RELH 2090

The class wasn't really difficult but a lot of reading. There are only 3 grades - midterm, paper, and a final. The tests both have 5 definitions, 1 short answer, and 1 long answer, which were graded fairly easy. The paper was a different story. Worked incredibly hard on this thing and was told by my TA (James) that it would be a B+, then did all his suggested edits + more and received and 85, which somehow drastically brought down my A which was super disappointing after going to every class/discussion/doing all the readings. It really depends on your TA, but this semester we all saw our TA's grade those papers pretty harshly. He gives handouts every class for you to fill out but you have to be listening carefully. No study guides this year, so what I personally did to prepare for the exam was rewatched the lectures and refresh on everything - which seemed to work because I got a 95+ on both. You are not just learning terms in this course but learning how to think about this information in a deeper way. I surprisingly enjoyed it and I'm interested in taking more religion courses now, but I am afraid of TAs lol. #tCF2020

Absolutely goated class. Came in not knowing anything about Hinduism and expected it to be boring. Came out being blown away by how cool it is. Nemec is probably the best professor I have had at UVA and I 100% plan on taking more classes with him. He's down-to-earth, funny, and accommodating.

There are weekly readings but honestly you don't have to do all of them. What I 100% recommend reading however is the Mahabharata. It's genuinely such a fun read and a really engaging story. You have to write an essay on it so its good to read it to have all your info down. But just in general even if you we didnt have to write an essay on it I would still recommend reading it just because of how fun it is.

Other than the essay, there is a Midterm and a Final. There are a few identification terms, a short essay, and a long essay. Hes not trying to trick you at all with these exams, they are very straightforward and if you pay attention in class, youll do well.

Highly recommend taking this class at some point. Great professor, great class.

#tCFfall22

TAKE THIS CLASS! It's the best one that I have taken at UVA so far!

Professor Nemec is the best professor at UVA in my opinion! You should take RELH 2090
(Hinduism) with him! He makes the lectures so engaging by simplifying the material at hand and he always encourages students to ask questions. I have gone to almost all his office hours because it is just stress-free. He is super friendly and accommodating. He has deep conversations during office hours on all kinds of topics with his students. He made me feel welcome every time and always asked me every day how I was doing. He does not want students to stick to a rigid point of view and instead asks them to branch out. He also is more than willing to take you out to lunch just to have meaningful conversations.

There is one midterm and one final for this class. He does not try to trick you and he even provides a study guide for the exams. Almost all the questions asked on the exams are from the study guide. The midterm essay should be at least 2500 words long, although it is tricky because you have to read a book (The Mahabharata) to do it, it is completely doable because he gives us about 3 weeks to do it. He even encourages us to take different points of view while tackling the essay.

The reading might look tedious for this class, but you don't need to do all of them. I would recommend reading the Gita and the Mahabharata because they are quite interesting stories.
The only con of this class is that the discussion sections are pointless because no material is covered in them. In the discussions, the TA asks students critical thinking questions. Rarely, material that is covered in the lectures or readings is gone over in the discussion. Although, I must say that the TA is a very fair and lenient grader.

Take this class if you are interested in religion or would want to fulfil a discipline(Historical Perspectives)!!

Nemec has been amazing!! Your grade is based off discussion attendance/participation, the midterm exam, the midterm essay, and the final exam. The exams were 5 ID questions, 1 short answer, and 1 long essay each (but there would be a pool of questions yiu could select from for each section which was nice). My TA Abhy basically guarantees you at least an A- for following the structure and directions of the essays, and don’t use chat gpt because they WILL catch you. The midterm exam was super simple because all the questions were given to us in the study guide. I thought the final exam was a little harder but maybe that was my fault for not studying as hard as I did for the midterm, and the content of the second half of the course was not as straightforward as it was in the beginning. The midterm essay does take up a lot of time but Abhy gives super helpful feedback if you ask him for help along the way! Just get started on it early and don’t procrastinate. I never did any of the readings except for the Mahabharata bc of the midterm essay, and I was able to end with an A. I believe you should still come to lecture because Prof Nemec goes over certain verses and readings and you are expected to pull from them on the short answer/essay questions on the exams, plus he has super interesting life stories and he’s an amazing guy!! Get to know him outside of class too!!