Five joke classes to boost your GPA

We’ve all heard about The Class. That one course where the tenured professor cares less about the course than the students do.

A magical place where late assignments are accepted without penalty, where scales are given freely, and exams are sparse.

With Spring semester registration coming up, I decided to ask around and see what some of the easiest classes on campus were.

Linguistics 1020

This description was taken from UConn’s catalog: “Effects of geography, society, and politics, on language use and variation (sociolinguistics). The geographical spread, growth and death of languages (language ecology).”

Although some of those words may be more than three syllables long, don’t be discouraged. Ling 1020 involves little more than a basic knowledge of grammar and the English language.

The two exams part of this course are a breeze with the class commonly bringing in an 85 percent average. Attendance isn’t taken in the lectures and it is recommended to skip these as all the material is reviewed in a quick 50 minute discussion section.

Physics 1010

According to the catalog, this class involves “Basic concepts and applications of physics for the non-science major. Scientific principles and quantitative relationships involving mechanics, energy, heat and temperature, waves, electricity and magnetism, and the theory of the atom are covered. A laboratory provides hands-on experience with the principles of physics.”

If you’re required to take a lab science and need an easy A, take this course. It is aptly called “Physics for Jocks” by Physics majors. If you aren’t a science person, this a class for you.

French 1177

“The search for traces of a counter culture which grew out of pagan beliefs and remained latent despite the domination of Christianity from the Middle Ages to modern times. Tales of magic and witchcraft, as presented by texts and films. The evolution of exemplary figures like Merlin or Nostradamus.”

This may sound scholarly and high minded but the class is titled Magicians, Witches, Wizards: Parallel Beliefs and Popular Culture in France, and is known for its professor’s choice to give students an A- grade for receiving 83% or above. This is a no brainer, if your GPA isn’t looking too pretty, pick up these three easy credits.

Psychology 1100

(Taught by David Miller)
“Basic principles that underlie mental processes and behavior; research methodology, biopsychology, sensation, perception, learning, memory and language.”

The best part about big lecture classes is that you can miss as many as you want with being missed. This especially true for Psych 1100 when taught by Professor Miller. All you have to do is buy his book and then, in theory, you could never go again.

The book explicitly warns that the slides Miller includes in his book are not a substitute for attending class, but they are the exactly same slides that he uses in his lectures. Have a Psych 1100 exam coming up? Just turn back a couple pages to the slides and do a couple internet searches. All of a sudden, you’ve caught up on the month of lectures you’ve missed.

Any Music Appreciation class

This is self-explanatory. You may not learn anything, but you will all of a sudden have two more credits.

Although I don’t necessarily encourage you to choose classes based on level of difficulty, it is definitely nice to have a shiny A+ on your transcript. Especially if your GPA is as grisly as mine.

Hope this helped.