Professor
Teofilo Ruiz
3 of 3
Most Helpful Review
Truly one of the great minds on this campus, Teo is as warm and friendly as he is brilliant. He makes himself available to his students on a regular basis despite being the chair of the department. He emotes in his lectures...a rare quality in a campus littered with rigid academics who have a distaste for undergraduates. His love of teaching is obvious and appreciated. While his class sometimes seems like its missing direction, it is truly a fascinating cultural experience that I personally cherish. His class was a joy to be a part of, and it would behoove anyone to be a part of it.
Truly one of the great minds on this campus, Teo is as warm and friendly as he is brilliant. He makes himself available to his students on a regular basis despite being the chair of the department. He emotes in his lectures...a rare quality in a campus littered with rigid academics who have a distaste for undergraduates. His love of teaching is obvious and appreciated. While his class sometimes seems like its missing direction, it is truly a fascinating cultural experience that I personally cherish. His class was a joy to be a part of, and it would behoove anyone to be a part of it.
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Most Helpful Review
Teo is an absolutely wonderful professor. He is one of the few professors who genuinely means it when he says he cares about the well being of his students. The man is one of a kind, and is one of UCLA's great resources. The class consisted of a midterm, a final, attendance score, and a paper. The midterm and the final were more than fair, he hands out the prompt (which is word for word what will be given on test day) about a week in advance and you answer 2 questions (one from each section). The paper was short, roughly 6 pages, and was also very fair and rewarding. You are simply asked to discuss a given literary work (from several choices) and its impact on Spanish culture etc. Grading was very solid, and his TA's were magnificent. Teo is a very passionate lecturer, and definitely enjoys his subject. His enthusiasm is contagious, and our class was almost always full to overflowing. Regular attendance at lectures is not necessary to achieve an A, but you will probably go to all of them or at least often. There was also a video podcast, so it was easy to view a lecture over again if you felt you missed anything of key importance. There was a lot of reading, but it is not overwhelming and it provides you with a great understanding of the test material. Any time I visited Teo during office hours, he was more than generous with his time. I was very sick for over a week, and he was incredibly concerned and understanding (even waiving away my offer to make a copy of my note from Ashe). He will spend as much time as needed to help you understand the material, and is more than willing to simply hang out and have a conversation (he is well traveled and is a great resource for anyone thinking about visiting Europe). I encourage any student to take a class with Teo while at UCLA. I have taken courses with several fantastic professors, and Teo easily ranks very near if not at the top.
Teo is an absolutely wonderful professor. He is one of the few professors who genuinely means it when he says he cares about the well being of his students. The man is one of a kind, and is one of UCLA's great resources. The class consisted of a midterm, a final, attendance score, and a paper. The midterm and the final were more than fair, he hands out the prompt (which is word for word what will be given on test day) about a week in advance and you answer 2 questions (one from each section). The paper was short, roughly 6 pages, and was also very fair and rewarding. You are simply asked to discuss a given literary work (from several choices) and its impact on Spanish culture etc. Grading was very solid, and his TA's were magnificent. Teo is a very passionate lecturer, and definitely enjoys his subject. His enthusiasm is contagious, and our class was almost always full to overflowing. Regular attendance at lectures is not necessary to achieve an A, but you will probably go to all of them or at least often. There was also a video podcast, so it was easy to view a lecture over again if you felt you missed anything of key importance. There was a lot of reading, but it is not overwhelming and it provides you with a great understanding of the test material. Any time I visited Teo during office hours, he was more than generous with his time. I was very sick for over a week, and he was incredibly concerned and understanding (even waiving away my offer to make a copy of my note from Ashe). He will spend as much time as needed to help you understand the material, and is more than willing to simply hang out and have a conversation (he is well traveled and is a great resource for anyone thinking about visiting Europe). I encourage any student to take a class with Teo while at UCLA. I have taken courses with several fantastic professors, and Teo easily ranks very near if not at the top.
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Most Helpful Review
History 20. Wow! I honestly feel stupider (see, not even a word) for having taken this class. Ruiz is a genuine nice guy, but the whole class is crap. Its a bad class to begin with because you are crunching down millions of years of history into 18 classes. I learned nothing, I did nothing other than drag myself to class to hear his accented voice that got very annoying over the quarter, and got an A. If you want the easy A like I did, take Ruiz, although be prepared to be mentally exhausted when done.
History 20. Wow! I honestly feel stupider (see, not even a word) for having taken this class. Ruiz is a genuine nice guy, but the whole class is crap. Its a bad class to begin with because you are crunching down millions of years of history into 18 classes. I learned nothing, I did nothing other than drag myself to class to hear his accented voice that got very annoying over the quarter, and got an A. If you want the easy A like I did, take Ruiz, although be prepared to be mentally exhausted when done.
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3 of 3
