Tamar Christensen
Department of English Composition
AD
3.7
Overall Rating
Based on 34 Users
Easiness 2.8 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.9 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 2.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Participation Matters
  • Needs Textbook
  • Often Funny
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
37.3%
31.1%
24.9%
18.6%
12.4%
6.2%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

40.7%
33.9%
27.1%
20.3%
13.6%
6.8%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

59.6%
49.7%
39.8%
29.8%
19.9%
9.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

32.8%
27.3%
21.9%
16.4%
10.9%
5.5%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

34.2%
28.5%
22.8%
17.1%
11.4%
5.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

35.4%
29.5%
23.6%
17.7%
11.8%
5.9%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

37.5%
31.3%
25.0%
18.8%
12.5%
6.3%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

34.2%
28.5%
22.8%
17.1%
11.4%
5.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

39.5%
32.9%
26.4%
19.8%
13.2%
6.6%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

37.0%
30.9%
24.7%
18.5%
12.3%
6.2%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

40.0%
33.3%
26.7%
20.0%
13.3%
6.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

27.5%
22.9%
18.3%
13.8%
9.2%
4.6%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

35.0%
29.2%
23.3%
17.5%
11.7%
5.8%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

39.3%
32.7%
26.2%
19.6%
13.1%
6.5%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

40.9%
34.1%
27.3%
20.5%
13.6%
6.8%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
Clear marks

Sorry, no enrollment data is available.

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Reviews (30)

1 of 3
1 of 3
Add your review...
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A
Feb. 26, 2020

There are 3 writing projects out of which you submit 2 for grading. I barely did any work throughout the quarter, but Tamar basically tells you EXACTLY what she is looking for, you just need to pay attention and be smart about it.

Tamar is a tough grader but you can definitely manage the grade. I'm not the best writer and my first drafts were shit, but she really helped me improve my work and gave her exactly what she wanted in the papers.

The readings in the course reader are short and you don't even need to read, just annotate the pages. My course reader is fully annotated so you won't need to do any homework. I'm selling it for $40. The reader is also REALLY helpful because of the sample essays Tamar prints in it. Text me at **********.

Helpful?

3 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: B+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Feb. 28, 2022

Tamar is very passive aggressive and really only wants to hear what she thinks about the topic. She is not very clear as to what she wants out of you and is very out spoken about her opinions that it is overwhelming to the class. Moreover, she is not approachable for help at all and does not really give you your grade until the end of the quarter as she finds them "counter productive". The workload is slightly absurd compared to other professors that teach this class. I would not recommend taking this class with Tamar to anyone.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: N/A
Nov. 20, 2019

Grammar b is a joke. Few first-year students realize this: easy/interesting class ≠ rewarding class. I'm a sophomore now. After one year of taking other writing-intensive classes, I guarantee you that this class is useless. They can't teach you anything without bragging about themselves. For those of you who have taken her class, you know who the other person is.

Helpful?

3 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
June 3, 2022

This teacher seemed great until I got my grade. She hosted one on one debriefs on our two writing pieces, which I thought was cool for a college prof. She gave me positive feedback and gave me a couple tweaks to take my work from a B+/A- paper to an A. I did all of those edits and more. And still end up with an A-. She heavily incorporated her personal beliefs into everything she did, and would often overshare about her personal life in a way that made the class uncomfortable. Her estimates for homework load were always far lower than they actually were. For example she would say "I did this in 20 minutes" and it would take 1.5 hours. In talking to other classmates this was a shared experience. She also used her own textbook for the class that she had written, and seemed very self-righteous.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Dec. 23, 2020

