Professor Faier was one of the best professors I have had at UCLA. I did not want to take cultural geography but I ended up loving the class material. Professor Faier is a great lecturer who explains the material thoroughly and she really loves what she does.
The tests are fair as long as you have gone to lecture, discussion, and read the readings assigned. She prepares slides and her and the TAs are always willing to help you and explain any topic you don't understand. The textbook material consists of two course readers that are sold at the UCLA store.
I am really happy I took this course but don't be fooled, just because it's a GE doesn't mean you can just slide by. You need to attend class and discussion and really try to grasp the material or ask for clarification if you don't.

This was one of the best classes I've ever taken at UCLA. Prof. Faier was engaging in class and the readings are really not that bad. I feel like the other reviewers must have been slow readers because they never took me that long. Both midterms were ridiculously easy and the writing assignments every other week took me 2 hours MAX. Such an easy yet rewarding class. Everything you learn is real-life applicable. Got an A with a fair amount of work put in, but that is only because I thoroughly enjoyed the material.

Very nice Professor, very strict about adding though. If you go to class and pay attention to the lectures it is very easy to do well. I barely read assignments and I received an A-.

This class was great! Professor Faier is amazing. With that being said you have to do the readings for the class. The reading material is essentially the class. However if you keep up with the readings and pay attention to the connections professor Faier makes during lecture, you will do great. Both the midterm and final are timed written essays, and are based off of the readings.
Best class I've taken at UCLA!!

The class itself was quite interesting, however keeping up with readings is necessary in order for you to understand the class. Exams are composed of a few ID questions and timed essay questions. TAs strongly encourage active participation in class for students to earn participation points.

I am selling both of my textbooks for $60
The main course reader is used and they are highlighted (which means you can skimm through the highlighted parts lol), the other lighter one is almost new.

Overall, Professor Faier was very knowledgeable on the topic, and gave interesting lectures. There was a good deal of reading in the class, and the tests (short and long answer) were graded relatively hard. It was still an engaging class, and I would definitely take it again.

Professor Faier is AMAZING! I've taken three classes with her (which I'm pretty sure are the only three she offers) and I've loved all of them.

There is a course reader required, and readings can be pretty heavy (amount and lengths) but she synthesizes them very well in lecture. I would still recommend doing the readings (or at least skimming them) because the tests are short answer and essay questions and Faier herself is a pretty tough grader, therefore, her TAs are tough.

Faier is super helpful during office hours - my only complaint there is they are not walk in. She makes you sign up and they can get filled up really quickly.

I found this class a bit tough because it can get quite heavy on the readings at times. However, the class is very interesting and definitely worth taking! The professor and TAs are very helpful in clarifying the topic. Exams are comprised of short and long answers and are heavily based on the readings. Discussions help prepare you for them!

Professor Faier's voice stressed many people that I know didn't return after the first class (you'll notice what I'm talking about when you attend ONE lecture).

She is very nice and wants (or maybe not) to have a class with good grades.

She explains every concept well and is often very repetitive

She assigns a lot of readings each week but its important to do them since they give you more insight to what authors are talking and BELIEVE ME will make your midterm/final responses easier.

Exams are a LOT of writing, final was 14 pages long. For every answer, GIVE EXAMPLES AND NAMES OF AUTHORS that will help a LOT.

People do bad in the midterm and from their mistakes and by learning how to develop a good answer, magically they do better in the final so their grades go up.

Discussions are EXTREMELEY long. Its a 2 hour discussion so its LITERALLY death. TA's dont know what else to do in the 2 hours so people stress out a LOT in them. However, TA's repeat what professor says in other words so its important to listen to that.

For exams, she gives a list of 20-30 concepts to memorize but ONLY MEMORIZE THEM, don't memorize other concepts that you believe are important: professor faier thinks theyr'e not.

I would personally reccomend to look for the other GE alternative that is Anthro 9 (cultural anthropology) and find if there's a better professor.

Pretty easy class. As long as you attend all the lectures, take notes, and READ, you'll be fine. Also, going to discussions is very important. Papers due every week or two and participation counts! You'll learn a lot during discussions (two hours). Mid terms and finals can be pretty long and tedious. Lots of writing!!
AND selling both course readers!! $45
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