CHINESE-305
PRE-ADVANCED CHINESE
Offered Fall 2026
Term
Instructor
Overview
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that discussion is a clear strength. Best for students who will actually talk in class instead of sitting silent.
DepartmentAMES
Terms offeredFall, Spring
Typical enrollment6–11
Semesters of data4
4.9
Hrs / week
28
Responses
36
Enrollment
78%
Response Rate
Evaluation Scores
Overall quality
Teaching, content, and experience combined.
4.5
Intellectually stimulating
Challenges students to think deeply.
4.4
Instructor effectiveness
Explains concepts and facilitates learning.
4.7
Difficulty
Higher means harder.
3.4
Feedback Analysis
Feedback Analysishigh
Analysis based on student evaluations
Based on 102 comments across 4 sections
Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that discussion is a clear strength. Best for students who will actually talk in class instead of sitting silent.
Student Reports
How hard is the A?
A is doable but not automatic
The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.
Homework Load
Heavy homework load
Homework load is one of the clearest friction points. Students repeatedly describe assignments, readings, or problem sets as time-consuming.
Lecture Load
Lighter lecture burden
Student comments describe this as more discussion-, seminar-, or workshop-driven than lecture-dependent. The lecture burden itself does not sound like the main source of friction.
Strengths
• Discussion is a clear strength; students repeatedly describe the class conversation as engaging and useful.
• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.
Tradeoffs
• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.
Best fit for
Best for students who will actually talk in class instead of sitting silent.
Student Responses
1. memorize many characters quickly and effetively. 2. feel more comfortable speaking in class and discussing Chinese culture. 3. understanding content even when I don't know all of the characters.
Spring 2024 · Yang, Shasha
I learned Chinese
Spring 2024 · Yang, Shasha
how to manage your time well and attack materials on your own - there was a good amount of outside work, but it allowed for the class to move smoother while in the classroom.
Spring 2024 · Yang, Shasha
Applying sentence structures in real-life contexts, discussing relatively formal and advanced contexts outside of daily conversation, lots of vocabulary
Spring 2024 · Yang, Shasha
The course provided me with a more profound understanding of various aspects of Chinese culture from railroads, studying aborad, etc. Additionally, in delving into each of these topics I learned more Chinese vocabulary and sentence sturcutre.
Spring 2024 · Yang, Shasha
Rating History
Rating history
Error bars show \u00B11 std dev
| Term | Instructor | Overall | Difficulty | Hrs/wk | Enrolled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2025 | Zhang, Shu 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty2.7Would retake100%Based on 3 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.7 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 10 |
| Spring 2025 | Yang, Shasha 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty3.0Would retake100%Based on 6 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.3 | 3.4 | 5.1 | 9 |
| Fall 2024 | Zhang, Shu 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty2.7Would retake100%Based on 3 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.4 | 3.6 | 4.4 | 11 |
| Spring 2024 | Yang, Shasha 5.0Rate My ProfessorsQuality5.0Difficulty3.0Would retake100%Based on 6 ratingsClick to view on RMP → | 4.6 | 3.6 | 5.2 | 6 |
Instructor
Zhang, ShuAMES
Also teaches
CHINESE-102 FIRST-YEAR CHINESE II4.7CHINESE-203 INTERMEDIATE CHINESE4.4CHINESE-204 INTERMEDIATE CHINESE4.6CHINESE-305D PRE-ADVANCED CHINESE4.1CHINESE-408S CHIN LANG & CULT THRU FILM4.6