I took this class because I was shocked to see that it counted for a life science GE, which really appealed to me since I'm a PoliSci major and can't stand actual STEM courses. I expected it to be a typical humanities class, but now I totally see why it counts as a science credit.

Hyams is obviously extremely knowledgeable and passionate about linguistics. The problem is that she's accustomed to working with linguists, she isn't great at explaining simple concepts in a way that makes sense to people who know literally nothing about linguistics--which is everyone in Ling 1. During the sentence structure unit, I went to her office hours as some concepts explained in lecture confused me, and she happily clarified and really helped me understand.

Luckily, she posts the powerpoints to her CCLE and they are very thorough. Her lectures are impossible to stay awake in, so I recommend just studying the slides on your own time. I studied for the midterm using only the lecture slides and got an A, the textbook is helpful only for assignments and contains plenty of information not relevant to the course material.

Overall, this class is a great GE since it can fulfill either science or humanities. The material is fairly boring and the lectures are dreadful. Just stay home and study the slides, and you'll do just fine.

I am a CS major and I took Ling 1 to fulfill a GE requirement. Unlike a lot of students posting here, I liked professor Hyams and I liked her class. I thought the material was fascinating and a great survey of the Linguistics major. I don't know what all the other people here are complaining about because this is the easiest class I have ever taken at UCLA. I studied for maybe two hours for both the midterm and the final and I got an A on both. Maybe North Campus students just aren't used to as difficult classes as South Campus students are. Whatever the reason, I would highly recommend this class as a great pick to fulfill a GE requirement.

This class was incredibly easy. Almost no studying, and the homework is a no brainer. Plus, she offers a ton of exta credit opportunities, so while I only got a B+ in the class, with the extra credit(which only took me a half an hour overall to do), I'm going to end up with an A. The tests are incredibly easy as long as you take the time to read the book, and the lectures are a complete waste of time. You don't learn anything, and the book is much more helpful, and its what the tests and homework are based on.

This class isn't bad overall--the midterm and final aren't terribly hard and don't require much extra studying, if you actually take the time to go to lecture and listen to her reading word-for-word off the powerpoints. If you don't do that, then the book is a good way to make up for not going to class. The homework assignments are fairly unhelpful and time-consuming, but amount for quite a bit of your grade, so pay attention while doing these; the TAs actually grade them pretty carefully.

However, let me just say that Nina Hyams is not concerned at all with the well-being of her students, and is incredibly rude in her office hours and via other correspondence outside of class. She doesn't lay out the grading policy AT ALL (what the scale is for +s and -s, and whether she'd curve the class because she constantly gave that impression during the quarter...that makes a huge difference!), and when I approached her about it, she snapped back at me and told me that she didn't need to give me that kind of information because she would get "no sleep" if she answered all questions like mine from the 360 students in her class. Don't try asking her questions unless you want your head bitten off--go to your TA's office hours instead.

This class is way harder than it seems!
midterm, final, and easy homework assignments (no papers)
extremely detailed material!
lots of studying required
lecture isn't crucial because she just reads word for word her power point presentations
she posted all her power points on the website
she is pretty nice and approachable
basically hardly any work but TONS of studying and detail in this class