Professor
Bonnie Taub
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Bonnie is by far one the best professors I've had at UCLA. This class is very easy and the topic is interesting. The midterm was easy as long as you read the assigned book, skimmed the textbook and went to class regularly. The paper assignment is long, but relatively easy and pretty much everyone in the class got an A on it. Bonnie is clearly passionate about Latin America and makes this class applicable to all majors by including political, medical, anthropological (etc) topics to the class.
Winter 2020 - Bonnie is by far one the best professors I've had at UCLA. This class is very easy and the topic is interesting. The midterm was easy as long as you read the assigned book, skimmed the textbook and went to class regularly. The paper assignment is long, but relatively easy and pretty much everyone in the class got an A on it. Bonnie is clearly passionate about Latin America and makes this class applicable to all majors by including political, medical, anthropological (etc) topics to the class.
Most Helpful Review
IA STD 50 B+ Worst. She is nice. But she was gone for 3 weeks and gave us midterm on week 6 saying "not all the things we covered in the class will be on the midterm." One thing we did do in class a lot was watch documentaries which we were tested on. WTF She is extremely unorganized. Her powerpoints slides are just sad. She didn't even let us know our midterm grades until the final grades came out... so we didn't know how well we did on the midterm until we got our final grade. Don't take any class with Bonnie.
IA STD 50 B+ Worst. She is nice. But she was gone for 3 weeks and gave us midterm on week 6 saying "not all the things we covered in the class will be on the midterm." One thing we did do in class a lot was watch documentaries which we were tested on. WTF She is extremely unorganized. Her powerpoints slides are just sad. She didn't even let us know our midterm grades until the final grades came out... so we didn't know how well we did on the midterm until we got our final grade. Don't take any class with Bonnie.
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Most Helpful Review
cant say that it was the most interesting class ive taken, but it was definitely one of the most laid back classes i have had. i never really stressed out about it. the material was easy if u just memorize all the slides and slightly pay attention in lecture, mostly to her lectures since the guest lecturers were sometimes boring and we werent as heavily tested on them. this class can either get u a really good grade or a really bad one. dont think its easy enough to just not study because u MUST memorize everything if u want to tackle her test, which isnt hard since the material itself is easy and very understandable. much of it is common sense just talking about poverty and how it affects peoples health. u do need the books because she will ask some questions about specific studies from the books but she will tell you what they are on her study guides..etc.
cant say that it was the most interesting class ive taken, but it was definitely one of the most laid back classes i have had. i never really stressed out about it. the material was easy if u just memorize all the slides and slightly pay attention in lecture, mostly to her lectures since the guest lecturers were sometimes boring and we werent as heavily tested on them. this class can either get u a really good grade or a really bad one. dont think its easy enough to just not study because u MUST memorize everything if u want to tackle her test, which isnt hard since the material itself is easy and very understandable. much of it is common sense just talking about poverty and how it affects peoples health. u do need the books because she will ask some questions about specific studies from the books but she will tell you what they are on her study guides..etc.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2022 - Biggest qualm with this class has to be the exam. There was only one final exam for the whole quarter, which was nice to not have a midterm, but I felt that the questions were really specific and focused on statistics and random knowledge memorization (ie. prevalence of diseases per country). There was some multiple choice and some free response but I ended the class not sure where my grade would land because I definitely guessed on some. And it's not like more studying would have helped me, I did review a lot of material and some questions that were asked simply were not emphasized in class. There were also 2 papers which were .. doable I suppose? Dr. Taub is a decently nice person, but for some reason doesn't like it when students take notes on iPads or laptops. This was discouraging because there were instances where activities were only allowed to be submitted on paper and students were told in class to put their note-taking devices away (to ensure we wouldn't be distracted during class). I felt this policy was strange and left many students staring at the slides, unable to take notes or retain much information from the 3 hour seminar. Also the way individual lectures were structured was disorganized and didn't facilitate much discussion (which I was hoping to experience from a class of only 20 people) but a list of words on a blank white slide did little to fully illustrate the magnitude of suffering and health problems in Latin America. Small point but it also felt like the "savior complex" was promoted in a couple lectures and that just didn't feel right. If you have other options, I'd only recommend to take this class if you're really passionate about Latin America, natural disasters, etc. Food is mentioned but I feel that the class is more about structural issues and disease than malnutrition.
Fall 2022 - Biggest qualm with this class has to be the exam. There was only one final exam for the whole quarter, which was nice to not have a midterm, but I felt that the questions were really specific and focused on statistics and random knowledge memorization (ie. prevalence of diseases per country). There was some multiple choice and some free response but I ended the class not sure where my grade would land because I definitely guessed on some. And it's not like more studying would have helped me, I did review a lot of material and some questions that were asked simply were not emphasized in class. There were also 2 papers which were .. doable I suppose? Dr. Taub is a decently nice person, but for some reason doesn't like it when students take notes on iPads or laptops. This was discouraging because there were instances where activities were only allowed to be submitted on paper and students were told in class to put their note-taking devices away (to ensure we wouldn't be distracted during class). I felt this policy was strange and left many students staring at the slides, unable to take notes or retain much information from the 3 hour seminar. Also the way individual lectures were structured was disorganized and didn't facilitate much discussion (which I was hoping to experience from a class of only 20 people) but a list of words on a blank white slide did little to fully illustrate the magnitude of suffering and health problems in Latin America. Small point but it also felt like the "savior complex" was promoted in a couple lectures and that just didn't feel right. If you have other options, I'd only recommend to take this class if you're really passionate about Latin America, natural disasters, etc. Food is mentioned but I feel that the class is more about structural issues and disease than malnutrition.
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