O'Brien, Jennifer  

Jennifer Alomvoaea please curvy you are.

What the guy/gal below said. Amen. I too took this class and have long since graduated from Poly, but I was cruising Poly Ratings for a kick and thought that I should pipe in and let you know how much of a joke this prof is.

easy class, funny teacher, no homework. three midterms, the final is just like the other two midterms just different chapters. you dont even have to go to class as long as you read the book. test questions are a bit detailed but its not hard to get a B in the class. she also offers some EC

I really appreciated Jennifer's teaching style as a 200-person lecturer. She's pretty easy-going and genuinely likes teaching health, which is much better than listening to someone drone on about the topic. She likes to add interesting personal stories to her lectures & has lots of unusual info/stats about different subjects. Interesting overall. All her lectures are available online & if you do the reading/show up for most classes, you'll do fine. Try to be in class for guest speakers because she puts the info they present on the tests too. None of them are cumulative (including the final). Plus, she offers extra credit. Take her.

She is a good teacher. She enjoys health, and there is no homework. 3 tests that arent cumulatvie and a paper (everyone gets 100 on it) are in this class. Its easy to get a B if you read book for test and study lecture slides. My roomate took it credit no credit and didnt study for two of the tests very thoroughly and got C+ on both of them. If your a dude and can get past her feminist bull that she alludes to regularly, it will be ok. And lastly she gets into some unnecessary detail about sex and her life. Ask her about Stewart........(has to do with her husband). Like i said, unnecessary.

Loved her. Funny girl and made things more interesting in lecture. Take her its an easy class and I barely went.

Here's my opinion...Girls: take this class and enjoy it, because she's a feminist bitch. Guys: avoid this class, half the test is on female anatomy and living patterns. She'll throw in two or three questions about men to see if the girls were paying attention to something they didn't already know. I stopped going to class and still got a C though, so just take the tests and do the project and you're guaranteed passing.

no homework, just midterms and extracredit opportunities, she uploads her powerpoints on blackboard, not necessary to buy the book, topics are 1) various aspects of health 2)sexuality 3) birth control 4) fitness 5)luxury diseases eg cholesterol, diabetes etc. this woman has some serious unresolved sexual inferiority complexes probably acquired earlier, all this feminist thinks about 24/7 even in sleep is the differences between the sexes. she never delivers the information objectively, instead always has to mix it with such subjective emotions, her biased humor and her bs ideologies. Only thing worth while i learned from this class is that people like her exist out there. She always goes of on tangents probably because shes the only one who enjoys it the most and daily looks forward to the class as an outlet to vent her aching biases and insecurities. overall that woman needs to take a trip around the world and learn that theres much more to life than just what runs through her narrow head.

She is a really easy teacher and all the exams are EXTREMELY easy... a lot of definitions and basic health questions ... no brainers. Dont even have to read the book or go to lecture, just know the def at the bottom on each chapter. One of my fav. teachers at CP

I wasnt that impressed. She just talked in a pretty boring way. The way she teaches may be practical, but not scientific. i.e. \"always wear a condom\" and \"carbohydrates are bad for you.\" And then you get tested on it. It was an ok class.

Easy A. If you do the work, you will get an A. O'Brien does a good job of teaching, but it's really your job to learn. Every assignment in this class is online, so if you do it, you should get an A. Pretty easy class.

DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS, just saying

Funny and straight-foward. Attendance required but easy material so I had a group of three rotating except for sporadic assignments required dropping off. Easy midterm and final. Easy GE.

Healthy Living is a pretty boring class in general, but O'Brien genuinely cares about the topic and she does her best to convey that to the students. She has clicker questions each class to encourage attendance, but missing out on those few points won't hurt you. The tests are straight forward, but make sure you don't miss the lectures with supplemental videos or the like. There aren't powerpoints on those, but there are definitely test questions from them! Overall, if you're gonna take this class, take it with O'Brien.

She's really boring. The only time you'll pay attention is when she makes horribly childish sexual innuendoes taht she THINKS make her seem clever.

First of all, I took this class thinking it would be an easy A GE. It's definitely not though. There is one midterm and one final which account for 60% of your grade which I had to spend hours studying for well in advance. However, I did manage to pull an A. The rest of the grade is from MasteringHealth which you need to pay 30 something bucks for. The textbook is also a must because her slides cover very little of what is on the tests. She can be pretty funny but she often talks about stuff that has nothing to do with what's gonna be on the test. Overall, if you're looking for an easy A, look somewhere else, but it's very doable if you're willing to put the time in.

