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Rubba, Johanna

Cumulative GPA: 1.78/4.00 with 36 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 1.84
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 1.72

English Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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ENGL 290 Sophomore Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 9:01 pm, Mar 26, 2012 Report Evaluation		I consider myself a good student, but I nevertheless received a D in Rubba's class. She assigns pages and pages of readings which she barely goes over, spends class time meandering around small details rather than stressing big-picture ideas, and presents information in a generally uninteresting manner. I honestly walked out of each 2-hour lecture asking myself, "What did we even talk about?" Avoid her if you can. English majors... good luck.

ENGL 290 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:10 am, Sep 11, 2011 Report Evaluation		Rubba is unorganized, scatterbrained and bland. The readings she assigns are not too bad and the homework assignments are pretty easy, but she barely goes over them in class and presents material in a completely boring and uninteresting way. Her power points are pretty useless and the best way to prepare for a test is to strictly follow the course learning objectives and ask questions about them either in class or office hours. Overall, I seriously hated this class and dreaded going. Rubba is really intelligent and loves linguistics, but this course is awful, one of the worst I have ever taken at Poly.

ENGL 290 Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 9:35 am, May 3, 2011 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba was, for the most part, a pretty good professor. Most of her faults can be attributed to the fact that she's trying to teach a marginally-appealing subject to a bunch of people who aren't in the least bit interested in the class, and are only enrolled because it's a required class for English majors. The class discussions were boring, though mostly because the vast majority of people came to class unprepared for them, without having read any of the material (which wasn't THAT dry). Essentially, if you're an English major, and you're not looking forward to the class, suck it up and try to put a bit of effort into it anyway for the sake of everyone else. The class was uninteresting because of the people taking it, not because Dr. Rubba is an inadequate professor. Yeah, she's rather unorganized, and tends to spend too long lecturing on topics that don't end up on the tests, but if you want to actually learn something about linguistics, she's a great resource.

ENGL 290 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 7:57 pm, Apr 12, 2011 Report Evaluation		Take a look at the variation of grades on this page. I think it says a lot - her grading is all over the place and very inconsistent, as others have mentioned. Lots of people in the class agreed it was based heavily on favoritism and her mood swings. Even some people who received good grades weren't sure why. After comparing some of my assignments and exam essays with other peoples, I realized there is no reasonable grading scale. Two essay questions, essentially saying the exact same thing, received a D and an A. Stay away from this professor, far, far away.

ENGL 290 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 6:35 pm, Mar 23, 2011 Report Evaluation		I would say avoid this teacher at all costs, but she is the only linguistics teacher at Cal Poly so if you are an English major you have no choice but to take it with her. Cal Poly REALLY needs to get a new linguistics professor. Rubba is completely disorganized, not helpful (in fact, she's rude most of the time), and makes what could be an interesting topic totally awful. She doesn't teach anything in class, the assigned readings and homework assignments don't correlate with where she is in class (if you can even decipher what she is talking about), and the book hardly helps so your pretty much on your own. After taking this class with her, I still couldn't tell you a thing about linguistics - I am just lucky I passed. The midterm and final are written in a confusing manner, they don't represent what was talked about in class for the most part, and most of the class failed the midterm. She gives you the answers to the homework and you grade it yourself, so that doesn't help much either. Then, on top of a lot of random busy work, there are 4 written "journal" assignments in which you are basically asked to talk about what you have learned in the class (which is nothing) 4 times throughout the quarter. Your best bet is to just paraphrase the book and pretend you learned something from it. She says the minimum page requirement is 3 pages, but you better come up with closer to 5 if you want a good grade. I wish I could give more advice, but it's really just luck because her mood changes so if she grades your work in a bad mood you're shit out of luck. There is no grading consistency nor clear expectations. If I could give this teacher less than a F, I would.

ENGL 290 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 1:13 pm, Mar 12, 2011 Report Evaluation		The most unorganized professor I've seen. There is absolutely no structure to any of her lectures. She makes power-points, but she rarely follows them and she doesn't make them correspond with the book. On a good day, we will make it through 2 slides before she goes off on a tangent about something pointless. The homework exercises and journal assignments are useless and a waste of time. Basically, Rubba doesn't teach you anything; you have to rely on the book and your own cunning to hopefully come out of the class with a decent grade. I got a good grade on the midterm, but most of my class failed it. The final is another story; she doesn't include half of the things she put on the study guide. It really is a shame because this subject has potential to be very interesting but Rubba butchered it into being one of the worst classes I've taken at Cal Poly.

