He's tough, but great teather. If you just focus on getting good greads for transfer, choose other easy teachers. But if you want to improve your academic writing skill, you should study in his class. Yes, he's a tough grader but good lecturer. TRY!

well...he is not as bad as what they said. he is very helpful if you ask him personally. he is not an easy grader...a lot of journals, summaries, essay and readings to do...but you will learn a lot!!!

One of the BEST engl prof at smc!! He is intelligent & extremely tough but if you show your dedication, you can get high marks!!! Tough grader, but worth worth worth!!!

He is really good teacher. He is not a bad teacher like everyone says. Everybody should try his class!!!!!!

He is very good, helpful and fun teacher, but you have to work very hard to get a good grades. On the first day of the class, he seems very mean and angry person, but later on he is the one of the nicest profesor at the college.

He is a very good and experienced teacher, and also he is very strict to students.

He is good and funny. I learned a lot from him. He was much better than another ESL teacher I took.

He is really strict and greedy grades.But he was more interesting than my previous professor.Take this class for credit/nocredit and u will be fine.Good Luck

HE IS SUCH A GREAT, KIND GUY. WANTS YOU TO LEARN SOMETHING. IF YOU WORK HARD AND DO THE HOMEWORK YOU WILL GET AN A. HE MADE ME LEARN ESSAY WRITTING AND CRITICAL THINKING PERFECTLY.

I am impressed about his good teaching and experience, but I am also impressed that he is so hard on grade and zero patience. It's not very encouraging. I did learn a lot, but I did get C as I studied 20 hours a week outside class. I am wondering do we really have a grade standard in ESL dept to allow a teacher give most Cs and Bs. I had never hear

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He is the stingist grader i ever had. He is clear on what he's teaching, but tests,quizs and essays are really hard. I think we do more work than any other regular english class. Hid stnandard does not fit in this ESL class. He should teach his stuff in Four years college, not in ESL.

He seem mean, but underneath he is nice. Meet with him in office hour to learn more and get help. One of my best teacher.

He's not as sweet as the other ESL instructors, and he's strict and old fashioned. However, he's fair to everyone, and you will get an A if you try hard like I did. Don't listen to people who b-i-t-c-h about him. They are sore losers or people who dropped the class because they S-U-C-K-E-D. They don't even know how to spell either. Do you see my point?

One of the best professors at SMC! Yes, he is not easy, but if you do your HW and show interest, you should do fine. All HW are directly connected to the essays you'll write & to make one well prepared.

he is the best teacher ever, a very easy grader and tends to give out A. English is hard but he makes it fun!

probably a killer using machine gun.u enter the class just kill yourself without any hesitated. u only survive if u drop the bomb!!!!!! KILLER!!!!!!!! NOT RECOMMENDED!!!!!!!!!!

SOme friend told me to take his class because he requires a lot of writing. If you take his class you practice a lot. It is helpful for improving.

very helpful, he really teaches students how to write a good paper.

We had fun with him. He is serious and I learn a lot in his class.

Hoover is so nice, I took the same class with him twice... As he said he is getting easier and he is not the hard grading professor as before... He is very respectful to all students

It’s a tough class, definitely not an easy A, but if you learned a lot. He takes times to explain to you what you did wrong and what you need to improve. He can be sarcastic, so if you’ve a sensible personality, this is a wrong class for you. I enjoy this class a lot and I think he is very funny.

My friend tell me not to take his clas but I have no other pssibilty of other class so i took his class and did great. i wish I take it for a grade because i got A.

he is the best take him and you will pass the class. i'm taking him for four simester in a roe

well, i dont give a**** about what other says about him! i took his class for winter semester and it was really fun , i mean we all just had fun, i kinda made it fun with things that i said in class, i made him to smile and made class as easy as i could !!! he gave to everyone at least C or B ! we had 1 A , and i got B ! i think our class owes me=

if you really wanna learn sth u'd better take him !!! no offense he was the best ESL teacher that i had ! really kind and having fun al the time, u wouldnt get bored if u take him as ur teacher ! with a little study u can get an A !

HE's THE BEST ! ! ! wanna learn sth ? take him !!!

NO ! NO ! NO ! forget about it. belive me. he is the hardest grader ever. i didn't see anyone like him before. he come to class . (hi take out piece paper ) alots of journal, essay, his teaching is good but forget to take more than C if u get it.