By far one of the most incompetent teachers I have ever had the displeasure to deal with. She puts her feminist ideology to the forefront of actually teaching anything relevant and it shows with brilliant claims like "sexually transmitted diseases are sexist because they affect women more". The class and this teacher are both a bad joke, I didn't really have to attend class, she relied too heavily on slide shows than actually providing a lecture, she would refuse to correct errors in her scoring when she clearly marked the wrong answers as the correct ones, and she is incredibly unprofessional, divulging disturbingly intimate details of her sex life. She is living, breathing proof that tenure is a blight on upper education and she is the single reason I will never donate to Cal Poly. Why is she even here?

just read the book and powerpoints she puts up on blackboard...dont go to class it is a waste of time because she is pretty much an idiot. her two hour class is broken up like this half and hour of solid information you need to know for test and then and hour and a half of her talking about her sex life with her husband or other stupid shit

I absolutely loved O'Brien. I took her class at 7a.m. and she was definetley easy to wake up for. She was very witty and informative. There were only 3 midterms(the final was the third midterm) the whole time. You also had to do either 10 hours of community service or do an interview. Her clss was super cool and she got me laughing everyday. TAKE HER

This is the most boring class I have ever taken! Jennifer sits there and lectures for the longest 2 hours ever. She really knows how to put someone to sleep. Besides being boring its not a hard class. I only received a C because I only went for the first hour of class, that is if I even went to class. If you plan to take this course, I would recommend going to the lectures and keeping up on the reading, its not assigned, but its the material is on the tests.

This class sucked! Everything that is wrong with this country and all the problems minorites face are due to white males according to this book. It was incredibly painful to just listen to it and then to especially read a text book that is even more boring. O'Brien is a great teacher. This class just sucked.

Many students do poorly in this class because it is so easy to ignore the reading. If you attend class andy spend a half hour per lecture reading (twice a week), you will do very well on her tests. Besides the manageable community service project, that is the extent of the outside work required. Take this class especially if your priorities are elsewhere and you need a fairly easy GE.

unnecessary sex info. throw into lecture to try and keep students attention.

It was a struggle to sit through 1 hour and 50 minutes of this class with O'Brien. The class structure consisted of taking notes from videos or powerpoint slides (which she "borrowed" from an unknown source) while she "lectured on the material." More often than not she would completely diverge from the lecture and slides and end up talking about her personal life and family situation which I found to be very unprofessional and even uncomfortable at times. Your grade is made up of three noncumulative tests (she curves each test by a few points), 2 quizzes on a book, and a group book analysis The tests are based off of lecture notes, in class videos, and readings from a textbook. While doing the readings from the textbook, follow the study guide and you WILL get those questions from the reading correct on the tests. Unfortunately, O'Brien thinks she covers more in her class than she actually does and some questions on the test are completely random and were never covered in lecture (about 10mc questions out of 80mc or 100mc). The slides she posts on polylearn are very basic and do not have a sufficient amount of information on them. (Meaning you have to go to class so she can elaborate on the material). That being said this is a multicultural health class, so yes, its boring, but not rocket science! You WILL be able to get an A or B in this class as long as you take good notes from the textbook, pay attention to what she says in class, actually read the literary book carefully, and find motivated classmates for your group literary book analysis assignment

O'Brien is alright. The material covered in class is really easy, basic stuff. Its all memorization. You definitely have to attend lectures because her online powerpoints say about 40% of what you really need to know. The rest you have to write down in class as she says it. Do the extra credit assignment she offers. The only reason I didn't like this class is because her tests were ridiculously specific. For a GE, this class took a lot of time for pure memorization. But, if you're good at that, then this is probably a good class for you. ALSO go to office hours!

Super, super boring class. It's almost always just 2 hours of her reading a powerpoint to you that's on PolyLearn. The tests and quizzes are written in a way that makes it very hard to fail and very hard to get an A. There are some weird-ass questions you won't know, and some stupidly easy questions you can't get wrong. It's all multiple choice, but I'm telling you right now it's HARD to get an A. The material itself is kind of interesting, but it's a lot of obvious stuff. She's an interesting person though. Always very excited and enthusiastic and VERY VERY uncensored. Makes the class almost bearable. There's very little homework. I don't recommend this class if you want an easy A.

Dr. O'Brien is a nice person but this was probably the most annoying class I've ever taken. A lot of the information I learned about health in different cultures was informative, but I lost interest when most of the topics during the first half of the quarter somehow all got related back to racism. Racism was relevant to some of the topics we were learning. But the influence that racism has on multi-cultural heath can be explained in about 20 minutes; not in four lecture periods and a 1.5hr long civil rights film. Also numerous ridiculous correlations about racism were brought up in lecture. Like how many African American women are overweight because they can't make their hair long and straight like the majority population of white blonde women. We were also required to attend a presentation from the Cross Cultural Center and do a report on how it relates to class material. There were about 9 possible options and over half of them were focused mostly on racism. The one I attended had the most ridiculous conspiracy theories and correlations about how educations systems (including Cal Poly) and White Americans are repressing African Americans(I'm not sure how this related to multi-cultural health). The tests for the class aren't cumulative which is nice, but about 10-15% of the test questions are not discussed in lecture or the book.

One of the most boring and annoying classes I've taken. This woman shares so much personal information that's straight up disturbing (like a full on description of her giving birth). Most of the class material is common knowledge but then her tests get weirdly specific and it's hard to get an A. Don't take this class if you can avoid it.

