If you're considering taking this course as an upper division elective, take it with professor Bradbury! I took this class during winter quarter 2022, so roughly the first half of the course was online and the second was in person. Regardless, professor Bradbury was always engaging during lectures. The overall content of the class is interesting and not overly technical. There is a required textbook, but many students were able to easily find a free pdf of it online. The readings from the book aren't a lot since the book is actually pretty engaging and easy to follow along. Roughly two chapters are assigned per week, except when an exam is assigned. There are only two exams for this course: a midterm and a final, both are written exams. Each exam consists of four single-spaced one page essays. There are a total of four prompts per exam (4 for the midterm and 4 for the final) and they are accessed a week before the deadline. Both exams are open book and you have access to the slides and lectures (zoom recording and bruincast) for reference. My only complain would be that grades are posted pretty late, but overall this class great!

I absolutely loved this class! I think this is one of the more unique courses that delve into some really interesting topics. I'm so glad that I decided to take it. Professor Bradbury is one of the most engaging lecturers I have ever come across during my time at UCLA. Not only is the content super interesting and relevant but he does a really good job at delivering it in a way that's accessible. He makes the information we learn super approachable and easy to digest by grounding it in real-life relationships and situations. Likewise, the textbook was super interesting (which never happens for me). At first, the grade being based on 2 short-essay exams was intimidating. But I think they are very fair and he gives a rubric for what he's specifically looking for in your responses. He offers himself as an available resource by answering any questions or concerns you have about the exams via office hours or email. Overall, Professor Bradbury genuinely cares about your learning and success in the course.

Lowkey, I have no idea why this class has such a low rating. I literally loved this class so much. The content was engaging, Bradbury was funny, and he does a great job explaining any questions that are thrown his way. Yes, your class grade is only based upon two "tests", which are comprised of four essay questions each, up to one page, and single-spaced. However, I found them pretty easy and this is coming from someone who sucks at writing. The things he asks for on them are pretty basic and stuff you can just find in the book. With that being said, you do need to buy it or at least find a pdf online, but the only time you'll need it is when you write the essays. Overall, for me, it's a no brainer that I would take this class with Bradbury again.

ugh i was so excited to take this class... but i should've waited until we were back on campus. 0/10 do not recommend taking this during online learning. all of the lectures were bruincasts from the prior years lectures, even though the format for the class was totally different. the grade is based solely on two essays, we didn't receive rubrics or any direction on how to write them until after turning them in. not to mention that the TA graded all of our work, so what did professor bradbury even do all term?? all in all felt like we were set up to fail. going to office hours didn't really help either, he spent most of them just talking about how to get into grad school. great, thanks for the help, but i needed clarification on class concepts, not how to research. :( also heard of students being scolded and disrespected during office hours and brought to tears... its really too bad.

Where to start? I was super disappointed. The class started off great, the content was so interesting, even the textbook was interesting, prof was funny & I was so upset I was taking it online instead of in person. And then... Your grade fully depends on 2 exams consisting of 4 1-page essays. No extra credit, no participation, just those 2 exams. The prompts seem doable, and you'll think you're doing a great job, until he releases the rubric AFTER the exam, and it's ultra-specific as opposed to the ultra-broad questions. In other words, you can fully & satisfyingly answer the prompt and still lose hella points because the rubric is ridiculously specific and asks for things not mentioned in the prompt. You can ask for a regrade, but you run the risk of losing more points so is it even worth it? I got an A on the first exam, and did slightly worse on the final, and it got me my first A- as opposed to the As & A+'s I was getting before, which sucked. In fact, everyone was so upset that the class sent out a mass email to the prof asking for some help with the rubric and he refused. Apparently he was also super rude to some people with CAE accommodations & made some students cry during office hours so...sign up at your own risk.

I took this class during Covid. The material was really really interesting and I feel like I learned a lot, however, I would've preferred that the professor gave live lectures instead of posting previous BruinCast recordings. Moreover, the only graded materials were the midterm and final. Each of those consisted of four short essays with relatively vague prompts, but super specific grading rubrics that were not released until after the exams were due. I still did relatively well on the midterm and final, but one essay I got docked a ton of points because I didn't match the rubric and, even though the rest of my essays were really good, I couldn't get back up to an A.