BMGT301 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/11/2024	Many many people like Karake, which I understand because she likes to joke around and she seems to get to know each student individually. However, I just don't like the way she teaches. I think her "jokes" are sometimes really passive aggressive or just straight up rude, and the fact that she knows everyone by face and name is really jarring to me. She also snaps at students that aren't paying attention which I think is super weird. I'm giving her a three stars because she's a good professor; the Excel bites we do in class are useful and keep people engaged, and she answers any questions students might have for her. However, her slides are not that informative and so you have to just listen to what she says, which can be difficult because the content is just so boring. It's not a hard class, but I thought a lot of assignments felt like busywork and Excel projects are difficult (my biggest tip is just to go to the TA). Overall, I'd recommend her as a professor, but I just didn't like her personally.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/11/2024	She is a very knowledgeable. I am taking her this semester and her exams are a bit though but if you go over the textbook you should score good.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/09/2024	Giving this class a 2 star soley on the fact that i like Motwani as a person. She is very knowledgable but her lectures can often be confusing and unstructured. As long as you put in your best effort and maintain a good relationship with her and go to her when you need help you will not have a problem passing the class.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/04/2024	The Excel exam in this class is crazy! 100 questions and only 70 minutes, which wouldnt be bad but some of the questions had light mental math involved which only took away time on top of the already short time limit. Exam's are much harder and longer than Karake's class.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B- Anonymous 10/31/2024	wow, this course was a lot, and so much reading lol, very nice professor but classes that are mainly theoretical suck like this one. Instructions for assignments are also vague and confusing sometimes. great professor but not very great course.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Anonymous 10/24/2024	Only giving 2 stars because I feel bad since she is good at her field and occasionally nice. She wants her students to succeed and is passionate but WOW does she suck. Makes an intro to information systems class a living hell. Exams are like a trivia. Extremely difficult for literally no reason. Can be very condescending when you ask questions. Avoid unless you need to take with Bharti.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Anonymous 10/24/2024	Only giving 2 stars because I feel bad since she is good at her field and occasionally nice. She wants her students to succeed and is passionate but WOW does she suck. Makes an intro to information systems class a living hell. Exams are like a trivia. Extremely difficult for literally no reason. Can be very condescending when you ask questions. Avoid unless you need to take with Bharti.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/01/2024	horrible professor, she rushes you and doesnt give you a chance to learn. she also threatens to make stuff harder when we dont undersyand the content
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/28/2024	She is very nice and has a great understanding of the topic. The grading system is stressful but worked out for me. Make sure to put effort into your projects and you can reach out to the TA for help. I would recommend taking this class.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2024	Professor Motwani is a great and caring professor. She provides many opportunities to bring your grade up through extra credit, participation, and homeworks. Though the course isn't solely based on exams, you will do well on them if you pay attention in class and read the book. About half of the class is spent working on applications like Excel and Tableau, which I found nice because it kept me focused throughout the 1 hour and 15 minute section. I came into the class with no prior skills in Excel and now I can efficiently use it which has helped me in my other courses. I suggest talking to the professor and TA for help on projects and homeworks; they are very approachable and straightforward and will tell you what they are looking for. As long as you put effort into the course then you can 100% get an A.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2024	If you show up to class you will do well. Projects are not too bad if you go to office hours the ta's will help you out. I found the class to be quite fun.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2024	Professor Motwani was one of my favorite professors this semester. She always engaged the class and would help answer any question. As someone with little background in Excel, HTML, and Tableau she explained everything perfectly for my understanding. I also found her class to be one of the most practical classes I am taking this semester and I have already found ways to talk about it during job interviews. Overall, a great professor if you come to class ready to pay attention and learn!
