Cook, Barbara  

Where do i even begin? Professor Cook is by far THE LEAST orgainzed teacher i have ever encountered. She had no structure to her lectures and often times could not complete her thoughts...jumping from one idea to another (making taking notes a task in itself). This class could be taught in half the time if she edited out the pointless, unrelated, outdated movies. However, questions from all of these videos show up on the tests. Second of all, her tests are exactly like her lectures...they don't follow a format. Her first test was cake, I got an A. So I thought i knew the style pretty well and studied the same way for the second test. However, she did a 180 and asked abstract, obscure questions that didn't relate to the material, and I got a C. So I went to her office hours (after she begged our class to do so she "wouldn't raid the candy drawer") and she was completely unhelpful. I asked her how I could approach the final in a more effective manner, and her answer was "study it all." Hmm..okay thanks! Then along came her final and it was structured the same way as the first...I was out of there in 45 minutes and I got an A. Basically, I wasted time "studying it all" when all i had to do was memorize the terms and concept boxes. If her second test had been the same structure as the first and last...I would have had an easy A. We are talking about an indecisive woman who prides herself on her fieldwork in fiji that she did in the freaking 1970's. Another thing to just let you know how ridiculously anal and unintelligent this woman is: she believes that if no one sits in the last row, then she will have enough tests for everyone...so she likes to keep it empty...however...should someone sit in that row, she would run out of tests (?) where is the logic in that one...Basically, don't be fooled by the Cal Poly Catalouge...this woman manages to take a some-what interesting class and make it boring as hell. And one last thing...make sure your notecards are all the same size...she likes to scold you on petty things like this...HAVE FUN!!!!!!

I was so scared to take this class with this teacher...I was dreading her after reading all the other evaluations. But she is one of the best teachers I've ever had! She is funny, quirky, and has a lot of interesting stories to share. She is also good about recommending other books to read if you're interested in a topic, and always willing to answer questions. The text is all right, the reader was really interesting, and the tests weren't too hard if you read and went to class. She also shows a lot of movies which are all pretty interesting. Great class, great professor...don't believe the other evaluations she's gotten here. They must have had a different teacher than I had or been disgruntled about their grades.

Dr. Cook is great! I loved her! I don't know why she's gotten such bad evaluations here. She is a bit disorganized, but it really didn't bother me. She is quirky and fun. The class is interesting, the videos are interesting, hey, even the reader was all right and entertaining. She is really friendly and always willing to talk. I would take her again, I plan on taking every class she teaches. Her tests aren't that hard if you read the book and go to class and study.

She is a really nice person. She obviously likes teaching and although she is a little corney she's pretty cool. She's really helpful and really understanding. There's not a whole lot of reading and the tests are really easy as long as you do the reading and go to class.

This has to be the worst course I have ever taken. The subject matter alone does not get very interesting, but the most difficult thing in the world was to sit through one of her lectures. She is very random and sparadic, bouncing from topic to topic without much organization, making it hard to follow. I would only recommend this class if you were going to take it with a friend so that you could rotate who goes to class and takes notes. The tests were vary fair; as long as you read the textbooks, you should do fine.

This class is very easy. Anyone can get an A as long as you do the reading. There's a lot to read (two books I believe). But, you can also get by by learning all the terms from the text when you don't have time to read. The exams get harder each time but if you listen to the hints that she gives you in class on what to focus on...you'll do just fine. Also, don't get lazy on the Devita book. Many points on the exams come from there. Lastly, understand the main idea of the chapters that is read from the text....that's your essay. Overall, if you do the readings, learn the vocab, understand devita.......which are all simple....you'll also get an A.

Not a difficult class to pass, but sitting through the unorganized lectures is just such a torture that no one should have to go through. She knows her material, she just cannot present it. Read and watch the movies and you'll be fine.

Prof. Cooks is a little "off the rocker." she sure knows her anthropology, i have no doubt but the reading is very hard to understand and relate to her lectures. the midterms and final are also extremely difficult...dont expect to half-ass the class and get any better than a D. You actually must do the reading, go to lectures (as hard as that is to stay awake) and pay attention! i never went to an office hour with her but i dont think she could have actually helped me. i would recommend another teacher if there is one available but you basically just teach yourself anthropology through reading etc.

Wow is this lady odd... I got a C in here.. not because it was a hard class, but because i didnt care. I literally fell asleep EVERY DAY... it was sooooooo boring. If you are willing to put the effort in to learn on your own, or can stay awake through anything then props to you... but for me, i would not choose this class... look at the list to see what other classes can fill this elective area.