The class is pretty easy. I didn't do the reading and still finished the tests in like 30 minutes. Just copy down the power points (which are online too) and you will get a B. She's weird, but she's nice. (She basically single- handedly acted out a porno (don't ask), but you get used to it. She's not the "worst professor" but she's not amazing. Some of the information is actually pretty cool, some just common sense.

I really enjoyed O'Brien's class. The course is made up of 3 tests and one written assignment. Literally, just be disciplined with the assigned reading and going to class and you'll be more than fine. I essentially studied for every test (including the final) the night before and earned a B+ each time. She is fair with grading and curves tests if need be. Like others have said, there are some tricky questions on tests, but most come directly from the textbook and her lectures. Like She is approachable and very conversational; every so often I would talk to her after class about nutrition and what not, because I'm into that stuff, and she was super helpful. She knows a lot and has a lot of life experience which you can learn from. She is opinionated on her views, so have an open mind coming into the class. She definitely keeps things interesting and had the class laughing pretty much every lecture. The class had a lot to do with racism and feminism which I thought was pretty interesting too. I ended the class with an A-. The class is super interesting at times when we covered racism in the health care system, but it gets a bit bland at times when you cover stuff like heart disease. Just go to class all the time and do the reading! I give the class a 8/10 overall. It was my favorite class of my first quarter.

I really enjoyed O'Brien's class. The course is made up of 3 tests and one written assignment that isn't difficult. Literally, just be disciplined with the assigned reading and going to class and you'll be more than fine. I essentially studied for every test (including the final) the night before and earned a B+ each time. She is fair with grading and curves tests if need be. Like others have said, there are sine tricky questions on tests, but most come directly from the textbook and her or her guests' lectures. Like I said before, you really do need to attend lectures because test questions will sometimes come for the things she says, not just what's on the slides. She is approachable and very conversational; every so often I would talk to her after class about nutrition and what not, because I'm into that stuff, and she was super helpful. She knows a lot and has a lot of life experience which you can learn from. She is opinionated on her views, so have an open mind coming into the class. She definitely keeps things interesting and had the class laughing pretty much every lecture. The class has a lot to do with racism and feminism which I thought was pretty interesting too. I ended the class with an A-. The class is super interesting at times when we covered racism in the health care system, but it gets a bit bland at times when you cover stuff like heart disease. Just go to class all the time and do the reading! I give O'Brien and her class a 8-8.5 out of 10 overall. It was my favorite class of my first quarter.

This class is a health GE and is going to suck any way you look at it. I knew that going in, but I was determined to force myself to pay attention and get an A. Unfortunately, the boring nature of the class was not the only thing keeping me from acing the class. The only grades come from 3 exams and a written assignment. The paper is short and easy to write and do well on, but the tests are a different matter. I attended every class, took all the notes from the lectures, slides, and videos, read all the assigned reading, and studied a respectable amount for each test (using the study guides she provides), but I could not get a good handle on any of her tests (keep in mind, I am a usually pretty decent test-taker). They contained information that was not addressed anywhere in the class, and some material that was very remote/not emphasized in any way. That being said, passing is pretty much a given, but, through general content, O'Brien's teaching style (as others have said - it gets weird and graphic), and the tests, this class just annoying. Don't take it if you're looking for an easy A.

I really enjoyed O'Brien's class. The course is made up of 3 tests and one written assignment that isn't difficult. Literally, just be disciplined with the assigned reading and going to class and you'll be more than fine. I essentially studied for every test (including the final) the night before and earned a B+ each time. She is fair with grading and curves tests if need be. Like others have said, there are some tricky questions on tests, but most come directly from the textbook and her or her guests' lectures. Like I said before, you really do need to attend lectures because test questions will sometimes come from the things she says, not just what's on the slides. She is approachable and very conversational; every so often I would talk to her after class about nutrition and what not, because I'm into that stuff, and she was super helpful. She knows a lot and has a lot of life experience which you can learn from. She is opinionated on her views, so have an open mind coming into the class. She definitely keeps things interesting and had the class laughing pretty much every lecture. The class has a lot to do with racism and feminism which I thought was pretty interesting too. I ended the class with an A-. The class is super interesting at times when we covered racism in the health care system, but it gets a bit bland at times when you cover stuff like heart disease. Just go to class all the time and do the reading! I give O'Brien and her class a 8-8.5 out of 10 overall. It was my favorite class of my first quarter. On a side note, it is honestly pretty hard to get an A, but I would say it's easy to get a B, so keep that in mind. Try on the written assignment! I got a 100% on it, and that helped my be an A- instead of a B+.