ENGL 290 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 9:08 pm, Feb 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		This class is so confusing and hard to follow. There are assignments and readings posted all over the place and the teacher is for the most part, completely unorganized. Like the previous post says, the tests are also very poorly written and not representative of class work at all. Be ready to do all the work on your own and still fail.



ENGL 290 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 2:57 pm, Mar 17, 2010 Report Evaluation		The final for this class is by far the most poorly-written, confusingly-formatted test I\'ve ever taken. Half of the things she put on the study guide weren\'t on the test and half of the questions on the test weren\'t in the study guide. Her classes consist of her lecturing monotonously for an hour a day, tedious homework and a paper. The midterm was deceptively easy, but the final was another story. The best thing about this class is that she posts the answers to the homework online before it\'s due and you can turn it in up to a week late. If you have to take this class, plan on boring, useless PowerPoints every day and bring some homework for another class.

ENGL 391 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 12:32 pm, Feb 4, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba comes off as a little dull when you first meet her, and she presents the material very simply. However, I\'ve actually had her for several quarters of linguistics, and I have to say she is one of my favorite professors here. She has a very keen sense of humor, but it doesn\'t always show in class. She is very helpful in office hours and is willing to work with you on anything you don\'t understand. She is a good professor overall and actually fun to talk to. I suggest that you get passed your first impressions and suck it up and do the work. She will make you work for it, and it will be worth it!

ENGL 495 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Elective 10:36 am, Jan 15, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba is a wonderful lady. She\'s nice, not at all condescending, and she obviously puts in a ton of effort into all of her lectures. Just to give you guys some insight into how students REALLY perceive her, for our class evaluation, of about 20 students, she got a perfect score. I know it\'s not reflected here in her profile because: 1. Yes, she\'s a tad dull, 2. She won\'t give you a good grade if you don\'t know the material, and 3. She\'s very meticulous and keeps students on their toes. However, she does give enough busy work so that you understand the material and are kept on your toes, but not enough to where it seems stressful and overloaded. The lazy kids and the stupid kids don\'t do well. If you\'re not the brightest crayon in the box, and you\'re self-aware, don\'t take her. Wait for another teacher. If you genuinely want to get a good grip on the material and to be able to properly apply it in real-life, take Rubba, she\'s an amazing woman with many interesting life stories. Plus, she\'s really open minded and it\'s awesome hearing her talk about gay culture and cuss words. ;) Yay modern discourse / linguistics!

ENGL 290 Sophomore Grade Earned: C General Ed 10:19 pm, Jan 22, 2009 Report Evaluation		(ship from independence day approaches) ...MY GOD!

ENGL 391 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 9:36 am, Dec 6, 2008 Report Evaluation		Rubba is a very nice lady. Bottom line: If you don't understand something, email her or go to her office hours. She was even nice enough to stay later in her office hours so we could go over some points of confusion that I had. She does a mid-quarter student evaluation and actually tries to improve on her weaknesses (I thought that was very considerate). Go to class, take notes - you should be fine.

ENGL 290 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 3:33 pm, Jul 16, 2007 Report Evaluation		I was worried about taking Rubba's class after reading all the negative posts here about her, but because I didn't have any choice, I took her class. I was actually quite surprised. Her class was really easy. All her notes are on blackboard so you don't have to worry if you miss a class. Her tests are fairly easy as long as you follow the study guide she has posted online. The material isn't terribly fun, but hey it's linguistics. Prepare to be a little bored, but to glide through an easy quarter. Also, she allows all her homework to be turned in up to a week late, no penalties. She's an interesting and funny lady who's a little too interested in language, but overall not a bad teacher. I found her to be pretty nice and helpful all together.



ENGL 290 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 3:20 pm, Jul 9, 2007 Report Evaluation		Rubba is definitely underrated. She is one of the most intelligent and articulate teachers I've had, and I think that alone throws off a lot of students at first. I can't speak for her other classes, but 290 is an enjoyable course, and grading is very fair. Make sure you follow her directions; she outlines everything and really relies on her website- READ IT!!! Cool teacher, I'd definitely take her again. Take into consideration the course- Intro to Linguistics. Yeah, it's not gonna be a barrel of monkeys, but she makes it interesting enough. Everyone else in the class liked her too, so don't be putoff by her reviews.

