This class will put you to sleep. Professor Sheldon tries to make the class easy for newcomers, but in the end, you're still confused. Overall, the class wasn't too difficult. It's an easy GE, but NOT an EASY A. TA's are super subjective, as past entries say. For some reason, my TA loved giving B+s but not As. Me and two other friends took this class and all ended up with B+s. The way this class grading works is most people will get either Bs or fail. Very few will get As. Just get the handouts, stay 30 minutes to get examples (even though you can use your own examples on the test). Otherwise, this class was a waste of time. For those of you looking for an easy A ge to boost up your GPA, this is not one of them unless you really get to know your ta, seeing as they grade your final, midterm and your paper.

This class was just stupid. I stopped reading the book because everything was on his handouts. You'll learn crap that you'll probably never ever need to use in real life. Class was easy is true. Not that much work. But, even if you work, you'd end up with just an okay grade. Rarely anyone get A's. I got a B+ and everyone I talked to either got a B+ or lower. The TA's grade so subjectively and they pretty much expect every single detail to be in the essays. Boring class. I stopped attending lectures. Handouts are a necessity. Book is not. If you want a chill and boring class, take it. But it's not an easy A.

Great professor. Definitely knows his subject and knows how to throw in a little humor every now and then to these philosophy classes that are so often dry.

smith is a great and entertaining teacher. the class is pretty easy in terms of the workload and the material you have to learn. unfortunately, it is NOT easy to get an A. your grade basically rests in the hands of the TA you have. my advice, get to know him/her and go to their office hours so they think you really care about the class. i ended up with an A- in the class even though i really felt like i did absolutely nothing wrong in it. the grading is really subjective and the best thing to do about it is to use VERY SMALL handwriting on your tests so you can fit in as much information as possible on your essays (because there is a page limit). i didnt do this on the midterm and ended up with an 89.4% on it (yeah my TA, luthra, was really a jerk). i got a B+ on my essay, which is worth like half your grade (even though i had several people proofread it, one of which who's a philosophy major who told me "if this isn't an A paper then i dont know what is"). so on the final (worth only like 25% of grade) i wrote really small on my essays and ended up with an A- in the class. so writing small mustve worked. only use the book to expand your knowledge. 99% of what u need to know is on smith's handouts.

Great teacher. Breaks down hard concepts and makes them easy to understand. Pay attention in lecture and you should do fine.

This professor is good. You can tell that he cares about his students learning and wants them to achieve greatness. On the other hand, your grades are all up to your TA. Be careful because this will screw you in the end. iF YOU HAVE CEDAR GREEN, I WOULD ENCOURAGE THAT YOU DROP THE CLASS OR SWITCH TAs. It seems like he wants to fail people. Almost screwed up my whole career. I had a 3.78 gpa and this class dropped it. I just wish the TAs were there to help :'(

This class was my first class at UCLA and honestly I really enjoyed it. As a humanities major some of the content was hard to follow but if you ask questions in section or even in lecture, he is more then happy to explain. I love Dr. Smith, he is so passionate about what he is talking about it actually makes the lectures engaging. Additionally he gives perfect study guides and even does a lecture right before the midterm and final that is literally him just answering questions about the study guide (even encourages you to just ask him the question on the study guide). He is super sweet and the tests were not difficult. The paper was a bit harder but I went to the writing center and with one session I got an A-

So I don't know how I ended up with an A- considering I did terribly on both the midterm and paper.
Got a low C on the midterm and a low B on the paper and ended up with an A-.
The grading scheme was 33% for each.
You do the math...

Not gonna complain though.

If you learned anything from this post, it's an easy grade.

The class, professor and material is all good, manageable and easy BUT IF YOU ARE TAKING THIS CLASS WITH CEDAR GREEN AS YOUR TA DROP OUT IMMEDIATELY OR SWITCH TAs.
I got graded terribly on the first midterm in which I got all multiple choice questions and short answer questions correct yet I somehow forgot all the material on the essay portions (???).
He also just confuses all the students during section and I found that everyone would just skip it instead of going because the professor didn't count participation points.
I think maybe he got butt hurt that no one went and decided to just grade harshly.
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: This class is good if you want an easy grade/class but if you have CEDAR GREEN, enter at your own risk. You have been warned.

One of my very favorite classes at UCLA-- Professor is very funny and kind. Helpful in office hours. Material is engaging.
Some concepts can be difficult at first but honestly I didn't find the reading a problem. Grade seems to depend more on the TA .