I've seen other not so great reviews of Dr. Eilene Powell's classes, but I think that's because people were writing reviews about her that were supposed to be for her TAs.

I had a great experience in this class. I have only been learning Spanish for a few years now so I was scared on how this class would go, but I shouldn't have been. She was really engaging, even during 8am lectures, and often cancelled 8am lectures so we could sleep in, which I really appreciated. There's only 3 essays (1-2 pages) for this class. When you write your rough draft, she gives you SO MUCH feedback because she actually cares about developing her students as speakers/writers of Spanish. There were maybe 1-2 readings per week, so the workload wasn't bad. Also, she's really easy to talk to so if you ever needed an extension on anything, need help on an essay etc., she's amazing! Would definitely take another Spanish class with her again.

I was hesitant about talking Professor Powell's class because I had read some reviews that were really critical of her on this website. However I think these reviews are not about Eilene Powell, but rather Tiffany Powell (another teacher). EILENE Powell, who currently teaches spanish at UCLA, is fantastic. She was super helpful, engaging, and cared about her students learning. She is definitely a tougher grader and won't cut you as much slack as other spanish teachers, but if you work hard she will reward you. If you want to do well in this class, then my advice would be to make sure your rough drafts of your essays are written very well (she grades rough drafts on quality, not just completeness), and to make appointments with her to go over essays before the final drafts are due. I did this with her and she would provide very helpful feedback and would basically edit my entire essay for me until she thought it was ready to turn in. The class is broken up into 2 short essays, a final essay, and an oral presentation, so having good grades on these essays is important. I highly recommend this class/professor if you need it for the spanish major/minor or are just interested in learning how to truly write well in spanish.

Honestly I don't think Dr. Powell deserves the harsh reviews she has gotten previously. There were 3 essays total in the class, all of which were graded harshly, but she takes the time to read through the whole essay and give feedback. All in all, she probably spent over an hour reading each essay. There was no midterm or final, just the essays and a few quizzes. Overall, she was an AMAZING professor and you could tell that she cares about her students.