Professor Suman is very interesting. His material is well organized and his tests are not that bad if you study. Make sure you know the lists that he gives you and you will be fine. I also suggest going to discussion, even though it is optional. The tas cover different material in the discussions that is also on the test. I have never taken a class that is so relevant to my everyday life. I would definately recommend this class to anybody who is willing to go to class (there is no textbook, so you NEED to go to lectures) and take notes.

This is a great class and really interesting, and Suman is very charismatic and funny. However, do not take this class as a GE! The midterm, final, and paper are all pretty difficult and are graded meticulously. Basically you have to memorize everything the professor says in this class and be able to put it onto paper for the tests, which are all fill-ins and essays. Definitely one of the hardest classes I've taken so far.

I took this class as a comm pre-req my freshman fall quarter. I heard a lot of "horror" stories regarding the class so I went in the class expecting it to be a killer. But it ended up not being that hard. Of course there's a lot of memorization involved but the class was quite manageable. Just as long as you to lecture and take good notes, read the books (although i didn't read the second book), it is possible to get by with an A in the class. As stated in the previous reviews, it's easy to get a B. One tip when you take the exams: just write as fast as you can and put in as much info as you can. Dont worry too much about being grammatically correct. They look for KEY WORDS in your essay portion.

Do not take comm 10 for a GE!!! It is really boring. Suman has an incredibley monotone voice and he doesn't do anything but stand there and talk during the lecture. 90% of the class is asleep 15 minutes in. His TA's are totally useless. Don't even bother to meet with them. You must go to every lecture and take good notes. Midterm and final are killer if you can't memorize (25 pages typed notes for the midterm 35 pages for the final) If you can memorize and go to lecture it is possible and not that hard to get an A in this class. Don't stress about the paper, it's easy to write and everyone gets a B.

Professor Suman is a good lecturer, but his tests are very deceptive. The material covered in class is so straight forward that he figures he has to be vague on his tests so that all prospective Comm majors don't ace his course. "Taking Sides", the required reading for the second half of the class, is terribly unorganized and an all around badly compiled book. The worst part about it is that we didn't even use the book as a jumping off point for discussion, we simply were praised in discussion and on the test for memorizing facts about the book's entries. That is all the class is, memorization and regurgitation, and we all know how useless that is when we look back on what we gained from taking the course. Don't think I am saying this because I failed the class, I got a B just like everyone else, but I still believe Comm 10 is absolutely the worst class offered for freshman at UCLA.

Great sense of humor, interesting professor, his lectures are borad and they seem like general knowledge and much useless information. Memorization is essential and i did not find flashcard helpfull because there's just too much infornmation and it is too vague, even certain terms could be explained in many ways w/o an exact definition. Take comm 10 if you're thinking about the major, but not to fulfill a GE. :)

Suman is a good professor. His lectures are pretty straight forward, and its easy to take good notes. The exams are tough, but if you want to do well in the class all you have to do is study from the beginning. His lectures are entertaining and he does make an effort to make them interesting, even if you do not plan to major in Comm. Its a class worth taking but you have to work pretty hard to do well. Oh, and the TAs definitely suck....

Suman is a funny guy and a good lecturer. He is a very unique teacher who loves to pronounce every word and every phrase with pauses. I would recommend him as a professor to take. On the other hand, the TA's is this class are TRIPPIN. Big Time. The way in which they grade the midterm, final, and paper is ridiculous. They expect too much for a intro type of comm class. I am off all that. Get ready to memorize, stress out, and do some cursing. Their is even a lecture on cursing. It was an interesting class, but the grading system really ruins it. Bottom line, Suman=good, TA's=bad.

Anyone who willingly takes Comm 10 deserves the hell they're about the spend 10 weeks in. If you're interested in a professor who could care less that you learn anything and expects you to have a short term memory HUMANLY IMPOSSIBLE to obtain, Suman's perfect for you. His class was ridiculously inconsequential the biggest mistake of my education. The students who described his tedious lectures as "FUNNY" need to get out more often.

Michael Suman is passionate about the course he teaches, and he cares about student learning. Some of the criticisms here seem to focus on the amount of work involved with the class--no one said university would be easy. And Suman's TAs aren't comm studies majors because there is no graduate program in communication studies at UCLA. In a system that often promotes mediocrity, Michael Suman stands as one of the best professors at UCLA preceisly because he is challenging.