2.4
Quality3.2
Difficulty10%
Would Retake96
Reviews10%
Would Retake
96
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
12
4
13
3
16
2
20
1
35
What Students Say
“If you can avoid her classes”
ANTH110P - 1.0 rating“Nice person, terrible teacher”
ANTH145X - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
91%
Textbook Required
19%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.55 avg changeRatings by Course
STEVENVONCORE
5.0
(1)ANTHRO110P
5.0
(1)SELFSOC
4.0
(1)CORE
4.0
(1)ANTHRO80
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
ANTHRO124
5.0
ANTH145X
5.0
THEA60R
5.0
AHTH130I
4.3
ANTH125
4.2
Reviews (96)
Awful, so unclear its painful. watch out. Stevenson core students don't really have a choice in the section leaders that they get, but know that if you get her you may be in for three months of confusing discussions that are dominated by her, and interrup
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS W/ HER! unclear, disorganized, confusing, boring, narrow; long lectures, no breaks, only she talks...on & on & on, she needs to take course in public speaking
Basically, I wish there was a negative score for clarity and helpfulness. In class you just zone out, not inspiring at all. Very hard to follow. Avoid taking her class.
She is an academic who definitly understands what she teaches. Her negative quality is her inability to understand how to speak in front of people. Her lectures are a chore to sit through, but her sections can be very fulfilling.
Had no idea what she was talking about. Thank goodness there were intelligent people in my section to make up for her ignorance. Nice person, but not a great professor.
Tough to understand, very unhelpful, lets students slide through.
she tried really hard but no one was motivated. knowledgeable. this was my best quarter of core believe it or not.
REALLY knows her stuff... unfortunatly is very uncomfortable in a lecture situation. Lectures are disorganized, and the readings do not tie in. Section for this class was not helpful, TA was not from anthropology dept.
She's just great. She kept me engaged in a subject I usually find hard to stomach.
Worst teacher ever! Not only did she like the stoners who were on drugs in class, but she agreed with their antics, over those who had read the material. Bad discussion leader. **** grader, favors boys.
Annapurna is a truely sweet woman. She is very engauging in my opinion, and really knows her stuff. My only negative comments are that she tends to take control of the discussions, and gives a little too much of her personal opinion. Overall, she is rad.
No Comments
Annapurna is one of the best professors out there. She is very willing to help students out, cares for her students and actually understands and is completely inthralled with the subject she is teaching. She has always been there for me to help me out. GREAT PROFESSOR!!!!
This class was so boring. Annapurna, while intgelligent, talked about random things from her experiences in India that often carried on too long and were uninteresting. I sort of enjoyed her religion class last year but I think her class was one of the least enjoyable classes I've taken at UCSC.
She's a controversial teacher, but personally I really enjoyed having her. She is incredibly smart/experienced and willing to listen to the other side. Although I'm unaware of her lecturing abilities, she was great in a small group.
films were really cool. I learned some new stuff from the readings, but not much from the lecture. The essays were interesting to research but pretty broad.
Very intimidating, but its because she is one smart lady... and very friendly.
WAIST OF TIME! Only talked about her religion, and never said anything worthwile! The only thing I got out of it was an A becuase of how easy the class was.
What a waste of my life.
Annapurna is very bright and cosmo. She had a lot of really great information to offer, and she is always willing to listen to what others have to say, even if she later says that she doesn't agree with it. She is really an amazing woman; I was so glad to be in her class.
My major criticism of this class is all the time you are expected to put into it. Two lectures, a section, a three hour screening class, and a second optional but highly recommended three hour screening. The catch is, though, that Bollywood films never run shorter than 3 1/2 hours, so you will never get out of the screening on time... EVER.
The class is okay, the films are not discussed as much as I would have liked. Also if you miss the films they are hard to find in town or on Netflix. The class is very time consuming. Also she pauses (uh and um) quite a bit when speaking with threw me off in the beginning.
She is very confusing and disorganized. I never know what to read, or do. But the movies are interesting, and the essays are really easy. Basically, I don't do anything and I'll most likely pull off an A or B. Only take this class if you are really interested in watching Bollywood films and learning a little about Indian culture through them!
