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 :,)

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!

Amazing professor. Lectures were super interesting, weekly homework was super easy, exams were straightforward and were a breeze as long as you attended lecture.

Professor Shields did a great job of explaining the material and going over examples in lecture. The course content itself is not difficult and as long as you do the tutorials in Canvas and the discussion assignments, you should have a solid grasp on whatever you need to know for the exams.

She thinks everyone is a linguistics major which is hard. I learned a lot in discussion

Well, I agree to some extent that the class is boring, but the exams were super easy. You just need to study a few hours before the exam

Came in thinking it would be an easy A... NOT AT ALL. Do not take this class for an easy A or easy humanities credit. Really hard to study and, honestly, a really dull subject. Nice prof, but this class is way too hard for what it should be; take something else!

very boring. can miss 2 discussions but that is where you learn everything. take a different humanities as this class got harder. the average test grade is a 78 right now. midterms are oddly specific and graded hard

Lectures are very boring but the class isn't hard. You can study 3 days before the test and get all the content in. LOTS of memorizing. Wouldn't be the end of the world if you missed a lecture. Don't do the readings, they're not worth the 5 points on a test.

Ling 101 is a really easy class if you are looking for a social studies credit. The lectures can be a little boring, however, I found the material as a whole to be interesting. As for Professor Shields, she is incredibly sweet and very willing to help with any questions. She is so approachable and clearly cares about her students.

If you dont need this classSKIP IT. lots of memorization for tests and discussions were almost as boring as lecture. Its one of those classes where putting effort in makes you mad.

Ling101 with Becky is the. easiest. class. ever. Lectures aren't super interesting, but the content is easy, and you'll do well as long as you put in a little work. There are weekly quizzes, but the answers are almost always somewhere on Quizlet. Discussion attendance is mandatory, but you can miss a few lectures and still figure out the content.

She's fine. She offers a midterm retake, so that's nice; However, the exams are a bit too specific. Very boring class though. You'll want to go to every lecture or you'll fall behind.

I'm surprised to see her reviews are so high. It's not an awful class, but lectures are extremely boring/difficult to follow along. I did not like how Becky taught at all and only succeeded in this class because I went to tutoring from a former TA. The tests are tough bc there is a lot of abstract multiple choice/matching q's you wouldn't expect.

Becky is great! You can tell she is so passionate about what she is teaching and leads lecture with lots of examples so it's easy to follow along. Highly recommend.

Prof. Shields was overall a solid teacher. Material wasn't too complex if you did the readings and paid attention in class. Discussions were well structured. Though, as others have said, the lectures did really drag on. Made them a bit easier to follow, though. Overall, an interesting and not too challenging class by a passionate and fun professor

Ugh don't take this class there are much easier gen eds to take, and this is not one of them. The material is frankly annoying to learn, and she is not very accomindating on her grading and not everything you need to know is even covered in lecture. There is way too much information. Dont take this class. Its not worth it.

Was very boring. I stopped attending lecture after the unit because she would just talk on 3 slides for 50 minutes that could have been covered in 5 minutes. Does use honor-lock. The first unit was the most difficult just because there was a lot to memorize but beyond that it was pretty easy.

Prof Shields was super nice!! I LOVED this class! There's a lot you learn but she does a great job teaching it and providing lots of examples during lecture. She does a good job preparing the homeworks, discussion activities, and occasional tutorials to really help you learn and work with the material. I would absolutely recommend this class!!!

Professor Shields lectures effectively. While she may go on for a while about a particular topic, it is to the benefit of any who have genuine interest in Linguistics. Her assignments cover course concepts in a logical order and are clearly meant to teach you, rather than test you.

Rebecca is a great professor. She is very interested in the subject and has a personality when she teaches. I found that I could just read the lecture slides on canvas and get by just as well as if I attended. You do have to remember how to do many linguistic processes, but honestly it wasn't that hard. I really enjoyed this class.

Professor Shields was the most caring professor I've had. Lectures are clear and all the assignments/quizzes she gives reflect lecture content very well. The class itself is very organized which is also helpful. If you complete the work and show up to lecture (although not mandatory) the exams/the class as a whole is not difficult to do well in.

Definitely one of the nicest professors at Madison.

Rebecca is passionate in class, and gives detailed explanations. Linguistics 101 is a pretty manageable course as long as you go to classes and participate in discussions. There are some memorization needed for the course material, but they are mostly English grammar rules.

Becky is super sweet and knows her stuff but the class requires more work than suggested in a lot of the other ratings. Theres a lot of memorization in the first unit and the rest of the topics are pretty convoluted. I wouldn't say I dont recommend this class, but there are plenty of other easier classes to take to fulfill gen eds

The easiest class I've ever took in UW Madison. As long as you put a lil bit of effort in the material, you'll do just fine. East A, but still need to spend some time understanding the subject. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR HUMANITIES!

