2.1
Quality4.0
DifficultyN/A
Would Retake92
ReviewsN/A
Would Retake
92
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
7
4
7
3
20
2
30
1
28
What Students Say
“I thought she was the worst prof there ever was”
ENGL1130 - 2.0 rating“Avoid this class at all costs”
ENGLISH1130 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
90%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.04 avg changeRatings by Course
ENGLISH13
5.0
(1)104
4.0
(1)ENGL112
3.0
(1)ENG106
3.0
(1)ENG112
3.0
(5)Difficulty by Course
ENGLISH11
5.0
CANADIANLIT
5.0
ENGRISH
5.0
SDSSDSDS
5.0
ENG1102
5.0
Reviews (92)
Picky Picky Picky
No Comments
not so good
No Comments
not very friendly or understanding or easy to approach
No Comments
No Comments
her lectures are all over the place/if its not written how shed do it, its wrong
all over the place, very unclear, stay clear if you can!!
awful teacher, waste of money, very unclear, you have to agree with her opinion
****, anti-male, large.
talks way too much nees more class participation
i THINK PEOPLE ON THIS SITE OBVIOUSLY DON'T READ THE TEXTS. KAREN ROCKS.
No Comments
I f the class did not read a novel yet that was not due for a while she would talk about it, and give the story away, making some people not want to read the novel later on.
No Comments
Repeats herself in lectures, and tends to let the endings slip before we've finished the book. Don't take this class if your worried about your gpa, she marks HARD.
excellent instructor. Claimed that her marking would reflect university standards, and it did. I appreciated that. Worked my butt off, got and A.
Horrible teacher. She marks way toooooooo hard! She talks way to much you just want to fall asleep in her class! talks way to much about her daughter and tells us about the endings of the books before most have read them! I don't reccomend her at all!
She does mark hard...but she's a nice person. If you approach her,she'll offer some help.I think her high standard of marking helps to prepare you for university.
If she could sit still and stop blabbing on and on about her family she might be an alright teacher to listen to. Everyone is right though, I hate the way she gave away the ending of books all the time! DROVE ME NUTS!
I thought she was very insightful and passionate about the subject. I would recommend for future students.
She is a horrible teacher, maybe if shed stop yapping and going on and on and on bout irrelavent things ud learn something, she has a tendency to blab and ruins all the novels by tellin you what happens before you even start readign them, i dont recomend.
terrible, absolutely horrific to sit in on the class, maybe if htere were discussion with the students but considering she is the only one that talks...
Talks way too much, and she dislikes men. She just gives you her opinion and does not encourage disscussion. Very boring.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....ZZZZZZZ....if you are having trouble sleeping, take this course, it does wonders!
BORING AS HELL!!!!!! Save yourself!!!!!!
Very boring and talks in a monotone voice the whole time. No help even if you ask for it. Do not take any classes with her.
:( two thumbs down :(
Oh man, can't even begin... DO NOT PICK HER IF YOU CAN AVOID IT. Lectures are very boring, is quite a hard marker, and hard to stay focussed in class.
DO not take a class with her. She thinks her opinion is the only opinion and has to find something worng with your papers.
It is ridiculous that you have to change your opinion to hers in order to get a decent grade. Write what she wants to hear, it'll make her happy but it is still crap
boring, and hard
Reading from hand-written notes for 3 hours straight does not make for effective educating. Needs to 'listen' to her students (when they can get a word in edge-wise). There is more than one valid opinion in the universe, or you would think there should be, otherwise we would all be exactly the same.
Spends 3 hours talking about opinions and never actually touches on teaching anything useful/memorable. Very unclear on expectations for assignments, gives handouts with little or no guidelines on requirements.
AHHHHH i'm an English as an ONLY laguage and i'm failing this calss. i've applied for scholerships people. DO not take this calss it's afirst year ENG class and she's treating us like we are all 4th year ENG Lit majors. extremely vauge about parers ( of which there are many). clrifies after marking!
This class sucks. After break most students left.
Just like any first year course, you have to work at it to get a decent grade. I ended up with a B- in her class and all I did was attend and make the suggested changes to my essays. I am no English major by any stretch but my writing has definately improved by taking her class - slackers beware
very very boring, and she spent way to much time and effort talking about feminism...which had nothing to do with the coarse
No Comments
one word: BORING!
I absolutely love english but this class was awful! Karen is extremely well spoken but as equally long winded! Her essay marking is brutally hard and she writes rude and unencouraging notes on each page-at some parts even crossing out my work. I ended with a B- which was lower than all my second year marks in English. Avoid this class!
Karen is a difficult marker but not brutal. She marks somewhat fair as long as you can back up your claims. I found that if you just agree with her femenist oppinions she gives you a good mark. If you try and disagree youl loose a letter grade. First class she told everyone noone would recieve an A. Good luck
I wish I'd waited a semester and taken the course with a teacher who actually teaches instead.