Great professor! She really cares about her students, so if you ever go and talk to her...about anything she won't forget you, which is great. She even invited me to her home for dinner, not many professors are that open to their students, its great.
WAY too much reading (hundreds of pages per lecture) and not much structure to the class. You learn a tiny bit about a bunch of things, but never see the big picture.
Nicest woman on earth, also the worst composer of coherent syllabi of all time.
Professor Pandey Sucks. She is boring and her lectures have no structure. Its hard to follow her logic and puts you to sleep.
She was terrible. Her lectures had no order, and you never really understood what was going on. Takes roll and has an absence max, so bring some extra reading or work. Would have failed if not for the awesome TA. P.S. don't smirk or seem to have a good time, she snaps.
Annapurna is a very kind, intelligent, and well intentioned professor. Unfortunately, her class was poorly structured, the syllabus was incoherent, and there was little to no feedback on written work (which comprised 50% of our grade). Despite how much I liked her personally, I have to say that she is not a great teacher.
She is very friendly and really likes getting to know her students. She is very scattered when teaching and goes on tangents constantly. Not the best teacher, but I have also had much worse.
nice person, great movies but only shows you like ten minutes of it, never the whole thing. very scattered lecture, not connected or clear, her accent is very thick and hard to understand at times. talks toooo much about hinduism, should be religion of hinduism instead of religions in general. too much reading, no break during 1 hr 45 min class.
Don't take this class..I can't tell you how many times I walked out of there completely depressed..the readings she assigned were absolutely horrible to read, and her lectures were extremely difficult to pay attention to. On the upside- the ritual project was cool and I'm glad she gave us the option to pick our own topic for the final paper.
This lady is boring, and hardly makes sense. Talks about Hinduism all the time...should be called Anth of Hinduism, not Religion. She was not very kind to me, and grades really hard. Worst Anth class I have experienced at UCSC.
Her classes are not typical. They are free form and open; you get what you put into it. Some people can't handle the fact that everything isn't clearly spelled out for them. Does a great job incorporating current events into the course, loves to talk with, get to know students. I got an A+ in the class so I don't get why people think it is so hard.
She expects waaay too much reading (like 80 pages a night) and she talks for 1hr 45 min straight. Its extremely hard to pay attention, and the film screenings never get out on time-count on being there for four hours. i spent every class practicing my O chem flashcards.
Annapurna is an amazing prof. She doesn't lecture in the typical way- don't come expecting power point- she actually talks and discusses with the class. There is a LOT of reading, but I never did it all. The movie showings are long, but she brought dinner several times! She wants to get to know you, and she cares about her students.
Simple - DO NOT TAKE HER IF YOU DO NOT HAVE TO! She fails to connect readings, lecture, videos, and other miscellaneous material. Her accent is pretty thick, making it hard to understand at times. Honestly, I doubt she knew what she was talking about most of the time, too.
She's a very sweet and smart lady, but she was out of her element. I learned more from other students than her. The way she grades essays is confusing and a bit unfair. This is definitely a class you have to work at to get an A.
nice enough woman, but she was inarticulate, had heavy accent, and just could not facilitate discussion to save her life. Needless to say, I didn't get much out of the class.
Prof demanded WAY to much prior knowledge. Assumed you knew everything about Hindus. Think accent,can't understand her directions for teaching. HORRIBLE with communication. Emailed and called many times to no response.No way to keep up with all the reading. Paper impossible due to lack of prompt and sources. Made me leave the Anthro major.
Do not take this class. Pandey is disorganized, unclear and a horrible teacher. Her syllabus was five years old, her lectures made no sense, the tests were completely random. She had a review where you asked questions, and instead of answering them, she used them on the test. Worst class I have EVER taken. This woman should NOT be teaching.
Annapurna is a very kind person, but not a very good teacher. Lectures aren't very engaging, and if you ask her a question she rarely answers in a straightforward way. If you're looking for something relatively easy then take her class, but if you're actually wanting to learn I wouldn't recommend her.