Participation counts for 20% of your grade in the class so lecture attendance was mandatory. We had to do three writing projects, two of which were conventional analytical essays and the last of which was called "Grammar B" where you basically use font, word art, and other stylistic techniques to discuss something you feel ambivalent about. You pick one of the two conventional essays and your Grammar B piece to count for your grade. The writing projects were not easy by any means, especially coming from a high school literature class which was highly formulaic, but if you heed the advice of the textbook, listen to Tamar's feedback, and put in the necessary work for your essays, you should be fine. The class is really participation based—you're expected to 'publish' one of your projects with your class, where your classmates give you feedback on your work, and we were put into breakout rooms for discussion and peer review almost every lecture. You meet with Tamar for a one-on-one conference twice for each of the two essays you submit for grading and she gives thorough feedback, so I'd make sure to take notes during these. I found that I became a more concise, genuine writer through the class, so, even though it was tough, I would recommend taking it again with Tamar.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Dec. 19, 2019

Tamar is a pretty good professor. You write three papers overall, but only 2 are counted for a grade. One of them has to be your grammar b essay, which feels more like a collection of pages than an essay. You're basically using fonts, word art, and format to get across the significance of something you feel ambivalent about. You have to publish one of your essays, which means the entire class reads your paper and gives you feedback. When you don't publish you meet with her in her office for feedback. If you make improvements based on the feedback you get you'll do ok. I definitely became a better writer over the quarter and I'm glad I took this class.

It was pretty difficult to get help on my essays outside of class, especially for grammar b. There's not much information about grammar b anywhere besides the class materials, so I was never really sure if I was doing it right. But if you're a more responsible student than I am you can get more help during office hours.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: B+
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
June 18, 2019

Tamar was a very nice and approachable professor and her lectures were pretty engaging. She always brought up interesting points about pieces of writing and I liked her essay formats, especially Grammar B. You write three essays overall, submit two six-page essays and turn in one three-page essay for credit.
However, I thought she graded a bit unfairly. Although she was very open to different ideas, it was quite hard to answer some of her questions. She often tried to help us further our writing with questions but didn't like it when we put questions into the writing or wrote like how she spoke during class.
Overall she was a decent professor.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: A
Dec. 19, 2018

I would highly recommend Tamar for English Composition 3. She holds all of her students to a high standard, but not unreasonably so, and she is very willing to work with you to improve your work. Overall, this class betters your writing and let's you do so while exploring topics that interest you.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2018
Grade: A-
March 21, 2018

Tamar is, hands down, one of the best and most genuine professors I've had at UCLA. She tries really hard to make you comfortable in her class and keeps a casual atmosphere. Her conferences are VERY helpful, and I really recommend you go to her office hours! I never thought that I was a good writer, but I learned more from her in 10 weeks than I did from any of my high school teachers.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: A
Feb. 12, 2017

Tamar is amazing. Her class is small and discussion-based, and a most of the discussions focus on some short assigned readings. The essays are all creative and fairly easy, and she meets with each student one-on-one to give feedback on the essays. I would definitely take a class with her again.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A
Feb. 26, 2020

There are 3 writing projects out of which you submit 2 for grading. I barely did any work throughout the quarter, but Tamar basically tells you EXACTLY what she is looking for, you just need to pay attention and be smart about it.

Tamar is a tough grader but you can definitely manage the grade. I'm not the best writer and my first drafts were shit, but she really helped me improve my work and gave her exactly what she wanted in the papers.

The readings in the course reader are short and you don't even need to read, just annotate the pages. My course reader is fully annotated so you won't need to do any homework. I'm selling it for $40. The reader is also REALLY helpful because of the sample essays Tamar prints in it. Text me at **********.

Helpful?

3 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: B+
Feb. 28, 2022

Tamar is very passive aggressive and really only wants to hear what she thinks about the topic. She is not very clear as to what she wants out of you and is very out spoken about her opinions that it is overwhelming to the class. Moreover, she is not approachable for help at all and does not really give you your grade until the end of the quarter as she finds them "counter productive". The workload is slightly absurd compared to other professors that teach this class. I would not recommend taking this class with Tamar to anyone.

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: N/A
Nov. 20, 2019

Grammar b is a joke. Few first-year students realize this: easy/interesting class ≠ rewarding class. I'm a sophomore now. After one year of taking other writing-intensive classes, I guarantee you that this class is useless. They can't teach you anything without bragging about themselves. For those of you who have taken her class, you know who the other person is.

Helpful?

