This course is honestly great, and the lectures are pretty interesting simply because Yuri is interesting. That being said, the grade distribution and reviews regarding grading are outdated and deceiving. Don't go into this thinking the grading is lenient or there will be a curve. Your grade is purely what you get on your exams on Canvas. The exams are online, you can take them anywhere and are closed book... choose wisely

He will bug you to do the readings, but you don't have to do a single one

Yuri is an awesome dude. He usually spends class telling random stories and going off on tangents, but his lectures are still pretty interesting. You can tell Yuri genuinely cares about his students, and this definitely shows in both the lectures and his grading. The class is super easy and chill, and even though the midterm was kind of tough (but still graded on a pretty decent curve), I would still definitely recommend this class to anyone at UVA.

Overall the course was very engaging and interesting but Yuri had unclear grading standards. Although I received an A- in the class, I have no idea how that grade was conceived.

I came into this class thinking it would be an easy A, but it was a lot harder than I expected. You don't really have to go to class or do readings, but his tests are hard. He always throws in some random questions you never talked about in class- also he asks about obscure geography a lot.
Luckily he's a pretty easy grader.

let's just say i dont think anyone bought the books.
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Excellent professor

take this class. yuri is a straight up baller and the class is pretty tight

easy course, great guy