Anth of Religion-She has very interesting topics to discuss, but when she lectures on theory it gets a bit dry. She doesn't really connect course readings to theories, which she expects students to do on the exams. Overall sweet lady and a good lecturer when she gets to talk about things she likes, usually Indian culture and Hindu practices.
She's a very nice woman, but her lectures drag on. She'll lecture for the full 1 hour and 45 minutes, and then some. Tests were directly related to the readings, in which case you're in trouble because who really does any of the reading?
Mainly an Anthropology teacher, took her final Merrill Core Writing class. She grades fairly and gives lots of opportunities to get support for essays. Participating and joining in class conversations will be the most helpful way to succeed here.
Movies are watched in about 85% plus of her class periods. She then has midterms on the readings, that she never discusses in class. She takes weeks to get papers back to students and rarely answers a question straight forward. Her midterms are impossible and focus on more then what is on the study guide. She does allow us to use a 4x6 notecard.
Professor Pandey is a very kind, funny, intelligent woman. Her class is very interesting and discussions are very engaging. I had her back in 2010 in a large class setting and again spring '13 in a small seminar. I believe her teaching style fares better in the smaller class setting. Overall I would advise taking a class with her given the chance.
Professor Pandey is a very engaging lecturer. She works well with small classes where the environment is open discussion and she really incites you to think, analyze, and connect topics of discussion on a broader scale. She provides great feedback if you are looking to improve on writing skills or analysis. Approachable, sweet, wonderful professor!
I love Annapurna! She really knows her topic, she's sweet, engaging and has great feedback. I feel so comfortable in her class.
She is sweet, fun, cleaver and a very good person. I learn a lot in her class!!For sure I will take another class from her. She is amazing and adorable!!
Professor Pandey was a great person to learn from my first quarter in. She was clear, concise, and fun to listen to. When it came time for the final paper, she was incredibly helpful and supportive. The only people who probably struggled in this class are those who didn't attend or put much effort. I would love to take another class with her.
A class that is generally more discussion based, so it can really depend on the students how much you get out of it.
Professor Pandey is a sweetheart!! There were about 12 women in the class and professor Pandey made sure we all got along and respected each other (which we did). I could not have asked for a better ending to my senior year! Since it is an upper div, there is reading but its was all so interesting and awesome! Take her class you will not regret it.
The professor is long winded, scattered in thought, unfocused, fails to understand questions or comments, and falls back on jargon to cover up her failure to connect to a conversation. OTOH, the reading material is excellent, she is friendly, and guest lecturers have been very engaging.
TAKE THIS CLASS!!!! Prof Pandey is the nicest, most caring professor I've ever had! She has a passion for teaching and loves her students. The take home midterm and final are taxing, but the class is well worth it. Participation isn't necessary but you will definitely learn more. Stay on topic of major assignments and you'll do fine.
Bollywood is a two unit class that fulfills the PR requirement. Attendance matters, so does participation. There are weekly reading assignments and homework would be weekly responses. It's work, but it's worth it. I learned so much about the Indian culture and the guest lecturers really added to the experience. Prof Pandey is sweet, but not clear.
If you can avoid her classes. She does not answer questions well, and does not teach in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Her tests are long and difficult but they are take home. She is a professor that treats her students like children and assigns lots of quizzes to check up on your reading progress.
Nice person, terrible teacher. She is unfamiliar with current findings or studies. Allowed a cult leader to recruit during a class she was absent from. Quizzes and Tests have nothing to do with readings or videos and are terribly worded. Class consists of un-proofread slides and Pandey reading these slides aloud. Lectures contain NO information.
Do not take any class with professor Pandey. Wait until another professor teaches. She is one of the most confused and unorganized professor I have come across. I am a STEM major and I took Thea 80Rthinking it would be a easy GE, but depiste the work I put into the class, I did not receive the grade I should have. This should've been a easy GE.
If I could say anything about Professor Pandey is that she genuinely cares about her students. Her class is not easy though, you have to work for your grade. Her midterm and final exams were VERY extensive and stressful to say the least. The material is very interesting, but she is not the most organized professor, so it can be hard to keep up.
