A lot of these reviews on negative but I actually did enjoy her and this was maybe my favorite class. Yes tests are hard, but you just have to spend some time memorizing monuments beforehand and you will be fine. Do the readings for discussion they may come up on the final, and you kind of have to know what is going on in discussion to get good participation. I thought the lectures were really interesting and engaging. More than most classes.
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18 Reviews
Prof. Reilly is an ~okay~ professor, but sometimes the class can get extremely boring. 2 exams compiled of the site list she gives you from each semester and you have to know dates, cultures, and architects, so get ready for that. There is one 5 or so page paper. Go to lecture because you'll need the extra information to make connections on your exams in your essays. I got by without doing any of the readings from the second half of the semester, but DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU DO NOT HAVE TO.
Prof. Reilly is fantastic and has a great passion for arch history and teaching. She adapted the class really well to a COVID semester.
This class involves a lot of memorization, but it is not hard to get a decent grade if you are willing to study. There are three exams and a short paper. Professor Reilly provides a monument list about a week prior to each exam. You are only tested on the monuments on this list (about 15 per exam). Completing the assigned readings is not essential as they include a lot of information about monuments you are not tested on. However, attending lecture is SO important. Write down as much information as possible during lecture! There is not a ton of work outside of class other than studying before exams. I recommend going to the review sessions Professor Reilly offers before each exam, too. Additionally, there are various extra credit opportunities - DO THEM. You can get up to 4% added onto your grade by attending additional lectures by speakers coming to the School of Architecture and submitting a 1 page paper to your TA. Don't let the other reviews scare you. The class isn't too bad.
Do not get Healy as your TA! I don't like history and I did not like this class at all. Exams are tough, you write 3 different essays, ten minutes each, then 2 different 5 minutes each. Didn't like the class.
DON'T take this class if you don't have to! If you do, pray that one of your classmates writes up a study guide for the extensive and difficult exams. 1010 is a class of 200+ students and is conducted in a lecture hall, but Ms. Reilly treats it like a discussion section, pacing up and down the stairs, forcing group participation and thrusting her clip-on microphone in the faces of students, administering giving pop quizzes on a whim when she feels that students are not participating enough (don't ask me how her poor TA's grade 200+ pop quizzes), and getting peeved when students leave to use the restroom.
Ms. Reilly is well-versed in what she teaches, but you'd better be a great note-taker to get a decent grade in the class; she does not permit laptops in the class and none of the slides she posts on Collab have any words, only pictures, so you can't study them.
Ms. Reilly is nice enough if you get on her good side, but the slightest misstep could rub her the wrong way. In conversation with her one day before class (I sat in the front row), Ms. Reilly began to rail on me because I mentioned my workplace, an establishment whose corporate decisions she disagreed with. She only stopped screaming when another student approached to ask her a question.
I feel sorry for A-school students who are required to take this class; if you are fortunate enough not to have to take ARH 1010 with Lisa Reilly, don't.
A required class, Lisa is pretty aggressive at times. I feel like if she had been nicer I would have learned more. The homework is pretty easily done, you don't really need to do all of the reading in depth, just really skim and look for the answers to the collab post questions. The tests are all just memorization of the buildings and facts about them and a few essays. Pretty straight forward, but it is definitely necessary to study for. Not my favorite class, ARH 1020 with Shelia Crane is much better. Both have interesting material!
If you don't have to take this class don't. The class itself is easy, meaning the content and what you are tested on is very easy, but the grade breakdown is so ridiculous that even getting high As on all three tests and the project, I will not be getting an A in the class. Reilly is by far the most passive aggressive teacher I know, even though very kind in office hours. She never responded to my emails and when I tried to go to office hours, she was not there. All in all, a very frustrating class. My suggestions to do well is to do the study guide for the test, follow the rubric for the group presentation, send the draft for your paper to a TA for editing suggestions, GO TO CLASS (even though not necessary for the tests, she does attendance checks every so often.....this is also what is killing my grade), and participate in discussion so that your TA likes you because at the end of the day, they are doing most of the grading and will vouch for you when you are having problems with the professor.