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

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. I am in week 10 of this class right now and RUN AWAY. SUMAN DOES NOT CARE ABOUT HIS STUDENTS AT ALL! He has not been understanding or accommodating during the pandemic or the great injustices we are witnessing right now, and that some students are affected by protests/ national guard deployment. He grades based on whether the definitions are verbatim and his tests are SO long- (midterm 3 hours and took the full time) He only has 1 TA grading all the work so we are in week 10 and only have 1 grade and will not receive our papers until after it is too late to change the class to p/np

Some might be turned off by this class because of Suman's teaching style and the nightmares Comm 10 brought to most of us but this class is nothing like that. Although Suman both classes share the same format (Midterm, Paper, Final), this is class is not only easier but more interesting than Comm 10. The content of this material is way more engaging and practical. This class is all about persuasion and compliance which is wholly practical in your everyday life and something that is very useful in whatever field or walk of life you pursue.

However, there are four movies and two books to read throughout the quarter which depending on what other courses you are taking in conjunction with Comm 140, the workload can seem slightly overwhelming but if you plan your time right and since there are no assignments, homework, or quizzes throughout the quarter I would say it is a fair trade-off and definitely manageable.

Overall I would say that I was very pleased with the course and developed skills and garnered knowledge that will prove invaluable in life.

TL:DR Easier than Comm 10. Interesting content. Valuable life and work skills. 2 books & 4 movies but no other work besides final, midterm, and paper. Overall great experience.

**I would like to caveat that I took this class online due to the pandemic so there might be slight differences between the way he teaches and proctors his courses online versus in-person.

Suman is a great lecturer, he finds a way to explain weird concepts in an understandable manner. That being said he is (or rather, the TA is) a ridiculous grader. I’ve taken suman twice and both times he has these crazy curves. They will mark you off for the slightest thing, and then curve the test so a 40% is a B. You can genuinely know the answer to a question yet still not get it right bc the ta may not like the way it was worded. All in all I respect the guy, but would look at other options in order to make things easier for you in the long run/save your gpa.

THE WORST CLASS AT UCLA!! this professor doesn't care about you AT ALL! He is arrogant, a hard a** grader for no reason! he doesn't even grade our work, it's all up to the TA. he expects you to know 500+ concepts for each exam! this class is unfair and this professor is so conservative it makes me want to gag. the only regret I have at UCLA was having him as my professor.

Selling Influence book and Yes! text me 5105413242

He was very unflexible and not understanding during the pandemic and riots. He is an extremely hard grader and complicates things when you ask him for help.

Although you'll learn a lot in this class, YOUR GPA WILL BE LOWERED
Suman is clear, nice and funny but such a harsh grader. Tests are extremely difficult and long (especially during quarantine with online classes). Suman also has no consideration for his students' mental health – he only cares about the "academic integrity of the class". If you're already a comm major and really wanna work in the field of marketing or such you should definitely take this class cause it's fun and very applicable to the real world, but if you're trying to do well or find an easy class do yourself a favor and run away from this class.

If i'm being totally honest, don't risk it. So many better professors at UCLA, he is just too arrogant and unwilling to work with students. Good luck trying to reason with him. He does not care if you understand class material, you can connect every answer with the correct question yet still not do well on his tests. He grades you based on some obscure 'key' that only he and his TA have access to. I think he writes it like the day before or something. Like honestly, every answer can be correct, yet he will mark you off because it is not worded close enough to this mystical key which he creates. Just save yourself some worry!