This class is very difficult and I would not recommend taking it unless you are interested in being a comm major or really interested in the study of communication. However, I found the lectures pretty interesting. This class gives a ton of work so it is important that you stay on schedule with the readings and notes. You also definitely need to go to all of the lectures and take careful notes, but don't need to go to discussion because attendance does not count at all towards your grades. I went to the first two discussions and didn't go for the rest of the quarter. I finished with an A- in this class but I put a tonnn of time in to studying and doing the work for this class.

This class is much easier than comm 10 and he is much nicer/ less of a jerk than in comm 10. If you come to class, take good notes and watch the movies for the midterm/final you should be fine and get an A. That said this class is really boring. I did not feel engaged in the subject matter at all. Suman doesn't use any tech in upper div class and the zero tech policy from comm 10 still stands in all his other courses. It's pretty straightforward to succeed in this class, but it is still Suman. If you can't be in class every day and take note of everything he says you won't do well. If you go to class, take notes and watch the material required you will be fine.

I definitely wouldn't take this class if you are just considering comm or wanting to take it as a GE, but as a weeder class, it was not as bad as I expected. I did take it during the summer and it was my only class so this obviously heavily influences my experience, but if you can I would take this during the summer or during a quarter that is not as busy/hard. To succeed in this class, you need to really commit a lot of time to it. There were podcast lectures, 4 videos a week, 10 readings and about 10 chapters of a book to read before the midterm/final and given the 6 week schedule a lot does get compacted so I was doing work for this class every day. However, the tests were fair and the content was interesting. As per everyone's advice, office hours are helpful, so go to that and go to discussions! My TA rewarded the students who were at the last discussion session some hints/guidance towards the essay questions on the final so it does pay off to go! The tests are mostly about memorization and understanding the concepts, so flashcards were for me the best way to study. If you know everything, you can easily get through the first portion of the exams which is just defining terms and sometimes providing examples. The faster you go through that, the more time you have for the essay questions. For that, my TA said he isn't instructed to give full points to anyone, but he gave full points to whoever wrote a lot so I recommend studying a lot to be able to finish the short answer and be able to write a lot for the essay. As for the extra essay outside of the tests, they really do care you follow the rubric so make sure to follow the structure of: clear intro, argument + rebuttal (x3 or however many paragraphs you have). I got a lot of points knocked off for not giving a rebuttal to each argument so don't repeat my mistake! Overall class is not impossible and Professor Suman is a fair professor so just study as much as you can and do all the work.

Took it online, literally don't think I would have done as well if it was in person. Just a miserable class to take and information is so hard to conceptualize because the lectures are so dense. If it wasn't a comm requirement I would stay far far away

Professor Suman makes a big deal about communications employing a factual scientific method at the start of his course and then neglects it throughout. He regularly teaches personal opinion as fact, almost entirely through anecdotes, many of which appear in poor taste. The grading on tests was largely arbitrary but the class is perhaps worth taking if you are interested in looking more critically at the world around you.

NEVER TAKE THIS CLASS FOR A GE! there's only 3 grades. Midterm, Final, and and essay. If you fail on any one of them, you already failing the class. So don't take this class at all costs unless it's your major.

To preface, comm 10 is designed to be a survey class that exposes you to the basics of interpersonal and mass communication. Though I expected a course whose content matched the introductory level name it bears, comm 10 was anything but that. There was an unreasonable amount of work assigned to the students including but not limited to 3 100+ page books, 200+ pages of combined extra pdf readings that were not covered in lecture nor discussion, and we were not given sufficient time or space to review the sheer amount of content that was crammed into the 10-week quarter.

For this class, your grade is based on three items: the midterm, the final, and a 7 page experiential analysis paper which is due week 7 (this paper isn't all that bad & the prompts are actually fun). How well you perform on these exams depends entirely upon how detailed your notes are on all the readings and lectures. While Professor Suman does supply us with a lecture outline, it is basically just a running list of the many concepts he wants us to needlessly memorize rather than actually learn and apply to real life. Overall, I would not take a class with this professor again. It was extremely stressful.

I personally love Suman, and I've taken three classes with him. This one is the easiest one. The readings are less intense, and the classes cover much less material than the others (because you watch TV during half of them). If you can tolerate his difficulty, I would recommend COMM 145.

This class is very interesting. I payed attention every lecture, read the books cover to cover, as well as the readings. I actually learned a lot. HOWEVER. This class makes you hate learning because there is so much memorization. No slides, no recordings, you have to know everything he says. Plus, he grades harshly. So pros and cons for sure.

To start, do not take this class unless you are taking it as a prerequisite. There is no sugarcoating it: this class is difficult and it took me weeks of studying and concentration to get a B+. GO TO THE LECTURES!! It can be difficult to pay full attention because it is usually a two-hour class, notes are to be taken in a notebook only, and phones are not tolerated whatsoever. I recommend investing in a fidget toy so you don't fall asleep :). Make a friend or at least grab someone's number to get the notes because the lectures are not recorded and he does not use slides. As long as you work hard and plan ahead, a B or an A is 100% possible. Plan to take this class alongside easier classes so you have time to study!