As the person below me attests, I am someone who did all the reading and ended up with an A- in this class (ironically, my worst class this quarter).

Doing well in this class is absolutely about how well you do on the exams. I got an A on the paper, but a 17/20 and 18/20 on the midterm bumped me down to an A-. I know many people who did not do all the reading but did better than I did. Be warned of this! Please, read each question carefully on the exam, as the small number of questions really leaves you in a vulnerable spot if you do not answer correctly.

Regardless, I'm not too upset about my grade, as I enjoyed this class so so much! I found nearly all the readings and movies to be extremely fascinating, and Professor Wen's enthusiasm for the content made coming to lecture every week genuinely enjoyable. He cares a lot about his students and you can tell he's extremely knowledgable about the content he teaches. I hope that I'll be able to take another Scandinavian class with him while at UCLA.

Please take this class if there are spots left. This might've been my easiest 5 units at UCLA. It's still an interesting class, though. There are only two tests: a short multiple choice midterm and final, and most of the information is on fairytales that we're already familiar with.

Also, I'm selling a course reader for $20 if anyone needs one! I originally bought it for $50 in fall 2019. Email knageg@g.ucla.edu.

** COVID-19 Review **
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Since I took this class during Covid, it was asynchronous so your experience will likely be slightly different. Asynchronous class during Covid had 2 pre-recorded lectures a week and no discussion, though Wen hosted office hours for anyone to ask questions. I definitely think this class lives up to the “easiest GE” name. For online class, we had 50% of our grade based on multiple choice quizzes and 50% based on discussion forum posts. Quizzes were really easy and open note/book, and as long as you somewhat knew the plot of the readings and payed attention to the lectures, you were guaranteed a 100%. Discussion forum posts were about films relating to the week’s themes, and were basically graded on participation so as long as they were long enough and related to the subject. All the readings were available somewhere on the internet (and he provides a copy of Babette’s Feast on CCLE) so don’t bother buying the course reader. You can get extra credit from participating in a mock trial after Hrafnkel’s Saga, but you probably won’t need it as long as you put the bare minimum effort into everything else.
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Highly recommend this class as an easy GE, the readings and films were fun too!

Taking this class was the best decision I made as an incoming freshman. I have made a ton of friends, learned so much about the origin of my favorite childhood stories, and received a good grade in this course. Yes, the course is fairly easy, BUT Prof. Wen is an amazing lecturer. I chose path 1 (asynchronous version with weekly quizzes on lectures/readings), so I never got much interaction with him, but you could see the passion he has for this course. He’s extremely well-spoken, and a great explainer. For PATH 1, there are 9 reading quizzes, and the lowest one is dropped. In addition, there’s two small essays, one where you choose your own topic. I actually enjoyed the readings because they deviated from the classic Disney fairy tales we know and are familiar with today. All things told, this is a great class. Genuinely would love to have Wen as my professor in the future as well.

This class was definitely not as easy as I expected, and it was probably because the grading system changed a bit from past years. This year, there was one paper, 2 midterms, and a participation grade, where the paper and participation were 10% and the midterms were 40% each. For participation, he would just call randomly on people in the class and if you weren't called on throughout the quarter, this would still mean you would get full credit for participation. Because the midterms counted so much and each midterm only had 20 questions, there was very little room for error. Overall though, still highly recommend for a GE! It is still relatively easy to get a good grade and Professor Wen is a great and enthusiastic lecturer. He seems to really care about his students too and the readings were honestly quite fun to read because they were just Scandinavian stories. I'm selling the books and course reader as the syllabus doesn't really change from year to year --
selling the coursereader and Anecdotes of Destiny, Hunger, and Naive Super for cheaper. Hmu if you want the course readers and/or books at schoolstuffs135@gmail.com!

selling course reader. $30. negotiable. text 6193409973 if interested.

I enjoyed taking SCAND 50 but when I took it it was a fully asynchronous class so it might be different than it would be in-person. It was originally supposed to be an in-person class but it was switched to asynchronous right before Week 1. The class consisted of Weekly quizzes on Fridays that were worth 10 points and 2 essays (one due by Week 3 and the other by Week 10) worth 10 points each. The quizzes were pretty easy if you watched the online lectures and the information that Wen went over was really interesting. I learned a TON about Scand literature, something I had never learned about before so that was fun. This class was a easy A and there was no midterm and final so I highly recommend if you are looking for an easy GE and want to learn from an awesome guy.

Could not recommend this class more for someone who is taking tough classes and needs an easy extra 5 units!! Your grade consists of 10 weekly quizzes and two very short (and easily graded) papers. He also drops your lowest quiz score, but the quizzes are kind of a joke and extremely easy as well. Take! This! Class!

Professor Wen is very passionate about what he is talking about but does not force his students to be experts on the topic which I really liked. I enjoyed listening him analyse scandinavian literature but never felt like I had to study and learn them by heart. The weekly quizzes are the main part of your grade and they are very straight forward. If you watch his lectures and skim the readings, you should easily get 10/10 every time. I highly recommend everyone to try to take this class if you can.

|Covid-Review|: If you’re looking for a fun, interesting, and easy GE then you’re in luck. By all means, TAKE THIS CLASS. When I took it the class was online- asynchronous meaning the lectures were already pre-recorded. The only thing that was live (Zoom) was the Hrafnkel Mock Trial: whether Hrafnkel is guilty or innocent. In addition, his office hours were in-person really nice, easy-going, and a funny professor. Answered all questions with no judgment. He definitely shows his enthusiasm and humor in teaching this course.

Pathway 1 Grading——There are weekly quizzes that mainly have to do with the readings, films, and lectures. The quizzes are timed but are very easy and multiple choice. And two short paper responses (not graded heavily, so don’t worry). The readings assigned are very interesting, easy to read, and fun. The course reader is not necessary just make you have the version that is translated by the specific person he wants. Fun fact: you get to read fairy tale stories and Andersen tales such as My Little Mermaid. Overall, I highly recommend it!