I really enjoyed O'Brien's class. The course is made up of 3 tests and one written assignment that isn't difficult. Literally, just be disciplined with the assigned reading and going to class and you'll be more than fine. I essentially studied for every test (including the final) the night before and earned a B+ each time. She is fair with grading and curves tests if need be. Like others have said, there are some tricky questions on tests, but most come directly from the textbook and her or her guests' lectures. Like I said before, you really do need to attend lectures though because test questions will sometimes come from the things she says, not just what's on the slides. She is approachable and very conversational; every so often I would talk to her after class about nutrition and what not, because I'm into that kind of stuff, and she was super helpful. She knows a lot and has a lot of life experience that you can learn from. She is opinionated on her views, so have an open mind coming into the class. She definitely keeps things interesting and had the class laughing pretty much every lecture; she is extremely uncensored. The class has a lot to do with racism and feminism which I thought was pretty interesting too. I ended the class with an A-. The class is super interesting at times when we covered topics like racism in the health care system, but it gets a bit bland at times when you cover stuff like heart disease. Just go to class all the time and do the reading! I give O'Brien and her class a 8-8.5 out of 10 overall. It was my favorite class of my first quarter. On a side note, it is honestly pretty hard to get an A, but I would say it's easy to get a B, so keep that in mind. Try on the written assignment! I got a 100% on it, and that helped my grade be an A- instead of a B+.

O'brien is a biased, feministic, bitch. I got an A in the class for barely doing any work. But if you try to ask any questions against her views she will talk over you. Her views are not entirely correct either because I would have my laptop open with facts about the topics she was talking about. She just talks about how the white male is ruining the world. If you are a conservative do not take this class. If you are a white male do not take this class. She only talks about how her daughter goes to Ucla and how "perfect" she is. Also I'm surprised this teachers husband is still with her. DONT TAKE THIS.

If you are a straight, white male who doesn't like being told how you are the problem in every situation, or even possess any level of morality and common sense do not take this class. Super easy, but this professor is the most stereotypical, crazy, extremely far left person there is. The one thing I can take away from this class is knowing how truly pathetic some people... Pathetic if they actually believe what this lady says and pathetic if people are actually offended as much as she says people are. It is people like Obrien that are turning college students into weak pussies that are entitled to everything and offended by everything. #safespace #wordshurt #generationofpussies

Not bad and not good, she's just kinda ok. If you are a white male be prepared to take a lot of "you are the problem" lectures. Honestly it really wasn't too bad. Tests are pretty much exclusively lecture notes and she actually has very good focus when presenting, I would say take the course if you want an easy B or A

Yes, Jennifer, I get it: because I am white and a male and conservative I represent all that is wrong and evil with the world. I know everyone else has said it but O'Brien is so unbelievably biased and annoying. It never quits. She won't talk about anything but how women have been constantly mistreated and are still being treated as second... I mean third... class citizens. Or how men are all evil and awful. She is just awful and completely puts her own opinion into things she teaches as FACT! But if you want a class that you can get a B in without going to half of the classes, take her.

Jennifer is the kind of professor who holds herself higher than students instead of trying to relate to students. It's off putting to everyone. When you email her a question, she won't answer it, but instead make you figure it out and leave you even more confused than before. Something as simple as, "How do you want the format of my paper to be?" She will respond with, "It's in my syllabus." She doesn't know anything about being objective because her slideshows and lectures only include information she has vetted and finds fitting to further her agenda that the white male is the problem with the corrosion in our society. Also, you can tell she's the kind of teacher who hasn't updated her facts and information in a few years because all of her slideshows and presentations are videos from 2014. So that's just pure lazy. It really makes sense when she lets the class know she's atheist and therefore she doesn't know crap. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. DO NOT TAKE IT. DON'T TAKE IT. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.

O'brien is one of the most enjoyable people to listen to! She gets really into her lectures (sometimes goes off on a tangent), but that's ok. IN order to study for her class I read the book, made flashcards, paid attention to some factual statistic stuff. Her tests really aren't hard or anything out of this world but they can get kind of tricky sometimes when she does true or false. We also got to watch a lot of ted talks which was fun- I feel like she really tried to make the class relevant. She's super funny too.

This is an incredibly easy class. I probably went to about 2 lectures the entire year and still ended up with an A. The lectures I chose to attend were interesting, but as long as you do the readings, take notes from polylearn, and watch the TED Talks on your own time, you'll pass the class.

Jennifer O'brien is a very interesting person, and that allowed her to make a class, which should be lethally boring, only morbidly boring. Grading is based on two non-cumulative exams and a single paper assignment. The material of the course is very easy; it is just a bunch of general information about health and the demographic aspects related to it. There would be no reason to attend except Jennifer does not provide the whole material to students (only the first exam depends on the book. The rest comes from lectures whose slides are not provided in their entirety on Polylearn). This is to force you to attend and take notes (that is if you can cope with the incredible boredom). If you can take the class with a teacher who would provide the whole class material, do it. Otherwise, this is still a very easy A.

First, the class itself is manageable and any decent effort should get you an A in this class. With minimal effort, I was two points away from an A- in this class. One midterm, a basic TED talk writing assignment, and the Final were all of the grade. Even extra credit in-class activity, so attend when you can. Professor O'Brien made lecture tolerable with good energy and passion for this subject. Slightly biased and to be fair - there is much worse! Great guest speakers. She did recommend eating pupusa (num num num?) ... but you'll have to go to lecture for more on that. Take this class, pretty easy and good professor.

