Banumathi Subramaniam - University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Professor: Banumathi Subramaniam

Department: Women's Studies

College: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: WS187
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Did not interact with her much, you mostly interact with you TA. LOTS OF READING. It is way more than necessary. Not that hard of a class. If you show up to discussion and submit your work you will be fine.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Fairly interesting lectures, but papers are very complex and not well explained. Some concepts are not given enough time. Decent enough professor.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

The class itself is really easy, she assigns tons of PDF readings but you can get away with not doing them. Attendance is mandatory, but she only checks once in awhile. Gives all test questions in advance on study guides as well as lots of extra credit. A little boring, but really nice lady who wants you to do well.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: WS187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Banu is a great person, but the class is horribly boring. Most of the guest lecturers added no value to the class. The class is fairly easy, but I would not recommend taking this class. The discussion sections are equally boring.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: WS187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

banu is a great professor. however, this class is brutal. there is NO structure, so we skim the surface of a number of topics, but never go in depth on any of them. guest lecturers during most classes who add zero valuable input to our discussion. three essays, a midterm, and a final, where you're expected to show that you learned.. aka nothing.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: WS187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Hated this class. Grading was kind of hard on essays if you didn't say exactly what was expected. Pop quizzes so attendance is kind of required. Tests aren't very hard but the TA's are awful. Didn't learn much because the course is scattered. Tons of readings. I wouldn't recommend this class!!

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Banu is a great professor and a wonderful woman at that. That being said, this class is awful. It is moderately boring and has virtually no linear structure. The material jumps all over the place and I never feel that I have fully absorbed the information.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: WGSS397A
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Banu is honestly one of the most helpful professors I've ever encountered. If you come to her with a problem, she will understand and fix it with you. Willing to meet you halfway on mostly anything. She can be a difficult grader, but she's usually pretty up front about why she grades the way she does.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: WOST392B
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Great professor. Gives interesting readings and is a prof that leads interesting discussions. She makes sure the class doesn't get off track. Take any of her courses and you will learn a lot.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: WST201
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Banu is awesome! Her teaching style is great in smaller classrooms, and she encourages discussion which I dig. She's also super accessible and willing to help you with the papers. Even if you don't agree with the readings, she encourages you to share your thoughts. If you like to contribute and be engaged in class take her!

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Banu was a great prof. She has a bit of an accent, but the course material was all basically common knowledge and very straight forward. Assignments and exams were extremely easy. I recommend Banu as a professor.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: WOST297M
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Had her for Medical Ethics with Dr. House." She was really into the material (although the class was a lot more minority/women's issues than traditional ethics) and knew a decent amount. She was energetic and helpful, and encouraged different opinions.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Intro to Women's Studies. I had no interest in it, but it was okay. Thick accent with certain words, but okay most of the time. Slides were a little confusing and all over the place. Used E-Textbooks (online readings) and there was a LOT. Hard class for me personally.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Easy class, but lectures are boring and not helpful at all. I did not learn very much. Very repetitive. Three two page papers, easy grading. Midterm and final are VERY EASY! If you want an easy class take this one, but it is frustrating how useless the lectures are.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Okay professor, nice and stuff, but the same things are taught every class, so I stopped going completely. You miss pop quizzes (but they're only worth 5% of your final grade) and after going to 1/4 of the classes and not doing readings, I got a 96 on the midterm. Papers can be tough. If you take WOST187, take it with Subramaniam, not Dechampes.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: WS187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Great Gen Ed course! I had no previous interest in the course prior, and learn a lot. there is NO BOOK, she now puts all the readings online! lectures do not connect but thats because it covers different areas of WS. midterm & final exam & 3, 2pg papers taht you choose when to do. easy class! guest lectures & movies make it fun.def take it

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Pretty easy class but strange material was covered. don't buy the book its a waste just look up all the terms on wikipedia. exam questions are pretty vague so you can BS your way through. if your lucky enough to get Ben he's a great TA he's nice and willing to help you out. he always lets class out early too which is nice.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Go to class because there are pop quizzes, not a great teacher, make sure to do the study guides and just look up all of the answers online because you learn none of it in the lectures, the study guide questions are the questions that are on the exam, the papers are pointless and the TA's arent great

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

i thought i was taking womens studies, instead i got isolated lectures that did not relate to one another. Lectures are pointless, just use the study guides. Dont read just look up answers. good luck on the impossible papers. Everyone who sed u liked her, think about wat u learned... invasive species?

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: WOST187
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Very very nice woman, but teaches much better in a small setting. Her method of getting students to discuss in lecture just doesn't work with 300 kids at 10 AM. The exam was kind of common sense, but had some stuff we honestly never learned. That might have been my TA's fault though. Do your readings and you'll be okay!