<p>Could you please give me some more insight? I just don't know what to expect.</p>
<p>Basically:
-recommended professors
- typical curriculum
- exams
- papers
-TA's</p>
<p>The only information I found was pretty vague, so I wanted to hear what it was like from a student's perspective. Thanks.</p>
<p>i’d try looking through the archives first.</p>
<p>MMW is a mixed history and writing class. Google “UCSD MMW” to get course descriptions of what time period each one covers. MMW 1 is the easiest, 2 and 3 are the hardest because they are 6 units and have intensive writing. </p>
<p>Writing assignments -
MMW 1 - None
MMW 2 - 3 Papers, from 4-8 pages each (each is progressively longer), based on questions that they give you about the readings.
MMW 3 - 1 large RESEARCH paper (8-10 pages) due at the end of the quarter on a question and topic YOU come up with. Additionally, you turn in a series of shorter papers that will detail what your topic is going to be on (There is an assignment due every week 2-5, that’s 4 assignments, aka HELL) and a rough draft during around week 8.
MMW 4-6 - you turn in 1 RESEARCH paper (8-10 pages) due at the end of the quarter on a question and topic you come up with. Additionally, you turn in a Research Question/Annotated Bibliography 3rd week and a Prospectus 6th week (both of which are 3-6 page assignments).
The writing assignments take a long time because you have to use strict MLA formatting and cite your sources and photocopy every single thing that you cite and attach it to your paper. You’ll learn more about this later on…</p>
<p>TAs: Some are horrible, hard graders and will give you bad grades, some are good. Your TA determines your grade because they read your papers/grade your midterms/finals. If you get a great professor but a bad TA it kind of ruins it IMO.</p>
<p>Exams vary by class.</p>
<p>Professors everyone loves: Chang, Herbst, Friedlander. Avoid at all costs: Jordan, Smarr. Professors I loved but not everyone else: Chamberlain, Biess.</p>
<p>Herbst is a boss. Best prof.
Chang is really popular, but he tends to focus more on the literary aspects of history. MMW 2 is arguably his best, and MMW 5 is probably his worst since he doesn’t know that period as well.
Chamberlain is hit-or-miss. Some people like that he writes terms on the board and discusses them during the lecture. I thought he sucked because he rarely went through the whole list of terms, his lectures are to disorganized, and he didn’t know much about topics outside of Greece and Rome.
Gallant is interesting, reasonably easy. Somebody please ask him how he lost his finger and report back.
Jordan is hard but really interesting. Reminds me of Indiana Jones. Still, you’re gonna be upset when people are acing MMW 1 in their sleep and you actually have to work.</p>
<p>^I personally HATED Gallant with a burning passion. He had those mindless slide shows that provided NO assistance during finals/midterm studying. Ugh he still makes me angry! one of the worst profs I’ve had so far, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Is there any way I’d be able to somehow prep myself for this this summer?</p>
<p>No, you don’t need to worry about it yet. It sounds REALLY difficult but they walk you through all the steps and work you up to writing the 10 page papers. It’s very incremental, if that makes sense. Enjoy your summer and don’t stress about college classes yet.</p>
<p>lol, alright, thank y’ much!</p>
<p>I heard that they might change MMW into 3 quarters instead of 6 due to budget cuts…
Does anyone know anything more about this?</p>
<p>^As of now it’s just a rumor. Some professors say it won’t ever happen, some say it will. Don’t count on it until ERC announces it.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think it’ll happen. The people in ERC are waaaaaay too enthusiastic about MMW to compromise it that easily. If they do, though, I’ll think they’re the biggest hypocrites on Earth.</p>
<p>They have eliminated the honor section.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that it’s hard to get an A in MMW. Well… how exactly is it hard? Is it like you write this humongous paper, get it back, and find out some TA just screwed your grade over by giving you a B-? In that case it’s hard in that it’s pretty much all-or-nothing. Or is it like the tests have so much memorization, multiple choice, short answer, etc. that almost no one finishes? What exactly does “intensive writing” refer to - the papers or the tests or both? Which is the greater barrier to an A for most students - tests or papers?</p>
<p>At this point I don’t know what “intensive writing” really entails, in the case of MMW. If anyone can raise an example as to what A-quality writing is or what study habits are necessary to make the A grade, that’d be greatly appreciated. :)</p>
<p>@hormones
