Historical instructor

REBECCA SHIELDS

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.43/5 from 72 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

LING101 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Dr. Shields is passionate about linguistics and her poisitive attitude made every lecture enjoyable. You don't have to prep over summer but make sure you get comfortable with IPA, 10 minutes a day even during the semester does wonders! Discussion activities are guaranteed credit but phenomenal exam prep
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LING101 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
She was a really wonderful lecturer who made slides super easy to take notes off of and prepared us super well for the exams. All the midterms were very fair, and as long as you paid attention in lecture and actually did the worksheets in discussion, this class was very easy.
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LING101 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
Becky is very passionate and explains things very well, but it's either extremely interesting or kind of boring based on if you like the subject. Even still, she does a good job at keeping people somewhat engaged. Speaking another language beforehand made this class much easier. Her Canvas is well-organized, and she has an effective teaching style.
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LING101 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 1/5
I found her lectures rather slow and boring, but I'm willing to blame the material rather than Shields herself. Tests were easy if you read the study guide/attended discussions. You can tell she has a lot of passion for her subject and cares deeply about her students. If I actually liked linguistics I'm sure I would've loved this class :,)
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LING101 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Professor Shields is an awesome professor who clearly loves what she teaches. Lectures tended to be slow-paced at times, but she thoroughly explains every topic. She even makes study guides and practice worksheets to help prepare for the exams, which was super helpful. Discussion was fun and you basically just do worksheets/puzzles with a group!
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with REBECCA SHIELDS

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

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Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance
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