Kristine Nowak

School: University of Connecticut
Department: Communication
Location: Storrs, CT
Overall Rating
rated by 21 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
SHe does expect a lot but it is interesting information and she seems to enjoy it.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: I would recommend this professor
Is challenging
Is creative
Brings discussion into the classroom
Has enthusiasm in the classroom
Cons: Overly difficult tests or assignments
The classes on new technology are challenging but the information is important. She expects you to work a lot but tries to keep it interesting. She does need to remember which stories she has already told to a class.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Would not recommend this professor
Awful lecture outlines that contain lots of nothing and have no real cohesion to them. The slides contain outdated technology and mostly vague pointless information. She talks a ton of BS about her comm tech knowledge but has extremely few things to say relevant to recent technology advances. Each class went as follows EVERY SINGLE DAY : bring up power point from 1997 , read from power point word for word , paraphrase exactly what just said , repeat. Bad . Bad. BAD. I would like all of the time i spent in this class back.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Is challenging
Brings discussion into the classroom
Cons: Would not recommend this professor
Professor is boring or bland
Confusing or hard to understand
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Makes class too challenging
Poor sense of humor
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
Her tests suck...she recently gave us a test that ended with a curve of 30 points (14 points curve plus 16 points in possible extra credit from a section everyone flunked), and a lot of people still got in the 70s.
Very unaccessible, will leave before you get a chance to ask her something or tell you she doesn't have time.
Syllabus/assignments are rarely explained clearly and she doesn't offer much help to students who ask.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Is a bad professor
Would not recommend this professor
Professor is boring or bland
Confusing or hard to understand
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Notes/lecture is confusing
Needs to involve students in class discussions
Lacks enthusiasm in the classroom
Does not make class challenging enough
Makes class too challenging
Poor sense of humor
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
Teaches new coms tech and talks about what a tech buff she is yet does not own a freakin cd player and says it's now hard to download music off the internet. Exactly, she's moron who doesn't know ****, and has you read handouts from roughly 2-3 years ago....which is ancient history as far as NEW Coms tech. Yeah she's worthless, take the class, it's not super hard. Make sure you do every assignment. Enjoy!
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Is a bad professor
Would not recommend this professor
Professor is boring or bland
Confusing or hard to understand
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Notes/lecture is confusing
Needs to involve students in class discussions
Lacks enthusiasm in the classroom
Does not make class challenging enough
Makes class too challenging
Poor sense of humor
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
She is not a professor. She simply outlines the book and puts it on powerpoint. She goes incredibly fast so you cant write down a thing, let alone try and understand it. Do not take this class. She has no teaching style. Anyone can cut and paste.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Good professor.
Is interesting/entertaining/funny
Is challenging
Brings discussion into the classroom
Is willing to help students anytime
Shows a great knowledge of subject matter
Involves students in every lecture
Has enthusiasm in the classroom
Cons: Overly difficult tests or assignments
She expects a lot, but taught me some things about writing. Class is interesting but a lot of work.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Is a bad professor
Would not recommend this professor
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Notes/lecture is confusing
Makes class too challenging
Poor sense of humor
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
don't ever take this teacher. her class is incredibly unorganized and difficult. she is very unclear about what she expects and no matter what you do, it is never good enough. she does not respond to emails and will give you negative feedback about your papers. her tests do not test you on material you learned in lecture or from the reading. terrible study guide method - she expects the students to write their own study guide questions but then no questions relating to information from the class study guide appear on the exam. you get the impression that she wants you to do bad. she is incredibly discouraging.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Good professor.
Great teaching methods/approach
I would recommend this professor
Is interesting/entertaining/funny
Is challenging
Is creative
Brings discussion into the classroom
Motivates students to do well
Is willing to help students anytime
Shows a love of teaching
Shows a great knowledge of subject matter
Involves students in every lecture
Has enthusiasm in the classroom
Comes to class organized
Best professors I've ever had!
SERIOUSLY SHE IS NOT BAD GET A GRIP
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Good professor.
Great teaching methods/approach
Is interesting/entertaining/funny
Is challenging
Brings discussion into the classroom
Shows a great knowledge of subject matter
Cons: Overly difficult tests or assignments
Makes class too challenging
She expects a lot of students and I worked really hard for not such a great grade. The class is tough but interesting.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Is a bad professor
Would not recommend this professor
Professor is boring or bland
Confusing or hard to understand
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Notes/lecture is confusing
Needs to involve students in class discussions
Lacks enthusiasm in the classroom
Makes class too challenging
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
Professor Nowak is horrible. I never fill out these forms but it is imperative that students not take any class with this awful women. I have no idea why she is a "professor" because she honestly is in it to fail everyone. She does not genuinely care about her students at all and I have no idea why she is even an adviser in the COMM department. She believes that she knows everything about New Technologies and even informed our class that she has three different email accounts but ironically never ever responds to students emails. I have no idea how she has lasted this long in the department seeing as how she is HATED by so many people. Warning to everyone this class is impossible not challenging. Something that is challenging is something that you can gain something from. When you take a class with "Professor" Nowak you don't gain anything, trust me.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Would not recommend this professor
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Makes class too challenging
Worst professors I've ever had!
