CLAS 2010

This was a great class to fulfill the Historical Studies requirement. Prof Petrovic is FULL of energy and makes every class interesting. Discussions were sort of boring, but which discussion isn't? You still have to study (+memorize) terms and people for the exam but Professor Petrovic does show you the format for the exams so he is not out to trick you in any way. I put little effort into this class and still managed to get an A.

I absolutely LOVED this class. I ended this class with an A-, but that was doing basically the bare minimum. Prof Petrovic is amazing at teaching and really puts his heart and soul into his lectures. The only thing is that his lectures are quite fast paced, so it helps to record the lecture and also pull up the lecture slides up on your own screen as well so you can catch the last words on the slides. I cannot stress this enough, but GO TO CLASS. Even if your friends record the lecture for you or give you their notes, nothing will make as much sense as you showing up. He often hints what pictures or items will be on the next upcoming exam, and offers hints on what EC opportunities there will be. His exams are structured so that you identify significant places on a map, IDs (of objects, people, ideologies), and pictures and readings. Pay attention in discussion and take notes on what the TA also goes over for the significance of certain things- it will show up as an option on the exams 90% of the time. His class is really about showing up, paying attention for the class time, and going to discussion. His exams are super straightforward and sometimes award points for creativity as well. There are like 2 pop quizzes and 3 planned/take home quizzes in discussion- also really straight forward as long as you pay attention. Highly recommend, super fun class!

Professor Petrovic is amazing! He is a very nice guy and incredibly engaging. His lectures are told in a story format and entertaining. As someone who is not a history fan, this class is one of my favorites. I found the information to be interesting and learned a lot in this course. For materials, there are a lot of novels that need to be purchased for discussion. The readings are a lot but sometimes reading simply the sparknotes sufficed for discussion. He gives out study sheets at the beginning of each lecture and goes over them before he starts lecturing. These study sheets are very helpful and have pretty much everything you need to know for examinations. I had Robert (Stephen) Hill for my TA and he was very nice and helpful. He does speak pretty quickly in lecture so pay attention and take close notes! This course is also heavily lecture-based so I recommend going to every class.

Best class I took this semester. Petrovic is an extremely engaging lecturer and always tries to tie the material back to the present, and the class itself is just super interesting. There's a little of everything: art, politics, religion, literature, etc. so you'll 100% find something engaging. There's a lot of reading, but you can probably scrape by with summaries and a solid understanding of the discussion question answers (although you should at least have the reading skimmed before the final and midterm because the passage IDs can get tough). The key to success is reviewing the study sheets before tests/quizzes - do that and this is an easy A. More important though, you'll get something out of this course and have a blast so I can't recommend taking it enough.

This was by far the most interesting course that I have taken since attending the university. Andrej is so enthusiastic and passionate during his lectures it is hard not to listen. This class is split up into lecture twice a week and discussion. Lecture is basically rapid fire typing to try to keep up with everything Andrej is saying but he gives you study sheets so you have to just fill out the key terms and definitions. I would make friends in the class and definitely compare notes because you're going to miss information. For discussion I had Sidney Christman and I'd recommend her but I also don't think theres much of a difference between the grading of the TA's. They tell you that there is a ton of reading, which there is, but as long as you get the summary and have answers to the discussion questions then you're set. Definitely write down the specific things that the TA brings up because that will likely come up on the midterm and final. You really don't have to do much for this class until the midterm and final and thats just a bunch of memorization.

Just an excellent all around class. Andrej is an incredible professor, and he manages to make most of what you learn interesting and relevant. None of the assignments in the class are particularly hard, and they are all relevant to the final. And the course easily has one of the best lecture experiences at UVA, especially given the type of material it has to cover. If you have the opportunity to take this course I would 100% recommend it, even if you have no interest in classics. It makes a great elective.

I cannot recommend this course enough!! I was so tired during the class that I slept through a lot of them, but made an effort to take notes. I asked Professor Andrej if I could start recording his lectures and that ended up helping me a lot before exam season. He talks a lot about Greek Civilization through storytelling, which I found to be engaging and helpful for the final. If I could, I would definitely recommend going to the discussions, they cover a lot of exam material and concepts!

Professor Andrej Petrovic is a fabulous teacher (perhaps the only difficulty is navigating his accent the first week of class). His understanding of the material and effort to make it interesting and applicable to 21st century students is admirable and truly the way college is meant to be. Let me explain. His lectures cover absolutely everything you need to know--so literally just show up and pay attention. The reading he assigns (from primary sources) may be a bit dry, but they are very reasonable in length--except for the week where you have to read a good chunk of the Iliad. The readings truly correspond to exactly what you talk about that week and just enhance your knowledge of it.

This course was interesting and Professor Petrovic was fantastic. He really cared about what he was teaching and that definitely made the class a lot more fun. Not too much work, just some reading each week, and Petrovic is very generous when it comes to tests.