Don't take her class and have an easy life. She changes her syllabus many times and adds a lot of additional work. I should for sure get A for this class, but her final weighted a lot and she gave a poor score. I put a lot of time and effect into this class but still get b+. When I email her and ask for a grade correct, she never replies.
Took this as a GE thinking it would be fun and easy. Way too much reading, incredibly disorganized. Literally take anything else for your ER GE
She locks you into the classroom and does not let you leave the room. I would not recommend taking this class at all. Avoid this class at all costs.
She is a very enthusiastic and kind professor, and has clearly done a lot of work in her field of study, which she shares in class. She also wants to get to know you personally, which is nice. The lectures and the assignments were unclear and disorganized, and sometimes it was hard to know what she wanted in the assignments. Also, the reading were
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! She really cares about students but is such a disorganized prof. In class, she reads off boring slides and you learn practically nothing then outside of class she assigns six readings a week, along with essay responses due weekly. There are 3 term papers but the midterm alone is basically writing 5 separate essays.
I took this class thinking it'd be an easy A, but boy was I wrong. Ended up not taking the class seriously and failed the midterm horribly. This class almost stopped me from graduating. She cares a lot about what she teaches and is a good teacher, but to get a good grade you gotta work super hard.
Very disorganized and outdated. I took this class in 2020 and we were still using a syllabus from 2015. Lots of the readings/ films assigned are no longer available online for free (even if she says they are)so you may have to dip into your wallet for books and films. However, this class did open my eyes to the fantastical world of Bollywood.
Prof Pandey is a really sweet person and she's super passionate, but omg.. i've never had more readings to do in 1 class. Structurally the class wasn't great. She never gives study guides which makes it hard to grasp concepts and know what things to focus on in so many super dense readings. and if u miss 1 discussion post ur grade will tank.
Sweet person, her class on the other hand is still in the 1950s? The subject is engaging, the class unengaging, and somehow boring. Such a rich subject was rendered so boring that I don't understand how it happened. Lecture style wasn't captivating.
Prof. Pandey is a wonderful person and she cares deeply abt her students, but shes not an organized teacher, esp on zoom. There were a lot of mistakes on canvas where correct answers on quizzes were marked as wrong, readings were not present, the midterm guidelines went unpublished for a week, etc. Love her sm but don't take this as an easy GE
Just don't take her. She says that her course is 30 hours a week. It's more like 40-50. There are so many lectures, videos, documentaries, and films that you have to watch and take notes on. There's also tons of papers and books to read. Her course does not match her syllabus, and she changes things as she goes. Plus, some of her links do not work.
Quizzes every two weeks that were impossible to do well on because the questions were about random single sentences in the readings. At least 100 pages a night of reading. Gave everyone in my class the same participation grade so it doesn't matter if you ever show up because you won't get credit for it. Take this as a sign to skip class
When it comes to the criteria of what makes a terrible professor, she rings many of those bells: disorganized; unclear; will not stand being argued against; gives many arbitrary assignments. A real nightmare experience taking one of her classes, and if you have any care for your education and time, you will avoid...
This class was not an easy A, lots of readings up to 100 pages for one week. Weekly discussion post, even on midterms and finals week! Just no breaks on the readings and follows up with class discussions in person. Lectures, she reads off the slides and its difficult to listen and read at the same time.
Do not take this class, I was hoping to learn more about Bollywood dance and the class information is misleading. This is an anthropology course disguised as a theatre course. The movies assigned are interesting but the lectures are not interesting when they should be on such a rich subject.
Mandatory attendance, with boring lectures on what should be a rich and interesting topic. Class does not involve dancing (except for maybe 10-15 mins in the first couple weeks). Weekly discussion posts, with tons of reading and films to watch. Don't take this class lol
The only person that saved this class was the course assistant. She was the most understanding person in the world. This class expects you to do lots of readings every week, weekly discussion posts, exams every two weeks, and a midterm and final paper. This prof chews ppl out if u are even 2 minutes late; almost made me cry. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.
