3.2
Quality3.6
Difficulty51%
Would Retake99
Reviews51%
Would Retake
99
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
26
4
15
3
19
2
26
1
13
What Students Say
“Tutorials are useless, but participation is graded”
CRIM135 - 2.0 rating“Her lecture slides are an absolute mess”
CRIM135 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
65%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.30 avg changeRatings by Course
CRIM330
3.4
(25)CRIM438
3.3
(4)CRIM135
3.1
(61)CRIM230
3.0
(6)ALS601
1.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
CRIM330
3.9
CRIM230
3.8
ALS601
3.7
CRIM438
3.5
CRIM135
3.5
Reviews (99)
Her lecture slides are an absolute mess. While she has the passion, she's not good at lecturing. Goes too fast even after telling her to slow down and often goes on tangents and talks wayyy too fast. I'm glad she wasn't the first prof i've ever had in crim because i wouldn't be taking crim if there were more like her.
I think she complicates things too much, has too many things on her slides, she has a passion for talking, wouldn't bore you. I don't recommend taking this as one of your first crim courses as there's a lot of material to cover. TA is great, coursework is light, but has paper, presentation, 1 midterm 1 final. She won't give answers to practice Exam
She's super nice, and has the passion. But just really confusing, her lecture slides don't make any sense, they are all over the place. Her slides are fill in the blank, so attendance is mandatory. Overall, decent as a person but not the greatest prof. Makes this course a lot harder than it should be tbh
TA's provide a better lecture than her. Her style of teaching is mediocre at best, complicating the materials needed to learn and often providing unclear instructions on our work. For example, one student asked her on how to cite for the class paper and she did not provide a clear answer whatsoever. Best to avoid this prof
She definitely isn't clear sometimes, but she is a very nice person and she is eager to help outside of class. The one thing that bothers me is that she put questions on the midterm of things that we didn't really go over in class/really specific questions from the textbook.
For a first year class, this class is incredibly difficult. The midterm was so difficult. Over 50% of it was short answers with super specific things you needed to know from the textbook. The prof goes off on a tangent A LOT and lectures are really all over the place but she's passionate about what she's teaching !!!
This is the hardest 100 level course I've ever taken. Quite shocking how she made this course unexpectedly difficult. Nice personality, sure, but disappointing teaching skills. I have to basically rewrite all the lecture notes because they are so messy and there is no way to tell which part are more important than the other.
teaches the class like a 2nd-year class. Tutorials are useless as they are just presentations.
Helene makes this extremely difficult for a first year class. Too many lecture slides and she insists on talking constantly. Isn't very good at answering questions, either. She didn't even realize we need a pen for the midterm exam. Other than that, be prepared to do a lot of review and self-teaching if you take this class with her.
Helene is a fantastic lecturer who teaches a hard course. While other teachers may drone on, she actively engages the class with questions and activities to help students learn and stay focused. She is also kind and caring, which makes participating in lecture more comfortable. Exams are fair and are difficult only because the material is difficult
In my 2nd year, and this was the hardest Crim class I've had so far even though it is 100 level. Midterm was extremely difficult, the class average was around 50%. Lectures and lecture notes are messy/disorganized and tiring. Tutorials are useless, but participation is graded. She is nice, I'll give her that, just poor at teaching.
Fabulous teacher and know her stuff exceptionally well. exams are very easy if you memorize her lecture notes. Attend lectures because they are fun and very engaging. For sure will take this course again with for sure the best teacher Helen.
Helen is an excellent teacher and lectures are extremely good. exams are very easy if you follow her lecture slides.
Love, Helen She is a great teacher and her exams are straightforward. Overall, her class is very good and she always encourage in class discussion and try to help in her best extent. I would for sure take this class in future. Follow her lecture slides for exam purposing the class is an easy A.
Shes great. Helps out after class. Materials are tough, but would definitely take again.
