Course Evaluations

Since it is the season of the ending of classes and finals for many people, I have a few comments to share. Specifically, comments I have written on course evaluations for classes I have taken. Some of these are born of bad professors, while others represent my failures as a student.

Antebellum America 1815-1860: The Emergence of Mass Society
I really enjoyed the assigned reading, especially the Crockett, Barnum, and Otter.
This refers to the autobiographies of Davey Crockett, P.T. Barnum, and William Otter. My comment is half true, as I had read Crockett's book and half of Barnum's book. I had not even opened the Otter book, but from the way the professor described it in class it sounded like reading I would like. Several months after I finished the class, I got around to finishing the three books and enjoyed them.

Sexuality, Gender, and Culture in the Ancient World
This class was on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Etcheverry. I only took it because Classics 130 (a degree requirement) was not offered for an entire year and it was the only class recognized as a replacement. If I did not take it, I would have had to take two classes to replace it in one semester.
On Thursday I did the Daily Cal Sudoku during class and on Friday I saved the Sudoku to do in class on Tuesday, since Tuesday's Sudoku would not last for the entire hour and a half.
The class was crosslisted with Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies and had a large number of people who had no exposure to Classics. This meant the professor spent a lot of time covering introductory material. This was very boring to someone who majored in Classics and had taken nine classes on the subject. It was also the same professor that taught me Introduction to Greek Civilization, so I had heard his commentary and read his favorite plays and ancient works before. I did clarify this in my evaluation.

Linear Algebra
My friend is not in class today, but he asked me to write a bad evaluation for the professor for him.
This professor was terrible and deserved the negative comments I wrote. I took this class in the Fall of my sophomore year. It was a great semester, I spent more time on Sproul tabling then I did in class. It was also the semester with my best grades.

Integral Calculus
The professor made a big deal how she never got a review sheet for a midterm in her entire life and explained how reviewing our notes on our own would be better then any review sheet we were ever given. Then she gave us a midterm where the last problem was directly from the review sheet, completely discrediting everything she said about review sheets.
I remember working through most of the problems on the review sheet the night before and deciding to go to sleep instead of doing the last couple of problems, specifically remembering the professor's comments both in class and on the front of the review packet. Unfortunetly for me, the last problem about series on the review sheet appeared on the midterm. So much for listening to the professor.

Multivariable Calculus
I learned more about the shortcomings of Stuart [the class textbook] then I did about calculus in the lectures.
The professor was a real Count in his native Eastern European county. He also thought the multivariable textbook he wrote was better, but was not allowed to use it as there were contracts to use the other textbook by Stuart.