She is very passionate about what she teaches and is a very good teacher
This class was a great experience! The readings do get a bit heavy if you don't plan ahead but the overall workload was not unreasonable. Interesting material and lectures were segmented pretty well. The teaching team for this class was great and seemed really interested in the course.
quiz every other week, pretty hard, written response and mc. Assignment every Friday based on readings. At least 4-6, 30-50 page readings a week and you have to watch videos too. Mandatory lecture, takes attendance. For 10 min out of the 1.75 hour class do you learn Bollywood dance. The dance teacher goes so fast... Would never take again.
Assigns HUNDREDS of pages of reading a week and even assigned reading and discussion work during FINALS WEEK. Stay as far away as possible. I had no other choice but to take this class because it was one of the few offered online for the quarter.
I just really didn't appreciate the way this professor structured the class. I was very excited to learn about Dance and performance but that was about 5% of this class. The readings went into completely different topics and there was just so much work expected to be done for a GE level class. Also they were just very rude at times.
There was at least 50 pages of dense readings each week for hw that we had to write lengthy discussion posts about. We did get to watch/learn from several professional Indian classical dancers in class which was fun and entertaining! It was an interesting class overall, but the teaching style was quite strict. She doesn't like computer notes.
This class had so much dense reading every week that was hard to understand. She has very high expectations for how much work and time you should put into her class. The grades are mostly discussions/writings/presentations so you aren't really tested but it's just hard. Her lectures are super interesting however, I did learn a lot.
She no longer uses the quizzes that I see less recent students complaining about. Midterm &final projects were chill & graded generously. Lectures were random but paying attention helped with writing the weekly discussions (the only homework we had). The movies we watched in class were fun, the dancers were great, & it was very light overall.
I took professor Pandey's online class and it was a lot of coursework. Even on discussions that i felt I went above and beyond on, I still got marked down. Her lectures are engaging and the media and readings are fun but her grading made the class not as worth it for me. Maybe her in person classes are better but I wasnt a fan of the online format.
There is a lot of weekly assignments
Gave a discussion post, weekly quiz and midterm on the same week! Lots of reading for this class. Wanted us to read a 300 page book within 3 days.
She really cares about the subjects she's teaching. Her class isn't hard as long as you're prepared to work.
Weekly quizzes WITH multiple choice AND short answer responses, Weekly discussion section posts (250-300 words) with 2 responses, Mandatory attendance (Can't miss more than 2 classes), Lengthy midterm paper, Lenghty final paper, in-class written assignments, and not understanding of late work. Would not take again. Save yourself. Skip this class.
This professor is completely unprofessional, biased, unorganized, never is clear in her instructions and constantly changes her expectations last minute. Do not take this professor, it is not worth the stress!
By far the most unstructured professor I've ever had. Lectures are not productive for weekly graded assignments, she is rude to students, and not disability friendly.
The material in this class is really interesting. If it was taught by literally anyone one else I'd say take it. I've never been more disappointed with a class in my life. The prof makes up assignments on a whim and is less than receptive to constructive feedback. Left each session feeling gaslit and upset. Skip it.
Incoherent recorded lectures, sometimes assigned movies had nothing to do with readings. I got sick the weekend we had to submit our midterm paper so I asked for an extension but she only gave me one for a minor weekly assignment and not the paper, which is 30% of our grade. Got a zero, so automatic fail and couldn't drop.
As you can probably tell from the recent reviews, my classmates and I went to BATTLE this quarter. If you take this class, make sure you set aside time for self care and your mental health. I think this class is doable if you understand what you're in for. The amount of reading isn't possible. Do what you can and seek support from peers.
Class was very loose. There was a good amount of reading with some writing but with low standards. The professor themselves have low intellectual integrity; making academic mistakes and refusing to admit their errors.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
91%
Textbook Required
19%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.55 avg changeRatings by Course
STEVENVONCORE
5.0
(1)ANTHRO110P
5.0
(1)SELFSOC
4.0
(1)CORE
4.0
(1)ANTHRO80
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
ANTHRO124
5.0
ANTH145X
5.0
THEA60R
5.0
AHTH130I
4.3
ANTH125
4.2