This is not a gpa booster but lectures were good- she does activities and references pop culture which makes it interesting than normal
She definitely loves what she's talking about but the first part if term was too confusing with the textbook cases being replaced with extra cases we had to read. Tough midterm but if you attend lecture you'll do really well. Really nice and tries to make it interesting for us. Reccommend for the Beyoncé tort class. Likes hypotheticals.
She cares about her students and tries to make it easy to understand- but its not that easy and you have to go to lectures. And read. Got better later in semester. Shes really nice.
Detail oriented hard but fair. I really enjoyed that she challenged us. Easy a if you show up and do the readings.
Not for everyone but I like her because she actually cares if you learn. Easy if you show up for lectures she literally tells you what is important. If not - you wont do well. I feel like she really cares tho.
Shes a really great prof. Shes super informed and a great communicator. Shes obviously well prepared and thorough. Was always willing to answer questions. Great prof! I came to learn and shes the best for that by a mile!
Midterm was tough but she was always available to help explain stuff and lectures were really interesting.
LOVED HER! One of the sweetest, most caring profs. I hope I have her again
The midterm was tough but the final was easy. Good lecturer, and always happy to help after class and respond to emails. Recommend!
Helene is a great prof to take this class with. She provides supplementary lecture notes, obviously cares about the effectiveness of her teaching methods, and is easily approachable with questions or concerns. There is a lot of content in this course but as with any class if you attend lectures and do the readings it is not hard.
Helene is so far my favourite prof. at SFU. she has interesting lectures and is always keeping canvas updated for you to study off and find links, criteria, assignments, and she even had practice midterms and final online. She made the course more interesting than it was. I highly recommend taking her class
Good teacher. Little disorganized, but really knowledgeable and passionate about the subject. Learn your cases.
As a 1st year Crim class her course is okay, but if its outside your major Id stay away. This Prof does not value your effort, does not give clear (or even opaque) guidelines for exams and assignments, there are trick questions on the exams, and the final had a C average and 86 as its highest grade.
Helene was a very enthusiastic professor I'd give her that however it's how she applied what she taught is what was the real difficulty in this course. Her notes are SCATTERED and doesn't add everything from her notes onto canvas. Her tests were very difficult featuring many unnecessary trick questions that splurge anxiety into the students mind.
Helen was very kind and honestly, I like her, but when I took this course she was starting out and it was very disorganized and stressful just to try and follow her lectures. The notes weren't clear and her expectations were even less so. By the end of the course, she took into account all student feedback and honestly improved which I respect.
Easy to follow, likeable. Issues: doesn't allocate enough time to complete exams. Idk why she always references 'one minute per question' when half of her questions are written - expecting definitions, C.C. references, Statue references, opinion, likelihood of conviction, etc. It takes me over a minute just to read the question in front of me.
Helene is very nice and encourages participation in class and she really wants her students to understand the material but her slides are very confusing. In lectures she talks about the easier stuff students can understand/learn on their own, but on exams she'll have difficult questions straight out of the textbook, which is a confusing book itself
she's really nice and all but her lectures are not useful... the concepts seem so easy in the lectures but the questions on the exams are very confusing and include stuff that she doesn't go through in class. her lecture slides are just words written here and there with no explanation so you basically can't use them unless you go to class
She is a really sweet professor and is very approachable when you want to ask questions. Her lecture slides dont have enough information, so you have to pay attention. Her review classes and tutorials are very helpful. The exams were pretty hard, the questions are very specific and can be confusing. Read the book, take good notes, study everything
Helene was super organized and made all information very clear. She made sure we had enough time to take notes in lecture, and would plan cute trivia games for studying. The TA was amazing as well and had us focus on the most important concepts. If you read the textbook and take lecture notes, you'll have the tools to do well on the final exam.
I wish her slides were more detailed. The exam questions are difficult; even though questions did not explicitly state to, I did well by throwing down as much information I knew on simple questions because it was implicitly expected. Otherwise great prof, super passionate & caring - just be prepared to do a lot of heavy lifting in this course.
