I can't say for 205 but for 203, there were 4 essays over the semester and one final which wasn't that bad. This was with Dr. Street.
Note, it depends on your TA on how you are graded. Some TA's didn't give a single A, while others gave them out a little more freely. I was lucky to have a great TA. Other than that, you show up to class every day to hear your classmates on recitation days (twice a week). You have one lecture day a week where we had a quiz over the weekly reading. Sometimes they weren't even over reading material and were essentially attendance sheets. I got a 100 on each of them reading the material right before class. You have to put work into the speeches, but you will no matter the prof.