GRRRR is all i have to say
I droped this class the first time I tryed taking it. This teacher made it easier to understand and achieve a good mark :)
Karen is extremely well-spoken and the lecture portion of class is always interesting and insightful. She is a hard marker, but she is fair as well -- she lays out all the rules, tells and shows you what caliber of writing is expected at the college level, and repeatedly warns you what not-to-do. If you follow her teachings, you will do well.
Karen's class is one that is rather hard to sit through. She grades your papers quite harshly and if you disagree with her views than you are in for an uphill battle. She clearly states in the beginning that she does not give out A's. Good luck....
She was good
Green and Blue? Yellow, its the color of the happy face, how this instructor got green and blue ones, is beyond me and anyone in her class right now! I would rank her as #1 as far as academics are concerned, she is older and this teacher really knows her stuff. She marks hard!!! But, she takes the whole semester teaching directly what she marks!
i do not recommend Karen Thomson for ENGL 1130. First, her lectures/classes are EXTREMELY hard to sit through. She is quite the boring teacher. Second, it is physically impossible to get a good grade in her class, as she marks VERY hard. DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS. BAD BAD BAD BAD!
Karen is an extremely nice person, easy to approach, very clear and makes english (which can be a dry subject) seem interesting and relates it to something students can relate to, rather than something stupid like 18th century art or something like that. I would recommend her class.. but just pay attention, participate and hand in all your homework
Karen's English Literature class was somewhat boring. All she does is regurgitates the material of what you've read already, so going to class isn't really necessary. Her exams, tests and papers and handed to you ahead of time so you can prepare for them; moreover, they were okay to write. You really have to prepare for them in advance.
boring, tough marker does not explain enough
Horrible teacher. periodico.
Dont bother showing up,she is the worst teacher EVER.
Please please please reconsider taking this class if Karen is the only teacher available. The woman is boring and a tough marker, and I would never recommend anyone to take one of her classes (regardless of if I hated said person or not).
Ridiculously boring. Pointless class. Learnt nothing that I will use later on in life. The discussions were not interesting and not stimulating what so ever.
Didn't Learn much. Talks a lot about unrelated topics. Little bit boring. Some days she was funny.
I'm not the best writer in the world, and I pulled a B. So she is decent, BUT most of the topics we had to write about I disagreed strongly on. topics like "disney corrupts kids, and teaches them racism" wtf?? Seems way to "conspiracy" for me. the other half of the course is how women are demoralised-zzzzzzzzzzzz. Classes are excruciatingly boring
I really wouldn't advise taking English 1130 with her. She marks incredibly hard and seems to teach quite little while assuming first year English students have some sort of background in sociology or media theory. At least half of the class dropped the course by the end of the semester. Highly not recommended, unless you really hate yourself.
Very, very hard course for those, who, like myself, hate writing. But I did surprisingly well even though I'm not a native English speaker. Read and understand essays in the course-pack and listen to her lectures. Do everything as she says and you will be fine.
Stay away! Likes to go off on tangents, preaches feminism and gender roles to death, won't accept any opinions but her own. Disagree and your grade WILL suffer. Makes (mostly) good book choices, read them several times since you'll need to remember quotes. Don't sit at the front, she'll sit on your desk + your notes. Really annoying, biased person.
I took her for two courses, she is really nice and doesn't mind participation (I make sure I participate in any class as best I can so i'm not bored). I liked her, if you disagreed with her points then argue them correctly and you will get the marks. I liked the feminism etc it was outside the box. Not a hard marker if you are good at English.
Karen Thomson is a really tough marker. As you've heard before, 90% student in highschool, I'm pulling C+ now if I'm lucky. GPA killer. She's nice, doesn't care if you participate or not, but she's really unclear about what she wants. If you ask her a question she kind of dances around the answer instead of being direct.
Extremely opinionated, participation in class is useless as almost all opinions are shot down - occasionally she can "maybe agree with that but...". Classes are incredibly boring and hard to sit through. She tends to go off topic about her personal life but if a student brings up an outside example she dismisses it. Nice lady but do not recommend.
disliked her class very much... she does not teach you how to WRITE and takes marks off for the stupidest things (ex.my title page was underlined and she took marks off for that... etc) did not look foreward to her class and could not wait until i got the hell out of there! i reccomend not taking it. she may be a decent human but terrible teaching
I found agreeing with her to be hard at time. she really taught me to think outside my box and to use research to support my claims. I actually really enjoyed her as a teacher, however she was moody at times! :)
Her classes are extremely boring, and one of the first things she told us was "average is a C, almost impossible to get an A." Hard marker, and does not clarify what she would like in her papers. She doesn't even mark on an outline. stay away from her classes if possible!
Karen is a very strict teacher, she doesn't like any nonsense and wants students to focus on the curriculum. Her marking is hard, but fair, she did a good job of pointing out all my mistakes and that helped me improve myself. She likes feedback from her class, so say something now and then to get on her good side. I would probably take her again.