First, the class itself is manageable and any decent effort should get you an A in this class. With minimal effort, I was two points away from an A- in this class. One midterm, a basic TED talk writing assignment, and the Final were all of the grade. Even extra credit in-class activity, so attend when you can. Professor O'Brien made lecture tolerable with good energy and passion for this subject. Slightly biased and to be fair - there is much worse! Great guest speakers. She did recommend eating pupusa (num num num?) ... but you'll have to go to lecture for more on that. Take this class, pretty easy and good professor.

SHE IS TERRIBLE DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE!!! I emailed her over ten times and she has never replied. She's the laziest professor I've ever met and just reads off of Powerpoint slides. The information is extremely one-sided and boring. You will want to die everyday you go to this class. Her voice is absurdly annoying and you will feel like you're wasting your life away. Class isn't too terrible academically just read the dumb book she makes you read.

I don't recommend this GE. It is an easy course to pass no doubt, but getting an A in this class I believe was heavily because of luck and common sensing my way through the ridiculously useless tests. Many of the questions on the two exams are just so obscure and useless it makes you just want to rip the test up. Some of the questions are asked to make sure you went to class, but even these are so randomly specific you could have gone to every lecture like I did and still not know the answer. Now on the flipside if you like multiple choice tests that very often have two correct answers, take this class because she gives credit to either of the two answers. Oh wait just kidding you got it wrong. I don't hate her, but the professor preaches her personal beliefs and doesn't care because her opinion is always the right opinion (if you're a white male, try not to get triggered when she starts looking at you and says all the problems are because of us). If you just really need the USCP and GE think about taking this class pass/fail because you might pass it without even going to a single lecture assuming you have some basic health knowledge and haven't lived your life with your head up your ass.

Professor Jennifer O’Brien is hands down the most cringe worthy professor I have ever taken. Not only does she insist that her bias, subjective-based opinions are facts, but she tests you on them too even though none of her aources are credible (assuming she even gives one). Do you have common sense? Are you a strait white male? Do you affiliate with anything other political leaningthan the extremely far left liberal ideals? Than this class is NOT for you! To get a small idea of what I’m talking about, she made the class walk a “privilege walk” based on a questionaire she handed out (that was in every way a horrible survey) that was designed to essentially segregated the white people and even more so the males. In doing this we were passively shamed for being male and/or white. If you would like a teacher who teaches you unbiased, factual material and who tests you such material, then look elsewhere for a professor because Jennifer O’Brien is the exact opposite of such a professor. Regardless, I wish you Godspeed in your education.

no plz no

Three book quizzes that were a bitch and 20% of our grade, buttttt not too hard. Midterm and final (non-cumulative). Tests were very fact heavy , so you pretty much had to memorize the slides word for word and be extremely attentive during lecture because her tests would have a handful of questions that were direct quotes from her lecture or guest speakers. Two ted talk responses that were super easy and one of them was for extra credit in the class. Manageable class, almost fell asleep during lecture on multiple occasions, but it's fine. I'm sure there might be a few D4 requirement fulfilling classes out there, but this one was pretty fair, I recommend Jennifer and I urge anyone who takes this class to actually show up to lecture.

I just remember walking into class one day and Professor O'Brien was sprawled out on table with her legs open spread eagle towards the class, demonstrating the improper way of giving birth. Then she proceeded to stand up and pretended to shit out a baby "like a real woman."

Typical feminist with a narrow view. She can get pretty irritating, she is very one sided. Doesn't have any sources to back up her statements. Easy B , a little bit difficult to get an A.

She's pretty funny sometimes but she can get kind of confusing in her material. Sometimes it looks like she just pulled a bunch of random sources and compiled them together in one lecture. You can tell because 70% of her lectures are just relatively old (2005-2010?) infographics that are from many different websites and she comments on the infographics. Also, this class does focus on cultural aspects, hence why it is called Multicultural Approach, and she discusses a lot about displacement of minorities, white people being mostly in power, etc. But even though she brings up these disparities, she doesn't necessarily explain how this got to be. It just is a fact she wants you to accept. And her tests are also tricky. The material itself is not hard--just pay attention to lectures as normal and review your notes/her lecture slides--but her questions are sometimes not very clear. Her TED Talk response paper is an easy 50 points. Remember to read the chapters in preparation for the book quizzes. But I hated the book because we literally never discuss the book and she just assigns this reading so we can have book quizzes on them and never get the quizzes back or talk about the quizzes. Overall, I think this class could be amazing if she executed it better. If you take her, I recommend just writing down everything she says...lol good luck!

She is very cool, I regret not going into more office hours because when I went I got points back on my exam and I got to know her very well. I think when you establish a good standing with your professor it is beneficial and I know I should've gone inmate often. When I did go in she'd point me out to the class and tell them how I traveled or how I know what she's talking about. She is a cool lady I def would recommend her for Kines 255 she knows what she's talking about.