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2024	Prof Motwani is very sweet and teaches skills that are helpful for our future careers. On average, we spend half of the class working on excel, tableau, and other applications. In the beginning of the class, I had little to no skills in excel and now I know how to efficiently use excel which has helped me in other classes. Your grade in the class isn’t fully based on exams and there was an extra credit opportunity that helped me boost my grade. During class there are clicker questions that go in as participation points at the end of the semester. We also had multiple projects which helped me get a better grade in the class. If you pay attention in class and read the book then the exams won’t be too hard. The professor and TA are very approachable and make it clear what the expectations are for the assignments.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2024	She's an absolute moron and the test material is useless. Learned everything needed about excel and tableau on my own.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2024	Dr. Karake is a very nice and caring professor. She she cares about her students and wants them to succed/ She go through a lecture in the first half of class then the second half we go over excel problems (which she records, and are useful). She breaks it down into thorough detail. I will say her lectures are a little boring, and sometimes hard to focus on. As for exams, she allows us a page of cheat sheet, front and back, but I will say, its hard to predict what is going to be on the exam (textbook wise). I did not try fully, and even I didn't do bad in the course. Excel projects take a lot of time, so make sure you start them early. Overall, course wasn't bad nor professor.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/10/2024	Don't listen to the bad reviews she's amazing and if you go to class you will do well. TAs will help with excel projects and youll get full points if you just try.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/28/2024	I would say she is one of the best professors for 301. People are just unnecessary giving her less rating. She answers all the questions after class. I would definitely take her class again.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/28/2024	She is one of the best professors. I don't know why people are giving her bad reviews for no reason. She gives her best to answer all the questions. I would definitely take her class again.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/07/2024	Do not take her. The other professors only teach excel, but she goes through excel, and then "teaches" python and tableau. You don't actually learn any python, she just gives you the code and you make the smallest little adjustments. She often brags about how smart she is and how she has written so many award winning books, which is great for her, but when she laughs at a student for asking a question, it doesn't make her seem like a very good professor. The project/homework questions are very confusing and can be interpreted in a variety of different ways but only one way is correct. The exams cover the "theory" material which does not seem relevant to the stuff we actually do in class and she does a poor job of explaining it. I am normally a very good student but this class was brutal. I ended with an 89.96% but she would not round it up because she normally does a reverse curve so I got a B+. I do not recommend this professor for 301 unless you are an infosystems major and this is what you truly care about.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Anonymous 02/28/2024	The WORST professor I have ever had. She was absolutely horrible and did not teach at all. The expectations for assignments were so confusing and the exam questions did not make any sense. She curved my grade down to meet the "target GPA" which made me really frustrated. The project was so dumb and I felt so disrespected in this class because of her. Do not take her if you have the choice.
John Bono BMGT301 Anonymous 01/18/2024	Everyone saying he does not care about his students has not taken the time to talk to him. My friend was dong poorly in the class and she would email him and meet with him in office hours and he was more than encouraging and helpful. John Bono is a very intelligent person who relays information as clearly as he can when introducing this subject matter to his students. He encourages questions and will make sure you understand. ASK QUESTIONS!!! and partcipate. Do not miss his class becuase he teaches so much each class. His class is very interactive as well. As someone who had no prior experience with coding I found his class to be very comphrehensive. That being said it is a challenging class and the exams are hard, but it is a rewarding class. He demeanor may come off as curt but he really does care. He does not mess around with deadlines and is very clear about his expectations. He gives a very generous curve to the end of the class as well. I learned so much in this class and as long as you put the work in you will pass.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2023	She cares about the students and teaches relevant practical materials such as Python, Tableau, Access, HTML, and Excel. However, she has bad time management and it’s annoying that even though there’s so much emphasis on the practical stuff during class, those are not the things on the exam. The theoretical info on the exams is interesting, but is rushed on during class. Some of the exam questions are stupid and you wouldn’t know the answer unless you memorize the most useless facts in the textbook. The exams are okay if you study and the projects are pretty easy as long as you pay attention in class. Her instructions are vague at times and her email responses aren’t the best. For an introductory class for IS, it’s more difficult than it needs to be and doesn’t seem like most of the stuff that is related to the more advanced IS courses. Overall, an okay class and easy to get higher than a B.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2023	Shes very knowledgable on the topic but not a great professor. The class isn't hard and the exams are straight forward. The biggest issue with the class is Professor Motwanis grading. I have a 92.5 in the class which is a B+ in this class. Very disappointing that the grade does not reflect the work i've put in and everything I have learned that is reflected in my percentage is not reflected in a letter grade. The curve for this class as left a sour taste in the mouth of many students.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2023	She makes this class unecessarily difficult. Coming into this I already had been working with python and excel for a while, so the assignments were easy (as they should be). Generally knowing the content for a class should be a good sign of an easy class, but her arbitrary wording and vague rubrics/standards makes it unclear what is the 'correct' way of doing what she wants. One item on the final presentation rubric was 'go above and beyond', worth 15% of that grade, not extra credit. Overall this all stems from her having a different english background which causes this communication disconnect. I would strongly recommend looking for another professor for this class.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	I genuinely do not understand why Karake has such low reviews. TAKE 301 WITH HER!! She is probably the best professor that I've had so far. She genuinely seems like she cares about her students, offers lots of office hours where you can get the excel projects done, and is very fair in her exams. Inspired me to double in information systems!! Take the class!!
