At first Prof. Jacoby seemed to be an easy going and somewhat interesting professor. However, it should be noted that his grading is very stringent. I received my first B ever in a History class, and the rest of the class seemed to share the same misfortune. The take-home midterm seemed doable, so I put 110% in and received a B. I was hoping to maintain an A average at UCLA, but with Jacoby's rather harsh grading, it didn't happen. If you decide to take his class, be prepared to sit through endless lectures and read lots of material, all the while ending up with a B at best. Jacoby, with his standards should be teaching at the graduate level where his methods of grading would be better suited.