This class is designed to make you certain about whether or not you want to become a comm major. Like all the other reviews say, it is a hard class. It is a ton of work that you cannot procrastinate on, and lectures are two hours long without any technology. I think how you do is largely determined by how interested you are in the class. For me personally, I liked this class a lot because I thought all of the material and the readings were interesting, and I thought Suman was engaging despite the length of lecture and the no tech thing. However, I know other people who went into this class thinking they wanted to be comm majors, and they ended up not doing well in the class because they had no interest in the material. So your interest level in comm will make or break the class.

Even though I enjoyed the material, I had a lot of beef with how it was graded. Your entire grade is based on the midterm, the paper, and the final (which I opted out of because of corona). The midterm was short answer questions and a couple essays based entirely on memorization of the lecture material and reading. The midterm was THICK and requires a LOT of studying, so make sure you do all of the readings and the cheat sheet enough ahead of time so that you can cover everything from lecture. Even if you do spend tons of time studying, you may not end up with a good grade because of how strict the graders are. On the midterm, you could get marked down points if you didn't write in a specific word, even if you wrote down the general definition minus that specific word. Most of the points I missed on the midterm were because I did not explicitly say a certain word that they were looking for, even when I wrote an answer that was otherwise completely right, so make sure you write down the key words for each question. The paper was very open ended and not too hard to write in my opinion, but it was also graded very harshly, especially since you did not know exactly what they were looking for. I think it was practically impossible to get an A on it, and most people I know got Bs or Cs on it. Suman does curve the class a LOT based on midterm scores, but even then it is still hard to get an A because of how strict everything is.

TL;DR: Comm 10 is a very dense class with a bad grading situation, but if you enjoy it, it shouldn't be too bad.

Content wise - this class is extremely straightforward. Exam and paper wise - not so much. I went into the class knowing it was going to be challenging and my expectations were largely met. I studied more for the midterm than I ever have for a test and still did not get the grade I hoped for. Professor Suman expects such thorough explanations and understanding of his concepts, it's extremely difficult to do well on his exams (I believe my TA told me our class average on the midterm was around a 59%). To accomodate their somewhat ridiculous expectations, the grading scale was extremely helpful having an 80-100% be the "A" range and 60-80 is the "B" range, etc. etc. However it is worth noting even WITH this scale I found it difficult to get an A-. Because finals got moved online, I ended up opting out of the final because it was only going to hurt my grade so can't speak to that as much. Your entire grade is one paper, the midterm, and the final. The paper is extremely open ended, I really recommend going into office hours just to talk things through and show your TA you care. Strangely, I actually found the paper kind of fun to write. I wrote mine about what people's undergarments are communicating and it was really interesting, more challenging in the sense of the loose structures and prompts. Overall, if you're gonna be a comm major, you have to do it, just buckle up and be ready to put the work in. You HAVE to go to class or know someone who takes amazing notes. No slides or electronics allowed in class so be careful. Suman in general is entertaining, it's just dense. Have fun!!

Is this class tough? Yes. Is it an absolute shit ton of work? Absolutely. However, the material itself is pretty easy and straightforward, it's just the sheer amount of it that makes the class so difficult. My TA started off the year by saying that this class was basically three classes in one (lecture material + outside readings + the book). He wasn't wrong. I found the material extremely compelling and interesting, and I'm happy that I enjoyed this class because it made me become certain that I wanted to become a Comm major.

Suman is an absolutely delightful professor. Yes, the no-tech policy was annoying, but it made everyone pay attention to lecture and understand the material better (plus you can check your phone if you're sneaky enough - he will call you out if you get caught). I always found myself laughing at his jokes and need to make anything and everything sexual. Plus, the fits are lowkey fire. He's a nice, kind-of-awkward old man who I would lowkey bully with my friend in class but I love him to death, truly.

The grade is compromised of the midterm, the final, and an essay.

Midterm: 40 points (Week 5)
- It was pretty hard, DON'T PROCRASTINATE ON THE CHEAT SHEETS. I did and it honestly fucked me in the ass, make sure you get started on those so you can use the days leading up to the test to study actual lecture material. Short answer questions are honestly pretty straight forward and easy, idk why people here were talking about vagueness. The essays depend on your TA's grading, mine was pretty fair so I got decent grades on those.
Essay: 45 points (Week 7)
- It's graded pretty harshly but honestly just follow the guidelines that they set and write a pretty good essay and you should be in good territory. Make sure you focus on actually developing an argument and not just word vomiting when you forgot to do your paper and only have two days. You can do fire on the tests but fuck up on the essay and bring your grade down.
Final: 50 points (Week 10)
- it got canceled cause corona so can't tell you

Discussion sections were pretty useless for me, I stopped attending after week 5. I had Joshua, who's cool as a TA, but he basically made us discuss the outside material with each other without much guidance, which wasn't that helpful for me. Joshua's awesome though, he's a super fair grader and will always make time for you to go over and discuss the material or your essay. He went out of his way for me to get the help that I needed. I heard some oof stories about the other ones (shhh), so I endorse Josh as your Comm 10 TA.

Lectures are long as fuck, so try to make your schedule so you don't have something important RIGHT after (I was always pooped). It's just Suman talking at you with his sexy voice for two hours straight, and while somewhat arousing, it can be draining at times.

Overall, if you put in the effort, you will get a B. With some dedication and a little bit of luck, you will get an A.

(I am a comm major now) Difficult class with a lot of reading, writing, and memorisation involved, but I enjoyed the content.

He literally just talks for 2 hours with only a brief 10 min break in between but you have to write down everything he says (I suggest you record him with your phone or something but do it secretly cus he doesn't allow any electronics) cus the exams are literally just word for word what he says out loud in lectures. No bruin cast, no slides, you just have to write down his words. Lowkey hard but doable. TEXT ME ********** for a complete copy of his lectures typed! I promise you this will help you get a good grade. As for the essay, just make sure you get a good TA cus they grade so fucking harshly like they just got dumped or something. So really butter them up and they'll probably go a bit easier on u. For me this class was just so time consuming and the essay fucked me over even tho I thought I did so well on it, but besides that the exams are okay. Verrrrryy hard to get A tho I believe

You better bring your A game with this professor. Everything he writes on the board is fair game but there are quizlets out there to help you. Nothing in this class is given on the midterm and final. They grade very harshly so you have to have exact wording.

I took this class in my first quarter at UCLA, and it was definitely a challenging class. Suman doesn't use any slides during lectures, although he will occasionally write a key word on the blackboard. If you go to class and focus, take good notes on what he says, and regurgitate your notes on the tests, you'll be in good shape. Another important thing is to have good reading notes for the exams. Suman allows you to take 10 pages of notes on the readings into the exam, so write detailed (but tiny, so you can fit more info) notes and you'll have no problem with any questions regarding the readings.

Mr. Suman is a good professor who definitely cares about the material he is teaching. He doesn't use slides or let you take notes on your laptop which I didn't like. Sometimes the lectures were long and boring, but others were fun and engaging. I would recommend this class but it is definitely difficult and requires a lot of work.

I would not recommend taking this class if you are not interested in being a comm major. It’s a decently difficult class that requires meticulous notes and reading. He wants you to write on the exactly what he said in class on tests, often word for word. With that being said, the class was extremely interesting, and Professor Suman was actually super nice. I missed the final last minute for personal reasons and he literally let me retake the final the next quarter. If you’re up for the challenge, this class is definitely worth it!

Even if you are a comm major, Avoid this class. This guy teaches in such an draconian way. For a GE this was the toughest class I have ever taken at UCLA during all 4 years.