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/13/2023	Great teacher if you attend class. She teaches everything you need to know to get perfect scores on the assignments and exams, and provides adequate examples with in-class demonstrations of the "technical" half of the course material and slides for the "theory" half of the material. Exams were straightforward and did not rely on technical knowledge that was tested in the assignments but rather the theory that was presented from the slides. If you are a beginner in Excel, Python, or Tableau, you will be fine, the material covered in each class section perfectly mirrors what is done in the homework and projects so homework and projects were not overly difficult. As long as you go to class, pay attention, and put in the effort to complete assignments, you will get a good grade.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/18/2023	Professor Motwani is very knowledgable and you will learn a lot as long as you simply pay attention. Exams are very straightforward, mostly multiple choice questions, and I got A's on both so far. Some of these reviews feel a bit harsh on her and they are probably from the students that fool around during class or just dislike her for no reason. Some assignments were a bit confusing but she always sends announcements to clear things up. I was originally nervous as this was her first semester teaching, but I think she did well.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/14/2023	Professor Motwani is very nice and gives you all of the resources you need to succeed. The exams are really easy if you listen to her lectures and skim over the textbook and the skills we learn are actually useful. She really encourages class participation and is happy to help when someone is struggling in class.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/10/2023	Karake is an incredible professor. I had never used Excel before this class and she does a great job of breaking everything down to make each function easy to understand. Weekly quizzes are very easy. For tests you should be fine as long as you write EVERYTHING down on the cheat sheets. Excel projects are fine as long as you go back to the previous excel files from class to see what to do. She is also a great person and genuinely cares about her students and wants them all to succeed.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 11/09/2023	His slides are copied from another professor, Karake, but the slides are pretty easy to understand and he does post the slides on Canvas. I stopped going to lectures halfway through since his lectures are very boring and he basically reads off the slides word for word. There are in-class quizzes that are announced one class before and exams that are actually pretty difficult even though exams are open note. On the final, a lot of questions were poorly worded and some were not covered in class content. Overall, this class should be easy but don't take it with Aikins if you want an easy A or interesting lectures. He also takes a while to upload grades and TAs are very slow. Some people couldn't go to TA office hours because they simply were not there and are unresponsive to emails. I procrastinated a lot on excel projects hence the low grade but i think average for this class is like a high B with Aikins. His accent is kind of difficult to understand for other people but I personally think it's fine. I just don't like that he reads off the slides.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/31/2023	Lovely nice lady, trash teacher. The class is split into two aspects, practical skills and theoretical knowledge. The practical skills are interesting and provide exposure to Excel, Python, Tableau, and some web design. There is one assignment per week related to these skills, and a few projects. This is fairly easy and a good way to learn. The problem I have is with this "theoretical knowledge", which is what the exams are on. The questions are poorly written which makes easy concepts turn incredibly hard and the concepts in general are just stupid, and come across as more like "fun facts" than actual knowledge. This is followed by an array of other annoying questions that she hardly reviews and are worded completely different from the textbook. Avoid this professor if you can, I mean it. I am really disappointed with UMD because this course can be 10x better, from what I have heard other professors structure this course differently and are easier. I wouldn't take another class with her if my life depended on it. She is a kind and lovely lady, but I just have to be honest and warn my future terps.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/25/2023	Seems inexperienced. She rushes through Excel and Python content, so, if you're a beginner at either, it will be difficult to complete those types of assignments. On top of that, her assignment directions are not clear, even to the point where my class spends the first 30 minutes of class asking her questions regarding what the assignment directions mean. She's horrible at time management. Hands-on learning is fun and important, but it shouldn't take up the whole class period, especially since none of that content will be on exams. As far as exams go, they're easy if you study content on her slideshows. The only issue is you're going to have to put the time in to memorize content and read the book she assigns (since she never has time to go over this content during class time). It's also her way or the highway. Any time you challenge her, she gets frustrated and flustered, and then just says you're wrong. She's frustrating to deal with and makes the class more stressful than it needs to be.
