SPAN 2020

I had Professor Mehfoud and she was a really great professor! This is a hard class, and it is also standardized, so Mehfoud didn't have any say over the material or the way the exams were formatted. That being said, she definetly made this class easier than I've heard it can get, which was awesome. It was a good amount of work, but just make sure to set aside the proper amount of time to do the connect homework in the beginning and you'll do good. I am ending with an A-, and could be ending with an A had i locked in for the first exam, so make sure to prepare for the first exam! I think the exams actually got easier as the semester went on, which is unexpected but helpful. She provided lots of resources and repasos for the exams, so make sure to look over those.

The grade break down:
30% final project that you work on in and out of class
20% graded discussions and "lecturas"
15% exams (3 exams total, no final exam)
10% participation
10% connect (daily homeworks - online)
5% quizzes
5% cultural experience
5% final reflection

tl;dr
hard class, mehfoud makes it better than the other professors!

I had Professor Ana Piriz-Moguel. Just like SPAN 2010, Connect and various written assignments every week with larger assignments every other. A couple of exams and a couple of quizzes, nothing ridiculous. The majority of the grammar taught in the course is focused on the subjunctive mood. Each unit comes with a new cultural focus with a required cultural experience presentation due at the end of the course. The final project was a website about a topic that could be used for cultural comparison. I forget the exact parameters but many of my peers wrote about present issues facing Spanish-speaking nations. The project is completed in parts, including writing a script and recording a podcast. Small and large group discussions occurred every class. Partner discussions around a chosen subject were occasionally recorded for a grade. A lot of the course felt like busy work and the Connect was a pain to do before every class. Definitely a different experience from 2010, but this was still a course that expanding my knowledge of Spanish.

It's a required spanish course for people like me who didn't place out. I took 2 semesters of Spanish prior to this and actually knew enough to talk. The same could not be said for other people in there who likely cheated their way through the placement test. While they got to skip 2 classes, it's a bit annoying to be in the same class as them.

Course content - There's a few areas of vocab and grammar. City structure, government, environment, and gender rights and discrimination. Some of this stuff is so pointless to learn in a still pretty beginner level course. I wish we would learn like phrases and common sayings, not stuff that would never come up in a conversation with a random spanish-speaking individual. Regardless, the content isn't hard, just lame.

Work and time - There's stuff on connect due each morning before class. Not hard stuf, just multiple choice or fill in the blanks. You can breeze through these if you want, or actually try on them. It's obvious how what you do will affect your performance in the course or how much cramming you need to do before the exam. There's also a participation grade, and it's harder to participate when you do not know the grammar or the vocab at all. Overall, it's like an hour of work per week if you try, less if you use other methods. There's a final project with mini parts spread throughout the year. Nothing hard, a lot of it is in class. Final project at the end, anyone could probably knock it out in 2 hours at home. Nothing bad.

It's required, and it won't really be a time kill. Class can be fun depending on teacher. I had Jesus Fernandez and he was really cool. Classmates also determine how fun it is. You do your connect work, go to class, talk to peers for a bit, do some grammar work independtly or with a partner, do some vocab, and then you go home. Study for exams with the practice problem sets assigned on connect and you will be fine.