Valeria Tsygankova

So much reading that you will not be able to do She assigns more reading than most sections from what I heard 3 papers and 2 midterms

lots of dense readings, weekly assignments (non-graded but she expects u to complete bc its on a shared doc w her) grading is a typical UW structure: 4 essays outlined by UW department

If you can get out of this section, do so! Professor Tsygankova is a heartless robot. Everything she does points towards the idea that she might be nice and caring. Unfortunately, this facade is quickly uncovered. As soon as you seek for help or ask for necessary favors, she will turn you down and make you feel like you are a failure. That is without mentioning her uselessly harsh grading... All in all, had I known transferring out was a thing freshman year, I would have paid cash to do that. Too little, too late

I honestly don’t even know where to begin. I debated whether or not to write this review, but I thought I should share my experience. As others have noted, Professor Tsygankova is a kind and thoughtful person; she’s quick to offer compliments during class discussions and creates a generally encouraging environment, where you want to participate. But, my experience in her class was far more complicated than it seemed on the surface. While she comes across as warm and supportive in person, I found her feedback and written communication to be significantly harsher (as others noted). She holds high expectations and assigns a pretty demanding workload compared to other UW sections (which is unreasonable to the students who are taking this as a CORE class). The readings are dense, and she expects a lot of participation. Main thing to note is that she lacks clear guidance in her comments. for example, on our first essay, she gave a lot of feedback, but for me, it seemed like it mostly critiqued the idea itself, rather than helping me develop it. This made me feel like I had to completely change my topic as I progressed writing it, but also didn't really know how to move forward. There were also times when I genuinely didn’t understand what she wanted me to fix in my writing. She would point out problems, but rarely offered concrete solutions or direction. I couldn't go to her office…

Normal workload for Lit Hum. lots of readings

Be prepared for dense readings that you will probably never make sense of, and lots and lots of writing.

If you want to enjoy Lit Hum, transfer from this section or you will suffer. At first, Professor Tsygankova seems like a very nice person that cares for you. However, her deceptive personality will shatter you to your core. Indeed, Professor Tsygankova will act very kindly in class but outside of class, she will be cold and distant. It seems to me like she does not care about her students well-being nor what they go through during their time at Columbia. If you desperately need an extension, she will not grant it. Also, grading is as harsh as it gets. If you feel like you have written the best essay of your academic career, don't expect anything higher than a B because it is an excellent grade!!!

Ms. Tsygankova seems to be a very nice person, and in class, she basically tells everyone that they have a good point when they contribute ideas during discussion. Now this is definitely very encouraging (better than teachers who shut your ideas down), but her persona seems to be totally different when she's writing to you - whether it's through email, feedback, or even in the syllabus. She's a friendly person and easy to talk to, but just a lot harsher in her written comments, so be prepared for that. This isn't to say that she's an unfair grader - I think she's definitely strict with her grading, and she expects you to get through some very dense readings, but I don't think her reasoning for her grades are necessarily unjustified. However, I did find it difficult sometimes to understand what exactly she wanted from me, or what she wanted me to do to fix my writing. She would point out that I was doing something wrong, but I often found myself wishing she could give me more advice on how to fix it. Some papers that she made us read had interesting topics, but the papers we had to write for U-Writing were a pain-in-the-butt (not really her fault though). Ms. Tsygankova's not a bad teacher to have - she's not life-changing or anything, but you won't die if you have her.

The workload was kind of standard of Lit hum, which is by nature heavy. Depending on the text, expect from ~75-250 pages of reading a week. No quizzes or assignments, sometimes just in-class writing assignments at the beginning of the class, but they are relatively easy and just to give you some feedback on how well you're progressing in the course.

Tsygankova is an intelligent, nice, and intimidating professor all at the same time. This is the deadliest combination ever, which resulted in lit hum being one of my hardest--yet one of the most beneficial--courses I took at Columbia. She truly supports a seminar-style class, where she almost talks little-to-none except for opening the conversation and directing what we should be discussing. Other than that, she leaves the room for the class to bring up new ideas, discuss and challenge them, polish them, and arrive at conclusions, all without her intervention. She also maintains the discussion to be heavily text-based; meaning no speculation and broad generalization about human nature, etc..but rather discussions about ideas born within the texts we read. Tsygankova is a very nice and friendly person. She would occasionally bring sweets and snacks to class, and she makes some delicious banana bread. Whenever you would suggest a discussion point, she truly encourages you and makes you more confident contributing to the discussions. On the other hand, she is an extremely harsh grader, which has its ups and downs. On one hand, you will have to work really hard to earn one of those B+ essays, but you'll find your level improving at an incredible rate.