It's a fairly easy A GE to take, but some of the requirements from Ball make it feel kinda like a high school class. You need to show up to most of the lectures because there is a quiz or two in each one that can happen at any point during the hour. You need an iClicker for the quizzes, but you can miss up to like 6 of them before it starts hurting your grade.
She grades participation by going through the list of all the students and calling on them to answer questions that relate to the readings, but you can avoid getting your name called randomly if you raise your hand to answer questions a couple of times because she pushes your name to the bottom of the list if you do that.
Lectures weren't bruincasted, but all the slides were posted. The only annoying thing was that her no technology rule was really strict, so you couldn't type your notes during class unless you have CAE accommodations.
Readings were interesting because most of them weren't normal history textbook readings. They were snippets of various Scandinavian sagas. However, some days the readings were a little too long in my opinion, although I'm a STEM major so my threshold for it is pretty low.
There were two multiple choice exams that were easy if you kept up with the readings and the lectures. The final was a take-home paper (even before COVID-19 got in the way) that was 700 words max and a chill prompt

Professor KB is the best professor at UCLA. She truly cares about the students. I have taken her MANY times, probably all the classes she offers at UCLA. I transferred to UCLA with no SCAND knowledge, and ended up in 165B and instantly got hooked. KB lectures in a very engaging way, which you should take advantage of because the class is 100 times more enjoyable if you actually engage, plus you get points for speaking . HER CLASSES ARE FAIR!!! I love her class structure and all of her classes are structured the same way so no surprises if you take her multiple time!
15% Quizzes
10% Participation
25% Exam I
25% Exam II
25% Final Paper
You will get extra credit for doing the teacher evaluation!

The people complaining probably did NOT go to class. GO TO CLASS and you will be fine!

I took this class to cover some GE credits for the foreign literature in translation requirement, and I was under the impression if you did the reading and the work, you could easily get an A. With that said, although I got 100% on the reading quizzes for the quarter and a 98% on reading responses, I still ended up with a B in the class because her tests are unrealistically difficult. If you have zero knowledge of Scandinavian history, literature, or mythology, the amount of information that you are expected to know for the two exams (which are essentially a midterm and final, but the professor refuses to call them these things) plus the take-home final (yes, there are essentially two finals) is just insane. I studied an entire week ahead of time, writing out my own study guide based off slides and lecture notes as she instructed, and I still did not feel prepared for the exams, as many of the questions were on things that were mentioned once or twice in class very briefly, while some were things I do not recall going over at all. For my class, there were 40 fill-in-the-blank questions and 2 essay questions, and students were expected to finish both in 50 minutes. Yes, you read that right. Only 50 minutes, which was the normal running time of the class. While Professor Ball was very nice and even gave a few extra credit opportunities to help struggling students, I think her class would greatly benefit from a redesign of her testing methods, and perhaps she would not need to offer extra credit opportunities at all.

I thought that Professor Ball was strict, but fair, if a little bit intense. Her lectures were really engaging, I thought they were interesting all the way through. There was a fair amount of reading, but it was doable. The most stressful part of this class was the quiz that she has *every class*, which you have to buy a clicker remote for, and which makes up a significant part of your grade. But overall I really thought the class was manageable. If you're going to take this class definitely study using the PowerPoint slides. That's the focus of the exams. Don't just randomly read through things.

The positive review from December 9th makes NO sense. That doesn't accurately describe the course, and it wasn't even taught Fall 19. Might be talking about Scand 134, which was taught Fall 19. Anyways, I personally wouldn't take the risk. Do something else!!

*Think about it: are you supposed to be THIS stressed/worried about a GE? No, you're not* especially scandinavian. seriously find anything else like PoliSci40 or Stats 12 or idk

.

I would say the content and the lectures were super engaging. However, the course's tests are randomly tough in the sense that the questions are random making the test tough. The participation comes from iClicker questions. The essays were graded really well and fairly. I actually got like a 95 on the essay and a 72 on the midterm, so I went with pass/no pass. I think passing the tests is the goal of the class. You only have a limited amount of time so know certain dates and people. I did learn a lot about vikings in this class, and I found that really rewarding.

I went into the class with zero knowledge about Vikings or Scandinavia in general, so this was my first exposure to the topic. I found the material quite interesting. The class is graded based on the following: reading responses, in-class iClicker quizzes, two exams (weeks 5 and 10), and a take-home final essay (4 pages, double-spaced).

The material covers a wide range of topics from social structure to religion. It's honestly very difficult to not be fascinated by the history. Most of the readings are taken from various sagas and can be read like any other fun story. The lectures are just like any other lecture, but they're interesting as long as you are paying attention. There are some details the professor goes over that aren't too specifically written out in the lecture slides, so you do want to pay attention, but it shouldn't be a problem since the topic is quite captivating.

There is some amount of reading due every day which can sometimes get rather lengthy, but you only need to do 10 responses in total, with a minimum of 350 words. It takes all of 5 minutes and if you do all 10 early, you won't have any left to do after less than 4 weeks into the quarter, giving you more time to focus on other things. The iClicker quizzes are incredibly easy; if you did the reading then you'll get the right answer, and you can miss up to 5 or 6 quizzes and still get full credit.

The two exams can be slightly iffy. You need to do 40 fill-in-the-blank questions and answer 2 essay questions within 50 minutes. But, if you had been writing decent notes in class through the lectures and go back to review them, there is absolutely no problem. It may seem like a lot, but it's honestly quite easy. The answers for the fill-in-the-blank questions should pop right out to you if you had done some amount of reviewing, and the essay questions are analyses/interpretations that you can very easily do if you had been paying attention in class. There is nothing in the exams that wasn't present in either the lecture slides, the reading, or the lectures themselves. Also, for the essay portion, it doesn't necessarily have to be a formal essay; you can use bullet points and sentences that aren't exactly full sentences. It's absolutely possible to finish the exam with a few minutes left over.

The final take-home essay actually kind of got me, as I scored significantly lower than I thought I would, but I don't think it was because it was difficult. It's only 4 pages double-spaced and doesn't take too long to do, so it's possible that I underestimated it. Overall, it shouldn't be too difficult to get an A in it if you spend more time on it than I did (a few hours).

I wouldn't recommend this class if you absolutely hate reading. If you can tolerate it, then I do recommend it. I'm not lying when I say they're interesting. The only real complaint I have is that there is an exam on week 10 and then a final essay, but it's not the biggest deal in the world since the week 10 exam is NOT cumulative and the essay doesn't take too much time, so honestly the total time spent for those two should be about equal to the time spent studying for any other one final exam.

Professor Ball is absolutely fantastic, though, so if you want to take a class that is quite easy and interesting with a great professor, this is a good one.

The lectures were slightly boring. The midterm was thorough but fair. She is a very fair essay grader. You should be able to swing an A with only some work. She is very interesting and understanding of the students.