Professor
Ghislaine Lydon
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Most Helpful Review
I took her class History M10A Civilizations of Africa: Hist. to 1800's Overall it was a pretty boring class, but you learn some cool things. I had Nana as my TA, and he was a great TA. Try to get him if you can. ""Selling Course Reader for $10** Original $26 Has some water damage on the front cover, but rest of book is in good condition. Call or text ********** if interested.
I took her class History M10A Civilizations of Africa: Hist. to 1800's Overall it was a pretty boring class, but you learn some cool things. I had Nana as my TA, and he was a great TA. Try to get him if you can. ""Selling Course Reader for $10** Original $26 Has some water damage on the front cover, but rest of book is in good condition. Call or text ********** if interested.
Most Helpful Review
I took her for history 10 b. Class can be a little boring but it is definitely an easy A. Lecture is not totally necessary but she did take a random attendance during one lecture. Midterms are graded very leniently and the final was a take home essay. Overall it is a good GE if you're looking for an "A" and history interests you. Selling course reader for $10. Text or call ********** if interested.
I took her for history 10 b. Class can be a little boring but it is definitely an easy A. Lecture is not totally necessary but she did take a random attendance during one lecture. Midterms are graded very leniently and the final was a take home essay. Overall it is a good GE if you're looking for an "A" and history interests you. Selling course reader for $10. Text or call ********** if interested.
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Most Helpful Review
I was a straight A student until I took this class. I got a B+. I'm not necessarily saying Lydon is a bad teacher but she's definitely not a very effective one. I attended every single lecture without missing a day. If you have ever taken this class you would understand what an accomplishment that is. Her lectures are boring, dry, and straight off of a powerpoint. It appears that she doesn't really care about her students. She has favorites in the class and it's pretty obvious. I took the class when she did not have a TA and I guess she has high expectations and grades pretty tough. That is pretty ironic considering how ineffective her teaching is.
I was a straight A student until I took this class. I got a B+. I'm not necessarily saying Lydon is a bad teacher but she's definitely not a very effective one. I attended every single lecture without missing a day. If you have ever taken this class you would understand what an accomplishment that is. Her lectures are boring, dry, and straight off of a powerpoint. It appears that she doesn't really care about her students. She has favorites in the class and it's pretty obvious. I took the class when she did not have a TA and I guess she has high expectations and grades pretty tough. That is pretty ironic considering how ineffective her teaching is.
Most Helpful Review
I liked that her lectures aligned with the assigned readings. It eased the final push to memorized information during the quarters final weeks. She is also a very nice person, who is genuinely interested in your appreciating the rich history the belongs to Africa. I highly recommend her to Transfer students, her class is a good transition into university upper division curriculum.
I liked that her lectures aligned with the assigned readings. It eased the final push to memorized information during the quarters final weeks. She is also a very nice person, who is genuinely interested in your appreciating the rich history the belongs to Africa. I highly recommend her to Transfer students, her class is a good transition into university upper division curriculum.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - Took this class hoping for an easy upper div elective, and it was WAY more work than I thought it would be. For the midterm, she gives you a study guide with 40 terms, 4 essays, and a map of all of West Africa to memorize, and she can test you on literally any part of it. Took forever. Also, the mid quarter essay is upwards of 10 pages, and she grades tough. Wasn't an overly hard class but took up way more time and effort than it should've. Also, her lectures are mind numbingly boring, but she grades participation, so you have to show up.
Spring 2025 - Took this class hoping for an easy upper div elective, and it was WAY more work than I thought it would be. For the midterm, she gives you a study guide with 40 terms, 4 essays, and a map of all of West Africa to memorize, and she can test you on literally any part of it. Took forever. Also, the mid quarter essay is upwards of 10 pages, and she grades tough. Wasn't an overly hard class but took up way more time and effort than it should've. Also, her lectures are mind numbingly boring, but she grades participation, so you have to show up.
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Most Helpful Review
I am taking 166A from Professor Lydon, and she is hands down the rudest professor I have ever come in contact with at UCLA in the 4 years that I've been at this university. Boring lecturers are in no short supply at UCLA, so I wasn't particularly surprised by the poor quality of the lectures. What really got me was her office hours. I swear the woman only wants you to come in to talk to her so that she can make you feel inferior and talk about her accomplishments. And that would be alright, I guess, if she knew what she was talking about! I went to her office hours on four separate occasions just to talk about the paper- which, I'll reiterate, had a prompt that required WAY more than 12 pages to answer and was due the day after Thanksgiving break. Real considerate. Anyways, the first time I went in she informed me that one of the books we had to read, Sundiata, had only 1 tidbit of information on my chosen topic for the paper, and that I would be fine if I only included that information. However, when I came to her with a rough draft, hours before I was supposed to get on a plane to go home for Thanksgiving, she informed me that one of my peers had found a million things about my subject in Sundiata, and that I should re-read the entire thing. She even had the audacity to accuse me of not doing the reading, just because I told her that I used the books on reserve! 3 separate times she said "well it's a shame you didn't read Sundiata," and 3 times I reminded her that, in fact, I DID read the entire book when she had assigned it 4 weeks prior. She actually looked at me and said "Sundiata is like 10 dollars. YOU don't even have 10 dollars?" No, professor, I don't. Some of us have a hard enough time trying to deal with the 30% UC fee increases and don't have a spare 10 bucks to waste on a book we'll never touch again. I ended up canceling my flight so that I could use Sundiata on reserve. Rudest professor I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. You've been warned.
I am taking 166A from Professor Lydon, and she is hands down the rudest professor I have ever come in contact with at UCLA in the 4 years that I've been at this university. Boring lecturers are in no short supply at UCLA, so I wasn't particularly surprised by the poor quality of the lectures. What really got me was her office hours. I swear the woman only wants you to come in to talk to her so that she can make you feel inferior and talk about her accomplishments. And that would be alright, I guess, if she knew what she was talking about! I went to her office hours on four separate occasions just to talk about the paper- which, I'll reiterate, had a prompt that required WAY more than 12 pages to answer and was due the day after Thanksgiving break. Real considerate. Anyways, the first time I went in she informed me that one of the books we had to read, Sundiata, had only 1 tidbit of information on my chosen topic for the paper, and that I would be fine if I only included that information. However, when I came to her with a rough draft, hours before I was supposed to get on a plane to go home for Thanksgiving, she informed me that one of my peers had found a million things about my subject in Sundiata, and that I should re-read the entire thing. She even had the audacity to accuse me of not doing the reading, just because I told her that I used the books on reserve! 3 separate times she said "well it's a shame you didn't read Sundiata," and 3 times I reminded her that, in fact, I DID read the entire book when she had assigned it 4 weeks prior. She actually looked at me and said "Sundiata is like 10 dollars. YOU don't even have 10 dollars?" No, professor, I don't. Some of us have a hard enough time trying to deal with the 30% UC fee increases and don't have a spare 10 bucks to waste on a book we'll never touch again. I ended up canceling my flight so that I could use Sundiata on reserve. Rudest professor I've ever had the misfortune of meeting. You've been warned.
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