3 1 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Fall 2021
Grade: A-
June 3, 2022

This teacher seemed great until I got my grade. She hosted one on one debriefs on our two writing pieces, which I thought was cool for a college prof. She gave me positive feedback and gave me a couple tweaks to take my work from a B+/A- paper to an A. I did all of those edits and more. And still end up with an A-. She heavily incorporated her personal beliefs into everything she did, and would often overshare about her personal life in a way that made the class uncomfortable. Her estimates for homework load were always far lower than they actually were. For example she would say "I did this in 20 minutes" and it would take 1.5 hours. In talking to other classmates this was a shared experience. She also used her own textbook for the class that she had written, and seemed very self-righteous.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Fall 2020
Grade: A
Dec. 23, 2020

Participation counts for 20% of your grade in the class so lecture attendance was mandatory. We had to do three writing projects, two of which were conventional analytical essays and the last of which was called "Grammar B" where you basically use font, word art, and other stylistic techniques to discuss something you feel ambivalent about. You pick one of the two conventional essays and your Grammar B piece to count for your grade. The writing projects were not easy by any means, especially coming from a high school literature class which was highly formulaic, but if you heed the advice of the textbook, listen to Tamar's feedback, and put in the necessary work for your essays, you should be fine. The class is really participation based—you're expected to 'publish' one of your projects with your class, where your classmates give you feedback on your work, and we were put into breakout rooms for discussion and peer review almost every lecture. You meet with Tamar for a one-on-one conference twice for each of the two essays you submit for grading and she gives thorough feedback, so I'd make sure to take notes during these. I found that I became a more concise, genuine writer through the class, so, even though it was tough, I would recommend taking it again with Tamar.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Fall 2019
Grade: A
Dec. 19, 2019

Tamar is a pretty good professor. You write three papers overall, but only 2 are counted for a grade. One of them has to be your grammar b essay, which feels more like a collection of pages than an essay. You're basically using fonts, word art, and format to get across the significance of something you feel ambivalent about. You have to publish one of your essays, which means the entire class reads your paper and gives you feedback. When you don't publish you meet with her in her office for feedback. If you make improvements based on the feedback you get you'll do ok. I definitely became a better writer over the quarter and I'm glad I took this class.

It was pretty difficult to get help on my essays outside of class, especially for grammar b. There's not much information about grammar b anywhere besides the class materials, so I was never really sure if I was doing it right. But if you're a more responsible student than I am you can get more help during office hours.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: B+
June 18, 2019

Tamar was a very nice and approachable professor and her lectures were pretty engaging. She always brought up interesting points about pieces of writing and I liked her essay formats, especially Grammar B. You write three essays overall, submit two six-page essays and turn in one three-page essay for credit.
However, I thought she graded a bit unfairly. Although she was very open to different ideas, it was quite hard to answer some of her questions. She often tried to help us further our writing with questions but didn't like it when we put questions into the writing or wrote like how she spoke during class.
Overall she was a decent professor.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2018
Grade: A
Dec. 19, 2018

I would highly recommend Tamar for English Composition 3. She holds all of her students to a high standard, but not unreasonably so, and she is very willing to work with you to improve your work. Overall, this class betters your writing and let's you do so while exploring topics that interest you.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2018
Grade: A-
March 21, 2018

Tamar is, hands down, one of the best and most genuine professors I've had at UCLA. She tries really hard to make you comfortable in her class and keeps a casual atmosphere. Her conferences are VERY helpful, and I really recommend you go to her office hours! I never thought that I was a good writer, but I learned more from her in 10 weeks than I did from any of my high school teachers.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Fall 2015
Grade: A
Feb. 12, 2017

Tamar is amazing. Her class is small and discussion-based, and a most of the discussions focus on some short assigned readings. The essays are all creative and fairly easy, and she meets with each student one-on-one to give feedback on the essays. I would definitely take a class with her again.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
1 of 3
3.7
Overall Rating
Based on 34 Users
Easiness 2.8 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 3.9 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 2.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.9 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Participation Matters
    (24)
  • Needs Textbook
    (21)
  • Often Funny
    (20)
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