Overall, Anthro 2 was my easiest class this quarter, and I took it as a GE. The class is graded based on 2 essays (20% each), 1 midterm (20%), discussion participation (15%), and a final (25%). There is also extra credit for up to 5% of your final grade.
Monica is a very enthusiastic and engaging lecturer in my opinion, and she provided slides to complement her speaking. Realistically, if you copy down her slides' bullet points you should have all the material you need to succeed in the class. She provides a few bullet points at the beginning of each lecture to review the previous one, which I used as a study guide for exams. Both the midterm and final were multiple choice, and in my opinion, extremely easy. All I did to study was read my lecture notes and focus on the review bullet points the day before and received A's on both exams. Plus, the lectures are all Bruincasted, so that was awesome.
As for the assigned reading, I actually did all of it, but you really don't have to. Doing all of the reading can take a while, so I really don't know if it was worth it. She goes over the important points from each reading during lecture, so as long as you are familiar with those, you should be set.
The essays in the class were also fair in my opinion. Monica tells you the format she wants (it's a basically a compare and contrast), and encourages you to have your TAs look at your rough drafts. I personally wrote both the day before they were due (she gives the prompts 2 weeks before the due date), did not have my TA (Eden) proof either of them, and got A's on both.
The extra credit required you to visit a nearby museum and answer a few questions about it in an essay format. The visit took my probably 20 minutes to gather the information, so it's relatively simple. If you do it earlier, it counts for more of your grade.
Overall, this class is great for an easy, low-workload GE, and I highly recommend taking it!

Overall, this class was pretty good. Monica tries to lighten up the lectures on a pretty boring topic with the occasional joke and the lectures are bruincasted for when you really don't want to go to class. Also, you never have to do the assigned reading to get all necessary information which is great. The TA grading was pretty uneven for the two papers, so try to get Jaime Vela if possible. The midterm and final are both multiple choice and VERY easy. She also offers up to 5% extra credit, so I actually ended with over 100% in the class. Overall this was a fine class, not a super interesting topic but we love Monica and it's an easy GE.

hard to imagine how I could attend every lecture, participate in every discussion, and study very thoroughly for the final and end up with a such a bad grade.

don't expect the professor to answer your emails.
do expect this to be another GE that should be easy but is graded ridiculously by TAs who seem to have a problem with every single person in your discussion section.

don't expect that your hard work will pay off in this class. if you're already enrolled in this class, well, good luck Charlie.

If u think it is a easy GE, do not take it. If u dont have interest in anthropology or archaeology, do not take it bc it will be a disaster. The stuff was so boring and made me fall asleep. i went to lectures most of the time but i did not learn anything more than my friend who seldom went attend class. The essays were graded harshly and although TA promised to help review the first draft, he got impatient and said that was all i can help by throwing me two sentences which were not constructive suggestions. Plus i got points distracted for both papers for the APA format. I swear that i checked the format online and even asked people in the writing center and did that following instructions carefully. I really wonder what is the TA's problem.

The essays in this class are graded very subjectively by the TA's and Monica didn't care much when this concern was brought up by multiple classmates. It is helpful to bring your rough draft to your TA and get feedback. Make sure to memorize important dates for the midterm and the final. Some midterm questions are reused on the final, so review them. Most if the material comes from lectures, with a little bit from the weekly readings. Overall, not the easiest GE if your TA is a harsh grader.

As a fourth year anthro major, I thought taking this class would be a breeze. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
There was 2 papers, a midterm, and final.
The grades I received did not reflect on my investment and work I put in for this class.
The TA’s graded their sections and the essays were graded very subjectively and who you had as a TA affected your overall performance. ( I had Eden)
This is the first class at UCLA where I had received lower than a B on a paper so I was very shocked to see my performance on the papers.
For the exams, they were way too specific and some questions did not reflect on the class. I had a hard as well on the exams.
Overall, do not recommend to take this class unless it is required.
Welp. I only have one quarter left... If I don’t pass, that’s another story.
I hope professors and TA’s take these evaluations in consideration.

I took this class as prep for the Anthro minor, but I highly recommend if you're looking for a chill GE! Prof. Smith does her best to make the material (which can be dull, at times) super engaging. She's an amazing lecturer with mad jokes. The fact that this class was asynchronous with pre-recorded lectures made it super easy to catch up at all times. The grade breakdown is 20% each for four papers with an extra 20% from participating in section. There is no mandatory midterm and final! The essays are very straightforward and Prof. Smith basically outlines exactly how she wants you to write them. They're only 2 page essays, as well. As for section, it is mandatory but Prof. Smith does her best to make it fun with little show-and-tell type ways to get participation points. Finally, she offers an extra credit paper on some fun archaeology movie (Indiana Jones, The Dig, etc.) AND an extra credit final to replace up to TWO paper grades! The best part of this class was that the final mandatory paper was due week 8, so I could check out those last two weeks lol.

To be honest, this is not an easy A GE. I changed to PNP while at last I got 93/100 which is an A...... During covid, the final grades break down to four papers and discussion participation grade. Some of those papers had very tricky prompts, which lots of students deviate from what professor Smith and the TAs expected, which will possibly give you the grades you didn't intend.

Professor Smith is the most interesting professor and the best lecturer I've ever met. Her lectures were so intriguing and the workload is not that heavy. I personally like the contents of this course and probably will take other courses of her in the future. Taking her class will definitely help you learn something interesting about anthropology!

Overall, Professor Smith's lectures are awesome and the workload is not that heavy. However, the grading of the papers and the prompts of the paper can be tricky, which means this class is not an EASY A class, especially for STEM students like me. In order to write great papers and get an A in the end, you'll have to make some effort, can't miss the lectures and will have to finish the readings.

An interesting and easy GE! We write a 750-word essay every two weeks and if you put enough sources in each paragraph of your paper, you'll most likely do well.

Absolutely loved this class with Professor Smith. Lectures were asynchronous and uploaded every lecture day, while discussions were in-person and mandatory for participation (one discussion grade is dropped). I think this class was run really differently this quarter, so my feedback might not be so helpful.

The discussion portion is worth 20% of your grade, and the rest is divided up among four essays, which were due every two weeks in the course.

Professor Smith is a really engaging lecturer, I honestly didn't know much or care about archaeology before this class, but I learned a ton and really enjoyed the course. Discussions are fun and collaboration based, we discussed some prompt every week that related to course content.

For essays, there's a ton of room to improve your grade if you did bad in the beginning, there's an extra credit essay that can replace one of your essay grades, and there's also an optional final (also essay) that can replace another one. There's no makeups for discussion, so I'd make sure to go.

Essays are a little open-ended in the prompts, which can be challenging, but I really enjoyed writing them. The rubric is not really handed out so it can be a bit ambiguous at times, but go to the professor's office hours and your TA's as well. One tip is that be sure to include as many of the written text sources as possible, they are grading on whether or not you can synthesize information from the class, not just rewriting the lecture. All in all, great class!