With course selection rolling around, I’ve decided to share a few of my “Easy A” class recommendations for those looking for a more low-stress, lax elective or discipline to take with their harder classes. One of the things that’s been most helpful to me is to make sure that when I’m taking an extremely difficult class, I balance it with another easier class.
Here are some of my favorite class recommendation that I like to give:
ENCW 2600 – Fiction Writing
For those who enjoy writing, I would definitely suggest this class. The course load is a little bit heavy, as you have to write your own stories. HOWEVER, despite the work, I found this class to be the most rewarding. Even then, you really only write about two big pieces throughout the entire semester. The rest of the time, you’ll just be reading other students’ work. The grading criteria are not very strict; the main point is to just show that you tried and put real effort into your work.
The class is kind of small, with ~15 students. The majority of the class is discussion-based, so you just share your work with your peers and work through it together, getting feedback and ideas along the way. When you’re not discussing your stories, you read a few short excerpts as homework and discuss them in class.
I took this course with Tayler Bunge, a graduate student in the Creative Writing program, and she has genuinely become one of my favorite teachers at UVA. Classes like these become so much more impactful when you have a teacher that is truly passionate about their work and what they’re teaching.
RELB 2100 – Buddhism
This was my first A+ in college. The lectures are on MoWe, but they were very chill, 50-minute lectures. In my very, very honest opinion, just go to the discussions. Those were the most important things. The lecture was essentially the professor telling stories from the book he translated. I found that I could learn everything I needed for the class and the exams just from my once-a-week, 50-minute discussion.
My TA was awesome, and prepared me really well for the exams. All you’re graded on is your discussion attendance and your exams. We had about 5 exams every 2 weeks or so, but they were seriously the easiest exams I’ve ever taken.
If you are in the trenches and definitely need a boost, take this class. I will never stop recommending it. Specifically, with Professor Kurtis Schaeffer
RELG 1040 – Intro to Asian Religions
This may seem like a lot of religion classes for a non-religion major. However, this fulfilled my discipline, and it was recommended to me by a lot of my upperclassmen friends who took it.
It’s a relatively easy class. I definitely wouldn’t say that it’s easier than RELB 2100, but it’s good enough. Lectures are MoWe, and are mandatory. You definitely should pay attention during the lecture, but it will all be worth it. The material isn’t hard to understand once you learn. There’s a 50-minute discussion once a week, but there isn’t much to cover. You just have to do a reading once a week, annotate it, and then write a one-paragraph response to a short prompt about it.
When I first found out that my 9 am lecture was mandatory, I almost considered dropping it. I’m glad I didn’t, though. Even if attendance is mandatory, all the work can be easily comprehended and completed. There are only 3 exams, too, all very short and very similar to the study guide that the professor provides us with.
Professor Michael Allen is also a very entertaining speaker. Even if I didn’t have prior interest in the topics taught during class, he always manages to capture my attention.
PSYC 2600 – Social Psychology
Professor Jennifer MacCormack is the BEST. I was skeptical about taking Social Psych after hearing horror stories fro my friends in the Fall Semester, but I really needed a science for my disciplines, so I decided to thug it out and take it anyway.
What I didn’t realize was that our professors are different, and that Prof. MacCormack is such a kind and understanding teacher. Not only that, but she actually teaches the material in such an interesting and engrossing way.
Small confession though, I don’t actually go to lecture for this class. It’s a MoWe, 1 hour and 15 minute lecture, but I stopped going around the 3-week mark. I found myself getting more distracted while in lecture, so I’ve spent the rest of the semester just learning the material myself through her lecture recordings.
Now, here’s the best part about this class: there’s no homework, there are only 2 exams, AND they’re both remote and online. Freest class ever. And it’s so easy to learn the material for the exam.
If you need to fulfill one of your science disciplines, this is the way to do it. Just make sure that you’re taking it with Prof. MacCormack.
I hope that these class recommendations have helped you out during your course registration journey. I’ve been in the same position before, looking for easy classes to take to boost my GPA after some of my… rather rough classes.
I wish you the best of luck and a wonderful upcoming semester! xoxo, Steph