Suman is a nice and funny guy, and his lectures are bearable. He writes key points on the board and makes note that only the stuff he writes on the board will be on the exams, so you don't have to copy down everything he says word for word because he does say a lot of stuff in the 2 hours of class. However, his tests are extremely harshly graded and the curve is stupidly low. In the end, he made the curve for the final grade of the class 80/60/40/20 rather than the normal 90/80/70/60. So most people ended up getting either a C+ or B- which is consistent with most professors. You may think, "80% is an A? I'm gonna take this class for an easy A." Well think again. I mean it when I say his tests are hard. There is so much crap to memorize, and if you're not interested in the material then you'll do poorly. The first half of the class is pretty interesting, he talks about people communication and a little bit of psychology. The second half however, is just plain stupid. The lectures are about mass media, and he spends time talking about shit like how television signals get delivered to your house. Who the hell cares? Worst of all, that stuff is going straight on the final (which is not cumulative, but that actually makes it harder for this particular class). There is also an essay that accounts for 30% of your grade. It is very harshly graded with the average being about 20/30, so I definitely suggest you take an English Composition class first before this. So my final verdict on the class: Do not take it. It is a weeder class to dissuade people from the Communications Studies major. And don't even think about taking this class for a GE requirement especially if you're a South campus major.

Great professor! Lectures were always interesting and gives tons of examples to make sure students fully digest all subject matter. From my experience, all the TAs were great too...I personally had Matt who was first and foremost a really friendly, approachable TA, but especially as a TA he always went out of his way to make sure the students in his section always knew what was going on in/out of class, grasped the concepts, and he even arranged out of his own time, not required by Professor Suman for review sessions prior to both the midterm and final for his sections. Got an A- in the class...plenty of resources available to do well in the class.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class. BUT- it is extremely difficult. If you are not thinking about majoring in communications, i wouldn't advise you to take this class, especially if you're just taking it to get rid of a GE. I worked really hard in this class. You have to go to lecture, because most of the final and midterm consists of lecture material. Take notes on your laptop, because otherwise you will get hand cramps. The material involves a bunch of memorization and on the exams you have to be very precise in your language when trying to explain a definition or concept. There is a paper, but i wouldn't do it at the last minute because if you don't do well on the midterm, you have a chance to improve your grade with the paper and the topics for the paper are pretty interesting. Get to know your TA because they will tell you exactly what they want out of you on the tests. Basically, if you want to do well in this class, you have to invest a lot of time. There are two books you have to read. The first one is interesting and an easy read. The second one is really hard to understand and very dense. He takes a lot of questions from the second book for the final and they're very detailed. It's a fun class though, and Professor Suman is a really cool guy and a good lecturer.

This was an extremely difficult GE class. So if you do not need to take this class then do NOT take it. Every lecture consisted of contant notetaking for 2 straight hours (bring a laptop to type up the notes fast!). Though this course is mostly about memorizing all the definitions and details from the notes, it also depends on your writing skills (to be able to "persuage" the TAs that you know the material when you write your essays on the midterm/final. DO NOT MISS ANY LECTURES. Reading is very dense the latter half of the quarter, but just get the general idea and you will be fine. Go to every lecture, get general idea of the reading, and memorize all the details and you should be fine. Goodluck!

The material covered in this class is a great introduction to Communications, even for people who don't necessarily intend to enter the major itself. It has a lot of real-world application. Tests, however, are challenging. For the first midterm, which covers intrapersonal, interpersonal, and small group communication, you should memorize all "lists" provided via the lectures and be prepared with some strong examples of each term. The same will be true for the paper that you have to write. The prompts are pretty broad, so you'll want to pick a manageable thesis, include some class topics, and select a few supporting examples that you understand well and which fit the paper. You will earn no extra points with making stuff up or writing more than necessary. As for Professor Suman, he is entertaining and sometimes long-winded, but with the intent of making sure that students remember the material. He is very good at responding promptly to emails and his TAs are similarly helpful. If you have a question, don't understand an instruction, or want some help with the class, you should not hesitate to ask. In short, don't underestimate the difficulty of this class, work accordingly, and you'll be fine.