Prof. Shields is the sweetest professor ever and explains the concepts so clearly. Lectures can sometimes be boring, but she is very enthusiastic which makes it better. If you put forth effort you'll get an A, but the first unit does require lots of memorization.

Enthusiastic about her work but the class matter can be really dull sometimes.

Even though the material is sometimes pretty dry, Becky does her best to keep it engaging. She makes it pretty fun in class to try out the sounds and words you're talking about. She is also pretty good at explaining things in depth if it seems like people aren't understanding!

Becky is really nice and really helpful if you are willing to get help from her. This class is super boring just because of the content but Becky tries her best to make it better. Watch out - the final is worth 40% of your grade

Becky really knows how to help you understand a topic. She's extremely friendly and understanding. Her lectures are great for a basic understanding, but her discussions are even better. This is one of the few classes I can say that wouldn't be easy to learn without Becky's help. Such a great professor.

Becky is super nice and definitely knows what she's teaching. If you love anything about language, this is a great class. Phonetics unit requires some memorization, but it all makes sense. The three exams and final use problems very similar to discussion worksheets, so even if you don't go to discussion, do the worksheets and an A is in order.

Becky is the nicest person ever, I have her for the lecture and my discussion. This class is really interesting but definitely not the easiest, I would only recommend it if you're willing to put in some time. She is very organized with all the materials and expectations, and you can tell she loves linguistics.

I loved this class. It was a lot of information, but made sense and was very interesting. Easy enough to grasp if you put in the minimal work to understand it. Becky is a sweet lady and very knowledgeable. People say you can skip discussion and turn in the worksheet, but I found the discussions very helpful.

Professor Shields was a pretty decent professor! Attendance was optional, so a lot of people didn't show up. Discussions are counted toward your grade, but you can hand in the worksheet the following Monday for full credit. The class isn't an easy A; you should be able to understand the material. Make sure to study hard for the midterms and final!

Loved this class. Material is easy to understand and exams are fine if you go to lecture, do the discussion worksheets, and take the online quizzes. Becky pretty much gives you all the material for success, its just up to you to put in the work. Also, you can skip discussion and still receive full credit by filling out a worksheet each week.

Becky Shields is a good prof for Ling 101/301. Exams were not very difficult and a small amount of studying should yield an easy A for the class. Lectures are all powerpoint slides and they are posted online. Weekly quizzes are decently easy. Discussions are basically mandatory as they are counted as a grade. Overall good prof and easy class.

Becky is one of the sweetest professors you'll meet at UW-Madison! Her lectures/power point slides are very straight forward and she is always willing to help clarify material. Extremely easy humanities class- no essays, just 3 exams (2x 15%/midterm, cumulative final 40%), discussion 15%, online quizzes 15%. 1st unit requires lots of memorization!

Professor Shields was great at teaching and conveying the lecture material. While the material itself is relatively easy to understand, do not underestimate the difficulty of this course. Memorizing all of the different tables for each unit is vital to your success on each exam. Test your knowledge by doing the discussion worksheets on your own.

Prof Shields is very clear when conveying material during lecture and makes learning it easy

She lays everything out so clearly on powerpoints, that lecture attendance is not required to do well. The discussions are also optional as long as you turn in your worksheet to lecture on Mondays. Overall super easy. Lectures are boring because she goes over the same material multiple times. Easy A.

Prof. Shields is a great instructor and very organized. She lays everything out for you, and you know exactly what to expect on exams. There is one weekly online quiz and a weekly assignment that you get credit for if you show up to discussion. Very good class, although some topics are a bit boring, but overall gives a good overview of Linguistics!

Professor Shields is very enthusiastic about her topic, and if you're into languages, you'll enjoy her class, because she is usually very thorough. She also posts all lecture slides online, a massive help for studying. Still, for those who aren't good with languages, the class can be a bit tough. I'd only recommend it if you enjoy languages.

Professor Shields is absolutely fantastic. Very enthusiastic and passionate about linguistics which is evident during lectures. While some of the material is dry and repetitive, she does a great job keeping the attention of students. Midterms are extremely fair. Discussion sections are very helpful. Final is cumulative and worth 45% of grade.

Awesome class. Professor Shields gave very helpful lectures and was always happy and excited to teach us about linguistics. The class doesn't require much work if you go to lecture and discussion. TAs were great. I'm looking forward to taking more linguistics in the future and hopefully having Prof Shields for semantics next year! Great teacher.

Becky is clear, organized, and just plain adorable. If you're good at grammar, English, and memorization: Take this class! Exams are exactly what she tells you, but it's more memory and vocab work. Easy humanities credit.

