James Tobias - University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA

Professor: James Tobias

Department: English

College: University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: ENG102W
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Tobias gives GREAT feedback to help us improve our writing!

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: ENG102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor Tobias is one of the most intelligent professors at UCR. I agree with other comments in that his lectures are somewhat difficult to follow, but that's only if you go on your phone and don't pay attention. He is seriously brilliant and is invested in each of his students and their success.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: ENG122N
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Lectures were confusing af (I'm not used to his jargon) but he was always available to give clarification in office hours. Tons of writing during finals week. If you're having trouble with essays, he'll pretty much tell you where to go with the topic.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: ENGL122N
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He is a brilliant man but he doesn't spoon feed you answers. I am surprised to learn that he rarely gives As on papers because I got an A on every single one. All you need to do is analyze and use what he says during lectures as a spring board for your paper. He is not an easy grader but he gives a lot of good feedback and is very helpful.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: ENGL146E
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I had Tobias for 20C and this class. I had to work for my grade, but I ended up getting an A- in this class and a B+ in 20C. The final was online and you were able to take it multiple times, so there was no excuse not to get a good grade. Hard grader, but doable

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: ENGL122
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He is one of the most boring professors I have ever taken. Nothing is ever clear in his class. Everything was about interpretation and he definitely loves keeping it vague. The material he chooses is anything but interesting along with the terrible films we had to watch every week. No one in the class had any idea what was happening most of the tim

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: ENGL020C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Professor Tobias is an intelligent, insightful, passionate professor. He genuinely cares about his students' progress in the class. He may be hard to follow during lecture at times, but that's what your TA is for. I learned so much about visual media narratives. Three 5-page essays and one 8-page essay. Final was MC. Take it if you love English.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: ENGL20C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

A very strange class. To succeed in this class, you basically need to learn how to string together 2 or 3 technical terms into one long sentence broken up by many commas in your essays. While it's not hard to do, it's just not good English anymore...

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ENG20C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

The content of this class was very interesting and essay writing skills and grades depend on who your TA is. As 4 Prof. Tobias, he is very one-sided, not very open to other student's insights about the subject material during lecture,he only cares about his analysis.During the final exam he would shout out his answer to you, I don't recommend him.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: ENGL20C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Tobias is a very passionate and kind teacher. His lectures are a lot to take in, but they're very interesting if you're passionate about visual narratives. Provides a deeper understanding of visual media. A couple of novels must be read, but the focus is on film. From Charlie Chaplin to anime films like Akira. Fun and insightful.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: ENG20C
• 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:

Definitely not the conventional type, Tobias has a different yet interesting approach. Very intelligent and passionate about the material, introduces a lot of material that you may not expect to ever have in a class (in a good way). Sometimes a little confusing, but overall entertaining and interesting. Love the movies we watched!

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: ENGL20C
• 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:

I absolutely learned nothing in this class that is valuable towards life. All he talked about were these abstract concepts about Focouly and bla bla bla. Absolutely the worst English class I ever took in my entire life. We didn't even read any literature (except maybe one novel). Films were challenging and lectures were jsut plain bizarre.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: ENG20
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I wasn't entirely thrilled to take this class at first, but upon taking it..wow. My favorite class I've taken at UCR so far (I'm about to be a third year). I learned to love to write in this class and the professor chose great films and literature. It's not the easiest class, but you learn and gain so much perspective. TAKE this class w/Tobias!!

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: ENG20C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Tobias is very passionate and knowledgeable. He talks A LOT. The class was about media and film, very different. Somewhat hard material but I enjoyed the class a little. 4 essays, 3 quizzes and 1 really hard final.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: ENGL020C
• 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:

Tobias is a genius. He is so amazingly smart, and I loved attending class with him. Though the class was much more media and culturally oriented than I expected, I loved the way he approached the topics. Though the class was hard, and the material unfamiliar, I think this was exactly what a college class should be; a learning experience. He's rad.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MSC146F
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

This guy is brilliant and a wonderful professor. But truly only if you want to learn. If you're looking for an easy A, got to biology.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: ENGL20C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

I thought Professor Tobias was quite challenging. He covers material that you won't find in any other English class...because he makes you analyze films and music videos instead of literature. I wish he was more clear because the concepts he teach are very deep. Also, I was forced into this class due to budget cuts.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: ENGL20C
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Tobias is extremely intelligent!He knows a lot of things that are not commonly known.He is very helpful during OH and is willing to explain things at the "avg. student level" if you don't get something.He has a sarcastic sense of humor that most do not get but if you do the reading & ask your TA for the "norm explanation" you should do fine!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: ENGL20C
• 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:

Very matter-of-fact type of guy that comes across somewhat condescending. Covers some difficult and philosophical concepts. Although I admit it is not easy material to teach he seems to believe it is easy to understand becuase it makes sense to him. I would not recommend him to any english major, unless you have no choice like I did.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MEDIA1
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Great professor.