It's not that bad....I'm not a comm major, I just took it for GE in this Fall Quarter.
I didnt read a page of You just don't get it and I read half of the required chapters for Taking Sides.
As long as you memorize the lecture you will be fine. Although not ideal, I ended up with an A- which is okay I suppose considering how difficult people say this class is. A lot of memorization which also translates into that bullshiting does not work, TA's opinion doesnt matter, and how well you bullshit is irrelevant. I like that because if you memorize well enough you will get a high mark for sure unlike some other north campus classes, which even if you studies really well, you can never be sure about your score. I would recommend this class for the people who are good at logical thinking and are okay at memorization.

I just wanted to say that if you want to take Comm 10 but is scared of the grading, just take it. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of other GE's in the same category that if I had put into the same time preparing, I would have gotten an easy A but grading isnt actually that tough if you are not that stupid....Im not a comm major, took it with a lot of students applying to comm major, and still did fine.

We're at UCLA to discover our interests, grading shouldnt stop you from taking the classes that you want, even if it only interests you slightly.

Literally my least favorite class in two years at ucla so far. I feel bad for people who take this prior to getting into the COMM Major because it will bring down ur GPA for sure. DO NOT TAKE THIS BEFORE APPLYING TO COMM STUDIES MAJOR. WAIT TILL YOUR IN, TAKE EASIER REQUIREMENTS! This class is a joke based completely 100% on memorization. Only take it when you have an easy course load and its absolutely necessary. You will spend hours during your finals week memorizing this pointless information so if your stressed with other finals, this class will be hell for u. seriously, im a 4.0 student...never got a B at ucla and this class kicked my ass.

in conclusion- DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS PRIOR TO TRYING TO GET INTO COMM (i suggest sociology 1, psych 10, stat 10, comm 1...all before this class)
ALSO DO NOT TAKE THIS AS JUST A GE...NOT WORTH IT!

and if u get MATT LUCKETT AS UR TA, switch quickly. power trip much-- i think so. this is a GE u idiot. stop grading the midterms and essays as if this is an upper division class that people devote hours and hours to. ur a joke, get over urself.

You really should listen to these reviews. The TA's are extremely hard graders and this class is pretty much impossible to get an A in. Whenever I looked at the grade sheets, the highest grade would be a really low A. Even if you somehow manage an A on the midterm and paper, you still might be screwed because the final is really hard. The class is not interesting, too much detail, 2 hour lectures! Everyone I know who took the class with me was extremely unsatisfied and expected something really different. Try hard not to take this class, it is not what it seems.

DONT TAKE THIS CLASS -- COMM ST 10. IT WAS HORRIBLE

Suman himself wasn't bad. Lectures were interesting at times, and he was funny sometimes, although it was pretty dry a lot of the time. But the worst part of the class was the grading. If you're hoping for an A, good luck. His tests are straight-out memorization. LOTS of memorization. Not fun. And even if you understand all the material, go to all the lectures, and take notes on everything -- and then study your notes and memorize it -- it's still not enough. The TA took off random points for no reason. The reason why: "Not many people get 8's. Only like 2 of my students got an 8." What a fair way to grade. Don't take this class if you can avoid it!!!

i think the material was pretty interesting. the first half was more along the lines of social psychology and interpersonal relationships and the second half was mass media. his lectures are straightforward and fairly entertaining. he DOES do a curve which actually helped out but i think the number one best advice i could give to anyone is......
TAKE YOUR OWN NOTES!!
........he's been teaching this class for a very long time and so while i took my own notes, i also borrowed other friends' notes which were more thorough and thought would help me out. i think he knows that most people borrow notes so each quarter he makes tiny changes to his lectures and puts those changes on the exam. (you can still use your friends' notes as an aid but not as a primary study guide). as everyone has mentioned, his exams are almost 100% memorization. the material is super easy to understand, but you're tested more on your ability to retain all that information. overall, if you are smart about the class, it is COMPLETELY possible to get an A. i would recommend the class to people who seem interested in the subject. i ended up with an A- despite my mistake of using other peoples' notes instead of my own