Professor
Lauren Derby
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Most Helpful Review
I took Hist 161 with Derby and she's a total sweetheart. She does have the tendency to trail off in the middle of sentences and can sometimes be hard to follow, but you get the general themes she trying to express and the class overall was not too difficult. It consisted of a take-home midterm and a take home-final which she gave out weeks in advance and you had a choice of prompts. She loves tons of examples from the books she assigns and shes a pretty lenient grader. I personally loved the class.
I took Hist 161 with Derby and she's a total sweetheart. She does have the tendency to trail off in the middle of sentences and can sometimes be hard to follow, but you get the general themes she trying to express and the class overall was not too difficult. It consisted of a take-home midterm and a take home-final which she gave out weeks in advance and you had a choice of prompts. She loves tons of examples from the books she assigns and shes a pretty lenient grader. I personally loved the class.
Most Helpful Review
I've taken derby for both History 8A and History 161. There is a really big difference in the way she teaches a huge lecture as opposed to a smaller class. I have to say that I really enjoy the way she brings in multimedia, films, music, art, to back up her lectures. While she can be disorganized, her lectures are not entirely the put you to sleep kind. Also if you go to her office hours, she will really help you with your papers. As with many professors, what you see is not always what you get. she is very intelligent and she can read through your bullshit.
I've taken derby for both History 8A and History 161. There is a really big difference in the way she teaches a huge lecture as opposed to a smaller class. I have to say that I really enjoy the way she brings in multimedia, films, music, art, to back up her lectures. While she can be disorganized, her lectures are not entirely the put you to sleep kind. Also if you go to her office hours, she will really help you with your papers. As with many professors, what you see is not always what you get. she is very intelligent and she can read through your bullshit.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - This review is specifically for Terroir: Place, Craft, Taste. This class... was interesting? Nothing wildly amazing, but by no means was anything wrong with this class either. The seminar style was nice because our little group was able to have in-depth convos about topics. The only downside to the weekly seminar is that it was 3 HOURS LONG. We took breaks but 3 hours on Zoom gets super tiring. I suggest doing the large research paper WAY ahead of time so you know if you have to change your topic and you can really go digging for sources. I think my paper suffered because of this, so pls start early! I didn't know this until after the quarter ended but I got upper division college honors units from this class, which was an unexpected surprise. So if you're an honors, student, there's something to think about. Overall, I would take this class again because it got the job done in terms of units for my minor, honors, and an okay grade in the class. Nothing to write songs about, though.
Winter 2021 - This review is specifically for Terroir: Place, Craft, Taste. This class... was interesting? Nothing wildly amazing, but by no means was anything wrong with this class either. The seminar style was nice because our little group was able to have in-depth convos about topics. The only downside to the weekly seminar is that it was 3 HOURS LONG. We took breaks but 3 hours on Zoom gets super tiring. I suggest doing the large research paper WAY ahead of time so you know if you have to change your topic and you can really go digging for sources. I think my paper suffered because of this, so pls start early! I didn't know this until after the quarter ended but I got upper division college honors units from this class, which was an unexpected surprise. So if you're an honors, student, there's something to think about. Overall, I would take this class again because it got the job done in terms of units for my minor, honors, and an okay grade in the class. Nothing to write songs about, though.
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