Professor
Sara Melzer
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Most Helpful Review
Avoid this professor like the plague. Her Franglish will drive you crazy if you can get past her horrible accent long enough to even make out what she is trying to say. Though the texts were interesting, she missed about 7 class sessions, so we really didn't even do anything. She seems to love the ladies in the class, but is not so keen on the men, and her grading is irrational and unclear. Take this professor at your own risk, I did, and it was tramatic in the end.
Avoid this professor like the plague. Her Franglish will drive you crazy if you can get past her horrible accent long enough to even make out what she is trying to say. Though the texts were interesting, she missed about 7 class sessions, so we really didn't even do anything. She seems to love the ladies in the class, but is not so keen on the men, and her grading is irrational and unclear. Take this professor at your own risk, I did, and it was tramatic in the end.
Most Helpful Review
Well, the non-writing version of this class with Melzer, in my opinion, was very easy. We wrote one paper the whole quarter which was incredibly simplistic. I'm an engineering major and i had no problem getting an A in this class. Tests were easy and consisted of essay questions broken-down into smaller topics. The class, while informative, lacked any sort of scope and really I think this class could have been taught as a seminar. Melzer is a nice prof, but as mentioned previously, somewhat flighty and disorganized.
Well, the non-writing version of this class with Melzer, in my opinion, was very easy. We wrote one paper the whole quarter which was incredibly simplistic. I'm an engineering major and i had no problem getting an A in this class. Tests were easy and consisted of essay questions broken-down into smaller topics. The class, while informative, lacked any sort of scope and really I think this class could have been taught as a seminar. Melzer is a nice prof, but as mentioned previously, somewhat flighty and disorganized.
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Most Helpful Review
Melzer is very ditzy. That being said, she wanders a lot during her lectures and goes off into little details and don't matter at all. Sometimes this comes at the expense of things which will be tested on. She's never really clear on the points she's making and mostly there's a lot of stuttering and wide-eyed looks. I really thought this course was going to be interesting, it was a little actually. The readings were good and were interesting, but Melzer really took down the class. If you can take another course do it.
Melzer is very ditzy. That being said, she wanders a lot during her lectures and goes off into little details and don't matter at all. Sometimes this comes at the expense of things which will be tested on. She's never really clear on the points she's making and mostly there's a lot of stuttering and wide-eyed looks. I really thought this course was going to be interesting, it was a little actually. The readings were good and were interesting, but Melzer really took down the class. If you can take another course do it.
Most Helpful Review
I had Melzer for French 16, a historical analysis GE, which I thought would be reasonable as I am very interested in French culture and have studied French my entire life, although, it was not. She treated the class as an intensive Writing 2 course, which was more difficult than the Writing 2 course I actually took. The readings were dense and boring and took 3-4 hours to read in close detail. Along with the readings, you have to write answers to "study questions" every week. She is a VERY harsh grader on papers, and when I went in for office hours she was not much help at all. When you ask questions surrounding her grading decisions she gets defensive. She is very ditzy and this class is not an easy A. I got an A in my writing 2 course and I tried very hard in this GE and still didn't receive an A. I would say it is not worth your time and effort.
I had Melzer for French 16, a historical analysis GE, which I thought would be reasonable as I am very interested in French culture and have studied French my entire life, although, it was not. She treated the class as an intensive Writing 2 course, which was more difficult than the Writing 2 course I actually took. The readings were dense and boring and took 3-4 hours to read in close detail. Along with the readings, you have to write answers to "study questions" every week. She is a VERY harsh grader on papers, and when I went in for office hours she was not much help at all. When you ask questions surrounding her grading decisions she gets defensive. She is very ditzy and this class is not an easy A. I got an A in my writing 2 course and I tried very hard in this GE and still didn't receive an A. I would say it is not worth your time and effort.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2017 - Before taking this class I read review about this professor that said something along the lines of "avoid this class like the plague." I disregarded this advice and now regret everything. Melzer likes to use word documents instead of slides to present her information and it pretty much turns the class into a cluster f*ck. Her presentations are simply multiple pages of fragmented thoughts that you have to piece together in your essays. She will say she will post the notes, but will only do so a few days before a paper is due. If you are looking for an easy GE without much workload, this class is not for you. You write SIX essays each three or four pages. She gives the prompt a week in advance, but by the time you decipher what she actually wants you to write you have about 4 days. Each prompt gives you two essays to write. So effectively you have about 4 days to write two essays about two very different topics. You do this three times and by the third time you start to question your will to live. The only thing that held this class together were the TA's and wishful thinking. Combine the disorientating presentations, the ditsy professor, frustrating essays and you get French 16.
Spring 2017 - Before taking this class I read review about this professor that said something along the lines of "avoid this class like the plague." I disregarded this advice and now regret everything. Melzer likes to use word documents instead of slides to present her information and it pretty much turns the class into a cluster f*ck. Her presentations are simply multiple pages of fragmented thoughts that you have to piece together in your essays. She will say she will post the notes, but will only do so a few days before a paper is due. If you are looking for an easy GE without much workload, this class is not for you. You write SIX essays each three or four pages. She gives the prompt a week in advance, but by the time you decipher what she actually wants you to write you have about 4 days. Each prompt gives you two essays to write. So effectively you have about 4 days to write two essays about two very different topics. You do this three times and by the third time you start to question your will to live. The only thing that held this class together were the TA's and wishful thinking. Combine the disorientating presentations, the ditsy professor, frustrating essays and you get French 16.
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