Professor
Susanna Hecht
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Most Helpful Review
All I can do is reiterate what was already said about Hecht. Lectures were unorganized and for the most part, irrelevant. Readings were uninteresting and painful. The take-home midterm and final were on vague topics and it was always difficult to know what she wanted. Hecht always spoke to us in a snarky and condescending manner. She turned what could have been an interesting and dynamic class into an AWFUL experience. DO NOT TAKE ANY OF HER CLASSES, for your own sake.
All I can do is reiterate what was already said about Hecht. Lectures were unorganized and for the most part, irrelevant. Readings were uninteresting and painful. The take-home midterm and final were on vague topics and it was always difficult to know what she wanted. Hecht always spoke to us in a snarky and condescending manner. She turned what could have been an interesting and dynamic class into an AWFUL experience. DO NOT TAKE ANY OF HER CLASSES, for your own sake.
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Hecht was probably one of the worst teachers at UCLA that I have had so far. The course title "Environmentalism: past, present, and future" made it seem like this was going to be an interesting class because I love learning about environmental issues...BIG MISTAKE! I went to every lecture and always fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. She is unorganized and what made it worse was that apparently she didn't have her power point presentation set up so the entire class was just sitting, listening, and writing her disorganized thoughts. We mostly learned about the "past" aspect and very little about modern environmentalism. Also, she looks like a wreck whenever coming to class. In addition, her TA was almost as boring as she was...I never made it through a discussion while being awake either...
Professor Hecht was probably one of the worst teachers at UCLA that I have had so far. The course title "Environmentalism: past, present, and future" made it seem like this was going to be an interesting class because I love learning about environmental issues...BIG MISTAKE! I went to every lecture and always fell asleep within the first 10 minutes. She is unorganized and what made it worse was that apparently she didn't have her power point presentation set up so the entire class was just sitting, listening, and writing her disorganized thoughts. We mostly learned about the "past" aspect and very little about modern environmentalism. Also, she looks like a wreck whenever coming to class. In addition, her TA was almost as boring as she was...I never made it through a discussion while being awake either...
Most Helpful Review
Let me begin by saying I'm a pretty flexible guy who can roll with a lot of adversity professors give me, but Hecht has treated this class so unfairly in frighteningly sadistic ways that most of her Urban Planning M165 class from Fall 2015 is complaining to the department head. To start off, there is a substantive amount of weekly occurrences that challenge your will to stay in the class/exist in the same room as her. I have near 20/20 vision, and I can’t read her lecture slides even from a middle row, which, as stated many times below, are riddled with spelling errors, abbreviations she doesn't ever explain what they stand for, and many other issues. To make matters worse, she refuses to post slides online, because “we should be understanding them in context with her lectures”. However, her lectures tend to be a 1.5 hour odyssey through the stream of consciousness of Hecht that is nearly impossible to follow, so "in context with the lectures" actually makes them more confusing. On top of that, she’ll whip past 2-3 slides in less than 10 seconds because she’s “behind” but then still test us on those slides later; it essentially got to the point where the moment she would change to the slide, half the class would take pictures of it just in case she changed it within the next few seconds. As if that weren't enough, she also shows us some slides in SPANISH that we’re somehow supposed to understand in an Urban Planning/Geography/Environment class. If you're still somehow remotely interested in taking this class after reading this, please continue reading. Given what we deal with week in and week out with her, I expected the final to have typical Hecht-style trickery, but that was a gross underestimation of her capabilities. She tells us Monday of 9th week before Thanksgiving break that our final is on the Monday following break, which we all expected, but then dropped on us that she’s going to TEACH A LECTURE for the first half of the class, giving us 1.5 hours to do a 3 hour test, on which is some of the content we just learned (By the way, the final is worth 40% of your overall grade). Sunday night before 10th week, at 1:30AM, less than 13 hours before the test, the TAs send us an email saying that instead of the expected format for the final that they had prepped us for all quarter, the format that Hecht herself laid out in the syllabus, and the format that Hecht told the TAs to prep us for, has changed last minute, and there’s now two entire essays that we’re somehow supposed to do alongside the test as it was initially planned in the already small time frame. I hypothesize that Hecht knew that the test was going to have essays on it all along and purposefully told us otherwise, because I got a 2013 Final from the test bank and it had the 2 essays on it, only further evidence to my notion that she’s a sadist. Then, 3 hours before the test, Hecht emails us probably the most sassy email I’ve ever gotten from a professor, saying, and I quote: "Although I actually don't think the time I allotted is onerous, in response I will give up my lecture time,( and its a really good, optimistic one ---but there you are!) so you have the whole three hours. I am forwarding some points you might usefully consider as the Paris talks go forward, and these talks after all will be deciding parts of your future, so absent the exam angst you can actually pay some attention." (Note frequent grammar and syntax errors - very similar to her lecture style.) So, finally when we are about to take the test, the TAs come into the class almost yelling about how apologetic they are for telling us 13 hours ahead of time and how much hardship Hecht has put them through, and because they’re pissed off at this point almost as much as we are, they decided to make it easier for us and go light when grading it, because even they recognize the unfairness of the situation. TL;DR? Well, if you want to meet the Grinch in real life, have your Thanksgiving Break ruined, and your life an emotional rollercoaster controlled by that same sadistic grinch, you'll be doing yourself a favor by enrolling in her class. If this doesn't sound like a good time to you, I personally wouldn't touch her with a 29 1/2 foot pole, and I recommend you do the same. Happy Holidays!