Let me start by saying that this class was really boring, and I did not enjoy it. I'll make this as unbiased as possible, but this class was a drag. Easy, but so boring. ---------- O'Brien was a pretty average professor. If a C is average, I'd give her maybe a B- . She did a great job of teaching the material, but it's not her fault that the class itself was boring. There was a lot of good info about personal health and societal health (etc etc) as well as a lot of common sense like 'hey! get your exercise! oh and don't be racist!' While this class was easy enough and I'll probably get an A (I put B just to be safe, I'm writing this on week 10), it was just very unexciting and I dreaded going to class (again, not O'Brien's fault, it's just the curriculum). She did a pretty good job of making class as exciting as she could though, so props to her for that. I'd recommend her, but I only took this as a GE to get 12 units so it wasn't a big deal to me. ------------- Lastly, I'll leave you with the only thing I'll remember from this class aside from the cute girl in front of me: We were discussing unconscious bias and she put up some photos of people in their "stereotyped outfits." For example, a photo of a black man dressed as a gangster, or a Hispanic woman dressed as a gardener. Following each photo, she would basically say, "See, you thought that this black man was a gangster because he's black, but actually he's a Fortune 500 CEO. See, you're kinda racist!" Yes, it wasn't the fact that he was literally dressed in gang attire that we thought he was a gangster, apparently it was the fact that he was black. This went on for about 10 minutes. Not trying to leave a bad taste in your mouth, just thought I'd leave this gem here.

If you attend lecture and take quality notes from her slides, you will get a good grade. Don't forget to watch all the Ted Talks and read the articles. Barely any homework/assignments. You'll get 100% if you do them and follow her guidelines. 2 Midterms (both 80 points: 30 mc + 4 short response). 1 final (80 mc). She curves if the class does poorly. The first test was easier than the last two so don't slack off and you'll get an A. Also half the class didn't show up for lectures, but if you're willing to stay the full 2 hours, you will do well. Overall, she did a very good job teaching.

This class was so boring to sit through. The information was usually pretty basic and she did her best to keep lectures interesting, but it was pretty hard to sit through for 2 hours. There was rarely any homework, just a few readings sometimes but you didn't really need to do them on the day they were assigned. There's 3 noncumulative tests and the 1st was very easy and common sense but the last two were a bit harder. Some of the questions were just random ones straight from the lecture to make sure you went and they were just dumb and hard to remember and had no real connection to the actual concepts of the class. And some were just pure memorization of statistics which were very annoying. She was a pretty crazy lady and a bit of an oversharer but it made the class somewhat interesting sometimes. She tried to get discussions going but it didn't really work and when it did, it was just people arguing their views and pissing others off. It was pretty easy to get an A though if you just went to the lectures and study the night before each exam. The essay was an easy 100 percent if you put minimal effort in and covered all the questions asked. There was one chance for extra credit and a few in class assignments that were also very basic. The class is hard to sit through but it's not horrible and pretty basic info.

I hardly ever went to lecture, and read the book and took notes off of her PowerPoints posted online and did fine. The extra credit was 5 points and we just had to visit PolyFit and get a body composition test; it's easy, do it. Many of her questions are regarding videos watched in class, just pay attention to those. It's mostly common sense stuff and remember: pick the answer that says it's white peoples' fault and you'll pass.

The class itself was not terrible, the grading scale was based on two tests (each worth 40% of final grade) and a short essay (20% of final grade). The tests consisted of extremely specific questions and occasionally material I didn't remember going over in class. We were assigned to read one book for the first half of the semester. (Read the book, most of the midterm questions came straight from the reading) There was no reading for the second half of the semester, so the final was based solely on her lectures and TedTalks we saw in class which were hard to follow and take notes on. I did not like O'Brien's class because she taught from an extremely bias, liberal viewpoint. Her lectures often included foul language and unprofessional comments about the topics she was teaching on. The slides that she showed in class during the second half of the semester were raunchy and on the edge of inappropriate, but they are not the same slides that were uploaded to PolyLearn. From a different professor, I think this KINE 255 would have been an ok class, but taught by J. O'Brien this class was pretty miserable to attend. I strongly recommend avoiding taking this class from J. O'Brien.

Jennifer is a very feminist, opinionated professor. She is constantly talking about her own life, family, etc. 2 midterms and a final, as well as one group project is the only work in this class. She grades very harshly, and is stubborn when listening to students questions about their grades. Her midterms and finals have very poorly written questions. No matter how much you study, there will be weird questions she's throws in there that you don't know.

As an out-of-state student who paid over $2,000 to take this class I am very disappointed. She creates a very hostile environment where no one feels comfortable to ask questions or participate in class because no matter what you say in her mind you are wrong. This is particularly true when it comes to clarifying scores on tests and projects. She marked an answer wrong on the Scantron for one of our midterms and refused to correct our scores. No matter how much you study and know the material it is extremely difficult to receive an A since certain test questions are very confusing and solely opinion based. There are numerous questions where you have to decide to wether to state the lecture answer or textbook answer because they often differ. Overall I would highly recommend not wasting your money in one of her classes!