Very hard grader.
Expectation is unclear and confusing. Too hard grader, not consistent!
test you very detailed stuff in the textbook, heavy reading and assignments, no breath and no life. Tricky and confusing questions on the exams, expectation on the answer is over what is asked. Very tough grader to make you feel unfair, shocked and depressed.
Online for COVID. Lectures are pretty messy and received lots of complaints from other students. She is very sweet and caring, but I wish she was more flexible. Lecture notes are very basic compared to the confusing textbook, it's easy to understand, but may not be very useful during an exam. Discussion was required on canvas.
Quizzes and discussions every week. She could be funny at times. The textbook is super boring. Has really detailed midterm.
I personally wouldn't want to take any classes with her because she's too dry in her lectures, but she's an alright prof. There's in class group discussion every week which is kinda awkward, but it helps us engage with other students and retain some materials. Make good use of the tutorial if you feel that you don't understand the lecture
She is a really nice prof and very knowledgeable, but this course was so difficult. Her exams and assignments are graded VERY toughly. Assignments were worth only 10% each but required the amount of time and effort as a 40% assignment should, which I find very unfair. She has very high expectations of the way she wants things answered.
Very nice person, however, the way she has been teaching during COVID has been awful. I am sure that being a prof during these times is difficult, but all of my other profs have done it in a way that I find better. She uses podcasts as her "lectures" and has discussion boards for participation, which take far longer to complete than a tutorial.
During COVID it was the online course version and she had pre-recorded audio lectures only. It was so hard to focus on a 2-hour lecture with just her voice. Her modules each week had min. 5 pages of reading and then a textbook chapter. She had 1-2 quizzes and 2-4 discussion boards each week to replace the tutorial. Was organized very badly online
Helen is strict on grading but she is also very clear on what she expects. She also gives you plenty of feedback on where you lost marks and how to for improve next time. Homework and quizzes take about 1.5 hours realistically each week along with the assigned readings. Lectures are podcast style but gives 2 optional live check ins per week for Q&A
This class was enjoyable as there was a manageable workload, there were weekly quizzes and discussions. If you are an independent learner you will excel in this course, reading the textbook will do enough. Lectures (only audio) were concise and clear. Downside was the final exam, not enough time was given; most of the class did not complete it.
She is kind, good at explaining concepts & provides clear instructions. But, her exams were very tough. Questions in quizzes & exams tend to be very wordy and confusing. Short exam time but require lots of writing for written portions, many students couldn't finish the midterm & final. Things are graded with strict expectations, pay attention!
Dr. Helene is a superb professor that has very engaging assignments and the exams are extremely reasonable and cover practiced material. Both the TA's and professor are available and give great feedback.
A very unaccommodating prof. Despite many many requests, she insists on whats most comfortable for her. Ive been getting the feeling that she doesnt know how to teach a 100-level course effectively. She makes difficult concepts even more difficult to understand. I do my readings/notes and get As for most courses.. and this prof is a no-go.
Lectures are only in audio, no slides or anything. Feels like I'm self teaching myself with every unit. Luckily, the course content is easy to understand and the quizzes are EXTREMELY easy (open book unlimited time). Assignments are straight forward and as long as you read these EXTREMELY long chapters. Somewhat easy weekly discussions.
2 hours for final, all written responses with essay formate. Two unknown topics covering 4 substantial laws with 11 case laws. Heads up, everyone.
The course content itself is difficult (lots of reading!) but she explains things well. She is easy to talk to in office hours and gives good advice when its one-on-one. Not much time to complete online exams, but manageable if you dont fall behind and study hard.
I was planning on majoring in crim but this class made me change my mind. The textbook was so dry it was literally impossible to read some of the chapters. Also Helene's "lectures" are all audio recordings. You pretty much have to teach the entire course to yourself. The only thing I liked about this class was my TA who was a very lenient marker.