This was a very interesting class accompanied with good reading. Unfortunately, because of Dr. Cook's large class, and sometimes dry lectures, an air of tension was often noticed. I sometimes felt bad for her because she was very nice and often disrespected. Nonetheless, it was a good class and would reccomend it to anyone.

I really liked Dr. Cook and her class. Her class made me interested in taking other ANT classes, and I even found myself day dreaming about fieldwork while reading the book of researchers articles (a very interesting, great text in my opinion). Do you reading, go to class, pay attention to lecture and videos and you will succeed on tests which make up the entire grade for the course- 2 midterms, one final. Yes, Dr. Cook is quirky and a tad eccentric, but in a good way. She is also very knowledgable, and she is very understanding and caring towards her students.

granted-- she's a little off the wall, she DOES know what she's talking about. She does a good job trying to present an unbiased view of different societies. While sometimes this class seemed to last forever, her tests are very straightforward and undenaibly fair. She is very clear in what she wants you to know and tries to keep it simple.

Read the books and pay attention to the films that she shows you. She is a pretty fair grader, but make sure you write as much as you know on the essays. All in all she was a good teacher and I think I could handle her in another class.

The class was rather easy if you did the reading. The problem is she feels the need to tell the class that, among other things, at least 3 or 4 times per lecture. If you don't know that in order to get good grades you need to study you deserve to fail! This and everything else she says is repeated at nausiating frequencies, the content received in class could have been condensed into about 1/2 hour per week instead of the grueling 4 hours. On top of this she is not very bright, she often has trouble understanding her own slides, she gets lost mid-sentance, and at one point she actually wrote on the overhead projector screen. My favorite quote was "... the island is so isolated that you can only get there by boat or plane." You mean you can't walk on water?

I was really excited about taking this class because I had such a good experience with an ethinic studies class. This class, although the info was interesting was presented VERY dryly. The teacher is kind of quirky but she just doesn't make the topic exciting. I really enjoyed the DeVita articles that she had us read. Her lectures were long and drawn out and she was a little bit disorganized. She did, though, get tests back in a very timely fashion. Her tests were very fair and straight forward. I would recommend this class, but perhaps not this instructor.

Boring teacher for boring subject = Sleep

EXTREAMLY BORING CLASS. two hours twice a week of unorganized, monotone, phlegmy lecture about stuff that is boring in the first place is two hours too many. there is a ton of reading outside the class ontop of that, and you have to read it because it will be on the tests and she doesnt go over a lot of it in the lectures. the test are somewhat easy, but you still have to study hard to do well on them, and since your grade is made up of only two midterms and the final, if you screw up on one your done for. i would never ever take cook again even if you paid me. dont take this class unless you dont have a bed and need somewhere to sleep or someone has a gun to your head.

cook was an excellent general ed anthropology professor. she gave 3 tests (2 midterms, one final) consisting of multiple choice, T/F, short answer, and essay. her grading policies were very fair- she always makes sure to go over the DeVita readings, key terms, and any questions the students may have. she gives advice about what to study for the tests, and her questions are usually designed not to confuse the students (which she makes sure to tell you every class). good g.e. choice.

She is a very knowledgable professor. The tests aren't bad so long as you do the reading and take notes during lecture. She is more than willing to help with any questions you have. Lectures can be a bit boring, but she'll throw in a video about once a week which is nice.

Overall, Professor Cook is not the greatest professor the anthropology department has to offer. She has no concept of how anything that involves technology works, and her lectures are boring and borderline irrelevant to what is on the test. Her class is really easy however...her tests are straight forward and correspond with what is in the book quite nicely. There is barely any work involved. Even though I didn't think professor Cook was a good professor, I guess I would recommend her class because it was easy and not so time consuming. If you read the book and supplement then you will do well in the class.

Dr. Cook is very quirky. She is DEFINATELY the most technically challenged person I have ever seen. She once commented on she is the only person she knows of "who has had a videotape catch fire in the VCR while I was showing it". A lot of the things she says are so weird that you just laugh. For example, she was talking about language and how we speak different dialects in different situations and she threw in the example that "you wouldn't just go up to your girlfriend's grandmother and say 'awww shit, its fuckin' sweet to meet you'". This made the class crack up. There is a lot of reading, but the DeVita reader book is actually very interesting, and I ended up not returning it at the end of the quarter because I wanted to read the rest of it. Her exams are very difficult, with multiple choice, true/false, short answer, and a huge essay question. Be sure to attend the lecture and WATCH THE VIDEOS AND TAKE NOTES because she asks a lot of questions from the videos on the exams. And be sure to know how to use examples from the reading and the videos, because she expects you to relate back to them on the essay portion of the exam. Also, she seems to present material very slowly. She will give a two hour lecture which would take any other professor 45 minutes to present. Overall, smart teacher, slow at times, hard exams, but interesting class.

