RELG 1010

Here's the truth: the readings aren't necessary until you get the study guide. Hell, attending class probably isn't even fully necessary most of the time. Warren gives out a study guide before every exam, so you can just google what you need to know and, while you'll miss a few specifics she'd want to see for an A, can probably scrape out a B.

That said, I did all the readings and went to every class, so I'll review from that perspective. If you do that, you'll do really well. She gives a study guide, so if you've done the readings, you'll have plenty of time to dig through your notes and figure out the perfect answers before the tests. Warren is very interested in the subject matter and is enthusiastic and lively. One time, she sang us a song she wrote, and it was actually very nice. Discussion is useless, but what are you gonna do about that? It's 10% of your grade, so go. But you'll be bored.

this is more of a history class than a religion class and is hella difficult unless you’re already well-educated in terms of christianity and judaism (there’s barely any islam in this course). test questions are given out before the exam but it’s not that helpful unless you can explain your answers well and in the way that the professors and TA want. discussion was hard too because it was all the super christian kids spitting facts that they already knew while all the people who weren’t that religious sat there clueless.

This class was fairly fun and easy. The lectures and readings are quite helpful and contain a lot of the test information. The review sheets handed out by the professor are also amazing and getting an A is pretty easy as long as you do the lectures, readings, and fill out the review sheets beforehand. The TA meetings are also straightforward and mostly just talk about the readings.

This class was important to me for understanding the origins and history of the Abrahamic religions, which most people should probably be aware of. The content was pretty interesting, and I certainly feel like I now have a good understanding of Western religions and my own faith. Professor Warren was a good lecturer, and she was goofy in an entertaining way sometimes. It is a history class in essence, so the two tests and final were short answer and essay questions, which involve lots of memorization. Overall, it was a good class with important material, and I would recommend it. Lauren Wheeler was also a great TA—she was very on top of things. #tCFfall2021

This was my first RELG class at UVA and I really enjoyed the content! I took it to fulfill my Historical Perspectives requirement and I would 10/10 recommend doing the same! Professor Warren was very passionate and invested in the class and I really got a deeper understanding of all the religions discussed (Christianity, Judaism, Islam). The readings were pretty long and they were dense, but if I'm going to be honest, I never read and I ended the class with an A-. The only downfall of this class is that during lecture there are no slides (and if there are they only have pictures) and all of the info is spoken so it is pretty difficult to make sure you catch everything if you are handwriting your notes. With that being said, if you type your notes it may be easier to catch all the details. You are given the study guide before the exam with everything that you will see (identification terms, quotes, and essay questions). The study guide will have ~8 identification terms, 5 quotes, and 2 essay questions, but the exam will only have 3-4 ID terms, 2 quotes, and 1 essay question. The final has a few more IDs and quotes but you still only have to answer 1 essay question (you are still provided with all the preparation beforehand). You'll have to be able to identify: dates, authors, definitions, and significance of the words or quotes, but having the exact info you need is extremely helpful so you aren't blindsided by the exam. The grades consist of 10% for the first exam, 25% for the second exam, 40% for the final exam and 25% for participation in section. I highly recommend this class for students of any year at UVA.

I had never taken a religion class before but found this one to be interesting since it was way more history based then religious philosophy or thinking. I did fall asleep in some lectures and there are no posted notes, but the exam questions are given to you ahead of time and my TA (Ame Wren) helped to make sure everyone was prepared. I never did the readings, but maybe skimmed over some of them before discussion section and still felt overall prepared. Prof Warren is great and really cares about her subject and the students(she brought us starbucks since we had a 9am exam) and Ame was also wonderful. This is a good, easy class that I recommend.

I have mixed feelings about this class. Overall, I probably would not recommend this class. Prof. Warren is super cool, but the lectures were pretty dry and you spend most of it scribbling down everything so that you can adequately prepare for the test. This class was pretty easy, BUT the exam structure is the worst. Basically, you get a list of terms, quotes and possible essay questions two weeks before each test. Then, you have to create and memorize responses for each of the IDs, quotes and essays. The two week period leading up to every exam is super stressful, especially because you aren't allowed to take digital notes in lecture- so finding anything in your notes is much harder. Overall, this class was easy if you were not preparing for an exam, but with 3 total exams (including the final) 6 weeks of the course are not very enjoyable. That said, if you actually put in the work, getting an A is completely possible, it's just a really tedious process. If you do decide to take this class, make sure your TA is Lauren Wheeler. She is a super helpful TA- she always made sure we understood the content and was the only TA who provided review sessions for every test.

This class was a little different than I expected going in. I had the expectation that it was going to be more of a compare and contrast format of the religions and their practices, but it is actually a history class. Each lecture usually just focuses on one of the religions at a time, and there isn't a ton of discussion of how they interacted or changed each other. However, the material was still very interesting and, in my opinion, important to learn about!
That being said, I had a serious love-hate relationship with this class. Professor Warren was amazing - she was extremely friendly and absolutely hilarious! I loved having her as a lecturer. However, my main gripe with this class is that she did not allow us to type notes unless we had an accommodation. Although I could tell she always tried to speak slowly enough to allow us to get everything down, I just don't think that getting everything down in a class like this, where pretty much everything being said is important, is possible when hand-writing your notes. I always came out of lectures with a hurting hand and a feeling that I had missed a couple important things in my notes. However, this wasn't a world-ending issue, as Professor Warren gives out the test about 2 weeks in advance, and you just have to memorize everything beforehand, meaning that once we knew what was on the test, if we were missing something on it in our notes, we could ask a friend or search online. Taking the tests was never that difficult (although the 50 minute time limit was stressful but definitely do-able), but actually studying for them was one of the most painful experiences of my life. There is SO MUCH to memorize, and I never found a better way to study than to use Quizlet, which meant that I had to spend loads of time just transferring my notes from paper to the website before I could even start truly studying. The studying was also just extremely exhausting to me, and since the test is all free-response, there was this constant fear that I wasn't memorizing the right details or enough details. The entire experience of preparing for the tests was just extremely stressful to me. As for homework, there were readings for us to do, both for lecture and for our discussion sections, but I only ever did the readings for the discussion sections and I never had any issues with that. The discussion sections were really fun and useful (shoutout to Ame, the coolest TA ever), and they helped to make the whole class feel a little more manageable.
I got an A in this class, and I didn't struggle with comprehension, but I definitely struggled with the workload. Overall, I would only recommend it if you are good at memorizing things AND you are not a procrastinator, because procrastination will make the studying take absolutely forever and be unbearably painful. If procrastination isn't an issue for you, I'd say go for it! Professor Warren is really fun and the material was very interesting to learn about.

Lectures were pretty interesting and light-hearted but definitely need to take detailed notes so you can make use of discussion sections. You get study guides for the tests and tests are blue book with not very many questions. I struggled a bit with the format of the class tests, but if you can write a good essay then this class is for you. Overall pretty low-stress until tests come around, just know your key pieces of information from the study guides and you'll be golden

I LOVE PROFESSOR WARREN!! She is so sweet and loves the material so much. The class is super easy, but also pretty interesting (coming from a non-religious studies major). It can be a bit dry, but you do kind of need to take notes, so you stay alert. The readings sometimes are helpful for exams, but they're mainly for the discussion sections so just skim before those. She gives you a study guide before every exam. If its on the study guide, it will be on the exam, so just learn the study guides and make outlines for the essay questions so you know what to do when you sit for the tests. Its two midterms, a final, and your participation grade, but just talk every week in discussion and you're fine.