ENGL 395 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 4:58 pm, May 27, 2007 Report Evaluation		Rubba is a scatterbrained teacher, prepare to be frusterated and confused for the whole quarter. Readings and "course objectives" are online at her website but often have links that dont work and are far to complicated to follow. She is a monotone teacher and never gets up in front of the class but sits behind her computer and dribbles about nonsense. She is not approachable, I found her office empty and locked during three seperate office hour attempted visits. If you are unlucky enough to catch her in her office she is destracted and rude. If you NEED the class for you major, switch majors If you HAVE to take a class from Rubba, transfer schools I am NOT kidding

ENGL 391 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 10:27 pm, Oct 29, 2006 Report Evaluation		This was one of the most grating classes I've ever been in. I will admit that you learn a lot from the material presented, but the manner that it is presented in forces the student to do all the work themselves. The projects and assignments were pointless, and I did not get any information out of it. Worse yet, when I went to her office hours, she told me how she did not have respect for students of certain majors (regardlesss of work ethic). Though this class was required, I didn't get that much out of it. If there's someone else you can take it with, do it.

ENGL 391 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 10:51 am, Mar 29, 2006 Report Evaluation		Rubba knows her stuff; she presents the material in a decent manner. But you should only take her if you never want any of your work back on time. She will make promises she never keeps. She doesn't have time to grade papers or do things she tells you she is going to do. She always makes up some stupid bullshit excuse and never claims responsibility. If you are reading this Rubba, maybe you shouldn't teach three lectures when you are trying to write a book. I hope that you get your act together this quarter so your students don't get forgot about like our classes. So back to the facts, if you are a student that likes to get your first paper back after you have already written your next two, if you like never getting feed back on homework, if you enjoy feeling your professor is never paying attention to your class, then take Rubba.

ENGL 391 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 10:20 pm, Nov 14, 2005 Report Evaluation		Do yourself a favor- don't take this class with Dr. Rubba. Just don't.

ENGL 391 Graduate Student Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 7:28 am, Jul 29, 2005 Report Evaluation		I must admit I learned a lot and perhaps this is her goal. I have never worked this hard and done so much stupid and meaningless homework. Her lectures are boring and often disorganized. She reminds me of a lonely perfectionist who is a strict taskmaster and is making her students endure the same pain and suffering that she did as a student. I feel sorry for her as obviously linguistics is her ONLY life. She is not flexible and is very opinionated. I would not recommend taking her class unless you have extreme masochistic tendencies. She does not suffer fools easily and I always thought that the reason we were in class is because we do not know the subject and we are being motivated and excited to learn



ENGL 390 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:00 pm, Apr 12, 2005 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba is a very odd woman, a very scatterbrained teacher, and a very unfair grader. I really enjoyed the course in the beginning, but as time progressed, her lectures did not. She sometimes would not have anything prepared for us to do and I often felt like I was wasting my time by going to class. She gave SO MUCH busywork for homework, and the quantity increased as the quarter went on. One HUGE tip of advice: choose from the assigned books for the book reports. She says she'll allow exceptions, and she did for mine, and then she gave me a D on it. I've NEVER gotten below a C on ANY writing assignment, from kindergarden until now. The worst part was that she didn't agree with my author's point of view, and she accused me of not trying to understand the book because I was set in my opinions and the ones in the book were different. Although the opinions were different than mine, I haven't ever had a probelm with listening to and possibly agreeing with someone else's opinions if they are valid. Dr. Rubba, on the other hand, does have this problem. She will not listen to your point of view no matter how many different ways you try to express yourself. I went in to the final with a 98% in the class and between the final (C+) and the two papers (C- and a D) I got a B- in the class. So I definitely survived, but my advice is this: don't try too hard cause she'll find a way to keep you from getting an A.

ENGL 503 Graduate Student Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 7:06 pm, Apr 1, 2005 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba has a solid reputation in the lower division courses, however there was cause to worry about her performance instructing 503. Two years ago she taught the course and the students took it upon themselves to air their displeasure about the course then. Last year it was impossible to get into Dr. Battenburg's course as a result, so those of us who could not make it were forced to take it this year. We had hoped she'd learned something from the last time, but unfortunately this class was disorganized, expectations were impossible to gauge, and frankly, a waste of my time and money. This professor may shine in other areas, but she should be removed from teaching at the graduate level permanently.

