly what to do for the papers, and both Vazquez and my TA, Carly, lacked clarity in explaining the expectations for the assignments. When we got the papers back, there was no explanation for the grade, and no feedback. They were only 2 pages, so it seemed like they would be graded relatively simply. I had no idea how to improve or what I even did wrong on each paper, and that was basically my entire grade. When I brought up my concerns with my TA and Professor Vazquez, my TA took weeks to respond, and even then she was on the same level as my Professor: it is what it is and “trying your best” does not mean “being accurate.”

On top of this, there was an optional assignment (movie review worth 5% of the total grade). I was on the borderline of an A and an A-, so I decided to do the assignment, thinking it would boost me up just a couple of points. Nope. I got a B+ on it (A 1-PAGE PAPER) despite spending hours on it and genuinely putting in the effort to follow the ambiguous rubric. So this optional assignment ended up hurting my grade (secured my A-), and Professor Vazquez refused to consider changing her method of grading, and my TA never even explained what I missed points on.

My main point is: DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH PROFESSOR VAZQUEZ. The content was interesting but she is a HORRIBLE and unsympathetic professor with unhelpful TAs.

(Funny enough, I got As/A+s in all my other, much more difficult classes that quarter. That should tell you enough about taking this as a GE.)

If you like Roman mythology or Rome, taking this class with Vazquez is a pretty good option. She was very fair with deadlines and accommodations during online class. The grade depends on completion based quizzes, participation, three papers, and an optional final. The papers are only 2 pages each and are due at the end of the quarter with suggested dates to turn it in by so you don't get swamped by them. I didn't take the final, but it seemed pretty difficult. Discussions and lectures are engaging enough. The assigned textbook readings are okay, but the info is also shown in lecture so you can get by without reading too heavily. The course is interesting and Vazquez is a solid professor so if you have any interest in Rome, it is a good GE.

The professor was very understanding and extremely lenient. Your grade is comprised of quizzes based on completion, discussion participation (fairly easy to get), and three essays, for which she provides very detailed outlines. There are three suggested deadlines, but all papers can be turned in before the Final date, no questions asked due to Covid. The final was optional, no questions asked due to Covid, there were also extra credit movie reviews offered. Her lectures were very engaging and the PowerPoints provided all information. Yes, there is a lot of reading, but frankly she covers it all in her lectures. Its an easy class if you just pay attention and complete each essay according to her rubric. Some discussions are even dedicated to guiding your essay. Some emails she may have been standoffish, but she noted her tone was not meant to be that way. The reason being that lots of people were trying to take advantage of the safety nets she put in place for people who were actually, extremely affected by Covid.

The class I took was called Classics, Western Civilization, and White Supremacy: History of Complicity. It was really great and eye-opening with great readings and discussions. The workload was super light but we engaged deeply with the topic. Vazquez is super friendly, engaging, and understanding.