She is a real sweetheart. The class was sort of different than I had expected, but I really enoyed it. She was super accomodating of students, and seemed to want everyone to do well with the assigned readings/materials.
The topics in this class have the potential to be super interesting, but are ruined by the reading and instruction. Vesna manages to take incredibly interesting topics and make them uninteresting. The class is super easy though which I guess is a plus side, but it's the most boring class i've every taken and I was just disappointed ,
Vesna is a great person, very kind and patient. Grades tough on your essays though since this class is cross listed with a grad level course. The readings are outrageously long there's no way you can finish them but you can bs the 1 pg reading response for each class. 8-10 pg essay midterm and final. Long boring lectures and occasional guest speake
Professor is passionate and knowledgeable about the topic. Topic is fairly advanced. A lot of reading. Cant really BS the papers without doing the readings. Don't need to attend class, but it help make the readings make more sense. Grade is 10% reading reports, 10% guest lecture notes, 40% 8pg midterm paper, 40% 2 x 4pg (8pgs total) final papers.
Vesna believes in a lot of pseudoscience. The class is boring, lots of writing, lots of reading.
If you feel like writing three 1pager per week on average and two 8-10 pages essays, this class is for you. But I wish I didn't sign up for this class.
Vesna was a really great professor. She was really knowledgable, and she was enthusiastic about the topic. I would take a class with her again if I had the opportunity to.
Lovely professor! Made 8am worth it! Doesn't post lectures online so class is definitely mandatory. Gives out a study guide for the two midterms and the final. It contains questions and as long as you memorize the answers, you're good. Chooses 10 of the exact questions from the study guide and puts them on the test. 1 final take home essay.
2 writing midterms about Buddhism which just consists of 10 questions and 1 essay. Study the study guide and memorize it and you will be good. 1 final take home essay must answer 2 prompts. Section require weekly writings of the books assigned. Class attendance isn't required but would recommend to understand hard topics and post powerpoints online
Prof Wallace is great! She posts her powerpoints online and doesn't take attendance, but I recommend going to lecture because they're helpful and interesting. 2 midterms exactly like the study guide, weekly section summaries on the reading, 2 3-page take-home final essays and extra credit. She's also incredibly helpful and sweet in office hours!
From the first midterm it seems like the class would be easy but it gets so difficult. The TA's are hard to get direct answers from, lectures are boring, it's really hard to understand the professor, and no lectures are posted online. Very difficult to get full points on midterms because there's so much info to memorize.
Maybe it was just my TA, but this class was not as easy as people made it out to be. The lectures are no longer posted online, she does not make any effort to make the topic even just a tad bit interesting.. I hated going to this class.
Wallace speaks very softly and if pretty boring as a professor. You can tell she is well-versed on the material, but she really doesn't try to spice things up. Although she doesn't post lectures online, she tells the students EXACTLY what will be on the tests a week or so before. This makes getting an A super easy.
I loved this class. Interesting, friendly TAs, and great professor. Vesna is sweet and makes it clear she won't trick or surprise you. She gives you questions before the midterms and picks 10 of them to be on the tests (plus extra credit). Know the answers to those questions and you'll get an A+ like I did
Very easy class. Recommended for student athletes. Know the study guide she gives before the midterms and you'll do fine. Class is not mandatory but can be helpful. She can be hard to understand.
She's pretty funny. Exams are really easy if you know everything on the study guide. She has an accent so it took me awhile to understand her but overall, lectures are interesting and reading's optional.
Wallace gives you a pool of short-answer questions for her tests, so study/practice answering them and you'll do great! The reading was ok, sometimes dry, but sometimes weird interesting stuff. Section is helpful for recapping what Wallace did in lecture (she goes over a lot of material). One final essay that involves deeper thought of the material
I loved her. She is amazing and very knowledgeable. Definitely recommend taking at least one of her classes.
Professor Wallace is great! She's very passionate about the material and lively. She does have an accent, but it's really not that bad. She gives you questions on the midterms (3) before hand so just memorize them. The final essay seems to have been graded pretty easy. Good GE class to take for an easy grade.
she is a very sweet, happy women who's happiness resonates in her lecture and makes it more interesting. she has a thick slavic accent though, making her hard to understand and inevitably easy to stop listening to. for the three midterms, you get a list of 20 or so questions, about 10 of which are on the exam. answer all 20 correctly using the book and memorize the hell out of them for a good grade. the final is a 3 page essay that is graded easily. great, interesting class.
Awesome class. Super Interesting. I had an amazing TA (Greg Seton). He changed my life. Take this class!
Great class and teacher. Grade was based on reading responses but mostly a 8-10 pg. term paper.
Dr. Wallace is one of the most profound minds I've ever encountered and one of the most personal and relaxed professors I've ever had at UCSB. Her passion for the subject and general good nature makes the class one that will make you want to wake up and go to classes in the morning. Thanks to her this was definitely my favorite class.
she's an upbeat prof who knows her stuff. always willing to take questions and pause during lectures