Okay the simple thing is that you possibly can not know what grade you are going to get. He grades completely unfairly. He makes no comments whats so ever on essays, rather makes grammar corrections, then gives you a B/B- (WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN)

Okay so lets begin
First you have a ID, Map Quiz (the ID's are not hard as long as you put the correct information and memorize the info) The Map on the other hand makes no sence. He gives you locations, send you home and says google them. Literally the places he gives overlap one another so it makes absolutely zero sense... Anyways I got an A+ on the ID portion and a B on the map, combined I received an A for the exam (this is in week 4)

Then you have your first essay (4 pages, you CAN NOT pass 5). He cares more for grammar than content. Your introduction paragraph make or breaks you. Literally take it for him to read because if he dosent like you intro then you will get a B on the essay. INTRO IS MORE IMPORTANT THEN THE ENTIRE ESSAY. In addition, make sure you make your intro exactly I repeat exactly like the example he gives. He says you can write it differently, even approves it during office hours, then claims you did not do it exactly as he wanted.

Final is the same. Pay attention to page numeration, citations, sentence structures.

Advice from me is read up to week 4 as it is essential to for the ID exam, you can stop after. The essays he covers in lecture, you can just go back and incorporate in your essay.

Anyways, I got an A but this guy gave me ANXIETY. I really don't recommend since he is highly unorganized and dosent really seam to care much (even though he says he does). I learned things I didn't know before, it was interesting I am not going to lie, but the stress was not worth it.

Dr. Aslanian is a fountain of knowledge. That being said, this class was a complete waste of time. Being Middle Eastern myself, I thought this class would be extremely interesting and informative. However, I found that the class was extremely politically focused and little to no focus was put on the culture of the Middle East. I was always taught in my history classes that "the past informs the present." However, there was no connection made to the present in this history class. The final lecture was supposed to be on the recent Arab uprisings, a topic of interest to many people, but Dr. Aslanian spent most of that lecture talking about Europe's role in World War II. This made no sense to me. Anyway, the readings are completely unnecessary, but you do need to go to discussion section for the points.
Super easy map quiz=10%
Discussion section=15%
Book review=20% (didn't read the book and got a B on it)
Take home midterm=25% (2 essays)
Take home final=30% (2 essays)
I really do not suggest taking this class as a GE unless you love hearing boring lectures about topics that don't pertain to the subject matter.

TL;DR
Don't take the class. If you do, don't do the readings and you'll be fine. Final grade: B+

Your success in this class depends on doing the readings as they are assigned and not leaving them to the last minute. Your grade is based on one take-home midterm, consisting of two essays, a take-home final, which is also in the form of two essays, and two quizzes. The professor's lectures are a bit unorganized, so I would recommend typing your notes. He is pretty picky when it comes to grading, but he's really approachable and encourages students to come to him for help on the assignments. He basically tells you exactly how you should write your papers to get the best grade possible.

Honestly the fact that I got a B+ was totally on me, my head just was not in this quarter. That being said, getting an A in Aslanians class is completely possible. The map quiz is easy, but do at least half the readings bc the midterm and final are based off of the readings. He grades easy on the quiz and harder on the midterm and final which consist of two essay questions...take home. He tells some funny stories here and there so he's a really likeable person but he knows his stuff very well so he goes fast and it's easy to get lost while taking notes. The best thing you can do is go see him during office hours especially when in regards to your midterm and final.

Overall, the class is meh. The first half of the course is what you expect from a normal history course, i.e. Wars, allies, kings and etc. You'll have a map quiz and 9 ID's. He'll give you 20 to study from and he will pick 9. I believe that exam is worth about 30% of your grade.

The following week, you have a take home midterm, he gives you the questions ahead of time. They have to be 4-5 pages each. You'll answer 2, so, your entire paper is 8-10 pages. This is worth about 25%.

He is a VERY picky grader. I think that has more to do with the class being so small that he nit-picks everything. That brings up another point, the class is so small but it took us close to 3 weeks to get our mid-term back. I wish he gave it back in time so I could've have done a P/NP(Which I will explain shortly).

The second half of the course gets very dull. He talks about the establishment of trade and printing presses. Very dry lectures. You do not learn much about the period of time other than the establishment of printing presses and trade. Who established what where. . This will lead you to your final. Another take home paper, 8-10 pages in total while answering 2 questions.

He tends to chastise the entire class for not answering question. The problem here is that he assigns so many readings. It comes up to be 150-200 pages a week. He says try to read at least half, but even then it seems a bit overkill because some of us have 2 or 3 other courses and the reading is just so much. Not to mention, most of the readings that are assigned are ALL the same but with different authors.