Dr. Love is kind, but unfortunately she is not very accommodating especially with her podcast style of lectures (audio on a black screen). Her textbook choice was poor as it was very heavy and dry, though this could be because it is a law class. Her quizzes, paper, and exams are very straightforward as well as her modules being very well organized.
This course was quite interesting, and professor Love provided excellent notes in the modules which were very helpful for the Midterm and Final. If you want to succeed in this class, focus on professor Love's modules more than the textbook because that is what her exams are mainly focused on.
Nice prof, fair exams. However, she is very irresponsible. Doesn't reply to emails, or takes days to reply to half. Class itself is boring and case heavy (expected). She also released our final marks twice, the first time they were released incorrectly and when she re-released them, a lot of grades went down. Dont take.
Took 135 with her in person and really struggled due to the amount of cases/statutes youre expected to remember, but 230 online was substantially easier since open book. If you have to take 135/230 with her, definitely take it remote or youll suffer trying to memorize the entire book
I enjoyed the online format of this class because tests were open book. I could not imagine taking this class in-person without the option to reference my notes as it was very case heavy. There is A LOT of content and she expects a lot from you.
Helene was quite a hard marker, but overall a decently fair professor. LOTS of content. The time constraints for the exams were difficult, and the final was a bit ill-organized but she compensated fairly afterward. A harder class, but Helene as a professor was okay. Nothing to be afraid of, but definitely not an easy A class.
Overall a fun class and good prof. The textbook was extreamely boring to read. Her slides were often not detailed however she did go over each slide in further detail during lectures. Set up is fair so if you do bad on a midterm or final you still have time to get ur mark up. Only downside was there was not enough time for the final exam.
Really good prof, she goes every individual concepts really well and shows you exactly what she's looking for on the test. Very well structured and organized class and very caring about her students.
Everything we did in the lecture is what was on the exams. We did practice questions in lectures and the format for them is the exact same as on the exams. As long as you go to lecture and complete the weekly assignments, this class shouldn't be difficult. She explains concepts extremely well despite lecture slides not being very informative.
the quizzes are not too bad. assignments are difficult and the TA's aren't helpful in providing feedback, they just tell you to refer to this page of the textbook or look at this lecture slide but don't actually explain what you lost points for and these assignments make up 50% of your grade.
The prof was very nice and engaged with most students during lecture times. She didn't make tutorials mandatory, which was very nice too. Overall, it wasn't that bad but I often found that lecture and textbooks materials rarely correlated, so I never really knew what to focus on which resulted on a C+, which was pretty good compared to my peers.
A great lecturer! Helene is engaging and ensures to take her time when lecturing so no student falls behind when note-taking. Grading scheme is a little bit nit picky in regard to getting a full 100% in essay/IRAC questions on exams (understandably so). But if you did well in CRIM 330, CRIM 438 with Helene would be an amazing course for you.
Distance Ed. course didn't see or speak with prof once but the delivery of the course sucked. Read chapter from book, read through module on canvas. 2 exams and then online sessions where u present a question and respond to your own?? Grading for these was super unclear n nobody was sure what to do.
Trouble keeping up with readings and lectures. If you miss something, forget it because she doesn't repeat - even the big ideas - and the lectures are not recorded or accessible online at all. Didn't adapt well to COVID times, had multiple online lectures but you still need to go to tutorials, so you still need to be on campus.
As a fourth year student, I found this course quite difficult, resulting in me getting a lower grade than I have in years. It felt like marks were excessively taken off by the TA's for no reason. For instance, on one of my assignments I got a bunch of marks taken off yet the feedback was nothing but positive with no indication of what I did wrong.
Helene Love is the best prof for this class. She is clear and organizes her lectures in a great way to ensure that you understand. Flowcharts will be your best friend and don't be afraid to reach out on confusing topics because she replies promptly. The exams are not too bad but definitely require the work, make sure to form relevant flowcharts.
