This is the toughest GE I have ever taken, and I don't feel like I learned much. Attendance is not taken in lecture nor discussion, but lectures are not recorded. Lecture outlines and Quizlet materials help if absent. The pace of the lecture is slow, and electronic devices are not allowed. There is a ten minute break in the middle of lectures. The professor says that there are no "magic words to memorize," but all tests are 100% free response. The entire grade is made up of 3 assignments: the midterm, one essay, and the final. Midterm grades were made available late in the quarter, and the professor gives the TAs as much time as they needed to release essay grades. I did not know if I passed the class until spring break was halfway over. There are no opportunities for extra credit.

Only take this class if you have the time and energy to fully to apply yourself to the material, and you are willing to endure the rules and conditions listed above.

This class was pretty hard but if you’re a comm major you don’t have a choice. My advice is to talk to your TA as much as possible because their grading system if very weird because they can only give a certain amount of grades out on each test. So the more they know you/ give you corrections, the better you can improve. I got into comm w a B in this class so don’t be too afraid .

Oh god run away from this class if you can. Seriously you should only be taking this if you plan on being a Communication major DO NOT take it for the social analysis credit... It's a GPA killer. The format of this class is so unreasonable and practically sets up students for failure. No homework but many long readings every week. One paper of 5-7 pages about 1 of 4 provided topics, not based on course content at all, this paper was honestly my saving grace. Two exams, midterm and final, for each we are allowed either 10 pages of double sided notes or 20 pages of single sided notes, only from section content (how??? you may ask, lecture content and section content are actually different and they check in the first 30 minutes of the exam). For lecture content, you just have to memorize it all for the exam but the final is not cumulative. Professor Suman can be funny at times but his lecturing style is overall pretty boring and he doesn't post PowerPoints so you have to go to every single lecture (if you miss one just pray it's not on the exam). No electronics allowed in class so all notes have to be handwritten. I'm honestly hoping for a B.

I took this class blindly during my first quarter at UCLA as it was one of the few classes with seats left. Although Suman is a great lecturer, he is one of the hardest graders I've ever encountered. You need to answer the exam questions exactly how he verbalises it during lecture otherwise you'll get points knocked off aka write every single thing he says exactly how he says it. The class consisted of a midterm, final, and project. We had to read a 300 page reader as well as 2 books that we were tested on. It's a lot of reading and it's all common sense, but you HAVE to read everything in order to word it exactly how he wants on the exams. The final project was also SO time consuming (create a survey with 100+ participants and write an 8+ page paper on it, which involved difficult math to find averages that he does NOT clearly explain). I had to ask my friend who is well versed in Excel in order to do it. Overall, I'd say avoid this class.

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.

He’s very old-school will not work with you very stubborn terrible greater

The reviews for this class make it sound a lot worse than it really is. Yes, this class does require you to study for the midterm and final, but it's really not the end of the world. I did well on the midterm but due to external circumstances, didn't have time to study for the final. Definitely felt like the final was significantly more difficult, but studying would have made it easier. Make sure to start the readings early because there are a LOT of them.

Here's the thing, I really wanted to like Suman. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt especially after seeing how harsh some of these reviews were. But at the end of the day, the reviews were right.
Suman doesn't allow technology in class, all notes have to be hand-written. He doesn't provide slides, you simply have to listen to what he says and write it down. Lecture is fine and can be fun. There are interesting topics and Suman cracks jokes that are entertaining. 2 hours seem to pass by really quickly so that isn't an issue, but if you ever miss a class it's impossible to know what happened unless you have friends who can send you their notes.
The material itself is easy to understand, but Suman knows that so he purposefully makes the tests and essay hard. If you are thinking of taking this class as a GE, don't. If you're taking it to be a Comms major, make sure you keep up with the readings and lecture. If you don't it'll bite you back during midterm and finals season.
One example that I believe perfectly describes this class is the fact that you get notes for exams, but the notes can only be from the readings. Suman and the TA's will walk around during the exam and read every. single. person's. notes. to make sure there is no lecture material. If you do have lecture notes, they'll literally confiscate them during the test leaving you with nothing. So yeah, although the content may seem easy, the set up of the class is not.
Overall Suman is a nice guy who's lectures are interesting, but the structure/grading of the class itself sucks. So be wary, be prepared, and don't get caught using your phone during class, he'll call you out!

