Global Studies 1

Burgos is a very engaging professor. His lectures are well-organized and he attempts to involve students every once in a while, despite that there are 200+ students. It takes some time to get adjusted to his style, however. Even though he highlights the "important" things that you should pay attention to, you never really grasp what should be known for the midterm and final, and because of this, his exams can be quite rough. It doesn't help that the TAs are vague (with every assignment, that is) and, my TA in particular, condescending. Going to his office hours were pains in the ass because I just felt more stupid walking out than in. And when our section asked what we should look out for in our finals, I do recall mine saying, "Guys, I really don't know what's going to be on the exam. I wish I could help you out but I'm just as clueless as you are... [one minute later] Yeah, I have the finals right here in my bag." (Cue '.........'.)

The class itself is very, very, very comprehensive; kind of like any other introductory class, really, but with upperdiv-level of readings, expectations, and discussions. It covers a whole range of ideas so there wasn't much depth to anything -- it was one reading after another, constantly, and that's it. I'm not so much complaining that the workload was tough, because it was definitely doable, but more so that it was just all superficial knowledge. I was completely disinterested with global studies by the end of the quarter, because I felt like I had learned nothing.

So having said all that, I rate Burgos as a professor 8/10 stars. I rate the TAs 3/10, and I rate this class 1/10.

I took Global Studies 1 with him Fall 09. First couple of weeks of class I was very confused by his lecture style because he told us to pay attention only to the powerpoint notes he underlined and sometimes the readings did not clearly align with the lectures. But he does drop hints about the midterm and final questions although they may not be all too obvious. For the final he gave us a study sheet summarizing all the powerpoint presentations, which turned out to be extremely helpful for the final so if you receive that defintely memorize it! The midterm and final are basically essays so there is a lot of writing involved in the course. However, the articles themselves are pretty short and manageable to read. Overall, I found the course enjoyable and Burgos to be a good lecturer. I received an A in the course.

I agree with the poster below me about the TA being a big part of your class experience. I had Burgos for Global Studies 1 and he was a great professor. He was funny and kept the material relevant and interesting. However, I didn't not enjoy my TA whatsoever. I'm not gonna name him and put him on blast, but I will say that a lot of these professor reviews are ultimately useless if the person who's grading your exam and test is completely ambiguous and indirect.