Professor
Nushin Arbabzadah
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2015 - Nushin is the best professor I have ever taken. I recommend anyone taking her before they graduate. I have taken two classes with her and it has literally changed my life. The material is important and relevant to what is happening in the world today. There is one midterm which is worth 35% and then a final paper worth 65%. It's an easy class in the sense that everything is interesting and you actually want to learn, but don't expect to just sit through class and still getting an A. Nushin is a fascinating person and I love that she shares her personal experiences, growing up in Afghanistan.
Spring 2015 - Nushin is the best professor I have ever taken. I recommend anyone taking her before they graduate. I have taken two classes with her and it has literally changed my life. The material is important and relevant to what is happening in the world today. There is one midterm which is worth 35% and then a final paper worth 65%. It's an easy class in the sense that everything is interesting and you actually want to learn, but don't expect to just sit through class and still getting an A. Nushin is a fascinating person and I love that she shares her personal experiences, growing up in Afghanistan.
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2017 - Nushin is a great and relatively easy professor. There are no textbooks required for this class and no discussion section. She uploads readings that you are supposed to read as homework, but you don't need to read because the midterm and the final material doesn't include the readings at all. You don't have to go to class - just memorize the lecture slides that she shares with the class and know the concepts because the midterm is all blue book; you have to answer long response questions covering lecture topics. Start the final paper early to get a good grade – she says 10 to 12 pages, but 1.5 spaced, not double spaced, so it ends up being pretty long. Otherwise, that's the only work you have to do for the class. Overall, I liked Nushin a lot as a person and she is a very interesting personality.
Fall 2017 - Nushin is a great and relatively easy professor. There are no textbooks required for this class and no discussion section. She uploads readings that you are supposed to read as homework, but you don't need to read because the midterm and the final material doesn't include the readings at all. You don't have to go to class - just memorize the lecture slides that she shares with the class and know the concepts because the midterm is all blue book; you have to answer long response questions covering lecture topics. Start the final paper early to get a good grade – she says 10 to 12 pages, but 1.5 spaced, not double spaced, so it ends up being pretty long. Otherwise, that's the only work you have to do for the class. Overall, I liked Nushin a lot as a person and she is a very interesting personality.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - The professor is amazing! She is very knowledgeable and engaging. The sources she brings are very diverse and thought-provoking. It forces you to think for yourself with the information you are provided but also makes clear that terrorism is complicated and not a black and white answer or issue. I feel more knowledgeable after taking this class not only about terrorism but also about humans. The class is structured with 2 midterms and a final. The midterms are usually an event like an article about an attack and the questions will make you use your knowledge and understanding of the material to analyze the article or event. The final is quite lengthy. It is around 10 questions that cover material from weeks 1-10. It is meant for you to synthesize and kind of bring all that you've learned together to produce balanced well-informed answers. I really enjoy working on it actually because it gives you a chance to really test yourself on whether you actually learned as much as you think you have. The questions are released at the end of week 8 [and due finals week] and I submitted an outline first for some guidance. The outline was absolutely helpful as outlines are but the professor directly edited and advised me on some aspects that really helped me produce the best work that I could have. Thank you for that professor :)!!! Go to office hours, email her about how to improve or what to focus on to really get the best you can out of each assignment. One of the best classes I have taken. Good luck!
Spring 2021 - The professor is amazing! She is very knowledgeable and engaging. The sources she brings are very diverse and thought-provoking. It forces you to think for yourself with the information you are provided but also makes clear that terrorism is complicated and not a black and white answer or issue. I feel more knowledgeable after taking this class not only about terrorism but also about humans. The class is structured with 2 midterms and a final. The midterms are usually an event like an article about an attack and the questions will make you use your knowledge and understanding of the material to analyze the article or event. The final is quite lengthy. It is around 10 questions that cover material from weeks 1-10. It is meant for you to synthesize and kind of bring all that you've learned together to produce balanced well-informed answers. I really enjoy working on it actually because it gives you a chance to really test yourself on whether you actually learned as much as you think you have. The questions are released at the end of week 8 [and due finals week] and I submitted an outline first for some guidance. The outline was absolutely helpful as outlines are but the professor directly edited and advised me on some aspects that really helped me produce the best work that I could have. Thank you for that professor :)!!! Go to office hours, email her about how to improve or what to focus on to really get the best you can out of each assignment. One of the best classes I have taken. Good luck!
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2018 - I am a third year STEM major and this was my first time taking any comm class in my entire life, as I needed upper div units and this class fit my schedule nicely. I also didn't know a single person in the class nor was I ever able to go to the professor's office hours because I had class during that time. Your entire grade is just one midterm and one final paper that is 1.5 spacing 12 pages, which turns out to really be around 15 pages double spaced. This sounds pretty daunting because messing up on either of the assignments can really lower your grade. On the other hand, the midterm was very fair. The professor herself posts all the lecture slides after each week. At the end of each lecture slides there are "Test yourself" questions and basically if you can answer all of these, and the answers are all straight from her slides, then her midterm is extremely fair because her midterm questions are very similar, if not almost the same as the "Test yourself" questions in the slides. For our final paper, the professor took 6 quotes online from peoples' views on terrorism and we had to verify how accurate it was using the material we learned from lecture, 2 pages per quote. I was never able to go to the professor's office hours and the one time I tried to go to the TA for help, there was a long ass line for people wanting a regrade on their midterm. So I just went to the professor a few minutes before class started and she was more than happy to answer any questions you were uncertain about for the final prompts. As for the professor herself, she is extremely passionate and her lectures are very organized, and also incredibly nice. Lastly, besides the midterm which you really only need to start studying 5-7 days before at the most, and the final paper that isn't assigned until end of week 8, you really don't have to do anything else in between, along with not having to buy any books, unlike a lot of other north campus classes.
Spring 2018 - I am a third year STEM major and this was my first time taking any comm class in my entire life, as I needed upper div units and this class fit my schedule nicely. I also didn't know a single person in the class nor was I ever able to go to the professor's office hours because I had class during that time. Your entire grade is just one midterm and one final paper that is 1.5 spacing 12 pages, which turns out to really be around 15 pages double spaced. This sounds pretty daunting because messing up on either of the assignments can really lower your grade. On the other hand, the midterm was very fair. The professor herself posts all the lecture slides after each week. At the end of each lecture slides there are "Test yourself" questions and basically if you can answer all of these, and the answers are all straight from her slides, then her midterm is extremely fair because her midterm questions are very similar, if not almost the same as the "Test yourself" questions in the slides. For our final paper, the professor took 6 quotes online from peoples' views on terrorism and we had to verify how accurate it was using the material we learned from lecture, 2 pages per quote. I was never able to go to the professor's office hours and the one time I tried to go to the TA for help, there was a long ass line for people wanting a regrade on their midterm. So I just went to the professor a few minutes before class started and she was more than happy to answer any questions you were uncertain about for the final prompts. As for the professor herself, she is extremely passionate and her lectures are very organized, and also incredibly nice. Lastly, besides the midterm which you really only need to start studying 5-7 days before at the most, and the final paper that isn't assigned until end of week 8, you really don't have to do anything else in between, along with not having to buy any books, unlike a lot of other north campus classes.