Pay attention during lectures, they are extremely beneficial.Save your money, don't buy the textbook. Dan is a genuine guy that actually cares for his students

This is a once a week class, but you definitely need to attend that lecture every week. Prof. Montello is a nice guy, but the course is a little boring. The tests are a little difficult but pretty easy to pass. I recommend taking pass/fail or else studying pretty hard.

His class was really easy. Attend lecture, if not then read the book. Sections are super easy. There is a small homework assignment about every other week. The tests are multiple choice. There is an exam testing the countries of the world. Start studying early and you will do fine.

Excellent professor. Secrets to success: study for the country exam early and review frequently, attend every lecture. His tests are based almost entirely on his lectures. Go over study guides piece by piece to make sure you know everything. Visit him in office hours prior to final. He will let you go over past midterms and copy questions.

wasnt that hard. map test wasnt that hard just study early. go to lecture it helps alot on exams. notes are easy to follow because of the outline.

tricky test questions.../ youll see. don't have to read pretty much at all. go to section and do homework though! and learning the countries isn't that bad

Prof. Montello is a pretty good guy, he tells some pretty lame jokes, but i chuckled a few times. There's a lot of textbook reading, but I never read. Just study for the tests, do the homework, go to section. The class material was interesting as well.

The lectures were actually very interesting and he has a sense of humor too. I never used the textbook, just go to lecture and discussion and you'll be fine. Exams were fair, just study and it won't be too bad. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. It adds up if you don't do it, and generally they are simple and questions from them are on the exams. Highly recommended

His lectures weren't so boring but he does tend to go off on tangents. He's funny but sometimes he can be a jerk. The tests were pretty easy and i never used the textbook. My recommendation would be to take very good notes to study off of..

He's a pompous self-righteous teacher. I'm begining to wonder if the students are paying him in order to pass his class.

avoid the guy. means nice but cant stand his teaching style. the course was pretty dry

Very unapproachable. His lectures are okay but useless. You can hardly concentrate in his class when every five seconds, there's a student coughing or sneezing in the room.

His lectures are good but the tests are somewhat hard. There's too much to know and I think it would've been better if he broke it down into 3 to 4 tests instead of a midterm and a final.Be prepared to name all the states and their rightful places + their capitals. Also, learn the major cities in the U.S. and Canada that has 1 million + populations

he seemed kind of pompous, but the class material was pretty interesting. theres a country test during the final where you need to know every country in the world, but shouldn't every college student know that? my TA was a jackass...but you had to go to section in order to complete weekly asssignments

Montello is hilarious, but loves himself. REALLY interesting class. Just took the midterm (W08) and it wasn't bad at all, but would have been brutal if I did not study. I hear alot of kids during lecture hate on this guy. Take him if you're not a **** and learn something. He has so many awesome random facts. 2 exams, GO TO LECTURE!

His lectures are entertaining, informative and to-the-point.

I took Geog 17 with Montello and hated it- his style of teaching, the test, etc. However, I was able to learned his style of teaching and then went on to ace the harder 172. Just know that his test are made up of whatever he wants to ask.It doesn't matter how well you "understand" the material, he scans your answers for the right term definitions

I attended all lectures but questions for the midterm and finals are meant to trick you!! He is lazy and does not design a study guide but gave us EVERY term ever discussed which is SO unhelpful. When reviewing midterm questions he uses logic that he says should be easy in answering the questions but it is tricky! Avoid him but the material was ok

He is kind of arrogant and an ass and what he teaches isn't that interesting. Really easy to take notes because he follows an outline. Multiple choice tests but questions are kind of tricky. You have to learn all the countries of the world which actually isn't that bad. Overall it's a good class to take for general ed because it's pretty easy.

There are a good amount of terms on the midterms from the book- you just need to review the key terms at the end of each assigned chapter. This class was definetely NOT easy, i went to every lecture but his midterm questions are hard regardless. Im definetely never taking another geography class again.

Montello is a great professor who teaches an incredibly interesting class. He can easily come off as uptight or abrasive, but give him some time before you come to a conclusion about him. I would certianly recomend his Geog5 class to anyone.

Very interesting class. If you attended all the lectures and took good notes you should be able to get an A without doing any reading. Test require some studying, but are not too hard because they're all multiple choice. Start studying for the country exam early in the quater!

What these previous posters has said is utterly wrong. This class is a piece of cake if you just go to his lectures, no textbook use at all. Tells you what will be on the final the first day of class and gives a comprehensive study guide of all his tests the class before. See him in office hours and he will let you copy test questions. Take it!!

So...yeah these ratings led me the wrong way when i picked this class. Seemed like he was gonna be funny but he really wasn't too much and really didn't make it very interesting for us.Pretty dry lectures.However, studying for tests was not hard and hardly any work and no textbook reading needed.Easy tests if you study. Countries were fun actually