Okay, so Schachner's class is pretty easy, one quiz every other week, and two papers make up 90% of your grade. The other 10% are attendance if you have him in-person, but for online Spring 2020 it was usually just very short assignments on some reading material.

He also drops your lowest quiz and your lowest paper, so I got lucky and got to finish the class by Week 8. (besides a couple participation assignments) The quizzes are usually pretty straightforward, I would just transcribe the shit out of his lectures and if your quizzes aren't open-note, just try to memorize it to the best of your ability. If it is open-note, go ham on the command-F lmao. I'm not a very good writer but I'd say the papers were relatively straightforward, most people I know got an A/A- which was good enough for the class.

While the class is somewhat easy, it comes at the price of being quite dry (at least for myself). That may be my fault for not picking a GE that I found interesting and instead one that wouldn't cause me too much stress but I found a lot of the lectures kind of boring. It may have also been because for Spring 2020, all lectures were recorded and there were no live lectures at all, but I found it hard to be interested in the material. Doing work for the class just involved rolling up my sleeves and gritting my teeth through it.

Would recommend if you have a heavy schedule and want to knock out a chill GE though...

Tests are hella easy, just memorize his powerpoints.

Don't bother with the reading. The textbook is dense af, I mean like super SUPER dense, and the important stuff, like I said, is from his powerpoints anyway. The reading is a complete waste of time and I stopped after like 3 weeks.

He is very well-spoken and knowledgeable, but you can skip class. You know why? Because the important stuff is on the powerpoints.

He says the class isn't curved but somehow I always do better on the tests than I expect.

2 bs-y papers, which was probably the hardest part of the class.

I took Anthro 8 with Professor Schachner the first quarter of my freshman year, and to this day he is still the best professor I have encountered at UCLA. I have taken Archaeology courses with other professors at UCLA and no one else compares. Schachner's class is very straight-forward and is very manageable if you invest a little bit of time into the class. Not the easiest class, but as a science major this class was nothing. Honestly, I feel the reading is unnecessary if you really pay attention in lecture, participate in discussion, and review before the exams. Schachner is a verrrrrrrry fair grader and makes sure you are successful in his class. He wants the class averages to be high and is very accommodating as long as you show effort. He is one of the best lecturer's on campus and really knows his stuff. All of his lecture presentations are available online so I suggest only copying what he says in class. And his exams are definitely lecture driven. He is very effective at making a arguably dull subject interesting and even makes his lectures humorous. I am very glad to have taken a class with Schachner and I definitely plan on taking a class with him again!

I took Anthro 8 and I soon learned that I am NOT a fan of studying archaeology. It's definitely really boring and not as interesting as I thought it would be. I had a hard time paying attention in class and retaining any information whatsoever. I didn't read the book, but I studied pretty hard for the midterm and final and got B/B+'s.
I had Stephanie as a TA and she was really cool. I got A's on the papers, though they were really challenging. I ended up with a B because the final killed me, but other people said they studied the slides and did really well.
It was nice that he put the slides and podcast online, too.
Overall, he was a really good lecturer but way too boring and monotone for my taste, mainly due to the subject matter.

His grading is horrible.

His class was set up to have two papers, one midterm and one final. I guess my one complaint was that the midterm and final were all multiple choice, which I feel is an insufficient method of testing period. He tries to make his lectures a little funny with his dry humor. Good TA's helped a lot with writing the papers and studying for the exams. Overall, an alright professor. Nothing especially good, but he also wasn't bad at all.

One of the best teachers I ever had. Tests are easy if you study. All the material is online. And the papers are easy, as long as you get your TAs to revise them. Great class and I hate anthropology, I took it as a GE.

Good professor, good class for a GE. Selling my Human Past textbook really cheap: $20. Text me at (818)5854397

In the most recent review, I meant to put Winter 2015, and my overall grade was an A.

His class, "The Politics of Past" has been one of my favorite classes at UCLA so far. If you think you are considering a profession in archaeology, this class is a must.

Not only did I learn a lot about museums, collecting, NAGPRA, etc., but you learn so much about how archaeology really gets done -- and how so much of the field really isn't about just the science of it.

This class has a decent amount of reading each week, but its not too dry. Class is structured as a "seminar" of sorts. Generally, Professor Schachner lectures or shares stories for part of the class. Then the class usually breaks up into groups to discuss, or there is just a general class discussion. Overall, class wasn't too boring, and was sometimes pretty entertaining.

Your grade in the class is based off of participation, a take home midterm, a museum project, and a final paper. None of these were overly difficult.

The Professor always responded to my e-mails in a timely manner, even on Saturdays, and gave great feedback on papers. He cares a lot about writing, and that shows in his grading. However, he recognizes hard work and improvement.

I got an A in his class and I definitely recommend this class to others!