I took this class on a whim and ended up loving it! There is a lot of reading but the textbook was written by him and was a very easy read! Gaulin is a great lecturer and breaks down complicated concepts well, he uses lots of examples. Tests can be tricky so I recommend going to office hours and reaching out to your TA.

If you are ready to put in some effort, and go to office hours, you will not fail.

Heavy outside class workload with lectures/readings and quizzes. Hard to understand concepts in short time and midterm/final questions worded very difficult.

Very passionate professor but teaches almost exclusively in examples. Textbook is a lot clearer for understanding concepts. Midterm was semi difficult and definitely needed a lot of studying for. Problem sets every few weeks weren't too hard, low homework. Definitely hard class to conceptualize, easier when you know his way of wording.

the subject itself was interesting and isn't that difficult to an extent, but it takes a lot of consistent effort to not fall behind! preferred learning from his book over the online lectures. his midterm and final include many trick questions, but as long as you submit everything on time and try to aim for the extra credit you'll pass.

Honestly the hardest class Ive taken at UCSB. Lectures are super hard to follow. The material was interesting but the midterm and final were super difficult!!! I would not recommend this class unless youre taking it pass/ no pass.

Although his lectures are a little hard to follow, he is a very passionate professor and his office hours are extremely helpful and engaging.

He is the best professor I ever met. His pedagogy is not about letting you barely remember the materials and the definitions. He wants you to understand the concepts. He is very kind to his students, especially during office hours. He will keep solving your problem until you fully understand. Frankly, his exams are not easy, but still very fun.

Interesting class format but overall very interesting!

Super difficult consider its a lower level class. If science is not your strong suit, do not take. Read that one more time, do not take.

He's sweet and passionate about what he's teaching. But, the class is way too difficult and no matter how many times you read over the material, the exams are INSANELY difficult, and they make up a lot of your grade. Studied hard but was still lost. It's like he expects his students to be as good at the material as he is. Huge headache.

he clearly cares about the topic and tries hard but the tests are extremely difficult and you don't receive any sort of study guide. lectures out of class are LONG and hard to keep up with. overall, fine but would not take again.

Very difficult as an undergrad course. T.A admitted to not understanding material and that course is grad level. Don't recommend taking as a gen-ed. Lectures and quizzes are so confusing and often misleading

The homework is pretty light and the lectures are easy to understand. He is a very wholesome old man that is passionate about teaching his subject. Id say its pretty easy to get a good grade in this class. Although this class might get a bit boring, I found it overall interested and a nice biology refresher.

I honestly loved this class and the professor! He was always so passionate about what he was teaching and the material was very fun to learn about. Lectures were recorded and Sections were optional. There was usually a weekly assignment and occasional mini exams that were tough, but doable. Extra credit is offered as well! Would take it again!

Nice guy but very difficult class. I dont recommend taking this class as a GE. Grade is based on 6 mini exams that are extremely difficult and don't really pertain to the lecture concepts. It seems he doesnt want his students to succeed. I did fine in this course but dont recommend it.

The class is ridiculously difficult for an undergraduate intro course. Grade is mostly determined by six "mini-exams", all of which having vague, misleading and stupidly difficult questions that relate little to what's taught in lecture and assume you're an expert in the field. Professor Gaulin also doesn't curve. Do not take as a GE class!

I thought ANTH 5 with Professor Gaulin was super interesting! Lectures are pre-recorded and usually around an hour long, but you can watch them on 1.5x speed. Mini-exams (6 in the quarter) can be pretty tricky with wording, but they're not impossible. Would recommend going to office hours because he's very knowledgeable and easy to talk to (IMO).

His lectures do you no good on any of the exams. His exams are worded extremely poorly making it difficult as hell. Other than that his assignments are busy worked which is graded for completion. Would not recommend his class to anyone

He doesn't teach. He can't run an online class. He's a bad teacher who expects you to buy his $60 book and never answers questions. He likes to pretend that he wants you to succeed but he really doesn't care. He was one of my first professors at UCSB and I will never again even consider the subject of anthropology because he absolutely ruined it.

Professor Gaulin is certainly very knowledgable: the textbook used is written by him. He explains concepts well, so the class is quite interesting. Keep in mind that sometimes small details mentioned by him in class can pop up in quizzes and exams. The grading system caters students during online learning. But the quizzes are hard.

I loved this class! Professor Gaulin is very nice and is obviously very passionate about this subject. There wasnt a final and the mini exams were hard but doable. Overall, I found the course to be very interesting and Professor Gaulin clearly wants his students to succeed.

Prof is very knowledgeable, and by far one of the more interesting classes taken but definitely, he'll make you work for the grade, majority of the grade is based off on 6 mini exams that are ridiculously hard and the majority of his lectures are very long.

Prof. Gaulin is really knowledgeable, and I think he really enjoys teaching the material. This class is so interesting to me. It is not super easy, and you have to work hard, but it is not impossible to get A.