Tessa Montini

14 reviews
Lecture heavy Participation matters Skip class? You won't pass. Clear grading criteria Test heavy Accessible outside class EXTRA CREDIT Graded by few things Tests are tough
Past quarters

None

See All
GEOG3 . 3 Years Ago

Overall very easy A if you show up at classes, and understand the content on the slides. Labs are easy since TAs will help you. She was not a good lecturer and she just know her stuff. Not a good source of help if you want to get more deep talk with. Lectures were full of her ummms. But finally got A+.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 5 Years Ago

Either read the book, or pay attention to lectures, and you'll do pretty well. Do SOME studying, and you'll get an A. Not hard topics, she just reads off slides, I put maybe 1 hour a week of effort into this class and got almost 100 percent. Not the best lecturer, but not that annoying and doesn't need to be better for what she's teaching.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEO3A . 5 Years Ago

I rarely went to class. If attendance wasn't worth 9% of our grade, it would've been fine. Labs are easy and the tests are easy because her review guides are very useful. She didn't sound too sure of what she was talking about when lecturing, but she's not too bad.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 5 Years Ago

Probably easiest class I've taken at UCSB. Tessa is young and fun. She reads off of the slides and then posts them afterwards; so sit back, relax, get some I-clicker points, and learn some cool stuff about the earth. Tbh I barely showed up and got an A pretty easily. No tricks here. Also massive (easy) extra credit opportunity at the end!

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 5 Years Ago

dr montini was just okay. she puts all the material on the lecture slides and posts the chapters that need to be read online, but her lectures themselves aren't that helpful. she goes really fast and sometimes sounds unsure of what she's talking about, and her tests consist of pure memorization of random facts. material wasn't terribly hard however

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEO3A . 6 Years Ago

She speeds through her lectures but her tests and labs are not hard. All the lectures are posted online. Attendance is done by clickr questions. Overall its not that difficult of a class, I would take her class again.

1 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 6 Years Ago

Def avoid this lady. You will fail even though the material is not tough. She goes so fast and reads the entire class. Her exams are a lot of random memorization instead of actual learning. She seems to not know what she is talking about but says she's an expert in "climate" or whatever.

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 6 Years Ago

If you could avoid taking her I probably would. Doesn't know the material at all. She reads off her terrible slides and pretends to teach. I'm not sure how she is still a teacher there. About 65% of her grade is on 3 exams which to me were pretty difficult. If you are looking to take this class wait another quarter for a different teacher.

1 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 7 Years Ago

She seems like a lovely person but her lectures are unbearable. Aside from her um's and lack of interest, she has no idea what she's talking about. She often contradicts herself and doesn't know the answer when asked for clarification, and I've caught multiple errors in her material that end up on the tests. Not sure what she's getting paid for.

2 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 7 Years Ago

The material is cool, labs are pretty easy but the lectures are terrible. She just reads off slides. Her lectures are so jam packed with material & she makes it not interesting. She seems nice as a person but if I would've taken her my 1st year I probably wouldn't have chosen Geography as a major. 2 midterms 1 final, takes attendance for points

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 7 Years Ago

The class is relatively easy & pretty interesting. Basically you can either do the homework or go to class. In lecture, the slides are super dense & she usually just reads off them & flips through super fast, so you have to be pretty fast at notetaking if you don't want to go back and look at the lectures after class (she posts them online).

0 helpful 0 unhelpful
GEOG3A . 7 Years Ago

Tessa was one of the best professors I had during my freshman year! She's so nice and easy to talk to. Def recommend going to office hours and getting a chance to talk to her because she's much more helpful one on one rather than over email. LISTEN to her lectures if she says any specific examples. Overall, had a blast in her class. 10/10 recommend

0 helpful 1 unhelpful