I'd only recommend taking this class if you either have a super deep interest in both interpersonal communication and mass communication history or are planning on being a comms major. if you think you got an easy GE, that's not true. Suman knows what he's talking about (albeit, some of his lecture material is a little out of date for the current era, but blame that on the generational difference). I found the first 5 weeks, which focused on interpersonal communication (between people), much more interesting and easy to understand than the second 5 weeks of material, which was on mass communication/history of it.
During the first 5 weeks, I thought I was coasting, and it was a super easy class. That was until I realized less than a week before the midterm that I had 8 articles to read and take notes on for the midterm. That was definitely a rough time, especially since 3 of those articles were 15+ pages long. What is the most difficult is trying to learn all the lecture material for the midterm and the final, as you are only allowed notes from the reading during the exams. the exams consist of around 30 or so short answer questions, and then 2 essays (3 essays on the final, 2 on the midterm). For the midterm, one of the essays is on reading material, and the other is on lecture material. The lecture material essay will usually ask you about a list of factors or elements within a main topic and you have to list EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. in order to get full credit for that essay (safe to say, I did not get full credit on that essay part of the final).
The articles to read for the final were much more dense than the midterm articles, and much less interesting (at least to me personally, I'd rather learn about the sub-communication of flirting than the history of the newspaper) since some of the articles were 20+ pages long and you had to take notes on almost every single word in order to ensure the right answer on the final.
As for the readings that weren't articles, they were books that you had to either buy or find a free pdf of, which I luckily found, and didn't have to pay $30 per book.
My TA (Miriam), was a massive help in which she summarized all of the readings that weren't articles in powerpoints, which essentially made reading the books extra work that wasn't needed, so shoutout to her!!
I totally understand where Suman is coming from in terms of not allowing technology for notetaking in his classroom, but I do find it a bit annoying that he doesn't at least record his lectures and post them in podcast form later on. He tends to speak a bit fast and mutter, so it's hard to write down every word he says, and it also makes it a struggle if you're sick, as if you miss class, you truly miss out on a large chunk of material that you could only get if you have a friend in the class.
Otherwise, the class wasn't too painful. I do understand the stress of it only being graded on the final, midterm, and paper (which the paper isn't bad at all if you are able to write a paper without sources and can just speak from experience/make up examples), but it's not horrible/torture even though it was very stressful for me personally.
some tips I have to get through this class:
-rewrite your lecture notes if you can, helps you retain material & makes the notes pretty and easy to read
-for notes for the midterm and final, write down every single underlined phrase/sentence in the articles
-get a good pen/notebook setup
-come up with acronyms for lecture material lists so you remember every point for the essays
-don't let the STEM kids who reviewed this class scare you too much if you're a humanities major :)

WORST CLASS EVER. I have never received a B in my life before I took this class. I took this class to get into the communication major and it was extremely difficult. The only things in the grade book were the midterm exam, the essay, and the final exam. The midterm and final exams were extremely difficult, asking for the most obscure things the professor may or may not have said during lecture. The TAs docked off points for the stupidest reasons. The paper was seemingly easy, and my TA, Tristen Hagen, said the paper is a great way to 'bring up your grade.' However, she GAVE ME A C ON THE PAPER. and could not explain why besides that I was too generous with commas. Nothing about the content of my paper. She refused to regrade it, so I went to Suman about it and he laughed in my face. He said he would lower my grade if he looked at it and dissuaded me from asking him to take a look at what I thought to be unfair grading. He was extremely unhelpful, rude, and did not care about his student's success. not to mention that the entire class was asynchronous, but we had to take our tests in person and closed note.