Alexis Gray

School: Mt. San Jacinto College
Department: Anthropology
Location: San Jacinto, CA
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
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Rating Comment
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Pros: It was online
Cons: Everything else
Don't take this teacher. She makes her online tests so hard. She has online lectures, don't watch those. She is only trying to waste your time and listen to herself talk. You have to read the book chapters cause that is where she derives her tests . She literally will nit pick the most tedious detail from the book and throw it on the test. Even when emailing her, she is cold. She doesn't care about her students. You would think a teacher wants you to help her students, but she will simply reply "check the syllabus". If I could go back, I would have never taken her. This was supposed to be a 102 class, but I guess it has to be difficult. Even when she grades your papers and you check your comments she has to be a smart a$$. She gives no explanations for her grading and when you do question her, she acts like you are bothering her. I have never in my three years of going to Cal Poly Pomona had such a trashy teacher. I maintain a 3.6 GPA and this lady honestly does not need to work at Cal Poly. #sorrynotsorry
P.S.
If you do decide taking the class, just be prepared for putting in more effort than what its worth.
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Pros: Online Course
Pretty Easy Homework
Exams MC and/ or TF
Curve
Cons: Exams are Specific
Term paper
(Book) READ EVERYTHING
So I'm going to give you the whole down low on this ANT 102 online course. First thing, before anything, send an email out to the entire online class and make some connections. I didn't figure this out till the last weeks. Work with these people to do well.
Next, lets start with homework. Its relatively easy, for the homework that is due online. She'll ask you to read two sections of a small book, and answer the questions at the end. Takes about 45 mins if your quick, usually two hours if your me. The homework is due once a week, on Saturday, at 6pm. Sometimes you have to watch a movie and then write an essay around it.
Next, the term paper. Please start on this early. You have to write an ethnography on a minority culture (very small population world wide), must have a peer reviewed journal as a source, one to three topics about the culture (religious practices, burial ceremonies, marriage ceremonies, how woman are treated in the society, the economy, etc.), must be between 5-7 pages. Also mix in key terms or else you'll lose a lot o credit, she grades it pretty tough, so go to her office hours to ask her to grade your paper ahead of time and make comments.
Finally, the last two things, reading the book and exams. Don't F around with not reading that book. Read, write notes, etc. You will have to read two chapters a week and it will take you a couple hours, if you read everything thoroughly. And I realize I am saying know the book, but Gray expects you to MEMORIZE it... even if she won't say it herself. Key thing to read and take notes on are the originals stories, anthropologies applied, and Anthropologists of note. These are tested heavily on, in the exams. Speaking of which, the midterm is 50 questions, and the final is 100 questions. You and your friends should study and work together for the exams. (I did not have the foresight to think of that, two minds are better than one). Also, one more thing, you'll be asked to watch lecture videos, cultural videos, and read power points... do not waste your time!!! They will not be on the exam, and it is time better spent reading you book. Unless, you notice a change in the weekly homework's, where it is testing you on those things, please don't bother. I hate to see you get a lower score because you studied irrelevant material. Final will ask very specific questions about parts of the book. Also the first exam is 1hr and 10 mins, Final is 2hrs and 10 mins.
I will tell you that all hope is not lost if you are doing poorly. She curves the grade to the person with the highest amount of points. For ex: the class is out of 520 points and she will curve it down to person with the most point which is 480, thus that person gets 480/480. In our class it was a bit more drastic of a curve, almost a 80 points. So please "take my word for it" as the person with the highest grade in the class.
Grade received: 100% (A+)
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Pros: Super easy
Not much HW
Cons: This professor is very vague and super condescending.
