By far, this has to be one of the worst classes I have ever taken. In the beginning, the class was super confusing bc she decided to give the T.a's leniency in deciding the format of these short responses due each week. Don't let the word "short" fool you. While yes, the responses were a total of 300 words, the readings which the responses were on were sometimes up to 50 pages total! As if that wasn't enough, the lectures, which were boring and not in the slightest useful, also had questions at the end which were part of the response. However, given that the T.a's had all the say for these, some T.a's, like mine, asked us only to focus on the readings, which meant we had to read the whole text in order to get our participation points. The readings themselves were super boring and difficult to understand --the one exception being Machiavelli's Prince--so the students who had to focus completely on them, struggled. But, this did mean that if you only had to use readings in your responses you could, and should as it as a big time saver, completely ignore the lectures which many students did.

The tests which were a midterm and final had the same structure as each other. Both were comparisons of two artworks of her choosing from the 50 or so that are the lectures. Luckily, since everything Is recorded and the fact that she gave us a week to do them, when the test comes out, you can just scroll through the lectures were she talks about the paintings and ignore everything else. I did this for both tests and got an A- on my midterm and a B+ on my final, despite her still giving out readings during test weeks, which by the way, were the longest ones in the class! Ignoring the lectures, if you are fortunate enough to get a T.a who only asks you to focus on the readings, is the best thing you could do as it just saves you so much time.

We had two other assignments due which were not as difficult as the tests. One was a visual analysis on a work. To sum up the visuals analysis, the goal is to describe a work as completely as possible using terms from the class in about 500 words. Write everything you see even if it does not seem important. The next assignment is based on the work you picked. It is a research project or "proposal" as she says. This assignment purely depends on your work and how 'famous' it is. The more well known the work you have, the easier it is for you to find your sources. The structure was a powerpoint that included a title page, a refined version of your visual analysis, three research questions, and three works similar to the one you chose.

I do not know if it was her idea or the T.a's but someone was generous enough to offer extra credit in the form of a self portrait in which you would take a photo of yourself that looks similar to the one you chose, although it only counted for about the same as one of the weekly responses.

In sum, do not take this class, especially if you just want to fulfill a G.E. this class is not worth the stress and sleep loss that comes with it. Even if you really enjoy the subject, I suggest you still try and look for something else. To those poor people who have to take it for one reason or another, I hope you get through it.

Overview/Professor:
I really enjoyed the subject matter of this course. I thought Professor Wilson was very clear and extraordinarily knowledgeable.

Material:
- Her lectures are recorded/not live, and often go well over 3 hours per week. They often range between 2.5-3.5 hours of recorded material per week.
- The readings are usually 15-40 pages per week (including both required and recommended readings).
- She sometimes includes recommended 10ish minute videos per week as well.
- She holds optional 75 min review sessions once a week.

Discussion Sections:
- For discussion section, it is essentially a review and a deeper dive into the required reading for the week.
- A 1 -1.5 page summary of the reading is due each week at the beginning of section.

Assignments:
- Most of the 'take home exams' are two essays. These slide comparisons each compare and contrast 2 pieces of art/architecture. There are two of these in the quarter, kind of like a midterm/final.
- There is also a visual analysis assignment where you simply describe a piece of art, and it is more like one single essay.