TA's sucked when I took this course. All they did was grade the tests and papers. Open note exams, but the prof will give you about 200 questions for the two books total and ask you like 20 of them on the test, so you can't skip the reading if you want to pass. Tough grader, lectures were repetitive. Overall this class had too much work, uneasy grading scales and curves, and I DO NOT reccommend taking this class if you wish to have free time. This class had me sacrifice about 3 weekends total just to get thru the boring readings.

I took this class during CSI (it was my first class before starting in the fall). It was 6-weeks and asynchronous, so take this review with a grain of salt. I took this class because I really want to be a communication major. Do not take this class as a GE. I took it the summer before school because I heard it was difficult, and I wanted to do the “easy” version of it. I feel like I was coming to this class with the pure motivation of starting a new academic journey, which certainly helped. This class is simply a lot of nonstop content. Content. Content. Content. We only had to cover 60% of the material, and my study guides for the midterm and final were 60 pages each of pure notes. Notes. Notes. Notes. You really need to take notes on everything: the lectures, the books, and the online readings. (Might I say this is the first time I read 2 whole books in a while). Despite the amount of work, I thoroughly enjoyed the lectures and content material. Suman’s voice (lectures were podcasted) grew on me by the end; he can be funny sometimes and add charming anecdotes to the lecture material. He made the extra effort to get to know us during office hours. He is still a no joke straightforward professor; you can tell he’s done this course a billion times and doesn’t have time for bullshit.

The structure of this course is noteworthy. The first half of the course covers interpersonal and small group communication. The second half covers the mass media, including a lot of news. All content comes from lectures, books, and online readings. Discussion groups are about the books.

The grading is also important in this course. There are only 3 assignments for this course: a midterm (45pts), paper (40pts), and final (50pts). The final is not cumulative.
The paper is quite interesting; you choose 1 of 4 prompts and write from your own perspective and observations. It’s almost fun to write. There are no other ways to earn points in this course.

The tests are hard. Expect short answer questions followed by essay questions. They are all open notes. They are very time-cramped. If you are not a fast typer or don’t have your notes typed up and organized well, it isn't easy to finish them on time. The questions are very straightforward, not too tricky.

I also want to add that the lectures are mostly good, except for the freedom of speech content. Suman does a good job organizing most of the lectures, but he gets carried away during the freedom of speech lecture, inappropriately imbuing his personal views. He claims that this is his favorite part of communication studies, but this particular lecture was messy.

I would recommend staying away from this class unless you absolutely have to take it. I had a 4.0 before I took this class and was taking it to fulfill a GE. My main issues with this class were the grading structure and the sheer amount of material covered in this course. There is a midterm, final, and paper, and those are the ONLY items in your grade, which I feel is very unfair. I think that there should also be homework and/or participation points contributing to our grade so that not everything rests on two exams and a big paper. Mess up one of those and you're doomed (which happened to me). Definitely make sure to review your paper with the TA, as they are the person grading it. Suman is very strict about rubrics/grade cutoffs so you want to make sure you're maximizing your chances of meeting everything on the rubric by meeting with the TA. On the midterm and the final, Suman will ask the most subtle of questions. Every WORD in his lectures or the (long) readings is fair game for the exam. Every. Word. I mean that. Not to mention that the lectures are SO BORING! This man is old and speaks with a very unengaging and monotone voice. I had a hard time not falling asleep while listening to the lecture podcasts. Additionally, I find the material of the class to be very boring. This class basically sheds light on things people do in their everyday lives, it felt like I was memorizing an unreasonably large number of facts rather than actually learning something insightful. Overall, this was probably my least favorite class I've taken at UCLA, and unless you absolutely must take this, stay away!

Overall Professor Suman is a mediocre professor. His lectures are quite boring and the workload is alot. If you are planning to take this class to get an easy A dont bother unless you think you will have a lot of time. The was he structures his classes is quite consistent. He will lecture for about 20 minutes and then you get through an episode of the show you are currently discussing, and then he will talk about it for the rest of the class. Make sure you write excellent and organized note. Although he doesnt give homework, the recommended work is essentially mandatory. Make sure you do work each week so it does not add up in the end. Some of the readings in the books are pretty hard to read.

I AM CURRENTLY SELLING THE TWO TEXT BOOKS FOR HIS CLASS (THE NEW ONES HE HAS ASSIGNED FOR HIS CLASS)
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Only take this class if you are/want to be in the comm major. Suman is a very good lecturer, although he doesn't use powerpoints. Write down EVERYTHING he says. There is only a midterm, term paper, and final.

RUN AWAY FROM THIS CLASS!!!!!

The midterm was open note. The questions on the midterm were directly from lecture notes. Although I had all my notes and completed all readings and answering associated study questions, I still recieved a bad grade on the midterm. His grading scale seems easy, but nonetheless he's a hard grader. being open note I felt like I guaranteed an A on the midterm, but yet still managed to do poorly. Seems easy at a glance, but is a tough grader and doesn't grant enough time for the ludicrous amount of questions on tests and the detail required. Most of the class struggled to answer every question within the time period

This class changed dramatically after the midterm. Before the midterm, material was focused on interpersonal communication like flirting and lying and demanded an intense amount of hours every week but was pretty interesting. After the midterm, material focused on mass communication which became much less tangible and more confusing. The class readings take up a huge amount of time. All notes MUST be handwritten and can be used on the tests ONLY IF they are on the readings; notes taken on the lectures are not allowed in the tests, which do not focus on the seemingly main points of the class; instead, they often focus on obscure concepts mentioned once in lecture. This class took up insane amounts of time last quarter, taking valuable time away from other classes.

start those cheat sheet notes early......

Suman is extremely knowledgeable on the topic and can be humorous, but consistently goes off on tangents. However, I took this class Fall quarter of 2021 and it was asynchronous. The pre-recorded lectures are just audio with no visuals and literally there could be 4 a week (each an hour long and sometimes longer). Those sucked. I hated just having the audio. I watched (or should I say listened to) every single one and it was truly excruciating. There are only THREE grades: an essay, the midterm, and the final. I did horribly on the midterm, so I had to ensure that I performed well on the other two. Funnily enough -- TO THIS DAY I still do not have grades inputed for my essay or final. I have no idea how I did. I must have done well enough to end with an A- (and now I don't have a 4.0 ... #tragic). The readings for discussion section made me lethargic, but they were nothing compared to the behemoths of readings that Suman either wrote himself or wanted us to read. Also -- there is just no conceivable way that you will finish the essays for the midterm/final feeling confident because so many people finished with seconds to spare. Suman is undeniably a true expert on this subject though.