Western Kentucky University / W / Richard Weigel

Dr. Weigel is awesome, however, he is extremely demanding and this is probably the toughest course I've taken at Western. He does not take attendance, but if you miss a lot of classes, there is no way you can pass this class. There are readings which need to be done before every class which usually range from 40-50 pages each night. He gives a lot of quizzes to make sure that students are keeping up with them as well. There are a ridiculous amount of notes too. I usually took about 5/6 pages each class. Tests are essay and are very tough! He expects you to know EVERYTHING and he gives you absolutely no hints as to what could possibly be on the tests, so to have any chance of making a good grade on the exams, you have to study all of your notes. There were 3 papers in the class as well, the first two were short, only 3-4 pages, and the last one is a 10-12 pg. paper over a Roman author where you have to tell what his writings say about Roman culture, thoughts/beliefs, etc. I liked this course a lot because I was interested in the material, but it is very difficult! Dr. Weigel is really nice, but he demands the absolute best in all of his students, so be prepared to work!

I have had Dr. Weigel twice now, for ancient Rome and the Middle Ages. He is probably the smartest man I have ever met and is very laid back. Neither one of these classes are easy. You will have to read 50-80 pages of often hard to understand text before each class. If you are willing to put forth the effort then I highly recommend taking Dr. Weigel for any class.

I have much respect for Dr. Weigel and he is very smart. However, he is one of the hardest professors I have had in my college career. He can be boring, but he knows his stuff. He used little lecture notes and could answer most in class questions about Rome. Attendance was not mandatory, but you will do yourself a great detriment if you miss one class due to the extreme amount of notes. I actually liked the class, but I wasn't crazy about the amount of reading (50 pages a night) we had to do. His tests are hard and require you to know the reading like the a back of your hand. Take this class if you want to learn, but by no means take it lightly. If you don't try, you will get a bad grade easily.

He rambled on about things that were never on the test. He had about 5 pop quizzes that had to do with the reading and not about what he was teaching because he was always about 50 pages behind what we were supposed to be reading. Go to class and pay attention! He really has no personallity and is very boring. He did show one film, but it was really corny and had little relevance to what we were talking about.

He assigns readings you can't comprehend. He's the worst professor I've ever had in my entire academic career. He skips around and is confusing... I left the class everyday not knowing my @$$ from a hole in the wall. I learned absolutly nothing. Stay away from this boring professor; otherwise your eyes will be glazed everyday in class enough to frost a dozen donuts.

If you dont like reading 24/7 dont take him. I had to withdraw because it was interferring with all my other classes as well as my life. Interesting class, but I just had a spoonfull to much. You will be lucky to make a C in this class.

Dr. Weigel is a very nice man and happens to be the head of the history department. So, he teaches relatively few classes and will be able to get back items fairly quickly. Also, this means he answers emails better than almost any other teacher I've ever had.

Dr. Weigel is from more of the "old school" of history teachers which generally can mean lots of notes/lecture. There is also a lot of reading in this class and about 8 or so quizzes, mostly pop quizzes. They can be a bit detailed, so be careful. However, they are only 15% of the grade and wwigh much less than the tests, which include ID's, essays, and a smaller essay on the readings. They can be tricky as many make B's on them. There is only one paper in this class- an 8-12 page paper on a Roman author. It helped my grade some. Start early though to get the best choices.

I was a bit disappointed that this class focused for a long time on the republic and less on the empire and Christianity.

In the end, this is a good course to take for history majors as it is better than many of the other upper level classes, but it might be a bit difficult just to fulfill a humanities credit.

This is a very informative class that is well taught by Dr. Weigel. However, if you do not have time to read 50 pages before every class I would definitely not recommend taking this class. The tests are difficult. And there is an 8-12 page paper as well which requires even more reading.

This class is so cool. Anyone with an interest in Ancient Rome should take it. He knows his stuff on this one! The tests are essay (like most all history tests) but aren't hard if you study. Lectures are very interesting.

He is an OK teacher. He goes on and on about things. He speaks really fast and most of the time he does not spell some of the foreign words he uses. Occasionally he thinks he spoke about something that he didn't. Also, he gives you way too many notes and most of the notes are not needed on his tests or his finals. He has a good personality though and he is understanding. I do not want to paint a gloomy picture of the guy.

I like ancient civilizations, so I signed up for this course. There is a lot of reading of Greek literature which can get tedious after a while. There is also a research paper. I learned a lot, but the lecture is really boring. I'm glad I sat in the back because one day my head actually hit my desk when I fell asleep. He knows the material, but some of it can't really be presented in an exciting way.