TAKE ANYONE ELSE! I loved cultural anthropology before I took ... her. She was disorganized in class and on tests, and chose the tiniest pieces on irrelevant information for the test essay questions. Ugh. I am SO GLAD to be rid of her.

Dr. Cook is a lumpy old fart who abuses the priviledges of being on tenure. Everything you read about her on here is true. She's careless, computer illeterate, lazy, and always unprepared. You almost get the feeling that she is a substitute teacher trying to understand someone else's material. You have to show up to 4 agonizing hours a week, and go through about 4-8 slides with two bullets on each one. You have to listen to her blab on about her fieldwork in Fiji back when coke was still 5 cents a bottle. If she learned the power of organization and/or summarization then this class could be taught in 5 weeks. Your grade depends on how many esoteric, inane facts you can memorize from the 'lectures', the books (im holding back on those stacks of crap), and all the barely applicable movies. If you don't know exactly how many cows ubukalaka derk derkistan gave his wife when he wanted to marry her... then you just lost 5 points. So with that said, it's still pretty easy to get a good grade, it's just that the 10 weeks leading up to the final make you feel like you're in highschool again. The last day of class, however, was a miracle. Whoever ran into the top of the silo and yelled "What the Fuck, a naked indian?!?WOW!"...whilst throwing a TP roll.... this fist bump is for you. bump. Long story short, NEVER take ANY class she teaches if you can avoid it. There are other GE classes besides ant201, take them.

Cook is a good teacher. She may be disorganized and may not be too great with technology, but she is a great teacher. She is very knowledgeable, has experience in the field, and is funny. I totally recommend taking her!

Cook is an interesting teacher, but I didn't really know what to think about her class. At times it was informative, but at other times, it was completely worthless. Her tests are strange, because they require you to memorize tribe names in different languages....which can be more difficult than it sounds. I thought her class was going to be very easy, but I ended up having to study for it more than I thought. All-in-all though, she was a good teacher. Not great, but good.

she looks like a bobblehead when she talks...

insufforable

I must admit when I attended Professor Cook's first lecture, I was a bit dismayed. I let her toad-like face and incessant sick noises form my first impression of her, and I was afraid I was going to be in for a long quarter. However, although she is rather tragically technologically impaired and her constant snorting and audible phlegm swallowing take some getting used to, Professor Cook is funny, energetic, clear, and knowledgeable. She made every lecture not only informative and approachable, but interesting and entertaining as well. Her exams were challenging but completely fair, and the reading assignments were regular and not overwhelming. The only advise I could give to someone entering this class is to make sure you read the material. Most of the information in the required reading is covered in class, but a lot of the questions on tests come from the supplemental reading, which is a compilation of stories from various anthropologists' field work experiences, and you're not going to get that information unless you read. But the stories are fun anyway, so that shouldn't be a challenge. Professor Cook is definitely an odd duck, but I do recommend her.

Dr. Cook is a strange one, but that doesn't get in her way to present the material. She's a very warm-hearted person and her tests and straightforward--the way they should be. This class is an easy A as long as you show up. Cook is worth taking.

ANT 401 is a lot of reading, so you might not want to take it during your most difficult quarter. But it is rather interesting, so I still do reccomend it. The reading is very interesting, and Dr. Cook shows a lot of interesting videos. We talked/read a lot about the traditional Fijian healers, which is something Dr. Cook knows about, having lived and studied there. The tests are all essay/short answer, but they're graded very fairly. Dr. Cook sometimes gets a bit nitpicky on the quizzes, but the exam questions are all based on main ideas from the readings and videos-- whether or not she tells you what the exam questions will be, you can pretty much see them coming.

First, She is the worst instructor I have had during my years at Poly. She cannot lecture, she used to read to the class from the assign. text. She piles on the homework, her quizzes are all fill in the blank and they are insane. She is boring and noy very intelligent. If you want to have a nightmare of a class take one of Cook's. She is the worst!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WARNING! Do not take this class! She is terrible She doesn't test you on the material she tests you on your reading skills, can you memorize 3 different text books? Don't bother asking any questions in class because she cannot answer any of them.

Her jargon name is the TROLL!!!!!!!!!!

Hey She went to fuji in 1965 big deal. Probably the last time she got laid. The most pathetic instructor on campus.

I could have taken this class without her. All she could have done was come in the first day and tell us which movies to watch, what to read and when the test will be. It was really a waste of time to go to class each day because she does not know how to lecture. I enjoyed the subject matter but that was it.

