Reviews for HIST136

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David Sicilia HIST136 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2023	He is a nice person and his lectures are generally pretty easy, though his lectures are also really boring and kind of hard to actually attend. The grading goes through your TA so my only comment ab him would be the content can be boring, but he is funny.
Brian Sarginger HIST136 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2023	He grades very harshly and specifically to what he wants, but he rarely will actually tell you his expectations. He's a nice person and can be funny but the grading was not typically fair. He also goes strict to the book about rounding grades, so keep that in mind if that is something you will likely need.
David Sicilia HIST136 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 12/19/2023	Great class, very engaging professor with interesting material. Discussion sections are fun too, if you do the required readings and watch the required movies which can take a little time. The assignments are weekly short essays (worth 2% of your grade each, and 250 words), group project proposal (worth 5%), group project written report (worth 10%, pretty straightforward, if you follow the instructions you'll get an A), group project presentation and slides (worth 10%, basically putting the written report into a powerpoint and presenting it to the professor and your TA with your group), midterm essay (15%), and final essay (18%). Essays are dropped one letter grade for every day they're late, so make sure you do it on time. Discussion participation is worth 14% of your grade. If you're not gonna go to discussions, make sure you at least do your weekly essays. Most of the time, you don't even have to read the whole reading to complete them and get a 2/2. It's an easy class, but it's easy to fall behind and kill your grade, so make sure you stay on top of it. The only reason I'm expecting a D+ is because I missed discussions, didn't do some mini essays, and waited until the last minute to write my essays. Don't be like me. It's a great class and an easy A if you stay on top of it.
David Sicilia HIST136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/03/2022	If I could take this class 100 more times I would. It was so interesting and my TA was amazing. Take Kyle if possible!! Essay was kind of hard but we didnt have tests!! so if you like to write and read take this class.
David Sicilia HIST136 Anonymous 11/10/2021	I think his TA graded papers with a random number generator. Don't take the class if you hate group projects. He made us do a group project on a 70s tv commercial where we had to role-play the commercial. It was painful.
David Sicilia HIST136 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/26/2018	As a first-semester freshman, Professor Sicilia is my favorite professor so far. He does have a somewhat monotone voice but he is SO FUNNY so that it makes his voice bearable. He does pretty funny impressions to keep the dry course material entertaining. There are weekly 2-point 250 word essays based on that week's readings. If you do make time to do the readings every week (usually quite a few pages) you're pretty much guaranteed to get a 2/2 on each one. His midterm and final are essays and he gives you a list of possible prompts around a week before, so you have time to make notes on what you want to say. Relatively easy with grading, as long as you have good grammar and reference material from class and reading. That said, his tests will not be the ones you are most concerned about during midterm/finals week. He really is an interesting man. He's not afraid to say inappropriate things. He has many works published and definitely knows his history, but doesn't expect you to know more than what he says in class. I really suggest talking to him before or after class because he is really easy to talk to and will be helpful if you have any questions. Overall, if you are thinking about taking his class, do it! It's really not that difficult but still informative.
David Sicilia HIST136 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/19/2018	I loved Scilia. He has a monotone voice, but he is extremely funny and uses a lot of dry humor/sarcasm (but he's also really nice, not a jerk). Lectures were great, I really enjoyed each one. You pretty much have to go to lecture since his slides don't have much info. Exams were easy, there were 1 or 2 and the final was the same format. He would give you 5 essay questions the week prior to the exam, and 2 of them appear on the exam. As long as you go to lecture and have a clue as to what's going on, they're pretty straightforward. There was one final paper which was ~8 pages and you had to watch a movie, which honestly was my least favorite part of the class. As for discussion, it all depends on who your TA is and the people in your discussion. I had a great TA (shout out to Kyle) and in our discussion we were pretty much all involved. As long as you read the material, it's actually a lot of fun. Kyle allowed for some really interesting open ended discussions. 10/10 would recommend this course, interesting and really easy.
David Sicilia HIST136 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/27/2012	This class was okay. Material was very dry, and discussions were beyond boring. Unfortunately, the lectures were at 9:30 in the morning, so attendance was small, but there was no final exam--only a midterm and a final project, which was not overly hard. Prof. Sicilia, however, is a great professor. He knows his material, and he has a very dry sense of humor, which is hilarious if you understand it and are actually paying attention. HIST136 was not a great class, but if I had to take another history class, I would definitely take one with Sicilia. It may be tough to pull out the grade you want, but if you are willing to work for it, it's worth it.