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This is a fully online class; typically you really need to be on top of everything because from my experience, it can be easy to neglect such a class and forget that you have things due and stuff. I took it in Fall 2014. She made the assignments for the week available Sunday/Monday at midnight and you had to get everything done before 6PM on Saturday. That wasn't really convenient for me, honestly, I would've preferred them to be due at midnight since we could be busy at or before 6PM on Sat. So my advice is that if this will apply to your class if you take it with her, you should do some of the required work on different days throughout the week, and not wait to do all of it on Saturday before 6. You will have a couple quizzes and (usually) discussion board posts due each week. There is a really long Midterm and Final worth a lot of points. I relied heavily on the book for the quizzes and exams. Sometimes I got points taken off on my discussion board posts and she didn't provide any feedback as to why. She seemed pretty disorganized and quite rude if you try to communicate with her. On her syllabus she showed you how to calculate/keep track of your grade in the class but the total number of possible points at the end of the quarter was totally different from the one in the syllabus, so I ended up getting a grade lower than I expected. Again, just stay on top of everything and try not to miss anything (no make-ups allowed), do your best because if not, you may not realize how much something is affecting your grade and then your grade may turn out as something different in the end. I didn't really like this class, I honestly would've taken a different professor if I could.
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This is an online class so you gotta be study hard. Gray has interesting video lectures, however I felt her exams were quite difficult. She has weekly assignments which are worth nothing compared to the actual exams. On the midterm I got a 60/100. However, I got a 100/100 on the paper and a 254/300 on the final (she gave us a 3 hr online final with 150 problems!) and in the end I should have received an 84 percent but she curves the grades so I ended up receiving an A. This GE class was no joke you really gotta stay on top of everything.
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Pros: Positive attitude, Very helpful when you ask her for help, gives great real-life examples, actually knows what she is teaching (not just textbook knowledge), altogether fun lecture!
Cons: Can be moody when she has not had adequate levels of caffeine and/or nicotine.
This was probably my favorite class I have taken at Cal Poly thus far. It is not an easy class and you are required to memorize the skeletal system (which is easy. Just learn it instead of memorizing it. Theres a phone app for it for Glob sakes) but come on kids, this is a 400 level class. Who told you it would be easy??? because THEY were an idiot.
People who found this class difficult were expecting an anthropology class that you can sleep through (Cultural, physical, linguistic, etc) but don't expect to get away with that in 491, this class reminds you that ANTHROPOLOGY IS AN APPLIED SCIENCE. I'm pretty sure most of the students who did not do well were anthro majors who are unaccustomed to scientific theory in PRACTICE. You have to use reason in identifying remains, and scientific precision instead of making up some results about anthro studies. I am a chemistry major, and I found this class EASY and extraordinarily interesting.
Dr. Gray is an actual Forensic Anthropologist, and explains not only the methods but the actuality of what her job is like. As a working, full-time student, I find it refreshing to find a teacher who actually practices what she is teaching. Like finding science teachers who actually do research on the subjects they teach. Be polite and occasionally humerus, don't be late, and NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER drop a bone during class. Don't disrespect (I.E. play with, mock, or make fun of) any human remains.
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Pros: She freakin brilliant. brings a little real world scenarios into the class room. ANT 491 is more of a hybrid lab/lecture class so you get a lot of experience.
Cons: kinda rude. just try to get on her good side and youre golden.
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Pros: She gives you full credit on the discussion board if you do the work.
Cons: Never gets back to you when you email her. Her online lectures are so boring I could never sit through one.
She doesn't care about you. She never wants to answer questions and her test are really hard. Dont take her for online. I was hoping to make deans list this quarter with 3 As and a B but I have no idea what am going to get in her class. I will probably get a C.