ENGL 503 Graduate Student Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 10:41 am, Mar 31, 2005 Report Evaluation		Most students in this grad class agree that she was pretty unorganized. Take good notes and read your text carefully, because a lot of your learning may need to happen outside of class. I don't even know if she'll be teaching this class in the future, but be forewarned!

ENGL 390 Senior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 8:57 pm, Mar 16, 2005 Report Evaluation		I am so glad that this class is finally over. I would not recommend this prof. to even my worst enemy, she was the most borning teacher I have had at Poly. Her lectures are a definite snooz, they are dull and basically she never really knew what she was talking about. One day she completly forgot what we had done the previous day and did the same lecture over, even though several students tried to tell her what she was doing, she kept going. She has no personality and I would recommend not taking her if possible!!!

ENGL 395 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 7:47 pm, Feb 8, 2005 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba really knows her stuff. She is a self-affirmed linguistics geek. I learned an incredible amount of information in this class. Her tests are STRAIGHT from the course outline. Nothing tricky. Go to class everyday and take notes. Yes, she does provide an on-line outline, but there are a lot of details in her lectures to help fill out the outline she provides. Remember your dates, participate in class, take good notes. The readings... well, I'll admit that I didn't do ANY of them. Maybe that's why I received a B instead of an A.

ENGL 395 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:39 am, Dec 23, 2004 Report Evaluation		This class was actually a lot more interesting than I ever thought it would be. I had a bad experience in my first linguistics class so I wasn't so sure about taking this one, but it turned out all for the better. Dr. Rubba is one of those professor's whose whole life, including the classes they teach, are on the computer. Sometimes class would have to start late because she was having computer troubles and things would get a little hectic, but overall, the material she does have is adequate to prepare you for the tests. All the notes are online, so you don't really have to take notes during class, but attendence is REQUIRED, so I took notes during class so I had something to do. The study guides are extremely helpful, so I recommend you focus your studying on those. Reading . . . I did it all, but I think I could have done just as well without it. You be the judge of that one. The project is fun and she'll probably give you a good grade as long as your final project LOOKS like you spent a lot of time on it. I suggest you do a creative project . . . you won't need to accompany your project with as much research as the other projects and it could be fun. Take Rubba. She's kinda scatterbrained, but good-natured, entertaining, and a fair grader.



ENGL 391 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 10:02 am, Aug 31, 2004 Report Evaluation		Go to office hours. That seems to be the key. Also, complete the Course Objectives--her test questions come from this source. Dr. Rubba is extremely intelligent and her class is well worth taking. She is passionate about linguistics and teaching. However, she expects her students to manage an incredible load of material. You've got to go to every class, take decent notes, and be consistent with the homework. Begin monitoring her website immediately. She uses the web as a substantial supplement. Lots to memorize--break out the flashcards. Get on the book report ASAP. With the quantity of information there will be confusion--office hours. It seems students who do best with Dr. Rubba are those interested in language. If approaching language scientifically floats your boat, and you don't mind a little nose to the grindstone, you'll do well. I gave her an A on student relations and a B on course material. I think there could be less chaos in her presentation of materials. There were some inconsistencies and mistakes on her website. With the amount of work expected from students there needs to be an improvement in quality of information. *Also, contrary to some reccomendations I've heard, don't take her courses out of sequence. Unless you've got a solid background in grammar and the phonetic alphabet (or you're a damn genius, in which case you wouldn't be at poly), you'll need 290 before the 300-level.

ENGL 395 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:39 pm, Jan 13, 2004 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba is one of my favorite teachers at Cal Poly and I have so far taken three classes with her. Her lectures do come off as being dry (mostly because she delivers them in a monotone voice), but if you can see past her delivery you realize that she really is very passionate about her subject matter. She is also one of the most intelligent professors at Cal Poly. Her tests are comprehensive, but I didn't find them to be unreasonably difficult (taking into account that linguistics is a fairly complex subject). She runs the entire site from her web page which includes all the homework assignments (very often with an answer key provided for self grading), helpful explanations of difficult topics, and a study guide. The study guide contains points that you are responsible for knowing on the exams and in my experience if you go over all of them you have a fair idea of exactly what will be on quizzes and exams. If you are interested in linguistics then I highly recommend this teacher for any class she's presenting.

