Professor
Rafael Perez-Torres
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Most Helpful Review
174B, American Literature since 1945 for Fall 2014: Easy A. Perez-Torres lectures well, has good slides, mostly interesting book choices, gives pretty good feedback, and invites active discussion. Most people don't take him up on that last offer, but there's something about crowded classrooms (40ish students) that makes you (or maybe just me) not want to speak. Attendance is part of the grade (25%), but thankfully this part also includes any assignments, of which there were 4 (half to one page long quote analyses). If you're too lazy to attend or have a busy schedule but do well on everything else, you'll be fine. The midterm was 5 short essay questions (with passage & author identification). When he says "short," he actually means it. I did only three sentences with some of them, left early, and still got a 97. There was also a midterm essay (bummer, yeah) due about a week later, but it was only 4 pages. The final essay was 8 pages, and a comparison between 2 of the later works in class was necessary. The prompts were limited for this one, giving only two pairing options (though with different topics), so I'd recommend making your own prompt, if possible, for this one. Unlike most professors (in my experience), he kept the assigned final exam deadline rather than allow you to send it in, online only, at the end of the week. He's very serious about not accepting late papers, apparently. All in all, I'd take his class again, especially in a 4+ courses schedule.
174B, American Literature since 1945 for Fall 2014: Easy A. Perez-Torres lectures well, has good slides, mostly interesting book choices, gives pretty good feedback, and invites active discussion. Most people don't take him up on that last offer, but there's something about crowded classrooms (40ish students) that makes you (or maybe just me) not want to speak. Attendance is part of the grade (25%), but thankfully this part also includes any assignments, of which there were 4 (half to one page long quote analyses). If you're too lazy to attend or have a busy schedule but do well on everything else, you'll be fine. The midterm was 5 short essay questions (with passage & author identification). When he says "short," he actually means it. I did only three sentences with some of them, left early, and still got a 97. There was also a midterm essay (bummer, yeah) due about a week later, but it was only 4 pages. The final essay was 8 pages, and a comparison between 2 of the later works in class was necessary. The prompts were limited for this one, giving only two pairing options (though with different topics), so I'd recommend making your own prompt, if possible, for this one. Unlike most professors (in my experience), he kept the assigned final exam deadline rather than allow you to send it in, online only, at the end of the week. He's very serious about not accepting late papers, apparently. All in all, I'd take his class again, especially in a 4+ courses schedule.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2020 - Best professor I have taken at UCLA. He is the most caring and helpful person I have met IN MY LIFE. I cannot express how awesome he is. The class consisted of 2 essays (Midterm and Final paper), there were 3 fairly easy assignments which were short quote analysis. There was also a midterm exam (quote identification and quick response). He was very clear with what he expected and was very flexible in grading. As long as you go to his office hours and ask for help, he will do everything he can to help you. Professor Perez isn't there to give any students a hard time or make their lives harder than it currently is, he genuinely wants to help everyone and he does.
Winter 2020 - Best professor I have taken at UCLA. He is the most caring and helpful person I have met IN MY LIFE. I cannot express how awesome he is. The class consisted of 2 essays (Midterm and Final paper), there were 3 fairly easy assignments which were short quote analysis. There was also a midterm exam (quote identification and quick response). He was very clear with what he expected and was very flexible in grading. As long as you go to his office hours and ask for help, he will do everything he can to help you. Professor Perez isn't there to give any students a hard time or make their lives harder than it currently is, he genuinely wants to help everyone and he does.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Professor Perez-Torres is one of the best professors I've had so for. He is incredibly engaging in his lectures and genuinely interested in what his students have to add. He doesn't just talk at the audience, but often takes time out to encourage class discussion. The lectures make you really interested in the texts, even if you didn't necessarily like them at first glance. For the workload, it was definitely quite a bit of work, but I also personally put a lot of effort into this class. I'm sure you could get away with doing less. We had one midterm, a shorter essay (about 1200 words) and a final paper (about 2000 words). He gave prompts for the papers but was very lenient in adapting them to what you want to write about. He was very helpful in office hours and often took out time out of his day if I needed an office hour outside of his regular schedule. He also let us do a short presentation for extra credit. If you ever have the chance to take Professor Perez-Torres, you should! I wouldn't even care what he is lecturing about, he'd find a way to make it interesting.
Fall 2021 - Professor Perez-Torres is one of the best professors I've had so for. He is incredibly engaging in his lectures and genuinely interested in what his students have to add. He doesn't just talk at the audience, but often takes time out to encourage class discussion. The lectures make you really interested in the texts, even if you didn't necessarily like them at first glance. For the workload, it was definitely quite a bit of work, but I also personally put a lot of effort into this class. I'm sure you could get away with doing less. We had one midterm, a shorter essay (about 1200 words) and a final paper (about 2000 words). He gave prompts for the papers but was very lenient in adapting them to what you want to write about. He was very helpful in office hours and often took out time out of his day if I needed an office hour outside of his regular schedule. He also let us do a short presentation for extra credit. If you ever have the chance to take Professor Perez-Torres, you should! I wouldn't even care what he is lecturing about, he'd find a way to make it interesting.
Most Helpful Review
I took him for Recent Chicana/o Lit - not sure if thats M180? Anyway, he's a really nice professor - very personable despite being the head of the English Dept. He's very approachable and friendly. I was initially worried about his class because in another Chicana/o Studies class we used a book he authored and it was an EXTREMELY difficult read. Clearly he is a brilliant man and very enthusiastic about literature and la gente. While I initially enjoyed his interpretations of the texts, it did become just a tad bit tedious by the 5th & 6th week. Loved some of the readings (Cisneros), but hated others (Zeta Acosta - yuck). The first graded paper was a quote intepretation and it was graded hard. I was really bummed because I thought I did better than what my grade reflected. I didnt know it at the time, but he had a reader grading the papers. I think perhaps someone must have tipped him off that the reader was grading WAY TOO HARD, and for the next paper, he actually allowed us to resubmit if we were unhappy with the grade. After that, the grading was a bit more reasonable. My faith in him (and in myself) was restored. All in all, he's a good professor to take, ESPECIALLY if your not an English major because he really shows you how to deeply examine the texts - its like mind expansion without having to take acid. He would be a cool person to smoke out with - he's pretty deep.
I took him for Recent Chicana/o Lit - not sure if thats M180? Anyway, he's a really nice professor - very personable despite being the head of the English Dept. He's very approachable and friendly. I was initially worried about his class because in another Chicana/o Studies class we used a book he authored and it was an EXTREMELY difficult read. Clearly he is a brilliant man and very enthusiastic about literature and la gente. While I initially enjoyed his interpretations of the texts, it did become just a tad bit tedious by the 5th & 6th week. Loved some of the readings (Cisneros), but hated others (Zeta Acosta - yuck). The first graded paper was a quote intepretation and it was graded hard. I was really bummed because I thought I did better than what my grade reflected. I didnt know it at the time, but he had a reader grading the papers. I think perhaps someone must have tipped him off that the reader was grading WAY TOO HARD, and for the next paper, he actually allowed us to resubmit if we were unhappy with the grade. After that, the grading was a bit more reasonable. My faith in him (and in myself) was restored. All in all, he's a good professor to take, ESPECIALLY if your not an English major because he really shows you how to deeply examine the texts - its like mind expansion without having to take acid. He would be a cool person to smoke out with - he's pretty deep.
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