This professor marks you down for your English! Regardless how well you know the material, he WILL grade your essay based on how well he likes your writing style, which is not a bad thing in itself, except that your knowledge and grasp of the class does NOT translate to doing well in his paper. I have gotten a worse grade in this class than in my other paper-related classes (and I have very consistently scored As in other essay-related classes, AND I put in way more effort in writing the paper for this class than any paper that I have ever written in other classes, so go figure). Going to writing centers help for most classes, but for this class even if you have your essay proofread multiple times, it will not mean anything if he does not like the way you write your paper. The prompts are extremely lengthy and synthesizing a thesis that encompasses all parts of his question will be challenging.

This class is very reading-intensive, and making it worse the lectures are often times disorganized. The reading materials are hard to understand (especially the Holt reading) and you will often end up wasting hours reading things that you will not remember.

His class is discussion-based which, although encourage active participation from the students, do not work well with the class as it is a survey class and therefore you need a coherent lecturer who could lecture you on all the intricacies and complexities of the reading.

TL;DR I do not recommend taking this class unless you really enjoy not having to deal with any in-class tests. The essay will mostly be graded on your writing style and not as much on what you know about the materials, which in my opinion is unfair. As the previous rater suggested the class consisted of two take-home exams and two map-quizzes as well as in-class participation.

Professor Aslanian is, by far, one of the best professor I've had! He truly cares about his students and does a great job going over such a rich and complex topic. Aslanian also offered his students the opportunity to attend other discussions of relevant topics, further expanding their knowledge on the subject. Reading the textbooks and attending lecture are important for the class. I would gladly take him again!

This was a very difficult class, readings were overwhelming and the professor is really nitpicky when grading the long papers. Would definitely not recommend this class.

Professor Aslanian was a pretty good lecturer, he really knows what he is talking about and you can tell he is very passionate about the material. Honestly the class is not that hard ( a lot of readings though), the midterm was easy (consisted of IDs and short essays) and he gives a study guide beforehand. We had to write another 2 essays for the take home portion of the midterm but each was 4 pages maximum . He really emphasis having good grammar so if you just have the writing center look over your papers before you turn them in them you're almost guaranteed an A on the papers. The final was also 2 papers (also 4 pages maximum). Overall I would recommend taking this class if you're interested in Armenian history.

Aslanian is incredibly knowledgeable about Armenian history. You can tell he's a brilliant man who's read widely and deeply. I learned quite a bit. Ethnic Armenians may find it more interesting, but if you come to the class with an open mind your background doesn't matter, a fact he stresses.

He's not particularly hard, especially if you are a good writer. I STRESS that you communicate with him throughout!! The class consisted of 10% for attendance and participation (make sure to raise your hand, he likes that stuff), 30% for the in-class ID/map exam which happened W4 Thursday, 25% for the take-home midterm (two 3-4 page essays), and 35% for the take-home final (two 3-4 page essays). The midterm/final are submitted on Turnitin, no hard copies.

He gives you a study guide beforehand for the ID/map exam. I had 15 locations given and had to locate 10 of those on a map. I also had 12 terms to study, 8 of which were on the exam. There was 8% extra credit on this exam if you got everything I believe.

The midterm/final were given a week or two in advance. Both had several straightforward prompts to choose from. For each "exam," you pick two prompts and write 3-4 page essays for each one, 6-8 pages total. Honestly, he has answered these prompts already in his lectures in his class if you paid attention. His essays do not take a terrible amount of creativity. You just have to make sure you synthesize all the sources that are relevant to the prompt in a way that makes sense. Your thesis should make sense. Don't include any cliches or flowery language - just be straightforward and answer the prompt, he hates filler. He assigns like 100-200 pages of reading every week. I didn't do any of them until the midterms/finals were assigned and I turned out fine. Honestly, it'd be helpful to skim them week to week so you don't get overwhelmed come essay time. You can't completely BS the sources, as he's fully familiar with them and several of them are his or his wife's own writings. The man is chill, but take him seriously.

ALL THE READINGS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! He provides like half of them, the others you can find with some smart Googling. You do not need to purchase anything.

A strong command of the English language, citing every relevant source, and paying attention/participating in class should get you far. He responds to emails relatively quickly and will even look at your introduction/thesis for you if you email it to him. I highly recommend communicating with him so you don't do something stupid on the essays. He's a pretty chill guy. He acts like he's harder than he is, I think, but the work is straightforward enough.

Occasionally, his lectures can get a bit dry and off track. He'll spend too long on a point that isn't too pertinent. Not a big deal though. He has some funny anecdotes.

Honestly the fact that I got a B+ was totally on me, my head just was not in this quarter. That being said, getting an A in Aslanians class is completely possible. The map quiz is easy, but do at least half the readings bc the midterm and final are based off of the readings. He grades easy on the quiz and harder on the midterm and final which consist of two essay questions...take home. He tells some funny stories here and there so he's a really likeable person but he knows his stuff very well so he goes fast and it's easy to get lost while taking notes. The best thing you can do is go see him during office hours especially when in regards to your midterm and final.