Although she's smart, just gives off the impression that, "Hey I had to suffer, now I'm making you suffer." Seems like she had a hard and overly-difficult time in college. That's how she justifies stressing out all of her students with her ridiculous assignments. Some of which don't even relate to the class at all. The only comeback she has when students complain about almost everything she does, is "College wasn't meant to be easy." Yeah, we know that! But give us a break if we are killing ourselves on your assignments and never receiving full credit.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Would not recommend this professor
Confusing or hard to understand
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Notes/lecture is confusing
Lacks enthusiasm in the classroom
Makes class too challenging
Does not know a thing about technology. Her project is ridiculous and pointless. All her powerpoint is online, but if you don't print it out the day of class, she takes it off the sight.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Is a bad professor
Would not recommend this professor
Lacks enthusiasm in the classroom
Poor sense of humor
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
She's such an awful professor! Her presence would cheapen any other department at the university, but there are so many bad professors in Coms that in this department she is just par for the course. It would be a close race between her and "Dr" Krcmar for the "worst professor" title. Both must be working to keep the "dumb blonde" stereotype alive.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Is interesting/entertaining/funny
Brings discussion into the classroom
Has enthusiasm in the classroom
Comes to class organized
Cons: Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Makes class too challenging
nowak is a cool lady, but her style of teaching rots. COMM 262 is the only class i ever completely filled up a notebook with notes and had to start a new one. way too much info. to be honest, i got an A in the class becasue i worked my balls off. and if your a COMM major, then you know by now that you're going to get your share of C's in your time at UConn. Nowak's class is definetly not easy, so if thats what your looking for, stay away.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Brings discussion into the classroom
Involves students in every lecture
Comes to class organized
Cons: Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Makes class too challenging
Professor does not relate to students
The professor has to remember that this is a 100 level course. The tests are too hard, and the assignment is very unclear. She expects you to know everything in the book which is just simply impossible.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Is a bad professor
Would not recommend this professor
Confusing or hard to understand
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Notes/lecture is confusing
Needs to involve students in class discussions
Lacks enthusiasm in the classroom
Does not make class challenging enough
Makes class too challenging
Poor sense of humor
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
Someone should print out her evaluations in a packet and give them to her (or slide them under her door) so she knows how much she sucks and could work (she'd have to work hard) to correct her terrible teaching style. I did not receieve a poor grade in the course, but Nowak is AWFUL. Like the other evaluations, she is basically NOT a teacher. She reads info off of powerpoint notes that you have to print out THE DAY SHE WANTS YOU TO or else she takes them offline and makes them unavailable. She gives ridiculously specific exams, and you learn absolutly NOTHING from her. She can barely answer questions from the class (mostly she just bullshits a half answer and then says I don't have the answer to that, and continues to try and bullshit the remainder of the answer). Nowak...if you ever read this ... you need to ASSESS your teaching technique. She is more concerned with being "ohhhh such a big bad tough instructor". Notice I didn't use the term professor because in my mind she isn't even close. Before exam #1 she even walked into class acting all big and bad and was like, "don't worry not all of you will fail" ...like her class is the toughest class in the world (when it really really doesnt have to be). I have already babbled too much about Nowak as she doesn't deserve an ounce of my time, but I wanted to forewarn students that this "professor" truly doesn't care if you learn anything and is more concerned with herself and being tough then anything else. If you want to take the class or have to ... do so...you can do fine in it if you try...it's just that I thought I was paying for tuition so I could learn information and not have to deal with such crap. Thank you for your time! Take it easy!
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: Would not recommend this professor
She is challenging, however inappropriately challenging. It is very easy to decipher what ways a professor challenges you such that you learn something, and what ways they challenge you such that student's respective grades will meet an intended distribution of grades. This is why she tested us by manner of specific lines from readings, such that there is a greater probability that she will meet her grade distribution; and NOT so we will learn something. Perhaps she should get off of her ego-motivated distribution goal, and try to actually teach for the sole sake of making a difference among her students. Sometimes I wonder if the faculty at the Communication Sciences department are trained to evaluate undergraduates by French figure skating judges!
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Comes to class organized
Cons: Would not recommend this professor
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Needs to involve students in class discussions
Makes class too challenging
Professor does not relate to students
Exams cover way too much subject matter, and yet she expects you to know specific lines from the immense amounts of reading. If you're not a computer-minded person, then even doing the reading AND studying the notes is gonna help you for the exam!
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Pros: Is challenging
Shows a great knowledge of subject matter
Comes to class organized
Cons: Is a bad professor
Expectations are unclear or lofty
Overly difficult tests or assignments
Makes class too challenging
Professor does not relate to students
Worst professors I've ever had!
She is so incredibly hard and not willing to work with students to come to compromises with anything! Do not have her as a professor!

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