Professor Tramo is a really smart guy but an awful professor. There is no organization at all to his class and this makes paying attention in a 3 hour lecture extremely difficult. The homework questions are convoluted, vague and don’t seem to relate to anything relevant or talked about in class. The homework is due every week online before class and the final was also done online with about 70% of the questions exactly the same as the homework. I have an extensive music background but the material was presented so poorly that I had a hard time following what he was talking about most of the time. Even though the final was take home, it took me about 5 hours to complete. Overall I dedicated about 4-5 hours per week including the 3 hour lecture. Overall the class was an easy A but I wouldn’t take it again since i didn’t learn anything of value and did not enjoy it.

This is for the music and the brain seminar for Cluster 73. Tramo is terrible – he did not have a syllabus until week 6, never created slides, and he didn't know the class was a writing 2 course. This class was supposed to be seminar style, but instead he lectured for three hours straight every day. Usually the lectures were about how great he was (once he mentioned that he went to Harvard 14 times in 30 minutes). He's more interested in telling first years how great he is as opposed to actually teaching them. This guy is smart, he just doesn't know (or doesn't want to ) teach. I can't stress this enough – do. not. take. this. class. No matter what requirement you need filled, no matter how interesting it sounds, don't do it. You will hate yourself if you take this class.

Tramo is the worst professor ever. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! It sounds interesting, yes????? BUT SOMEHOW IT'S NOT. HE SOMEHOW MANAGES TO MAKE IT AWFUL. It's a 3 hour seminar 630-930 on a Thursday and he ALWAYS goes over, completely ignores the syllabus and rambles about the Beatles incoherently for hours. I would do anything to go back in time and not take this class.

This class definitely has upsides and downsides. On the ups - it's an easy A as long as you show up and put a small amount of effort in. The TAs were SUPER lenient with grading, it was split between attendance/participation, homework sets, and a final paper. The homework sets are from the textbook and super straightforward. As someone who learned zero (0) things from the class, I still had no trouble faking my way through the homework lol. Downsides - Professor Tramo was really brutal in my opinion. He is completely disorganized, he would frequently send out homework a few days before it was due at random (sometimes on a Monday due Thursday, other times on a Friday due Tuesday morning - very inconsistent). There's no assigned reading or assignment schedule included in the syllabus, so it really felt to me like he was making it up as we went. And, it made it a pain to do homework only when he assigned it, I found myself annoyed with not knowing when I would need to dedicate time to this class. Attendance is also mandatory. He does not record lectures. He does not post slides. He is VERY strict about this and I found that to be extremely frustrating (especially during COVID). I actually had to leave town for a death in the family and he refused to give me the slides from the class I missed and made me send "proof" of my family emergency to get credit. I found this to be insensitive... I understand he needs to do due diligence and make sure I'm not lying, but he went about it in an extremely rude. Prof. Tramo is also so unclear. I would go to lecture and literally not write a single thing down because I didn't even know what he was talking about or what to take notes on. You can get an A in this class without listening to a single lecture (because the final paper is based on a topic of your choosing, very broad), BUT you have to be there anyway so I really just felt like I was wasting my own time by taking this class... But we did have some dope guest professors (like the guy who did surgery on John Mayer's vocal cords, etc.) and that was entertaining. All in all it isn't horrible and is a good GE to take especially if you aren't looking for heavy science concepts, but be prepared to be frustrated/annoyed.

I have never written a review for a professor or class but this class inspired me to. Mark is the WORST PROFESSOR imaginable. You will not learn a single thing. He is insufferable. I genuinely do not like him at all. He also recently said a very ignorant email about ucla protests. This guy should be fired

Mark Tramo is definitely a character. This class was a joke in the sense that he spends most of the time rambling on with the whole class with their cameras on not understanding a single word what he's saying. You'd think it'd be an interesting class with learning more about the auditory system but it just ends up being a mess of a class with the professor keeping a loose account of grades. Grades are broken down by participation, a take home final exam, a group presentation, and writing down what he exactly says and attempt to make it into a research paper. All of these assignments you pretty much get credit as long as you put in some sort of effort into them but honestly 75% of the time I had no idea what was going on the class and still got an A. Overall, Tramo is a boring/disorganized lecturer but if you need an easy A for your electives and can endure taking 3 hours out of your day once a week then go for it.