This was one of my toughest course at UCLA and I put in the time and effort in it and I only managed a B+. While my other courses this quarter I ended getting two A's putting in half the work. I personally felt that I deserved a better grade but I guess I'll have to chalk it up as a learning experience. Had he given our midterm back in time, I would've had my coveted 4.0 GPA for the quarter.

Yes, you can get an A in this course but you need the trifecta, Do the readings and ask and answer questions. Write in a manner that he approves and do well on your ID/ID exam.

The positives-
Class is small, so the class can work together and help each other out. It feels more like a capstone than anything else.

You do not have to buy the books. I got by without buying any, including his.Most of the readings are posted on CCLE.

The negatives-
Dry lecturer
Nitpicks your paper
Takes forever for him to get back your grade.
Tends to chastise the class frequently
Back to back "projects". Meaning, one week you'll have your ID/MAP exam, the following week you'll have to turn in your paper. We do have other courses and mid-terms to worry about, you know?

If I can go back and find a new course, I would. Not an enjoyable course. Only positive that came out of it was the entire class was on the same page.

P.S. He'll tell you about 100x his favorite city in the world is Venice.

While Prof Alsatian was definitely knowledgable about the course, it was so disorganized that it was overall a hugely negative experience. The midterm and final were both papers derived entirely from the texts, and the map quiz was incredibly easy. I got an A- with minimal effort.

The TAs absolutely make your grade though, so pick wisely and attend discussion sections, because they will offer really helpful advice for the direction the papers should take.

Professor Aslanian is, by far, one of the best professor I've had! He truly cares about his students and does a great job going over such a rich and complex topic. Aslanian also offered his students the opportunity to attend other discussions of relevant topics, further expanding their knowledge on the subject. Reading the textbooks and attending lecture are important for the class. I would gladly take him again!

This was a very difficult class, readings were overwhelming and the professor is really nitpicky when grading the long papers. Would definitely not recommend this class.

Professor Aslanian was a pretty good lecturer, he really knows what he is talking about and you can tell he is very passionate about the material. Honestly the class is not that hard ( a lot of readings though), the midterm was easy (consisted of IDs and short essays) and he gives a study guide beforehand. We had to write another 2 essays for the take home portion of the midterm but each was 4 pages maximum . He really emphasis having good grammar so if you just have the writing center look over your papers before you turn them in them you're almost guaranteed an A on the papers. The final was also 2 papers (also 4 pages maximum). Overall I would recommend taking this class if you're interested in Armenian history.

Aslanian is incredibly knowledgeable about Armenian history. You can tell he's a brilliant man who's read widely and deeply. I learned quite a bit. Ethnic Armenians may find it more interesting, but if you come to the class with an open mind your background doesn't matter, a fact he stresses.

He's not particularly hard, especially if you are a good writer. I STRESS that you communicate with him throughout!! The class consisted of 10% for attendance and participation (make sure to raise your hand, he likes that stuff), 30% for the in-class ID/map exam which happened W4 Thursday, 25% for the take-home midterm (two 3-4 page essays), and 35% for the take-home final (two 3-4 page essays). The midterm/final are submitted on Turnitin, no hard copies.

He gives you a study guide beforehand for the ID/map exam. I had 15 locations given and had to locate 10 of those on a map. I also had 12 terms to study, 8 of which were on the exam. There was 8% extra credit on this exam if you got everything I believe.

The midterm/final were given a week or two in advance. Both had several straightforward prompts to choose from. For each "exam," you pick two prompts and write 3-4 page essays for each one, 6-8 pages total. Honestly, he has answered these prompts already in his lectures in his class if you paid attention. His essays do not take a terrible amount of creativity. You just have to make sure you synthesize all the sources that are relevant to the prompt in a way that makes sense. Your thesis should make sense. Don't include any cliches or flowery language - just be straightforward and answer the prompt, he hates filler. He assigns like 100-200 pages of reading every week. I didn't do any of them until the midterms/finals were assigned and I turned out fine. Honestly, it'd be helpful to skim them week to week so you don't get overwhelmed come essay time. You can't completely BS the sources, as he's fully familiar with them and several of them are his or his wife's own writings. The man is chill, but take him seriously.

ALL THE READINGS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR FREE ONE WAY OR ANOTHER! He provides like half of them, the others you can find with some smart Googling. You do not need to purchase anything.

A strong command of the English language, citing every relevant source, and paying attention/participating in class should get you far. He responds to emails relatively quickly and will even look at your introduction/thesis for you if you email it to him. I highly recommend communicating with him so you don't do something stupid on the essays. He's a pretty chill guy. He acts like he's harder than he is, I think, but the work is straightforward enough.

Occasionally, his lectures can get a bit dry and off track. He'll spend too long on a point that isn't too pertinent. Not a big deal though. He has some funny anecdotes.