Bharti Motwani BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/28/2023	She actually cares about how people are doing in the class. The exam was easy, just read the slides. Most of the class is legit learning excel.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/21/2023	Karake is the best professor I've had at Smith. She cares so much about all of her students. She goes out of her way to make sure that everyone is on track to learn the material. You will do fine in this class if you attend all of her lectures. When it comes to grading, she has a great curve policy so even though her exams are difficult, you still have a good chance to get an A. Most of her exam questions come from things she verbally says in class, so make sure to pay attention. Also, she gives you ample time to complete the four excel projects that are assigned throughout the semester. GO TO THE TA OFFICE HOURS! They will literally walk you through how to do all of the projects. I learned so much from this class and still made a good grade, so don't let any bad reviews deter you from taking Karake. She is a lovely woman and an amazing teacher.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A ptailor 05/25/2023	Karake is such a kind woman who takes the time to learn all her students' names and makes the class engaging. She has done so much in life which makes her extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the subject and she genuinely wants everyone to succeed. Always go to TA office hours for the Excel projects and you'll be fine. The exams are kinda difficult but she allowed cheat sheets for them. As long as you put in effort and try you'll do fine.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/24/2023	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH KARAKE!!! I know the ratings look decent, BUT DON'T RISK IT. Her test questions are not relevant and very niche, she basically looks for ways to take points off. The exam questions also don't relate to anything you would actually need to know! She lets you have two pages of notes, but it never EVER ends up helping you. The chapter quizzes and excel projects are alright, but I heard a lot of other professors have easier projects. She's like nice and seems to care about her students, but she doesn't really know how to teach effectively. ALSO HER EXAMS ARE BULLSHIT.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2023	Dr. Karake is a very kind and caring professor, and knowledgeable in her field. The excel applications and projects were reasonable (and often fun), and the first two exams were very straightforward. The final exam was atrociously hard, with very specific questions that were never discussed in class. Speaking as a student who had >99% in the class before the final… the difficulty level was uncalled for.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2023	The professor's slides are incredibly horrible, modules are incredibly horrible, and the exams were grammatical nightmares. Nice guy though.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2023	As others have mentioned - his lecture mainly consists of reading off the slides. You don't necessarily need to come to class to learn the material. As long as you go over the powerpoints (which he posts) and read the textbook, then you should do well in the course. I seldom went to class and still managed to get a B. The reason I did not get an A was because of the difficulty of the final exam. I relied too heavily on the fact that he allowed notes during exams. If you put in more effort than I did, then you should easily get an A. I would recommend this course if you're looking for a lax course in which you would approach it much like an online course - you read the material, come to class on quiz day, then study the material for the next assignment. Those expecting a deep engaging professor seek elsewhere. One final note: Excel is not as prevalent as I thought it would be. You really only need to know a few functions for the excel projects.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/13/2023	He's really nice but his lectures are extremely boring since he just goes over the slides which are pulled directly from the textbook (don't waste your money buying the textbook bc we didn't look at it a single time). His quizzes and exams are pulled directly from the slides but often have questions about really specific details from slides that he didn't go over during class. The formatting of the tests is also really poor; there are a lot of questions that have typos, are misspelled, and don't make sense grammatically. When you ask him or the TAs about it they aren't very helpful either. He'll tell you that specific topics will be on the exams and that you don't have to worry about the other topics but then he goes and puts them on the exam anyways so make sure that you study ALL the slides in depth. Overall, the class itself was not a lot of work and he was a chill professor, but I hated taking tests in this class because they're so unstructured, specific-to-tiny-details-that-don't-matter, and unpredictable.