Would heavily recommend against this prof
A lot of comments on here complain about the hard marking and such - but in reality this is the essence of the course. It is made to improve our writing. The reasoning to my low scoring of this teacher is how irrelevant her rambling can become and her failure to explain material effectively. Her talks are incoherent and nonlinear...Veryhardtofollow
She gave me C on all the time although I tried really hard. Another problem is that her hand writing is so unclear so you can't even get better on the essays, simply couldn't read her comments. But she is nice and once gave us cookies and donuts for movie watch (:
hard marking , crush your dreams of getting into universities
A somewhat mean person, but a very good teacher if you actually pay attention to what she's telling you. Really hard to listen to her in class because it's so boring but also very hard to study for other classes because the tone and volume of her voice fluctuate like crazy. Very hard marker, recommend writing something that she cares about.
I do not recommend this professor, if you want a good mark. Also does not teach things clearly and you do not learn from her.
I took the hybrid course(half online and 1 class). It's hard to pay attention to her cause she tends to ramble on a lot. But if you do, its in quiz's tests and assignments. Such a hard marker. On my papers and midterm i got around 60-65% which is supposedly good for her class? the essays have no direction or proper outline of what she wants
She tends to ramble on about stuff, speaking really fast most of the time. She's a hard marker and her feedback is very hard to read on essays. She is completely rude to many students, when questions are asked. I have never dealt with a teacher that was this rude to her students.
Odd though this was supposed to be a English class not a religious one where the teacher attempts to convert you. She brags how she doesn't give A's extremely hard to follow to consistently being off topic avoid at all costs!
Never dare to criticized her authors or you won't pass the class. Very political.
Teacher had very high expectations for a first year class, I found the feedback that was given on assignments to be very difficult to read and understand. Her grading was overall very low. Lectures were painfully boring, and often went off topic. Highly do NOT recommend.
Karen was very unfair and hard as a teacher. She would look over something that you ask for help on and after you decide what is a good thesis or answer, she will take marks off on the paper because she'll find something that's wrong with it! She just babbled on in class and wasn't very useful at all. Would not recommend. Brought my GPA down LOTS!
The marking was tough, was the hardest one yet. Wasn't the only one who thought it. I'm all for a tough teacher, while in return helpful responses hers was not. Made everything very confusing.
Karen is incredibly boring. She often rambles off topic making it very difficult to pick out the few pieces of useful information she occasionally gives. This was ironic when she was teaching the class about summaries.
She does not state what she wants for the subject or atleast give good examples for the topic. She does not speak clearly and almost does not interact with her students nor minding if we even understand. She just keeps on talking throughout the class. We were like 30ish at the beginning of the sem, now we're just 15 in class.
I thought she was the worst prof there ever was. Her lectures were beyond boring and I would be half asleep in class. When I got my essays back, she scribbled something on it but I couldn't read it at all and I mostly got C's on all my essays. I'm never taking courses from her again. Do not take her course! DEFINITELY not a GPA booster.
Avoid this class at all costs . Even if its the only English 1130 class, wait until the next semester. Extremely hard marker for a beginner English class and told everyone, day 1 that the majority of the class would get a C. you had to "be amazing and above average" to get a c+. Very unclear, rambles excessively, horribly unorganized. GPA killer.
AVIOD THIS PROF AT ALL COSTS!!! I am currently getting 90% or above in my other classes (biology and psych) and fear I may not pass with her terrible teaching skills. She is unorganized, hard to relate to, and her classes are the WORST and most boring 2 hours of my life, GPA KILLER! do yourself a favour and don't
She brings a script to class, sits on the desk and reads from it verbatim. Basically, she's a white noise machine so bring your other classwork. She posts all her assignments on blackboard so just check that. No point in going to class since there's nothing of substance for you there.
Super boring class, no break through lecture. Normally get an A/B in English, got a C in her class. I took the hybrid course (one class a week, the rest online). DO NOT TAKE. It should be a basic academic writing course, but she expects way too much for a beginner Eng course. Did 2 in class assignments that counted for participation. Very unclear.
Rude attitude and abrasive voice level. Her final essay topic was based on Disney princesses and she just assumed everyone had previous knowledge about that.
Very unclear on expectations or assignments. If you have a question about an assignment, she says to look on blackboard. A very harsh marker. Had us read a lot of material just to not bring it up in class or on assignments. Very dull, and unclear during lectures.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
83%
Textbook Required
90%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.04 avg changeRatings by Course
ENGLISH13
5.0
(1)104
4.0
(1)ENGL112
3.0
(1)ENG106
3.0
(1)ENG112
3.0
(5)Difficulty by Course
ENGLISH11
5.0
CANADIANLIT
5.0
ENGRISH
5.0
SDSSDSDS
5.0
ENG1102
5.0