UMEI005 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Charles Duquette UMEI005 Expecting a P Anonymous76 01/11/2026	Professor Charles is a good professor who knows the English language well and is capable of teaching it effectively. However, a good portion of the material felt repetitive, especially for someone who has studied in the United States since birth. His class is fairly chill and laid-back, and the workload is honestly not heavy. UMEI005 is designed for non-native speakers (both domestic and international) and focuses on improving English language proficiency. If you are a domestic student required to take this course for full admission, I HIGHLY suggest taking the Duolingo English Proficiency Exam and aiming for a 120 score instead of going through MEI/UMEI005. You’ll save time, money, and a lot of stress—trust me. If you do decide to take this course and go through MEI, be prepared for the TOEFL ITP Level 1 exam. My biggest advice is to do practice tests—lots of them. Practice helps you understand the test format and the types of questions that appear. I spent about 6+ hours each week preparing. TOEFL is significantly harder than traditional K–12 English proficiency tests. The essay portion of the exam is fairly straightforward. Writing a standard five-paragraph essay should be sufficient. Personally, I did not find the course very helpful because my educational needs were not ESL-related, but everyone’s experience may be different.
Charles Duquette UMEI005 Expecting a P Anonymous 12/24/2025	As someone who went through the English Bridge Program (UMEI005), Charles is a good professor. Workload is not too bad, you just need to stay on top of it. Coming from a post high school graduate, I received more work in my senior year compared to Charles class. With UMEI005, you need to pass the TOEFL ITP level 1 exam and earn a 75% or higher in the class. Charles does a great job of going through TOFEL questions and explaining them. However, you should put some hours on TOEFL practice exams outside of class. The writing portion of the TOEFL is easy. Write no more than 5 paragraphs, you should be good. One more thing: An easy way to avoid the English Bridge Program is by submitting the required test scores of English proficiency to UMD (which I HIGHLY suggest doing). It'II save you time and money.
Marilena Draganescu UMEI005 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2023	A really great professor, she’s awesome at controlling the class pace, really listens to students' opinions, and makes learning fun. The classroom vibe is very chill and friendly, and before you know it, the two hours are up. She is strict: spotting every little mistakes in our homework, but she never give us harsh grades. This semester with her and the rest of the class has been a blast.
Charles Duquette UMEI005 Anonymous 01/29/2023	TO MANY ASSIGNMENT AND ITS ALL BULLSHIT
Marilena Draganescu UMEI005 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/15/2022	My professor put off 100percent effort in teaching us. She is a proficient teacher with great time management and skills.Classroom is full of different enjoyable class activities. Only students with poor time management and attitute will not handle the class. She strict and kind. Her classroom is well-structured and deciplined. Her students proved her teaching with great outcome.
Heather Mehrtens UMEI005 Expecting a P Anonymous 12/13/2019	This is her first time teaching umei 005, and she is super nice! If you treat this course seriously, you will get 95, but if not, you will still get a good grade. Her quiz is about the plot of a book. But you can use the book while you are taking the quiz. But anyway, if you get 75, you will pas umei005. I rarely read the book, so I did badly on the quiz, but I still get a 90 finally.

Charles Duquette
UMEI005

Expecting a P
Anonymous76
01/11/2026

Professor Charles is a good professor who knows the English language well and is capable of teaching it effectively. However, a good portion of the material felt repetitive, especially for someone who has studied in the United States since birth. His class is fairly chill and laid-back, and the workload is honestly not heavy. UMEI005 is designed for non-native speakers (both domestic and international) and focuses on improving English language proficiency. If you are a domestic student required to take this course for full admission, I HIGHLY suggest taking the Duolingo English Proficiency Exam and aiming for a 120 score instead of going through MEI/UMEI005. You’ll save time, money, and a lot of stress—trust me. If you do decide to take this course and go through MEI, be prepared for the TOEFL ITP Level 1 exam. My biggest advice is to do practice tests—lots of them. Practice helps you understand the test format and the types of questions that appear. I spent about 6+ hours each week preparing. TOEFL is significantly harder than traditional K–12 English proficiency tests. The essay portion of the exam is fairly straightforward. Writing a standard five-paragraph essay should be sufficient. Personally, I did not find the course very helpful because my educational needs were not ESL-related, but everyone’s experience may be different.

Charles Duquette
UMEI005

Expecting a P
Anonymous
12/24/2025

As someone who went through the English Bridge Program (UMEI005), Charles is a good professor. Workload is not too bad, you just need to stay on top of it. Coming from a post high school graduate, I received more work in my senior year compared to Charles class. With UMEI005, you need to pass the TOEFL ITP level 1 exam and earn a 75% or higher in the class. Charles does a great job of going through TOFEL questions and explaining them. However, you should put some hours on TOEFL practice exams outside of class. The writing portion of the TOEFL is easy. Write no more than 5 paragraphs, you should be good. One more thing: An easy way to avoid the English Bridge Program is by submitting the required test scores of English proficiency to UMD (which I HIGHLY suggest doing). It'II save you time and money.

Marilena Draganescu
UMEI005

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/08/2023

A really great professor, she’s awesome at controlling the class pace, really listens to students' opinions, and makes learning fun. The classroom vibe is very chill and friendly, and before you know it, the two hours are up. She is strict: spotting every little mistakes in our homework, but she never give us harsh grades. This semester with her and the rest of the class has been a blast.

Charles Duquette
UMEI005

Anonymous
01/29/2023

TO MANY ASSIGNMENT AND ITS ALL BULLSHIT

Marilena Draganescu
UMEI005

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/15/2022

My professor put off 100percent effort in teaching us. She is a proficient teacher with great time management and skills.Classroom is full of different enjoyable class activities. Only students with poor time management and attitute will not handle the class. She strict and kind. Her classroom is well-structured and deciplined. Her students proved her teaching with great outcome.

Heather Mehrtens
UMEI005

Expecting a P
Anonymous
12/13/2019

This is her first time teaching umei 005, and she is super nice! If you treat this course seriously, you will get 95, but if not, you will still get a good grade. Her quiz is about the plot of a book. But you can use the book while you are taking the quiz. But anyway, if you get 75, you will pas umei005. I rarely read the book, so I did badly on the quiz, but I still get a 90 finally.

Reviews for UMEI005