Not easy. You will need to read multiple books to get an A. Midterm and Final multiple choice were easy, but the ID'S were usually terms hardly talked about in lecture. Weekly 16 question HW and pop quiz at the end of every class. Prof. is hard to understand and goes on tangents, often going a few minutes past lecture time. Interesting nonetheless.

If you have an Asian background, have taken APUSH or any other rigorous history class, and is able to go to every 8AM lecture and listen to at least parts of it, this course is going to be very easy. Lectures are very interesting, and I really appreciate professor Zhao for incorporating Santa Barbara history into the contents of this course.

Really interesting, enjoyable lectures. Instead of just listing events and dates like other history profs, she gave anecdotal examples, and also talked a lot about women's history. The exams are the same as the hw questions so pretty easy to study for. There was a lot of reading but not unbearable, and the books weren't too boring.

This professor made ASAM1 unnecessarily difficult. The required books cost $70, which I couldn't afford. The exams were harder than my upper-division courses in Chem E, and the grading system made it nearly impossible to pass. I wouldn't recommend this class. Spent more time studying for the class to fail, than my Chem E classes that I passed..

Respectfully, it's very hard to understand her and follow along with what she says, especially at 8 am. Plus, everyone is on their phone scrolling. The Midterm was pretty difficult; there wasn't a clear study guide that you would try to memorize a few things, so you're forced to memorize A TON of stuff:( I definitely suggest another class if u can!

Her lectures often are just her rambling and is pretty unclear in the direction she takes. It's hard to understand her accent at 8 in the morning along with her lecturing style.

great professor and class

Difficult to understand, and not very organized. I never really understood where she was going in lecture, but luckily my TA was far more organized and able to clear up most of my confusion. The midterm was in week 3 and half of it was MCQs taken directly from the weekly quizzes, the other half short response - piece of cake if you pay attention.

Prof. Zhao is clearly passionate about the topic but can sometimes go off on tangents or be unclear. This class is much more difficult in-person than online. Be prepared to spend a lot of time prepping for the midterm and final; you are expected to memorize detailed information about 60 or so terms. Pros: grading criteria is extremely clear.

I don't know why the course gets much more complicated when it's taught in person: quiz + midterm + final + project. From feedback of my friend who took this course online, there were only quiz + project. Exam contains MC + paragraph-response question -- be prepared to remember tons of information if you want to get an A. (much harder than online)

I don't think she actually listens when I ask her questions because her answers are always not to my questions but other things

Each week we had two lectures (an hour each), reading, and two quizzes (5 questions each). As long as you watch the lectures, it's an easy A. Midterm was a group project and the final was an individual project. They don't take that much time to do. Also, I went to office hours once and she is the sweetest person ever. Highly recommend taking her!!!