Wouldn't recommend this class unless you have to take it. Lots of busy work, I felt like I was in high school with all the projects and homework assignments. The material can be interesting at times. You have to use the books a lot & they are very expensive. Homework assignment every week, 2 group projects, 2 essays, and a final.

His lectures are completely unorganized and he talks about a lot of irrelevant information. He assigns way too much homework most of which is pointless and lacks support for the lecture. Only one test at the end but he makes up for it by assigning 2 essays and weekly writing assignments.

Lecture sides are unorganized. Tells you lots of stuff you don't need/irrelevant to homework or projects. Assigns work as if this is the only class you have.

SO MUCH WORK EVERY WEEK. He wont give you time to work on other class assignments

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. i don't know why he's still here: if the admin knew just how cruddy he was, he'd be out in a heartbeat. ARROGANT LIL ISH. he seems nice enough in lecture, suggesting you go in to clarify material ... reality is that he doesn't answer emails and really isn't listening to you in office hours. serious jerk. disorganized & lame.

pretty easy class, homework every week but it was easy and quick to do.

COME ON! The class wasn't that hard. In fact, I missed every class except the first day and the day of the final and I ended up with a B. I remember this one TA let us email everything so I never had to print out the busy homework. There is only one test-the final (25%). I should have gone to class more though because there were so many hot girls.

I am sorry to any anthropology student who is obligated to take this course. He has a very ethnocentric bias in presenting information and also presents false information. HE DOESN'T KNOW HIS STUFF. For instance, he claimed that there are no archaeological dates for domestication in the South Pacific (NOT TRUE). DON'T SILENCE PEOPLES HISTORY!!!

class is 5 units and he makes you work for them. stupid busy work that takes u hrs to do. boring reading. he's nice enuff in class but not approachable during office hrs. really disorganized lectures and boring too. don't take for ge.

He is extremely boring. He would tell lame jokes occasionally, but those jokes are not funny. The lecture are also useless. He just keep showing pictures of Egypt or Maya or whichever place the lecture is about. The textbooks don't help either. Basically you learn everything from the TA. Don't take this class for GE!

ACK! Study guide he hands out before the midterm and final have 50-60 short answers, 10 essays and 20ish slide ID's to memorize on top of a 10 page intense paper. By far the most work I've ever had to do at UCSB. If you don't have a laptop note taking is impossible. Everything he says (which is A LOT) ends up being something you need to know.

I have had this professor twice and both times he acted as though his class is the only one you have. With 4 mandatory textbooks and ridiculous amounts of studying for the exams, it is not worth taking his classes. Its cool that he was the 'go to guy' for Hollywood, but he's arrogant about that as well. Arrogance does not = good teaching.

DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER! He is horrible and extremely challenging. His tests were harder than any of my actual major classes. 10 page paper and 50% Final. Do Not Take!

He is the worst teacher I have had in my experience at UCSB. While his lecture style is entertaining, his manner of organization (or lack) makes it very difficult to take the detailed notes necessary for his extremely detailed and extensive exams. Don't take a class from him unless you love the subject and can't take it from anyone else.

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Worst teacher ever, doesn't want to help you, doesn't grade fairly and teaches you inappropriate material, I would recommend not to take him if you don't want to fail, gives you a 10 page paper to write and doesn't give you any instructions other than the handout, wont tell you what he expects, VERY VERY BAD TEACHER, STAY AWAY

Worst teacher ever, doesn't even know how to teach. Doesn't grade fairly. Don't take this teacher.

Although its pretty hard to target what he actually wants you to learn from his lectures, he's a great speaker and entertainer. Lectures always interesting, straight from his head instead of reading from some peice of paper. very enthusiastic, refreshing. easy papers and final.....really good guy.

Smith is ultimately not a bad guy, but his lectures are sometimes disorganized, and the website for the class is TERRIBLE!!! It was pretty easy if you paid ANY amount of attention. Some of the required work was a little... pointless, but mostly it was good. Good class, good professor, great subject

Although Smith was annoying, navigating the website shouldn't have been a problem granted that you weren't a retard. People whined about this class being disorganized/hard, but if you actually paid attention and did the work, it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Smith, but his class is not as horrible as everyone makes it out to be.

this prof is very interested in hearing himself speak. his website was horribly organized with multiple spelling errors! he put a "essay tips" section on his webpage that told you to proof read, and that section also had spelling mistakes. his web pages were terrible to navigate! dont take this class unless you have to.

Stewy's lectures were a lot of fun, I enjoyed them immensly! He was very engaging and the work was pretty easy. I didn't do much of the readings and got an A! I can't wait to take him again!

Professor Smith assigns meaningless mandatory busy work that just sucks up your time. Don't even need to go to lecture, in fact your probably better off not going. He's an ideal high school teacher but a useless college professor

This guy is a joke. His lectures are useless, he just shows us pictures of himself and shows PBS videos. And he is full of himself, you will never stop hearing about his connections to hollywood.