I took SPAN 119 with Professor Rodriguez during the Winter of 2023 in person. SPAN119 was a challenging upper-division Spanish class with Professor Rodriguez specifically. I've heard other peers having an easier time in the same course, however, with a different professor. This course is graded on 3 written exams (make sure you have a blue book ready), and one group project on a book (el club del libro). Professor Rodriguez's lectures were informative and her slides are useful for exams, however, she does not make herself seem approachable whatsoever. Be prepared to discuss readings in class as she cold calls on students. She is intimidating and at times passive and cannot take criticism well. She is not clear on what she wants on her exams at times, often creating discussions after passing back our exams where she states she will "maybe change that next time". This class was very interesting and the material was fun to read, however, I dreaded attending lectures as I did not feel comfortable or supported in class. The key to passing her class is to study hard, read assigned readings, and understand her exams and what her idea of a "correct answer" is.

This professor would always summarize what we read in our readings as well as offered discussion questions in which we would put into practice what we had learned. The workload was very manageable; I never had to do more than 2 hours of reading each week for this course. It is a good idea to do some annotations in your readings so as to be able to contribute to class discussions. As long as the professor recognizes you and you make an effort to participate, then you will get a good participation grade. The tests weren't super difficult since everything that is on it was covered and not only that but she also allows us to "construct the exam". We write down test questions, and uses about 2 in the exam. Overall, it was a great learning experience.

I thought Jimena did a great job with the transition to online learning. She assigned great readings and graded kindly. At times she was unclear on what she wanted to do, but frankly it didn't matter because I don't think a single person got below an A- in this class. Really nice prof!