Renee Ater

This professor has taught: ARTH221, ARTH275, ARTH360, ARTH361, ARTH466, ARTH488D, ARTH489C, ARTH658, ARTH658A, ARTH689A, ARTH758, ARTH899, HONR248T, WMST498B
Information Review
Renee Ater
ARTH221

Expecting a B+
lharron2
06/03/2015
She was an awesome professor. I loved this class it was very interesting. Proffesor Ater always came prepared, and had various different ways of teaching the material. She would show different videos, diagrams, a hands on demonstration, lecture, and power point. She had such passion and really made this an enjoyable class. I recommend it to anyone, and it fufills a Gen-Ed! I think the only reason I didn't get an A is because I chose a topic for my research paper that was hard to find research. When I Was having troubles though both Professor Ater and the T.A. helped me immensely. Definitely take this class if you can!
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2011
I'm surprised about all the negative reviews. The class was easy as long as you did the work, although the reading summaries were frustrating. PowerPoint slides and study guides for finals are placed online so it doesn't hurt if you miss a lecture or two and there is no textbook for this class, only a few online readings that you don't have to do.
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Anonymous
11/14/2011
DO NOT TAKE THIS AS A CORE. Although Dr. Ater is very passionate about her field, this class is overwhelming & extremely excessive in the workload if you are not equally interested in African Art. For each test you are expected to remember around 40-60 vocabulary words & 30 images with all their identification information for a test that only has 5 vocabulary definitions & 5 identifications of the images, along with an essay. Not only is studying for the tests insane, but you also have reading summaries to do which can be extremely long like 20-30 pgs of reading to summarize them in 1 page, which is ridiculous. 3 tests including the final(final not cumulative), 1 paper (3 pgs), 4 reading summaries (1 pg each) are your grades. Like I said before, if you LOVE African art, take this...otherwise STAY AWAY unless you want to spend hours on this class.
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/14/2010
Do not take this class unless you have a very VERY large interest in African Art!!! There is a lot of memorization on a lot of slides for the exams. Plus, it doesn't help that the Professor and the TAs are extremely tough graders. I spent hours studying and memorizing the book just to do poorly on all my exams.
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Expecting an A
student16
05/06/2010
Professor Ater is very paasionate about this class. She presents everything she tests on in lecture so if you miss lecture you HAVE to take notes from someone. She moves a little fast and it's hard sometimes to keep up with her. The TA's teach on disccusions which you HAVE to attend also. Grading is very fair and is not that hard to succed since everything you're being tested/quized on is mentioned in lecture. My advice DON'T PROCRASTINATE... try and write the notes again each week so that you have an idea of the artifacts. Take this CORE it's an interesting one.
Renee Ater
ARTH360

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
02/06/2010
Her lectures are clear and she explains things very well, however she goes into so much detail and expects you to remember every bit of it. She made the class memorize a ridiculous amount of slides, and only actually used about 6 in her exam. So a lot of effort is wasted attempting to memorize the name, date, title and significance of a ton of paintings, when only a handful show up on the exam. Problem is, which ones will she choose to include? Don't know, so u gotta memorize all of them. Also a harsh grader. Details are extremely important to her.
Renee Ater
ARTH360

Expecting a B+
liptoniceteayum
01/05/2010
I had her for my ARTH275 class, and when I saw she was teaching the American art history course, I immediately signed up! She always uploaded images that were going to be on the exams, and she gave great lectures (she's very well-spoken). The 360 course was not as easy as her ARTH275. A reading assignment was given each week, and she expected you to know the material. Her exams were fair, and she was gracious enough to once again, give out the images on a ppt ahead of time. She also checks attendance, and since it's a smaller class, will eventually get to know your face and know whether you've been to class or not. The class was fair, and if you did the work, it was pretty straightforward. Ater was not only extremely knowledgeable, but she was also passionate about art. She demonstrated this through her lectures, and genuinely cared about the students understanding of the topics. While other professors couldn't care less about a student's grades, she went far and beyond to offer her time and suggestions to help students improve and achieve good grades in her class. I strongly recommend her for any class!
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/17/2008
This was one of the easiest classes that i have ever taken. I very rarely went to class and have gotten 100% on every quiz, A's on both exams (Final exam not in yet), And a high A on the extended essay. There is really very little effort involved in the class, i only read about 1 hour prior to quizzes which follow the same format every time, as for the test 2 or 3 hours of study was sufficient for me to pass with high grades. The only thing you really must do is go to discussion, not only is it required but this is where i got most of my information that i later used for the test/quizzes. As for Dr. Ater i do not like at all. She believes that her class is the only one that matters, and refuses to give make up exams for finals, basically meaning that even if you have a viable excuse or have two exams at the same time, she does not care. For the lectures that I did go to while the information did help and was presented very well, she constantly stated how important her class was and how if you were to miss a lecture you were going to fail. She tries to use big vocab words to sound more intelligent, and comes off as arrogant. I also heard from classmates that she once gave extra credit to everyone who went to lecture the day before thanksgiving, i very much doubt that this was meant to be a reward, but more out of spite for those who did not go to her class. That being said i am taking this as a CORE class, arth not being my major and i found it to be an easy elective and would recommend it to anyone who wants to get an easy A. Also to be noted she does not post her lectures up on Elms any more.
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Expecting an A-
mbanda
12/02/2008
she really is a great teacher and you can tell that she enjoys what she's teaching. You really do need to come to class and go to your discussions. If you come to class regularly and study for the quizzes you'll do well. most of the time studying for the quizzes helps you wiht the exam in the end. overall cool class with a cool teacher.
Renee Ater
ARTH275

Expecting an A-
jtseery
01/11/2008
I thought the class would be an easy A going into it and it does fulfill 2 CORE req. However you MUST go to lecture. The tests follow the same formula- slide identifications, vocab, and essays. Dr. Ater posts all powerpoints and vocab on ELMS and even creates a study guide before each exam. Vocab and slide IDs can be memorized farily easily. But you MUST go to lectures to be able to answer the essays, Ater looks for specifics. I recommend laptop for class its easier making study guides. There are quizzes every week in discussion where you need to memorize slides and attendance is taken. If you go to discussion, do decent on the quizzes and raise your hand and comment every now and then you will take care of a large portion of your grade. Do well on the two papers and you can get high Cs and low Bs on exams and some how still walk away with an A-.