This was my second time taking Helene as a professor. Though she is a great professor and lecturer, many of the same things apply from when I took her class previously. For starters, her exams are very difficult-- unusually so. I feel as if she purposely tries to trick the student with overly difficult questions. Otherwise, she is a good prof.
Dr. Love's lectures were great; she used a case study approach and group class activities. Midterm and final were good & online, but you had to give yourself enough time between MC questions and short answers to focus on the LAQ which is the longest portion. Many options for memo assignments. Responsive and caring when you have health/emergencies.
Took two classes with her and I have no regrets! She is amazing and caring and her lectures are super resourceful! Crim 230 and 330 are meant to be difficult so put in that work! Her TAs are very resourceful and try their best to help you succeed. Her exams are fair but most ppl felt that they are under tight time constraint.
I thought I was going to have to put in a lot of work for this class, but with Dr. Love's lectures and supplementary readings, it was easy to read along the e-textbook. She is very approachable and so is her TA, Taylor, where they will help you on approaching and writing the memos. This class gave me the confidence in pursuing law, so thank you!
Makes you buy her own textbook filled with grammatical errors. Lectures don't detail textbook material, leaving you confused about specific cases and rules she wants in assignments. Gives you the tiniest word count but expects you to write everything on the topic; almost everyone went over the word count and were penalized.
Her lecturers are good and she tries to make it entertaining for students and keep engagement. The only problem with this class is the assignments are graded way too harshly. They give you a word count and expect you to apply all the rules and applicable laws to it within the word count. It is impossible to touch on everything and stay within it.
This class was good and the lectures were an okay length. Use the textbook and make sure to listen to the online lectures. The bad part of this class is the marking, it was so harsh. The assignments are worth 50% together and there are weekly quizzes. There is no midterm and the final was cumulative. The exam was not super difficult, know the info.
The class structure was ok but all the assignments were marked super harshly. She always gave too short a word limit for everything she wanted us to write down, and if you went over, you were penalized or it. She's nice enough, but probably wouldn't take another class with her again for that reason
Dr. Love was very clear and engaging. She made sure you had the tools to do very well on her assignments; if you paid attention it was obvious what things you should expect on exams. There were also several guest lectures which was exciting. If you had her for CRIM 230, her assignment and exams are quite similar but I actually found it easier.
Definitely a nice and caring prof who has pretty engaging lectures. Her assignments and exams are very lengthy. She is a pretty hard marker and gave too short of a word limit for everything. The exams are really just one large essay/assignment. However, if you pay attention and take notes from lectures, you'll do well.
Dr. Love is one of the best profs in the Crim dept. I took 330 with her and I bet nobody can teach better than her, you can see her passion for law in the lecture. She is accessible outside of class and is genuinely concerned about giving her best feedback for us to improve though, exams have very short-word limits. HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended!!!
I've previously had a course with Dr Love and think shes a nice and accommodating prof, however the online version of this course has little to no lectures and is mostly reading a textbook to understand the material. The papers are fair to the material but lack of lectures does make it harder to understand core important concepts
Unreasonably tough grading. TAs are hard to reach. The prof has unreasonable expectations regarding assignments and quizzes and many harsh restrictions regarding assignments (i.e. word counts) and expects you to include all case law and rules within the restrictive word count. DO NOT recommend.
She requires you to buy the textbook that she wrote & her lectures are 25 minutes long, expected to pretty much teach yourself the class. Lectures are super brief and touches base on some of the text you read otherwise other parts of the lecture are to watch other professors 3rd year lectures. TA's mark very hard, must solve cases like a lawyer.