Where to begin? Professor Jennifer O'brien was the single worst professor I have ever had at Calpoly. Not only would she refuse to go back to slides where people had not finished writing their notes (partially because sometimes the computer screen would not display on the over head projector and other times she would go fast without giving people time to catch up), she would also give us all too specific details about her personal life (including but not limited to: her and her husband's sexual practices, her estranged relationship with her father, and her rather disturbing parental techniques, teacher her young 3 year old daughter a "vulva song") which not only was unprofessional, but disturbing and made me and, probably, the rest of the class very uncomfortable. In addition, the course material for the first half was almost exclusively on feminism and the feminism movement, the other half was more on women's health which is what it should have been on in the first place; frankly, if I wanted to learn about feminism I would have taken gender studies and yes, that is a class that Calpoly offers. The reading material for this course had such outdated "facts" that even Professor O'brien had to make comments on how outdated it was and even then, the material was mostly written by some radical feminist with borderline insane claims such as "STI's are inherently sexist" (a virus in it's nature and biology does not give two- hell it doesn't even give one shit about what gender it is infecting, it doesn't even have a brain it is just protein and DNA... I digress). Finally, Professor O'brien was incredibly snide and rude to anyone who did not share her "special little view" (mostly the guys of the class); which strikes me as very unprofessional and, more importantly, unacceptable for an educational institution. I find it very disturbing that someone like this is even teaching and I am personally appalled that this university committed the atrocity of hiring someone like this. The only thing I have learned from this class is how very little hope humanity has because people like Professor O'brien who either have a demented psyche, a black and sinister heart that is hell bent on just steering society into amoral destruction, or an astonishing, destructive stupidity that has, for some reason, found its way into a university classroom. This had to be the single most annoying experience I have ever had here; I honestly debate whether or not it was worth going through to get a GE out of the way. No one should take this professor and no one should take this class. I am gonna celebrate that this class is over and I am going to burn this fucking book.

Professor O'Brien is a cool lady. Lectures were usually pretty interesting/entertaining. Tests are curved and not that hard as long as you know everything on her study guides that she gives you. Let me just say, if you disagree with feminism or are a male that thinks you know everything, do not take this class, no one wants you in the class anyways.

Professor O'Brien is liberal, there's no doubting that, however the extent in which she knows and understands the material is impressive. She's teaching a more progressive curriculum which may off put some people but I found it extremely refreshing and an unapologetic depiction of the current state of women's health. She approaches the subject matter from so many different perspectives (socioeconomic, cultural, economic, etc..) that she really does approach the topics holistically and truthfully. Also, Prof O'Brien has taught this course so many times ... she know's the exams are hard, just buckle down and read the chapters, it's no that hard, you'll survive. She also helped me with some career/internship advice, which was really helpful. I recommend this class enthusiastically!

I am appalled someone as disturbing as Professor O'brien could even be working in the educational system. She presented a rather close minded and often hostile environment, her text book and lectures held outdated "facts", and she would share all too intimate details about her own personal life. She would refuse to correct any mistakes she made in grading, claiming everyone else has the same penalty (this doesn't account for the people who accidentally got the question right >.>), and her test questions would often not reflect the material or be so obscurely worded that it is unrecognizable. Her attitude towards men and the world we live in strikes me as destructive, she would talk rather threateningly about "kicking a guy in the balls". This woman is delusional, amoral, hateful, and possibly sociopathic. I would caution everyone not to listen to the ramblings of this Professor. I also hope that this university does the right thing and removes her before she can do any more damage.

Prof. O'Brien's class was extremely informative and I think every woman should take this class to gain a better understanding of their body and the undeniable issues involving women today. Prof O'Brien was inspirational and I genuinely enjoyed her lectures. She is also an extremely fair grader, and I had a relatively easy time getting an A. All you really need to do is read the textbook but I suggest attending the lectures for your own knowledge.

Professor Jennifer O'Brien is the kind of person that is so full of shit that every time they open their mouth a bunch of crap comes out. She lectures with Power Points that use outdated and unsourced material, is an incompetent grader (unwilling to correct HER mistakes, brushing it aside that everyone gets the same penalty), and produces a hostile environment that forces her twisted, feminist view on the students (often with rather offensive videos like "Girls swear for feminism"). This class was bullshit, shouldn't be a forced general education topic, and the fact that Cal Poly ensures people take this kind of class is glaring proof that people like Professor O'Brien are quite the opposite of being "oppressed", but rather are "unapologetic" oppressors. I hope people do the right thing and just tell this lady to just take her bullshit and leave.

I don't feel very strongly about her one way or the other. I think as a class there were some interesting topics covered, but O'Brien presents herself as more of an expert than she is. She makes some awkward comments and jokes that can be funny or just uncomfortable depending on the day. She should probably stop saying that friends should check each others cervixs and perform breast exams on each other. She's not great at understanding questions, generally repeating what she said before until the student gives up. Her tests are pretty dumb, there are some very "gotcha" questions that don't feel like they are truly testing for understanding, but memorization. The PSA project is pretty easy, just channel your inner feminist. A lot of people on here are complaining about her political view points. If you disagree, it could be annoying in the class, but I don't believe it made her that biased in the grading. You don't have to be as radical as her to do well. If you think feminism overall is BS then did you really expect you'd do well in women's classes? Overall I took this class for the USCP requirement and it was fine. You don't have to show up everyday if you don't want to.

