Worst teacher ever, doesn't even know how to teach. Doesn't grade fairly. Don't take this teacher.
Although its pretty hard to target what he actually wants you to learn from his lectures, he's a great speaker and entertainer. Lectures always interesting, straight from his head instead of reading from some peice of paper. very enthusiastic, refreshing. easy papers and final.....really good guy.
Smith is ultimately not a bad guy, but his lectures are sometimes disorganized, and the website for the class is TERRIBLE!!! It was pretty easy if you paid ANY amount of attention. Some of the required work was a little... pointless, but mostly it was good. Good class, good professor, great subject
Although Smith was annoying, navigating the website shouldn't have been a problem granted that you weren't a retard. People whined about this class being disorganized/hard, but if you actually paid attention and did the work, it wasn't so bad. I wouldn't necessarily recommend Smith, but his class is not as horrible as everyone makes it out to be.
this prof is very interested in hearing himself speak. his website was horribly organized with multiple spelling errors! he put a "essay tips" section on his webpage that told you to proof read, and that section also had spelling mistakes. his web pages were terrible to navigate! dont take this class unless you have to.
Stewy's lectures were a lot of fun, I enjoyed them immensly! He was very engaging and the work was pretty easy. I didn't do much of the readings and got an A! I can't wait to take him again!
Professor Smith assigns meaningless mandatory busy work that just sucks up your time. Don't even need to go to lecture, in fact your probably better off not going. He's an ideal high school teacher but a useless college professor
This guy is a joke. His lectures are useless, he just shows us pictures of himself and shows PBS videos. And he is full of himself, you will never stop hearing about his connections to hollywood.
go to the first lecture so you don't get dropped, turn in your midterm and final papers, and attend section. the lectures are a waste of your time for the rest of the quarter. if you can, show up to Brian Fagan's guest lecture tho, he's good. smith himself is a bore and sometimes borders on offensive...
he's a really energetic...sometimes crazy..but nice teacher. it's true, i didn't have to do most of the reading but i got by only b/c of the study guides and being in a study group before the tests! lectures helped a lot. find partners for the project and the study guides, he was also nice about extensions if you really needed it.
HUGE amount of assigned reading, but you can get by without doing all of it. You must go to lectures to get a good grade. I got an A, but I did all of the study guides and studied in a group for a few days before the test. It would be hard to get through the project and study guides by yourself, find partners for the class!
interesting lecturer, his material is definitely not hard, for five units this is an easier class, his slide presentation and books assign are very helpful if you enjoy reading.
OMG, the lectures had nothing to do with the assignments and the readings. All he talks about is his work and interests. Going to lecture is useless!! My TA graded the papers kind of hard andd the online exercise and group projects will drive you crazy.
I would not recommend this class unless you have to take it. lecture is a waste of time and its really boring. the class set-up is horrible: a midterm paper and a final paper are youre entire grade, but you have to do all this work online and if you dont you fail. it makes no sense--theres no incentive to do well. dont take this class.
Spent most of the lectures talking about his own research. Lectures mostly random, not related to reading or sections. Lots of outside work, but overall worth it for 5 units if you get a decent TA. I would not recommend this class if you don't care for busy work. No midterm or final, however, two 8 page papers.
This is the worst class I have taken. TAs grade inconsistently and the required web work is often broken and unusable. There are group assignments that require lots of effort outside class, so you might be screwed if you end up with a bad group like I did. I wish I had dropped this class and found another to meet the NWC requirement. Do not take.
Took this class in W04, very unorganized. Web site wasn't compatible with many PC users, so you had to use school computers. Assignments graded harshly, in spite of the vague instructions. TAs helped when they could during session, but all in all it was just a disaster. How did I manage a B???
Not a good class. He tries hard, but views seem dated and the TAs overworked. Some stuff he said in class bordered on offensive. Didn't get a lot out of this class.
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Class was not set up well. His lectures were dull and boring, and did not relate at all to the reading. Lastly, he changed the due date of the take home final three times. Its very unprofesional.
got beautiful blue eyes if you look past the beard. basically all reading, expects you to be an archaeologist, ****the web exercises. must go to discussion, papers for midterm and final. worth 5 credits
Professor Smith is a really nice person, but his lectures and his syllabus requirements are kind of all over the place. Just don't be afraid to ask him specific questions in class about what you are confused on and you'll be fine.
Horrible course. Lecture is worthless. You have a graded section and play that requires out of class work. The tests are difficult and the studying is just rote memorization. Avoid this class and professor like the dead religion he teaches!
Abysmally disorganized, and disjointed lectures make the ID-based tests an exercise in detective work. Students must piece together information for a single topic from a multitude of details mentioned in various lectures. And don't get me started on the group project. I'm insulted to be paying so much to be assigned middle-school level projects.