Let me begin by saying I'm a pretty flexible guy who can roll with a lot of adversity professors give me, but Hecht has treated this class so unfairly in frighteningly sadistic ways that most of her Urban Planning M165 class from Fall 2015 is complaining to the department head. To start off, there is a substantive amount of weekly occurrences that challenge your will to stay in the class/exist in the same room as her. I have near 20/20 vision, and I can’t read her lecture slides even from a middle row, which, as stated many times below, are riddled with spelling errors, abbreviations she doesn't ever explain what they stand for, and many other issues. To make matters worse, she refuses to post slides online, because “we should be understanding them in context with her lectures”. However, her lectures tend to be a 1.5 hour odyssey through the stream of consciousness of Hecht that is nearly impossible to follow, so "in context with the lectures" actually makes them more confusing. On top of that, she’ll whip past 2-3 slides in less than 10 seconds because she’s “behind” but then still test us on those slides later; it essentially got to the point where the moment she would change to the slide, half the class would take pictures of it just in case she changed it within the next few seconds. As if that weren't enough, she also shows us some slides in SPANISH that we’re somehow supposed to understand in an Urban Planning/Geography/Environment class. If you're still somehow remotely interested in taking this class after reading this, please continue reading. Given what we deal with week in and week out with her, I expected the final to have typical Hecht-style trickery, but that was a gross underestimation of her capabilities. She tells us Monday of 9th week before Thanksgiving break that our final is on the Monday following break, which we all expected, but then dropped on us that she’s going to TEACH A LECTURE for the first half of the class, giving us 1.5 hours to do a 3 hour test, on which is some of the content we just learned (By the way, the final is worth 40% of your overall grade). Sunday night before 10th week, at 1:30AM, less than 13 hours before the test, the TAs send us an email saying that instead of the expected format for the final that they had prepped us for all quarter, the format that Hecht herself laid out in the syllabus, and the format that Hecht told the TAs to prep us for, has changed last minute, and there’s now two entire essays that we’re somehow supposed to do alongside the test as it was initially planned in the already small time frame. I hypothesize that Hecht knew that the test was going to have essays on it all along and purposefully told us otherwise, because I got a 2013 Final from the test bank and it had the 2 essays on it, only further evidence to my notion that she’s a sadist. Then, 3 hours before the test, Hecht emails us probably the most sassy email I’ve ever gotten from a professor, saying, and I quote: "Although I actually don't think the time I allotted is onerous, in response I will give up my lecture time,( and its a really good, optimistic one ---but there you are!) so you have the whole three hours. I am forwarding some points you might usefully consider as the Paris talks go forward, and these talks after all will be deciding parts of your future, so absent the exam angst you can actually pay some attention." (Note frequent grammar and syntax errors - very similar to her lecture style.) So, finally when we are about to take the test, the TAs come into the class almost yelling about how apologetic they are for telling us 13 hours ahead of time and how much hardship Hecht has put them through, and because they’re pissed off at this point almost as much as we are, they decided to make it easier for us and go light when grading it, because even they recognize the unfairness of the situation. TL;DR? Well, if you want to meet the Grinch in real life, have your Thanksgiving Break ruined, and your life an emotional rollercoaster controlled by that same sadistic grinch, you'll be doing yourself a favor by enrolling in her class. If this doesn't sound like a good time to you, I personally wouldn't touch her with a 29 1/2 foot pole, and I recommend you do the same. Happy Holidays!
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Most Helpful Review
I absolutely loved Urban Planning 234A with professor Hecht. Her lectures are informative and interesting, she is very approachable and I found her to truly be a huge source of information and knowledge. The other reviews here really baffle me, as I have nothing but positive things to say about professor Hecht. Do yourself a favor and take one of her courses!!
I absolutely loved Urban Planning 234A with professor Hecht. Her lectures are informative and interesting, she is very approachable and I found her to truly be a huge source of information and knowledge. The other reviews here really baffle me, as I have nothing but positive things to say about professor Hecht. Do yourself a favor and take one of her courses!!
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