This class is tough. The professor is great though and the content is interesting, but you really need to put in the work if you want to do well in this class. Lectures are helpful if you don't understand the textbook. Word limits are hard to follow though because there's so much case law to fit in... but I guess its a skill you need to learn.
great teacher for engaging students into the content, but this class is graded tough af. They want everything picture perfect. If u are a crim major and need to take this class, thats fine, but try to find a friend who has taken it with Dr. Love before or smthn otherwise u will be pulling hairs out reading the TAs grading comments too
Required you purchase her own $100 online only textbook. Couldn't write about/include any cases not from her textbook and would get severely docked if did so. Ta's mark particularly hard and the comments are quite petty. 4+ assignments plus midterm and final, class was interesting but overall a lot of work.
This class was brutal. TA's marked super hard and lectures were very vague considering the depth of the content we need to know. The exam papers were difficult to complete unless you have a good understanding of the law and legal rules which is difficult if you don't know much about the law. The textbook was also difficult to follow and understand.
Tbh contrary to the ratings, I didn't find Helenes lectures that long. The weekly to-dos were very reasonable (open book quiz no time limit). 3 assignments were hard to get good grade on as TAs mark rough, deducting marks a lot. But the final was reasonable and she gave clear explanation on what will be on it; 5 MC and 3 long answer.
This course was unreasonably hard for a first year course. The TAs marked the assignments were very harshly and the word counts were too short given the depth they were looking for. While there was criteria for the assignments, they were still confusing and I had to consistently figure out what to do by myself, and my TA didn't clarify much.
I usually love classes with her but this semester, it has been so boring and I am not sure why. We are reading 60+ pages in readings and there are about 3-5 per module. I find it super long and tedious.
Not gonna lie, I could have put a little more effort. BUT, the fact that this course was online made it harder for me. Lots of readings, the TAs were tough graders, and the final exams were so hard to complete because of the word limit (2000 words). The textbook was 100$ and it was sooooo long and hard to read. The prof was nice tho.
The class was very straightforward, especially if you did well in 200 level Crim law classes. Keep up with readings, do the supplementary work if you don't understand and reach out if you need help. Clear expectations and everything on the exams were reflected in the course content. Word limit requires you to streamline and refine ideas.
She's nice and allowed extensions when life stuff happened to me. But the TAs marked extremely hard, and their comments were kind of mean. I read the whole textbook and spent an entire week writing the midterm, but I only got about 70%. Sadly, it was like this for every assignment.
Compared to her Crim 330, her teaching style back when I took it in the Spring of 2025, it was actually good. Pretty detailed lecture slides along with the readings for which the exams reflected. As long as you keep up with the readings and lectures as well as attend tutorials, you stand a good chance of getting a good grade.
Helene's classes are so confusing. She is a nice person and she gives lots of resources but her assignments are SO SO confusing and they mark SO hard. She provides pages of instructions that contradict each other. 25% for 2 assignments each, midterm, final which is nice. The grading breakdown was nice but other than that do not take her course.
Don't listen to the negative reviews on here, Dr Love is an amazing prof! I would take a class again with her. If you read the textbook and actually apply concepts from the textbook to the assignments, you will do good in this class. Also, she responds to emails so fast. If you have the chance, take Crim 330 with Dr Love!
The guidelines for the assignments are copy and pasted from previous years, and it contradicts how she marks sometimes. Tests were on 5-6 chapters of textbook and all her lecture material as well, gave no guideline on what to focus on. Lots of people ran out of time during midterm. Would not suggest.
Helene Love was a great professor who was always answered any questions and was quick to debrief on marked work. Word counts were too short for what was required for the assignments, however the grading rubrics were clear and easy to follow. Exams were heavily focused on problem based questions but unlimited cheat sheets were allowed.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
65%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.30 avg changeRatings by Course
CRIM330
3.4
(25)CRIM438
3.3
(4)CRIM135
3.1
(61)CRIM230
3.0
(6)ALS601
1.3
(3)Difficulty by Course
CRIM330
3.9
CRIM230
3.8
ALS601
3.7
CRIM438
3.5
CRIM135
3.5