ENGL 390 Senior Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 5:09 pm, Jul 11, 2002 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba is a very smart woman-- she operates on an entirely different level than any one, especially her students. Therefore, it is often very difficult to understand what the heck she is trying to explain. Also, she does come off as being superior to her students. I'm not sure if that's because she THINKS she's superior, or if it's just the way she is. 390 is a good, but very difficult class. Be prepared for lots of homework and difficult tests. Take notes, don't skip class, and memorize as much as you can!

ENGL 503 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:32 pm, Sep 6, 2001 Moderated Comment		Dr Rubba gives a lot of work, but it all has a point: to help you learn. She has infinite pastience and will help you learn anyway you can. She is one of the brightest profs at cal poly. Definately take her over ... Battenburg. She is also one of the most intersting, well rounded people ever.

ENGL 495 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba marked all the answers on a written test of mine wrong when the answers were not incorrect. I took my test paper and compared my answers to a fellow class mate's answers. Upon doing so I realized that my class mate and I had the same answers, but all her answers had smilie faces next to them and she had a good job at the top of her paper. I also noticed that my classmate had failed to answer the back page of her test, but she got a B+ and I got a C-. I took the test to Dr. Rubba and got Dr. Rubba to admit that she had incorrectly graded my paper. This was a big feat in itself!!!! At the end of the quarter I got a C- in her class. When I went to talk to her about my grade, she said "I didn't change your test grade. It would not have made a difference anyway!" Dr. Rubba had personal problems with me, and she knew I would never tell the department. I left her office wanting to cry. I felt angry, but like most students I did nothing about the situation, until now.

ENGL 495 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba made me feel extremely stupid when I spoke with her during office hours. She also made me feel unwelcome. She basically told me I was unworthy of being an English major. Dr. Rubba comes off arrogant and impersonal. Her lectures were dry and hard to follow. Her tests were excruciating. As for the Renaissance Faire she throws, I felt the students put in a lot of work and the projects turned out nice, however you could never get her to admit it.



ENGL 390 Sophomore Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		I feel that Dr. Rubba is very intelligent but she makes everybody else feel much less than her. Her tests are hard and you can't predict her grading methods. Stay away from her and this class.

ENGL 390 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba's class was interesting, informative, and fair. I think some of these other responses on here are, in my oppinion, not representative of her teaching, but personal issues.

ENGL 390 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:56 am, Apr 27, 2001 Report Evaluation		Dr. Rubba is a teacher who challenges her students. Let's face it, most of us did not become English majors to learn IPA or how words sounds are formed. We came to learn more about that which we love, literature. So she has a difficult task trying to make a required course interesting when the subject can be dry and appear to have little personal importance. I think she does a great job, all things considered. I found Dr. Rubba's class informative and enlightening. I would absolutely recommend her, if, and only if, YOU are up to the challenge.

ENGL 390 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 12:05 am, Mar 5, 2001 Report Evaluation		She is fair about late hw. Her test are easy as hell BUT her essays are graded like I have never seen before. Everyone gets F's like she is passing out candy. A total crazy woman with her essay grades. I deserved an A and got a C and so did others in my class. Watch out for this one TAKE TEST ONLY OPTION if u get the choice, she is unfair...

ENGL 390 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 5:58 pm, Feb 12, 2001 Report Evaluation		It is not an easy a or anything but it is not a tough class if you try. She is a fair tester. There is a ton of HW!!!

ENGL 390 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 1:07 pm, Aug 25, 2000 Report Evaluation		I took Dr. Rubba for both Intro to Linguistics and Gender and Language. She is a really good teacher, although the term "femi-nazi" comes to mind (and I'm a woman). Her Intro to Linguistics class was relatively easy if you attended all the classes and did the rather lengthy but not difficult homework exercises. I learned a lot about language that I wouldn't have tried to learn about otherwise. I got an A in this class. I got a 100% on one test simply because I had gone through the sample questions she gave us before the actual test Her Gender and Language class is another matter. It started out okay, but about halfway through the quarter we got off topic, and never quite managed to get back on. The large paper wasn't bad, as long as you listen VERY CAREFULLY to how she wants it formatted and organized. I got a B in this class. My main problem with it was that people were allowed to whine for long periods of time about small women's issues that had nothing to do with language. I would recommend this professor because she has a unique point of view, and her grading is very fair.

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