Class is overall pretty easy if you just pay attention to what she is saying in lecture. Though she has readings, the actual information you need to know for her midterm (in terms of topics referenced only in books) is all mentioned in lecture for you to know. The midterm is a bit long, took me around 1.5 hours to finish, it is all short answer with 6 questions and multiple parts. A lot of this class is based on having an opinion and backing it up with reason from the text.

There is a final project at the end. As long as you answer all the questions she lays out in the instructions you will easily get an A. I did not really do much of the readings, I just made sure to pay attention in lecture (not recorded) and take noted. I know some people who just had an AI tool transcribe the lecture and summarize it for them, this also works but you miss the aspects of actual critically thinking.

Professor Melstrom is hands down the best professor I've had while a student at UCLA. Her lectures are very engaging which makes it easy for students to follow along. The class consists of 2 quizzes, one midterm exam, and a final project. For this particular summer session, class was held via Zoom on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:05AM. I would highly recommend taking thorough notes leading up to the midterm as they will make the preparation process much smoother. After the exam, the main focus of the class is the final project. The grade you get in the class is greatly impacted by your grade on the project which consists of an in-class presentation, group paper, presentation slides, and your evaluation of your team members. I had a great group and felt we all contributed to the project, so as a result, we completed the class with good grades. I highly recommend taking this course with Professor Melstrom as she is genuinely passionate about the content that she is teaching, while making sure that students successfully understand the materials taught in an engaging and fun way!