SPAN 2020

Prof Hervas is a sweet and understanding professor, but I wasn’t a fan of this class’s structure. Class time was mostly participation based, which was easy enough, but the homework was excessive. We often had 5+ “short” online assignments due *before* each class(by 8 am that day). We also had to keep up an Eportfolio which seemed kind of pointless. Overall it wasn’t bad, I liked that we didn’t have to do presentations in front of the class considering I have anxiety, but I’m glad I won’t have to take this again. It is fairly easy to get an A if you have a decent understanding of Spanish grammar and memorize well though.

Professor Hervas was my favorite Spanish professor by far. I am taking Spanish solely as a requirement, and I think she understands that is the case for most the students in class. It is conducted entirely in Spanish, but I never felt like she was hovering and making me doubt my ability to speak. It was a low pressure environment and she is a generous grader. The coursework is standard for SPAN 2020 and certainly isn't easy or a joy to do, but it's manageable. Love Maria and definitely recommend this course!

Maria is by far the best professor I have had at this school. She cared about all of us and our wellbeing. The class has 5 exams and a final. Lots of other assignments and mini projects. Because there's so much that goes into your grade, one bad day cannot ruin your final grade. Maria grades very fairly based on effort, so if you do all the work and at least try to do it well you will do well. The class size is nice and small, and the actual classes are all discussion based. We spent less than 10 minutes a class looking at a powerpoint. She encourages you to try to use Spanish as much as possible, and you should!! I will miss this class and Maria a lot <3 if you have enough leeway to choose a professor for SPAN 2020, take it with Maria.

In all of my years of Spanish learning throughout middle school to high school to now college, this was probably the easiest class of Spanish I've taken. Maybe it was just because I've been learning it for so long now that I am getting better at Spanish, but this class was so much easier than 2010 in basically every single way. I don't know if it was Maria in particular that made the class easy or if it is the Spanish department making it easy, but this class did not put too much stress on me. Most of the assignments were trivial, and high grades were given pretty easily for some admittedly shoddy work on my part. On one hand I'm grateful that it was an easy course to end my Spanish learning finally, but another part of me wishes I had a bit more of a challenge. I won't complain though. Some of the actual content throughout the semester is actually pretty challenging (dealing with many different conjugations and grammatical structures), but due to the easy quizzes and assignments, it didn't seem that difficult.

Prof. Hervas is an amazing teacher! Not having taken Spanish since 11th grade, I was really scared going into this class, but the environment that Prof. Hervas fostered (even if the class was virtual) made me feel so much better. This class definitely has a good amount of work, but it is all manageable. There are about 4 quizzes throughout the semester, as well as a midterm and a final. The quizzes are all really easy as long as you read/study the textbook and do all the homework. The midterm and final are longer than the other quizzes, but they are relatively similar in terms of difficulty. The one part of this class that I found to take the most time and effort was the ePortfolio because it included rather long reading, writing, and speaking assignments. The assignments for the ePortfolio were given about every other week and were often due about four to five days after being assigned. However, Prof. Hervas is pretty lenient with her grading, so as long as you put in the effort and avoid serious mistakes, you should be fine!

So yeah this class is a requirement, however Prof. Hervas is the best teacher to take it with, no exception. I'm a first year and hadn't taken Spanish since junior year of HS (and only placed into the class by 2 points) so I was pretty nervous coming in. However, Hervas is the nicest professor I've had year (I don't think I ever saw her not smiling) and really wants everyone to succeed. It is a lot of work, but you can't escape that in 2020. Tests are 25% of your grade and are very easy if you study the grammar and vocab. Obviously the eporfolio isn't fun, but it must be done. Hervas grades extremely generously on compositions, projects, and oral exams so don't be too nervous about them. The final was the same difficulty as the five exams-- it did cover all the grammar and vocab so don't forget to study. Since this is a required course however, I 100000% recommend Hervas. Easy A-, but to get an A you definitely need to be doing well on exams and turning in everything on time.

Best spanish teacher I have ever had without a doubt. She is very enthusiastic about teaching, she's fair in grading, makes herself available for office hours, and is really just a very nice woman. Definitely recommend taking the class with her.

Maria is the best and nicest Spanish teacher I've had after doing Spanish since 8th grade. Classes are mainly interactive and conducted solely in Spanish - it can be difficult at times but it's good for learning. They can get boring at times but I found a lot of the Spanish speaking exercises we had to do amusing (activities like guessing which movie and stuff like that). I didn't find the class to be too difficult, but there was a lot of busy work between the Supersite and the E-Portfolio. Tests are extremely straightforward and if you study you should be set. Maria also makes herself extremely accessible for office hours if you're behind on classes or not understanding some concepts. She's also extremely lenient; I ended up getting an A in the class despite falling below the cutoff. Would definitely recommend this class.