At times, professor Arbabzadah was unclear, however, she was a relatively easy grader and the work required for the course was minimal. There were 2 midterms and 1 final- both were easy. The midterms consisted of 2-3 essay questions that were fairly easy to answer as long as you reviewed the material beforehand. The final was a paper that we were given the prompt for at least a week in advanced. As long as some effort is put in, it's pretty easy to do well in the class. She's also very kind and accommodating of students with special circumstances (like being sick, etc...). Overall, I'd take another course with her because even though she was confusing at times, she was helpful and it was easy to catch up by just going back and taking notes on her powerpoint slides. I definitely recommend taking a class with her!

I actually took Comm1 with Arbabzadah and she was amazing. Super funny, only graded on three speeches, and was a super kind grader. She offers a ton of help workshopping your speeches and this class really helps with public speaking. Highly recommend!

This is the second time I've taken her, but the first time in person. With that being said, I would prefer the online version of this class. Her lectures tend to be a bit long and difficult to follow at times, making it much more manageable virtually. However, she structures them in a very straightforward way, making sure students know the answers to the questions she is posing. Those questions are asked on the midterm and final, so make sure you take good notes when she talks about them. The midterm and final are essays and are not too bad if you start them early enough. She is pretty lenient with her grading and claims you have to do the readings, but I never did and just incorporated some quotes from random articles into my papers and got an A on both exams. The class can be a drag sometimes but is very doable overall, and if you're looking for a pretty easy filler class, I'd recommend.

Very knowledgeable and engaging professor! She truly cares about the course content and the students. As a non-traditional transfer student I was new to UCLA but Professor Arbabzadah was very responsive to my questions, offered excellent feedback on my midterm, and took the time to listen to my questions and concerns. I was so impressed with the depth of material relating to conspiracy theories that I also registered for another class she is teaching. I feel like I finished this class not only with a better understanding of what is going on in the world but a better writer as well. There are two essays in the class that are challenging but very doable if you listen to the lectures, take good notes, read the required readings and refer to the slides. The slides and even some of the readings are highlighted so if you put in effort and try to attend office hours for any questions or to go over your papers, you will do well in this class. I highly recommend this professor and any of the classes she teaches as the content is relevant and interesting.

She was nice if you are on her good side -- there is DEFINITELY favoritism. This one poor girl in my class totally got verbally bullied for several by the professor after her first presentation, that she "didn't follow instructions," it was "ungradable," etc...when in reality I genuinely thought it was a very good presentation. There were certainly students who did worse and didn't prepare and didn't receive that kind of treatment. Furthermore, some students clearly were doing other homework during the class, but only certain students would be called out for not paying enough attention. The favoritism really, really bothered me. She was helpful and nice if she liked you. I wasn't necessarily on her bad side but I felt very bad for the people who were.

This was one of the chillest classes I've taken at UCLA, your entire grade is 2 speeches and 10% participation. The professor however has a very unique and out there personality and can be a lot sometimes.

I feel as though I came in eager to learn the ins and outs of true American conspiracy theories and I was left with a bunch of conspiratorial mush about theorists. Not quite sure how this class is an upper-division offering, or an offering at all. She has a disdain for AI, and thanks to a student in her prior class that got caught for cheating, our tests were in person and closed note. A midterm and a final, with both weighing equally in your final grade is tough especially when lectures and parameters for what we were going to be tested on was unclear. I honestly don't know if I would've been better off skipping lecture than going, but she did drill us that students who didn't come would fail. I signed up for this for the seemingly interesting material, and take home exams, so if you're on my same wave length AVOID! OR if you're up for the challenge, enroll. Either way I am glad to have finished the course with some sanity left, but I do get trauma when "anomaly" or "karl popper" is mentioned.

I honestly loved this class. I hated public speaking but after taking this class, I feel like I've actually learned how to confidently deliver a speech, and now have a skill set that's valuable for more than just my academic life. She can be so unhinged and funny, which I personally love, and forms a great connection with the students. The class is only based on 3 speeches, one of which is only a 40 second introduction of another classmate, so the work is pretty easy and the speeches are definitely manageable if you prepare for them adequately. Overall, a great teacher and super fun class!

really sweet professor. only hard part is you have to memorize your speeches and present them to the class. but you can make them on anything.

Professor Arbabzadah has such a deep understanding of what she teaches that it makes it so enjoyable to hear her speak.
Though I loved going to her lectures, it is very manageable to skip and still do good on the exams as she uploads slides for every lecture.
A downside is that her content may be just a little confusing at times. She might not be clear on what the exam entails, or she might display information in a super confusing and contradicting manner.
However, the class is easy. She goes over any required reading in class, the exams are super simple, and the workload is very minimal (three exams, 33% each).