Professor
Jennifer Jung-kim
1 of 3
AD
AD
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - This introductory class certainly didn't feel introductory. The assignments were graded harsher than any other intro classes I've taken before, and the class instructions were very vague. As an intro class that people take to fill GE requirements I was really disappointed in the requirements and grading strictness the professor held us to. I've taken upper division political science and international studies classes with easier grading than this. As some people have mentioned before, the midterm, although not specified in the instructions, is graded on a tough curve. Meaning that you can only get a perfect score if your answers are the best in the class. The final and midterm are both graded in relation to other students, with questions meant to look easy but are deceptively difficult. Additionally, the instructions are incredibly vague on other things such as the number of sources you need to have in your answers, or how detailed your answers should be. When I emailed the professor about questions I had on the grading and content of our exams, I never received a response back. This happened three times over the quarter, she never answered a single email I sent her. Which is strange considering she leaves us her contact email in the syllabus. All the grading criteria, fuzzy instructions, coursework assignments, and participation requirements in this class were difficult to deal with. Some people really enjoyed the assignments and participating in section. I didn't. Your experience may vary depending on your preferences but I wouldn't recommend this class to anyone looking for GE classes. The difficulty of this class relative to other intro and GE classes is astounding, and I really can't say this class was a good choice to take.
Winter 2021 - This introductory class certainly didn't feel introductory. The assignments were graded harsher than any other intro classes I've taken before, and the class instructions were very vague. As an intro class that people take to fill GE requirements I was really disappointed in the requirements and grading strictness the professor held us to. I've taken upper division political science and international studies classes with easier grading than this. As some people have mentioned before, the midterm, although not specified in the instructions, is graded on a tough curve. Meaning that you can only get a perfect score if your answers are the best in the class. The final and midterm are both graded in relation to other students, with questions meant to look easy but are deceptively difficult. Additionally, the instructions are incredibly vague on other things such as the number of sources you need to have in your answers, or how detailed your answers should be. When I emailed the professor about questions I had on the grading and content of our exams, I never received a response back. This happened three times over the quarter, she never answered a single email I sent her. Which is strange considering she leaves us her contact email in the syllabus. All the grading criteria, fuzzy instructions, coursework assignments, and participation requirements in this class were difficult to deal with. Some people really enjoyed the assignments and participating in section. I didn't. Your experience may vary depending on your preferences but I wouldn't recommend this class to anyone looking for GE classes. The difficulty of this class relative to other intro and GE classes is astounding, and I really can't say this class was a good choice to take.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I may be biased because I found the subject topic to be interesting even before I took this class, but this is probably my favorite class I've ever taken at UCLA. Winter 2021 was the first time this class was offered as a Writing II class, but it honestly didn't feel as intensive as I thought a writing II class would be. There were three 3-paged essays you had to write throughout the quarter, one on Korean pop music, one on television, and one on movies, and then the final was an essay that combined all of them to discuss the successful globalization of South Korean pop culture. There were no midterms, tests, or quizzes. There were a lot of readings every week, and we would discuss these readings in class, but I found them to be very interesting and read them with no problem (you could definitely get away with some smart skimming, though). I'm not quite sure how the professor graded participation, but when I took the class, participation was worth 10% of your grade - as long as you contributed once a week in lecture, I think you would be okay. The discussion sections weren't really discussions, but the TA would just teach us how to improve on our writing and go over some of the readings more in-depth. Later on in the course we would also have peer-review sessions during the discussion sections, where we'd look over each other's essays, but I don't think these were very helpful. The essay prompts were a little bit confusing, but I believe that was only because this class is still in its beginning stages. Sometimes the TA would grade harshly, but if you struggle with writing, don't be afraid to seek help from them because the papers are basically the only things that determine your grade, and they are very helpful and clear on what they want. I loved this class because I learned so much not only about South Korean popular culture, but also because the professor was a great lecturer. She kept class engaging by constantly asking thought-provoking questions and showing media we discussed/read about in class (like movie trailers or television show scenes). I loved participating, but don't feel pressured to, a lot of people just typed things in the chat, and it was okay. I think they're gonna be changing the structure of this course a lot in the future years, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone seeking to take an easy Writing II class.
Winter 2021 - I may be biased because I found the subject topic to be interesting even before I took this class, but this is probably my favorite class I've ever taken at UCLA. Winter 2021 was the first time this class was offered as a Writing II class, but it honestly didn't feel as intensive as I thought a writing II class would be. There were three 3-paged essays you had to write throughout the quarter, one on Korean pop music, one on television, and one on movies, and then the final was an essay that combined all of them to discuss the successful globalization of South Korean pop culture. There were no midterms, tests, or quizzes. There were a lot of readings every week, and we would discuss these readings in class, but I found them to be very interesting and read them with no problem (you could definitely get away with some smart skimming, though). I'm not quite sure how the professor graded participation, but when I took the class, participation was worth 10% of your grade - as long as you contributed once a week in lecture, I think you would be okay. The discussion sections weren't really discussions, but the TA would just teach us how to improve on our writing and go over some of the readings more in-depth. Later on in the course we would also have peer-review sessions during the discussion sections, where we'd look over each other's essays, but I don't think these were very helpful. The essay prompts were a little bit confusing, but I believe that was only because this class is still in its beginning stages. Sometimes the TA would grade harshly, but if you struggle with writing, don't be afraid to seek help from them because the papers are basically the only things that determine your grade, and they are very helpful and clear on what they want. I loved this class because I learned so much not only about South Korean popular culture, but also because the professor was a great lecturer. She kept class engaging by constantly asking thought-provoking questions and showing media we discussed/read about in class (like movie trailers or television show scenes). I loved participating, but don't feel pressured to, a lot of people just typed things in the chat, and it was okay. I think they're gonna be changing the structure of this course a lot in the future years, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone seeking to take an easy Writing II class.
AD
1 of 3