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Pros: No homework, grades projects very easily I don't think she even looks at them
Cons: A lot of reading, midterm and final are hard if you don't read
2 assignments, pretty easy, I honestly doubt she even looks at them because my first one didn't meet the page count and she still gave me full credit, I didn't really try for the second one and got full points again, the last assignment is much more work because you have to create a religion with what you've learned but I don't know how I did yet, the midterm was hard for me because I didn't read anything, all i did was listen to the lectures, the final is cummulative with 35 questions in 2 hrs but two of the questions are essays, she isn't that bad, she said we would have discussions every week but we only did intros and never had another one, then after the midterm she said to keep a look out because we would start having them but never did
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Reading the comments about Dr. Gray before taking her class made me very nervous, but I had to take ANT201 in order to graduate that quarter; so waiting for another GE was out of the question. It is a very easy class if you know how to study! First, you have a few discussion board assignments (very easy, very short) for which you will get full credit if you submit them on time. Then you have 1 midterm, 1 project, and 1 final. The midterm and project are worth 100 pts each; the final is worth 200 pts. I got 56/100 on the midterm, and was able to pull off a perfect score on the project, and a 173/200 on the final. She gives you a practice midterm (it doesn't help you that much for the actual midterm, but save the answers for the final). Its a bit confusing with her when it comes to the video lectures that you need to watch, because when you open the link directly from blackboard, it will show another professor's lectures. But then on the syllabus, there's a link for her lectures. WATCH BOTH LECTURES!!!!! If you only rely on the other professor's lectures, you will fail (hence my 56/100) for the midterm. But it you watch both of them, you will breeze through this class (Hence the 173/200). She literally gives you the answers to the tests in her lectures as stated in another comment on here, so take good notes, preferably on Microsoft word, then use the search function (ctrl+F). As for the project, the comment about her giving out D's and F's only is bull*****, I got a 100/100. Just be creative, have some fun with it, and use lots and lots of pictures. And she curves at the end. Had an F on the midterm, and A on the project, and a B on the final, and ended up with an A in the class. And for the other comments about this class being unorganized and difficult, well I got an A while taking 21 units+senior project+independent project (Mechanical engineering student), so don't worry about it; just do what you are asked to do, consider my suggestions, and you should be fine! Oh, and, she answers her emails very quickly (within the day)
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Pros: Funny
Cons: Disorganized
Contradicts herself and the textbooks she assigns
Unfair grading
She is the worst teacher I have ever taken here at Cal Poly Pomona. I took ANT 360 with her during the late hours of the evening (6-950!!) Like the other reviews on this site, they are very accurate in what they say about her. She does forensic work for LA county and that is probably why she is how she is on campus. She is never clear in what she assigns and never explains what is expected of the assignments. She contradicts herself from what the textbooks say and exclaims that what the book says is actually wrong. I tried emailing her one time (probably the last time I tried giving a care about the class) and she didn't even respond back. She shows a lot of movies and most of the time, thats all that happens in class. Some people, I remember, would leave the class to go out to eat and you can go back in (with the movie still playing) and not get noticed that you left. Her final was take-home (but she gave us a choice to take it in class) and you have to make sure that when she asks for a short answer, it is a page long or I believe she doesn't even bother reading it. Consensus: She should give the class more attention or retire from teaching and stick to one job at a time. Don't take the class if you are easily unmotivated after seeing how a disorganized, unreliable professor performs. Grade Received: C+
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Dr. Gray is absolutely amazing! Although her class was very challenging it was extremely rewarding. And though most of the class did not do very well on the tests, she fixed it so everyone still got decent grades, because she truly cares about her students. Despite the previous comments, I have taken 2 of her classes (the other ANT 360) and they have been great! She is very personable and down-to-earth which, unfortunately, does not translate in her emails, so don't be offended. Just don't fall behind and get your work done! Grade Received: A
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If you are self-motivated this class shouldn't be too bad. I really enjoyed her online lectures so I was surprised when she was so rude in her emails. A lot of people were upset because she assigned a mandatory in-class meeting which wasn't posted when we enrolled. I've heard she does this for all of her online classes, just a heads-up. Of course, the point of taking an online class is doing the work at your convenience and not having to come to the campus, so it was irritating. The material was interesting but make sure to do the reading and watch the lectures because you definitely won't have enough time to find answers through the text/powerpoints while taking the tests. There are a lot of lectures to watch online (streaming) ranging anywhere from about 15 minutes to over an hour long each. There are discussion postings and weekly assignments, and everything is usually due Saturdays at 3pm. There is a midterm and a final online, as well as a term paper due towards the end of the quarter. Again, if you are self-motivated you'll get a good grade in this class, otherwise I would take a different in-class one that doesn't have as much work. Online classes usually have more work/more stuff due to make up for not being in-class. If you don't mind that, you'll have no problem with this class. Grade Received: A-
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Knowledge: F, Teaching Ability: F, Friendliness: A, Challenging: 1.