This class should be a really easy one to get an A in. However, because there are so little points in the grade book, you need to make sure that you don't screw up on any of the tests. The class itself isn't that interesting.

Rebecca was an enthusiastic professor who knew her stuff; however, the lectures got a little boring and she loved to run them late. Pretty easy class overall, with three big exams determining the majority of your grade. The final exam is cumulative, and is worth more than half of your grade.

This class came extremely easily to me. I skipped lots of lectures and discussions. All the notes are online, so if you understand the notes, don't bother going to lecture. Becky great, and she is extremely clear and helpful. Make sure to STUDY, a lot, for the exams! They're your whole grade. If you do that you'll be fine.

Professor Shields is very nice and enthusiastic about linguistics. However, the homework and tests are written (vs. multiple choice) and each question can be up to 35 points, which can really hurt your grade if you get just one question wrong.

Easy class. Incredibly dull lectures--don't skip them, just suffer through and you won't get lost. Discussion not mandatory. I went to about half of them and found them fairly helpful if I was confused about that weeks topic. You can't brush off exams, but a couple days of studying will yield an easy A.

She goes into thorough detail during lecture, which is wonderful, but the concepts are easy. Tests are not difficult, but I always made little mistakes here and there. My TA was great, and that made a huge difference.

She's extremely nice and very helpful. She was a good lecturer but I didn't find the material that interesting so I didn't go often. Discussion and doing the quizzes and homework (which were an easy grade booster) were enough to do well on exams.

suuuuuper easy class, easy exams, and easy homework. She's super nice and knows/teachers her information well, but her lectures aren't too captivating and I rarely went to them. But all info is online/ in the book, so skipping lecture has little impact on your grade. Discussion sections really help.

the class is a breese and you dont have to go to lecture

Becky is great! One of the most friendly instructors I've ever had, super nice and open to questions. Knowledgeable and good at explaining materials clearly. This class has problem sets, a midterm, and a final... a lot of your grade depends on the tests, but if you put effort into the problem sets and take good notes, you should be well prepared.

If you're looking for a humanities credit or GPA booster take this class. Hardly used the book, lectures are not mandatory cuz she puts her lecture slides online, overall a great class. Not the most interesting subject, but it's easy

This class is extremely easy. Professor Shields makes everything super clear. I wouldn't recommend buying the textbook; I never used it because her powerpoints are extremely thorough. She's super nice and helpful. Overall not the most interesting subject, but I'm glad I took it! Discussions are helpful if you have to miss lectures.

Becky is great! She is so nice and extremely helpful. 9 problem sets, one midterm, and final.

Easiest class in the world. Becky is one of those people that is almost TOO nice. She beats a dead horse in all of her lectures repeating the idea and concept too many times but nonetheless making sure you get the point. If you go to lecture you are for sure guaranteed an A. Discussion is not mandatory and is rather pointless.

As long as you go to class, take good notes, and spend some time studying, an A is likely. Material is made crystal clear. I took the class just looking to fill humanities requirements, and I really had little prior interest in anything to do with language. However, I found this class fairly interesting.

Some people in the class find her annoying but i think she's fantastic. You can really tell she loves what she's talking about and I feel she explains everything very clearly. I hate the discussion though. It's pointless and people ask the most ridiculous, simple questions.

SHE IS THE NICEST person ever. She let me made up a quiz after I missed one. She makes every crystal clear. The exams are not hard at all if you have studied for a decent amount. Lecture slides can also be found online!

One of the most boring teachers on earth.Impossible to focus/pay attention in class because it was sooooooo boring. Essentially read from the powerpoint for the entire lecture, making it useless to go to class because you could get the slides online. Tests were relatively easy if you study hard.

The material is difficult, but she is incredibly clear and organized. The book, not so much. Make sure you go to every lecture and take good notes, because exam questions are exactly like examples from class. There is A LOT of material and memorization, but she is really good at simplifying it. Extremely nice and helpful!

This may be the nicest, most helpful human I have ever encountered. She is extremely clear in her lectures, and though the material is hard she makes it seem easy because she breaks it down so well. Useful homework assignments that prepare you for the very reasonable and fairly-graded exams. Suuuper helpful both during and after class. LOVE :)

So semantics isn't necessarily my favorite subject in the world but somehow she managed to get me to class every lecture and make everything crystal clear. She is GREAT at explaining, both in and out of class, and the homework she assigns is actually helpful. Exams are challenging but fair. Definitely recommend.

Did not keep your attention during class, became very difficult to keep attendance up at the end of the year. A fairly easy elective, but she also raised the curve 2% at the end of the year to drop me from an A to an AB.