tl;dr - fun class, interesting material, a lot of readings, good discussions, meh tests.

The teacher records attendance by having people sign in before class on a piece of paper. Some lectures aren't recorded. The lectures are generally interesting, but Alexander tends to start and stop sentences and be repetitive, which can just get boring after a bit. I kept with it because I thought that the general overarching themes that were being taught and the various important figures we were learning about were really interesting and I found the material engaging. Each week we had readings and had a paragraph response to a relevant question. There were 9 total questions and you only had to turn in 7 of them. Some of the readings were difficult to read and I just scanned them. It didn't hurt my grade. I didn't attend any office hours either, and missed a discussion session. This class is fun if you enjoy history and science and religion, but you have to be committed to taking good notes and reading notes. For the midterm, you define some terms and then write an essay (one of two choices) in 50 minutes. It was a bit tight. The average was I think 93%. The final was more terms and then two essays (of four choices). The prompts were all general enough that you could answer them so long as you knew they key important people and their ways of thinking, along with the general timeline. Dates aren't hugely important, just knowing who came first, then next, etc. I think it'd be better if the midterm and final were take home, but it wasn't awful in person.

Overall I would take this class again.

Professor Alexander was an alright professor, and his class was an "ok" GE. Not my favorite class I've taken at UCLA since it was very Eurocentric and literally only mentioned one female figure (one philosopher's wife) throughout the entirety of the course. Professor Alexander tends to repeat himself quite a lot which is kind of annoying especially since we can't skip ahead 10 seconds in recorded lectures, but the content was pretty interesting. Insightful for learning about how the world has become what it is today, but also meaningless because everything we learn has since been proven false.
This class is pretty much AP European History and it's very easy to get an A. There are around 30 pages of reading assigned each week and you can skip some of them since they're just primary sources. Additionally, you have to write a paragraph answering a question of the week, but you can skip 2 to still get an A in the class. You definitely have to work to study and do well on the exams, but pretty easy if you like history.

Wonderful GE! Absolutely loved taking this class as a distraction from my engineering workload, the lectures are engaging and very well thought out. Prof. Alexander has been teaching for so long that he's got the curriculum down to a T and it's a great experience as such. The weekly readings aren't really necessary for the midterm or final, but if you have time they can be interesting to read through (and they're necessary for homework). Exams aren't that bad, and my TA section with Max Nikol was insightful and fun. I highly recommend this class :)

Really interesting class and no papers. Dr. Alexander was really kind too and gave me an accommodation on the final because I was sick. Josh was a great TA too. There's some reading and writing but it's manageable.

Great professor! Very considerate and caring to his students. Readings and in-class discussions super interesting and engaging. Would recommend to anyone who needs to take an honors collegium.

I took Professor Alexander's History 20 class for a GE. The lectures are very boring and the hour and 15 minutes drags on. Bring your laptop if you want to type your notes. He puts up a picture on the screen then just drones on about the topic, so pick and choose what you want to write down. The textbook is very helpful, since a lot of the material is straight from it.

That being said, the discussions are pretty interesting, depending on your TA. You get some pretty good debates about past cultures and philosophies and how they can relate to current events. Also, the paper is fair, they give you ample time to prepare and lots of guidance if you go to office hours. The tests are also alright. You have to memorize a ton of useless IDs (100 or so), and he'll give you about 8 to define. Then there's some essays on the tests too, but you can pretty much guess what's going to be asked. Try to avoid his class if you can, but if you enroll in it, it's not the end of the world. I got an A, you can too.

Course taken: His 3A
Boring lectures, good discussion, work well with your TA and you will be fine. Make sure that you have enough time to work and revise your paper in the way your TA tells you.

Like the person before me said, Alexander puts a powerpoint slide up on the projector and talks about it for a good 30 minutes each lecture. I only went to one lecture and then realized it was pointless. The way to get an A in this class is to first, go to every single discussion section. A lot of your grade is dependent upon your participation in section, and your TA will thoroughly discuss the readings and various topics that Alexander attempted to discuss that week. The second thing you should do is go to your TA's office hours--I went to my TA's OH a few times and he told me exactly how he would grade the midterm/paper/final and pretty much told me what I needed to write to get a good grade. Your whole grade is basically dependent on your TA, so don't worry too much about what Professor Alexander is doing and focus mainly on what your TA talks about/looks for in a paper.

I ACTUALLY took History 3A with professor Alexander, and i really don't think he deserves that low of a rating.
But I'll be honest...

-His lectures are really boring and as other people have said, his power points are useless... BUT he also posts the outline of the actual notes he covers in lecture so even if you don't take notes, he provides them for you. He also made attendance mandatory since he had the TA's check off their students but some people would just sign in and leave. Professor Alexander would also stutter a lot but it didn't bother be much. He is very repetitive and basically takes an hour and 15 minutes to cover what he could have covered in 45 tops.
-This class was made up of a midterm, final, a paper, and your discussion grade.
If you keep up with at least most of the readings, pay attention in discussion and study his outline notes you should be able to pass with an A.
-The TA's are ultimately the one's who give you your grade so participating and going to office hours will definitely make your discussion section grade! So maintain a good relationship with them.
-Lastly I personally thought this was a really interesting class and even though I didn't learn it from the professor, he definitely provides you with the readings and notes to do well in the class

Great class! So interesting!

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