}I took the online version. This is a great class to take with a friend or a group of friends. Go through and download the syllabus, all of the powerpoints, pdfs and lecture videos during the first week and just work through them at your own pace. Pay attention to the deadlines to submit assignments. You only need the book for the midterm and the powerpoint so buy it for Barnes and Noble or some other bookstore the week before and return it immediately afterward. Combine all of the powerpoints into one massive study guide.
}One Midterm (100pt essay), One Final (167pt 3 essays, m/c, true/false, fill in the blanks), One Final Project (100pt website on a new religion), 2 Assignments: 1. Observe a Ritual, 2. Divination Tool (25pts each)
}If I didn't panic after running out of time on the final, I would have gotten an A. Nonetheless, I'm still satisfied with my grade. Grade Received: B
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OK, first things first. Bite the bullet and buy the text from the CPP bookstore. I purchased mine from half.com or some other site for very cheap but didn't get the book until the 3rd week, so the first 3 or 4 quizzes were a guessing game. Also, don't waste time like i did reading every word in the chapters. When you take a quiz, get some little post it note tabs and place them at each subheading, read the chapter summaries, and go at it. I tried so hard on most quizzes and got decent grades, but when I did the tab thing i took the quiz 10 minutes later and got 10/10. To keep things interesting, watch some of the videos. They aren't completely necessarily, although "Ongka's Big Moka" was beneficial. None of the quiz, midterm, or final questions are about the movies.
}Sounds OK so far, right?
}After reading reviews for this professor, I decided to take it to spite everyone who complained that it was an unorganized online class. Big mistake. You will be left confunded and frustrated when she gives the most vague instructions in the world. Don't send her a message via BlackBoard. Due to a mistake on my part, one of my assignments did not submit, I didn't have a grade for a week or so. So, I messaged her via BlackBoard and got a message back a week later saying "i did not receive an assignment from you." I took a screenshot of my blackboard "digital dropbox," and tried sending it to her, but the issue did not get resolved until the 9th week! The funny thing is, I turned in that assignment 4 days early, but the hassle it caused was very stressful. If you think I'm exaggerating, then take the class as I did, but I guarantee that you will be let down.
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I took Dr. Gray for ANT350 online last quarter and got an A in her class so I decided to take ANT360 even though she leaves much to be desired as a teacher. Dr. Gray lets you know from the beginning that she has a very busy life working for the county and doing other things so don't count on feeling like this class is a priority for her. She never gives any sort of guidelines on the assignments so most of the time you have to guess what it is she wants and then she marks you down because you didn't follow her guidelines!? When I would email to ask her a question sometimes she wouldn't even respond to me or she had no idea what I was talking about (even though they were questions about things listed on the syllabus). The syllabus stated we were supposed to do discussion board postings but she never once mentioned them or gave any information about what we were supposed to write about even though they were on the syllabus. Most of the links to the lectures, readings, and videos never worked and she didn't fix them until almost 3 weeks before the end of the quarter. The exams are open book so that is a plus but you still need to do the reading cause you will run out of time if you have to look up the answer to every question. She was never straight about what chapters were going to be on the exams (we took the midterm two weeks behind schedule) and the final ended up being comprehensive which she never mentioned and I didn't find out until I actually took it. Ironically, this happened in both of the classes I took with her. As another student in the class said - the wonders never cease. The class is not hard but it can be frustrating when having to rely on an instructor who is unreliable and unpredictable. Grade Received: B