SHE IS AMAZING. I actually aspire to be her in 20 years. She is smart, witty, honest, and caring, and calls the world exactly like she sees it! She is a powerful female role model for me. Shes super cool and relatable for kids to get along with. Shes also super funny! Wish I could take this class over and over.

O'Brien thinks she knows everything and will rudely correct students if they ask an ignorant question or make a comment that she doesn't agree with. She took 10 points off my paper because I confused how we were supposed to turn it in and made a point to send me a rude email that emphasized my mistake and said it was she was teaching me a "valuable lesson"by bringing down my grade by a whole letter, when it was just an innocent mistake on my part. The class has some valuable information, but if you can take it with a different professor, definitely do so!

She is an interesting person which helps with lectures. She is very opinionated which may be a turn off to some, but overall I enjoyed her class. Her tests however have some weirdly specific questions on them and are heavily lecture based so you definitely want to attend.

O'Brien was very passionate about the material she taught. Women's health issues is a hard class to endure if you're a guy. She's very liberal and includes her political beliefs in her teachings, which annoyed me. O'Brien covers a wide range of material throughout the course. Her tests (1 midterm, 1 final) are fair, but require you to do a good amount of studying. She gives students plenty of opportunities to earn an A.

Professor O’Brien is super into her job and energetic which makes for entertaining lectures. Recent reviews on here are pretty fair. I was a guy in this class and I thought she’d be biased against me or whatever like some people said, but that was not the case at all. She’s funny and knows her stuff. Two tests that weren't too hard if you study, a paper that's almost an automatic A, and she even threw in a little extra credit opportunity which was cool. I’d for sure recommend going to lectures and the tests do require a decent amount of studying. Also I’d say you will need the textbook.

If you want to get an easy D4 GE out of the way, take this class. Your grade is based off of 2 exams, and easy essay on a TED talk, & some extra credit if you choose to do it (highly recommend doing the extra credit). Also, read or at least skim the book if you want to do well on tests. While O'Brien was very opinionated & did not try to hide her liberal views, the actual class content is still very relevant & useful for both men & women. I learned a lot & it opened my eyes to a lot of health issues that I never really considered before. If you're offended/weirded out easily, do not take this class, at least not with this professor (I think she's the only one who teaches it though). Some people call her a feminist like it's a bad thing, but a lot of the discrepancies & issues of women's health that she discusses are legitimate. O'Brien does not discriminate against any gender, race, socioeconomic group, or sexual orientation, but instead encourages students to consider how health issues affect every one differently & why that is.

I don't understand why everyone on here hates her. This class is amazing and I can honestly say I learned more about myself and my body than I did all throughout K-12 health education. Yes, she's liberal and talks about feminism but that's what happens when you take a progressive class like Women's Health Issues. I think every young woman should have to take this class as it is extremely informative. Sometimes she includes personal stories but I don't see anything wrong with that, everyone has sex. She gives a study guide for tests that are very straight forward. TAKE THIS CLASS!!

Professor O'Brien is a perfectly fine teacher. Those who don't like her usually just don't like the fact she is outspoken about her liberal and feminist opinions. Agree with her or not, she presents the information you need, gives you study guides that clearly point out what will be expected on the test, and she really is passionate about what she teaches. She is a really nice professor who gives a fair and honest class. I certainly am not jumping up and down about this class, but if you end up having it, it is interesting and definitely an easy pass if you put in minimum effort.

Jennifer O'Brien is an okay teacher. I personally found her to be a bad lecturer because she got distracted a lot and would basically just say out-loud every thought that passed through her mind, which sometimes made me feel anxious and overwhelmed, but others might not have that problem. I did learn some stuff in this class, but it was also overall pretty disappointing to me because she taught a lot of stuff I already knew, and a lot of the class was simply health, not WOMEN'S health. Her exams are pretty hard compared to the rest of the course material. I personally didn't buy the book and just used the course reserve and still managed to get an A without really studying for the exams, so it's not that hard. If you don't know very much about women's health or feminism already, this would probably be a more interesting course for you than it was for me.

If you take Jennifer O'Brien for 451 be prepared to learn NOTHING new. This upper division class was treated like a joke. Her lectures had nothing to do with the exams (because she goes off on tangents) nor did her study guides. She can be funny and weird when she lectures which can be entertaining, but overall it's a waste of time because you don't learn anything that you didn't already know, and half of the class is a repeat of 303. I guess I'm just disappointed with the quality of instruction, she should stick to teaching Freshman.

Got an A. This class is, literally, a middle school class that she tries to make into a grad school class. She grades hard or easy depending on her mood. Some assignments people earned 7.25/10 and 8/10, then other assignments she\'ll give everyone in the class 10/10. She is way to technical on the exams, not hard, but just nitty gritty. So when everyone gets C\'s on the exam, she assigns 1st grade level assignments, such as creating a news article (has to be colorful and creative) to be turned in for the amount of points worth half a midterm. She should not be teaching at Cal Poly. She acts like a snotty high school student.