Honestly, hard to get an A(compare to others), but I can say that he is helpful. If you are going to take it by CR/NCR this class will be a nice choice.

I liked this teacher. He is heping us. It is true that hard on grade, but at the end of the class, you really noticed your improvment.

very good teacher! I don't understand why so many people write bad things about him. You want to progress in English or not??? You will write a lot of assignments, journals....read in class. It's the perfect professor, he knows how to learn to foreign people.

The only suggestion I would give is that if you don't want a C take for no-credit. He is a good teacher but he is very hard on grade. He is rude to students sometimes.

i like mr hoover! his class is interesting, we discuss interesting topics and sometimes it feels more like political science. he's helpful and available when you have questions. i don't think his class is difficult but he wont hesitate to point out when you arent doing your work

he grades super hard. this one time i turned in a hand-written summary ON THE DAY it was due, but told me to turn it in typed the next class we meet, so i did, but he gave me a -5 points for being late. his class can be intense at times & suppperrr boringgggg

very useful and helpful teacher, and very easy to pass this class, even i just got 64% i still can pass this class. he is a hard teacher,but he is good to improve you english skills, if you choose pass or no pass, you should choose his class, very good for you!

GREAT TEACHER, he is a hard teacher in class, also he is a kind teacher after class. good for you, choose him,

useful teacher! interesting class

He is an Absolutely an incredible teacher.. I strongly recommend to all of u in SMC, TAKE HIS CLASS!! He is Fantastic professor.. No one likes him.. HE IS THE BEST ever!!!!

Everybody said that he was the hardest teachers at SMC. They recommended me to avoid taking grade. However, I was able to learn a lot of things from him. I don't know why other students said he was not good. If you want to improve your English,please take his class!! If you want to study a lot, you should take MR.HOOVER!!!

Mr. Hoover is a very good teacher. I learned a lot in just six weeks since it was summer session. He gave us a lot work to do that helps to improve the writing skills. The only bad thing I have to say is that he doesn't give a strong feedback. Take his class. You'll learn a lot

He told us the first day of the class: "Someone said that I'm a hard teacher."...lol...think he already checked this his page in this site. Well, he do had a lot of quiz. But you can cover it with your homework and journal points, coz he will give full point without check u homework and journal. I'm having a B right now by the midterm. Good teacher

I liked his class alot. Yes, he is a hard graded teacher, but in the end of the class, you learn alot. I got a B in his class, I worked VERY hard to maintain B. In the end, my English was improved a lot. If you want to learn English, take his class. If you want a good grade without learning, then DON'T

I enjoy John's class a lot. He has sense of humor. But it's hard to get good grade in this class because he is strict. I guess he wanna us learn before study in college English. I always choose his class, and I like him as a teacher.

Yes, Mr. Hoover is strict, but fair. If you deserve a good grade, you'll get one. He is very helpful and always answers questions. He has a good sense of humor and his classes are interesting. Respect to Mr. Hoover. He's awesome.

Hoover is the best instructor I've ever had. He is hard graded. There is a lot of work to do. Around 30 journals, five summaries, three in class essays. You will learn and improve your writng a lot.He is very organized, he grades everything the same day. He is always on time, and never miss classses. His office is always open, go if you need help.

He's a great professor.Very nice and you learn a lot from him. I got an A and learned a lot.Respect him

Great professor!

Great professor!thanks to him i improved a lot my English level! it is true that it is hard to get an A with him, but if you do all the homework correctly you can get a B easily. You can't get bored in his class since the professor always talks about interesting things and make all the class participate to it.

His tests are really hard.

Prof JOHN HOOVER is the easiest teacher at Santa Monica College. He is a knowledgeable person. I got an easy B. Recommend everyone to take him.

John Hoover is the best teacher!! I took the 8 week class in fall 2014 and I got an A!! Most people here say that its impossible to get As and Bs.. but that's not true! a lot of my classmates got Bs too! All you need to do is your homework and actually take the time to do it! be prepared to write TONS! 3 hour class? you wont even feel it!

Hoover is the best !!!!!!!

Actually, the professor is good and helpful. However, the text is really hard. Even though you do hard work, you can not get good grade. It is really hard to pass.

Definitely a tough grader, excellent teacher, you'll learn a lot from his class. Be ready to write and read a lot. He is smart and of course, hilarious.

Although he is a tough teacher he is one of the best that I have had. We saw Bowling for Columbine in his class and I still think about his class and impact to this day