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This class is worth taking as a GE Online Class. It is very interesting, convenient, and a great pacifying class depending on your major (I am an Aerospace Engineer, and I wish my classes were as pacifying as this). The midterm is very easy (it's open book and you have one week to complete it online), the readings are fun (you do have to read the text, but it's an easy read and very interesting), and term project is a webpage on Google pages (it's very fun, but it does take a long time if you are not the most webpage designing savvy person). The only downsides to this class is that the final was much harder than the midterm, and she isn't the most friendly person to visit in her office hours as well as emailing her. She won't insult you or treat you condescendingly, but she will tease you and mock you in certain ways. The people who bash her are exaggerating for the most part, and they probably think that all online GEs are to be as easy as MU 100. These complainers probably shouldn't be in college in the first place anyway. Grade Received: A
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She is by far the worse teacher I have ever come across, and I am a Mechanical Engineer major so I have had some bad ones. There is 1 midterm which is super hard, because it is impossible to remember 9 whole chapters. She is never at her office hours, and it never seems as if though she is willing to help you, she just seems mad at the world the entire time. She DOES NOT curve which makes it kind of hard for people who are not Anthropology majors succeed. Do not bother with the webpage, because no matter how hard you tried on it and make it look fancy she still will most likely give you anywhere from an F to a C (I got a 50/100 and my friend got a 60/100 it). I would say the only way to succeed in this class is to be a web designer for the webpage and some how remember all the chapters for a GE which you will probably never need again throughout your entire life. All in all I studied for both midterm and final, got D's in both of them, I worked really hard on my webpage (even went to Studio 6 for some help) and recieved a D for all my efforts. NOT WORTH IT TO TAKE THIS GE WITH HER, IF ANY OTHER GE IS OPEN AT THE TIME I WOULD RECOMMEND TAKING THE OTHER ONE BECAUSE IT IS NOT WORTH BRINGING DOWN YOUR GPA JUST BECAUSE OF THIS CLASS. Grade Received: D
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This so called "professor" is the absolute worst. Even though the class was online, I didn't expect it to be a cake walk, but I also didn't expect to have to work my ass off to get a decent grade for a fucken intro class. She expects you to know the book from cover to cover, word for word, no joke; you have to know every single detail about everything in the book, down to the grammar, punctuation, and spelling. If you don't believe me, take this class for yourself. Her quizzes had glitches, so even when you entered the right answer, the system wouldn't register them as correct; she takes forever to respond to emails, and the only reason she gets so much emails is because she is so damn disorganized and there is always some glitch with her quizzes/tests; she blamed us and expected us to catch up with all the assignments in a short time even though we had no control over what was going on because the system was faulty at the time; she makes you do "fill-in-the-blank" questions, and they're the ones that always have glitches, so when I asked her if there was anything she could do to fix it, she threatened to give the class essays, and then she made some lame-ass excuse to why she couldn't fix the problem, so I got stuck with crappy ass quiz scores even though I put in the right answers. All in all, this lady is the most rude, bitchiest, terrible excuse for a professor that I've ever met, and all these qualities about her were revealed online; imagine how much worst it would be to have to take her in person. AVOID THIS CLASS AT ALL COST UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOSE YOUR MIND OVER AN INTRO CLASS. Grade Received: B+
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I was REALLY excited going into this class. I mean, c'mon...it's Forensic Anthropology! Dr. Gray was funny, too, and for the first couple of class periods I really enjoyed myself. Then she informed us we had 1 week to memorize all 206 bones in the human body. We had to go to the bookstore to buy human anatomy flash cards that they were out of. And they were very pricey, by the way. Her exams were really tough because basically, what she does is she sets out a skull, a pelvis, a femur, and maybe some teeth or something, and she makes you tell her the age/race/sex of the individual. I NEVER had enough time to finish her practicum (tests). This class gave me SO much stress. Sometimes she was really cranky and I didn't feel that she really wanted to be there, teaching us. She was also pretty inappropriate at times. She promised us field trips and all sorts of things which never materialized...and she also did away with the second test b/c we were so behind in the syllabus. I wish she had kept it, though, b/c a lot of us really could have used the extra credit. She never responds to e-mails, so be forewarned. Grade Received: B+

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