I just finished my first year of MMW and from my experience, MMW can be difficult because of how tedious it can be. For instance, photocopying all your evidence, making trips to and from Geisel for books, etc. takes up a lot of time and if you don’t manage your time wisely, you can end up doing all of that the night before. As mentioned earlier, everything in MMW 3 is incremental with assignments at set intervals. If you stay on top of your work and complete each assignment as it comes, you’ll see that they actually build on each other and ultimately help you to complete your final paper. By this, I mean that you’ll have found most of your evidence early on so you can “recycle” them if you will for your final assignment. For this reason, I liked MMW 3 a lot more than MMW 2 because MMW 2 had three separate 3-5 page papers. Also, it seems like the TA’s gave most people low grades on the first MMW 2 paper (C- avg. in my section) because of knocks on MLA formatting (your header is misaligned? that’s a 1/3 grade deduction)…however, in retrospect it seems like they did this to scare us into over-preparing/stressing about the minutiae of the papers, and eased up later on in the course and in MMW 3. Moral of the story: don’t freak out if you get a low grade on your first paper.</p>
<p>As for tests, they’re pretty easy…especially if you have Professor Chang for MMW 2 and MMW 3. He tells you exactly what he wants on the study guide so there’s no surprises on the test…finishing on time was never a problem at least in my experience. </p>
<p>As far as what constitutes A writing, you’ll be surprised when you enter MMW 2 and they tell you what they want…my TA was extremely vague and gave the typical “this is what a thesis statement is” talk. You’re required to buy this book called Pocket Keys for Writers that tells you how to format everything correctly so as long as you feel somewhat confident in your writing and follow the formatting carefully, you’ll get some sort of an A. </p>
<p>As an incoming freshman, I highly recommend taking Dr. Friedlander or Dr. Carter for MMW 1. I took Dr. Friedlander and she’s hands down the nicest professor I’ve had at UCSD so far…she’s the “grandma” type and her enthusiasm for anthropology is very much contagious and cute to say the least! A lot of my friends had Carter and said she was a great professor as well (I think this past year was her first as a professor). Don’t trip about MMW 1…it’s there to give you a smooth, easy transition into the sequence and they give you tons of opportunities to get an A+ (extra credit field trip to the SD Museum of Man in Balboa Park!).</p>
<p>@hormones - intensive writing is the term they use to describe MMW 2 and 3 but it should really be used to describe the entire series, with the exception of MMW 1. In MMW 2 you will be writing 3 papers over the course of the quarter - doesn’t sound like a lot, but 3 papers in 10 weeks is quite a bit of work. Then in MMW 3-6 you write one 10 page paper per quarter, although you will have to turn in incremental assignments during the preceding weeks. (See my lengthy description above)</p>
<p>I would say the papers are the biggest barrier to getting an A in MMW. Like you said, you can spend lots of time writing a 10 page paper but the TA may be a hard grader and give you a C or whatever. Your grade is essentially ****ed. From experience, it is VERY difficult to talk to the TAs or the department to have your grade changed. Even if you think it’s unfair, the professor and the department will usually back up the TA’s judgment. </p>
<p>Bottom line: get on the good side of your TA. Go to office hours IF you have questions, don’t just go to hang out and brownnose. Don’t procrastinate with papers. Have your friends/suitemates proofread your papers - it is amazing how many mistakes you can miss with your own eyes. And enjoy MMW 1, it’s super easy. So glad I’m done with the series now 
:)</p>
<p>mizunopro,
About how frequent are the tests? Are they pretty standard - some multiple choice, free response? </p>
<p>So would you say the thing that gets most people about MMW papers is formatting?! What about actual content - are they expecting highly developed ideas or do people generally regurgitate what their library books said? </p>
<p>Thanks for the helpful reply! I appreciate it. :)</p>
<p>The way the papers are designed, the TA’s don’t LET you regurgitate library books. This is a very think-for-yourself process - they have you ask your own question and answer it with your own thesis using evidence from books. Content is the most important part of the papers. But MLA formatting can make you lose a lot of points as well.</p>
<p>Sorry I realize that question wasn’t directed toward me, just putting in my $0.02</p>
<p>OK, I didn’t think MLA formatting was the be-all end-all. Thanks for answering my question. It really doesn’t matter who replies, I appreciate any help I can get. :)</p>
<p>I’m still kind of worried about the writing though… what does an “A” paper read like? Are there any examples online you can point me to?</p>
<p>There aren’t examples online - what you can do is attend the MMW writing showcase. I believe they put it on every fall in the Great Hall in ERC and basically the best papers of the whole year are put on display. Definitely go check that out. It’s in October or November.</p>
<p>Also, try not to worry too much about college writing just yet. The TAs are very helpful and teach you exactly how to write a paper. You’ll get plenty of “A-paper” guidelines in the future.</p>
<p>Great, I’ll look out for the showcase when time comes. </p>
<p>For MMW 1-3, can you rattle off the preferred professors for each, so I have an idea of who to look out for during sign-up? Thanks again! :)</p>