First of all, I just got done reading all of the previous reports. One must notice that four of them were entered on the same day and at the same time, so I wouldn't pay attention to any of the slandering or name calling. Further on, people complained bout Fiji, yet they spelled it Fuji, and Figi, so just take that into consideration. She did talk about Fiji many times as she has done field work there, but it was not inappropriate, and it was not disproportionate in any way. I really enjoyed Dr. Cook. I found her to be extremely knowledgeable in the areas of culture and health. Culture and health have to be two of the most comprehensive areas of knowledge that I could ever think of, and quite honestly she knew a lot for not being a doctor, it was great. The texts were wonderful. I like a challenge, and this class was definately that. The main textbook, Hellman, was very difficult, and she will explain the reasons for that to you. The second and final book, was a novel, that we had to do a paper on. The paper was a synthesis of the textbook, and the novel, and it was a joy to do, because it was such an interesting topic. I found Dr. Cook, to be very well organized. She is a bit technically challenged as you may discover with the movie segments and her handling of the VCR, but it provides a good chuckle for most. She doesn't rely on handouts, or computers, so when it comes to the "paper method," of teaching, she is top notch. I found her tests to be very challenging, but I did not have the amount of time that I would have liked to have to study for them so I didn't do as well as I could have. Her first test was the easiest to me, and they got progressively more difficult. The last one having a few questions which I found to be a bit trivial, but they were nevertheless fair game. She gives suggestions on how to study for the tests and prepare for the paper, FOLLOW THE ADVICE. I did for the tests, and not for the paper, and I really suffered come final paper writing night, as I did not sleep. The movies by the way, were probably my favourite part of the class, even those people who are not going to take 401 should contact her and rent these movies at the library, as they are truly interesting, and it makes you realize what it is like out there in the rest of the world. She does test heavily on the movies, so if you miss one, make sure that you go to the library to check it out!! I recommend her to anyone and everyone. Dr. Cook has an opinion, but it is very hard to sort it out. She knows both sides of the story and presents them well. However remember all you religious folk, she does talk about facts, and if you are stuck in a delusional world of religion, you might find a few things that conflict, as many of the areas that she covers have nothing to do with monotheistic thought, it'll be a REALITY check for you all, but one that is needed. I still do not know if she is religious, but the class was taught unbiased, and remained scientific. Challenging and interesting are the two words that come to mind, I highly recommend taking this class, and with this teacher, she rocked!

Ant 401( Culture and Health) covered some very interesting topics. There are 2 textbooks, which are straightforward and not highly technical. The book"Spirit Catches You.." is very interesting and has a term paper associated with it which is easy to do as long as you read the book and take notes along the way. Dr. Cook will come on as rather harsh in the beginning but I think its just to weed out the students who aren't serious about the course. She rarely lectures, and is rather dependent on videos, but fortunately, the videos are quite interesting and appropriate to the course.You MUST read both books and take notes on the Helman readings to get an A or solid B in the course. Seems fair enough for a senior level class. Good Luck !

This professor needs to retire. He lectures were always very hard to follow and very broad on the topics being covered. The first test she offered a study guide with sample questions which was very helpful, but for exam 2 nothing was given and covered about 200 pages of reading. For the final a study guide was given, but was very broad. You also read a book and write a paper on it during the quarter- it wasnt that bad, but a bit of a pain. Do not take this professor. She is a difficult to follow and unclear of what is going to be asked on exams. To make up for her lack of ability to teach she shows a dozen videos that she only asks small questions about on the tests.

"Oh, I should've...", "I meant to...", "For next quarter I'm gonna change this..", and my favorite ... "Can I look at someone's syllabus to see what I'm supposed to do today?" If you like an Instructor (and I use that term loosely) who is unprepared, unorganized, disinterested in anything other than Cal Poly politics and her time in Figi 30 years ago, than this is the class for you! And just because she is too preoccupied to give a rat's droppings about covering what she ideally should be (what you will be tested on), doesn't mean she gives you a break on tests, reading requirements, and assignments. Attending class is a joke, except to view the multitude of videos she shows ... why teach if your tenured?

I do not know how this professor remains employed. It is beyond me how somebody this disorganized can even be able to effectively teach. I would recomend that peolpe avoid this professor at all costs. Her tests are not impossible but, they ask for the most specific obscure facts that they seem imposible. The books she chooses are decent, but how she uses them as part of her ciriculum is something left to be desired. Overall, not a good experience.

Taking this instructor is like being in a Twilight Zone episode. You just can