Amazing professor! Super accessible outside of class! Lectures are very straightforward and are posted after class! Seems like he enjoys his job and seems to care about his students! Loved this class!
Professor Maar was an awesome professor! He made it clear in his syllabus of what is expected to pass his class. He gives a free pdf of the textbook, so that's super kind of him. My TA was a bit strict on the grading, so your grade in the class will ultimately depend on the TA.
Maar was a pretty good professor. He was quick to respond to emails and would read drafts of your papers. All readings are online and are free, which is the best thing about this class. Some of the readings were useless, but most of them were few page speeches and excerpts.
Maar reads off of his slides, but he still gives more details that are not on the slides. Grade is based off of section participation, two papers, one written midterm, and a final (another essay). Midterm is similar to the writing part of an APUSH exam, and essay prompts are given two weeks before the deadline. Pretty cool class and professor!
I took this course Pass/No Pass because I just needed the Gen Ed. requirements that this class covers. I stopped showing up to lecture after Week 3 and I secured a Pass easily. He told us what would be on the midterm ahead of time and let us use a page of notes during the exam so with minimal preparation, I got a 95% on it. Easiest class at UCSB.
Professor Maar made early US history much more interesting than I thought it was going to be! While he may read off the slides (causes boredom sometimes), the way he conveys the material is rather interesting! Midterm and final were not hard at all, attendance not mandatory but make sure to read the slides!
One of the best professors I've taken. His lectures are interesting and engaging, his exams are extremely straightforward, and there wasn't a heavy workload for this class. 100% would recommend and take again!
Attendance not required because he reads from the slides and posts them, but his lectures were very entertaining and enjoyable. 2 papers were short and straightforward and he gives you the entire exam a few weeks in advance. Great guy, he used a free online textbook and was very accessible outside of class. Take him!
Prof. Maar is definitely one of the better history professors at UCSB. Straightforward class, typical papers with midterm and final, but guides you through them and also offers extra credit.
I took this class session A. I barely attended lecture and got an A. It is important to attend all sections and do the homework assignments. I really enjoyed this class and would take Maar again if I could! The TAs do most of the work, so it might depend more on what TA you get since they do all the grading.
Great teacher. Very informed and learnèd historian. Very accommodating during the Thomas fire and put his own career second to student needs by restructuring the final to be take-home when he wasn't mandated to do so.
Really easy class but he reads solely from his lecture slides which makes attending class seem pointless and boring. Two papers that were pretty easy and the midterm and final were straightforward and easy.