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A student1230 04/25/2023	Great and knowledgeable professor. Actually helps you understand the concepts we're learning. She makes the class engaging. There are 4 Excel projects that we do during the semester and three exams total.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Anonymous 01/18/2023	Very nice man, completely oblivious though. His canvas isn't even his, its a copy and paste of Karakes. Unfortunately is he's not reading from his powerpoint, he makes almost know sense. I stopped going to lectures and spending that time teaching myself the material and I started doing far better. He cares very much about his students and self proclaims his class is very easy, but its not. Get ready to memorize a munch of terms that don't even intertwine into concepts. Its painfully boring material and very repetitive and at the very end, a total nightmare. Probably would've been better if the TA's weren't completely useless, but they were mind-numbingly stupid. Definitely a very kind man, the class is barely tolerable if its not your major though.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/25/2022	I also don't understand why people like this professor or why she (according to herself) is so highly respected in academia. I don't think she's great at explaining things, and you pretty much see each concept only covered once, which is strange in a class rooted in application. She writes her own word problems for homework assignments and the grammar makes the assignments unclear or ambiguous. She does clearly love the subject and seems to like her students. She does also come across as condescending as noted by others, but some things you have to take as a cultural difference being perceived a certain way. All of that said, an A is possible. Despite the frustration. I have since taken courses of this subject but more advanced, and had to work less hard to do more complicated coding because the information was taught better by different professors.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/19/2022	I'm sure the professor is a great guy, but the lecture was so unstructured and it seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. He was mainly reading off the slides and the Excel projects are okay. It's annoying that they expect us to know everything about using Excel properly. Take BMGT301 with Paul Shapiro. I hear he's good.
Paul Shapiro BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/16/2022	Dr. Shapiro is very nice and understanding. He is incredibly knowledgeable, but sometimes it's difficult to understand some lessons because of the the jargon he uses. The course itself is not a lot of work and the exams are closely based on the textbook and Dr. Shapiro will review everything on the exam during review sessions.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Anonymous 12/13/2022	Nice guy but he does not know how to teach. The class was horribly structured and TAs were useless.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/26/2022	Professors like Karake are the reason tenure is a bad idea. She's just given up if you can even get a response from emails you send. She doesn't have very engaging lectures and if I didn't have the help of the TAs, I'm pretty sure I'd be failing the class. It's made me question if I want to stay an IS major. From talking to my friends, I wish I would have taken it with Shapiro. They look like they are doing cool things in that class. Take anyone else if you can.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/23/2022	Dr. Karake is easily one of the best professors I've had at UMD and she makes sure to focus on what you will actually use in your career. She clearly loves teaching and makes it clear how much she respects and appreciates all of her students. Her class is my favorite every week!
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/12/2022	Professor Karake is by far the best professor in the entire business school. Her class may be difficult but all of the skills you learn translate directly into jobs/internships. If you take the class seriously and aim to grasp excel skills instead of cramming information the night before exams you will take away lots of valuable skills.
Lawrence Aikins BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/18/2022	Lawrence Aikins is my man. Great professor
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/30/2022	I don't understand the negative reviews for professor Karake. She isn't messy at all and has well structured lectures. Usually about half of it is conceptual applications of info systems and then the other half is excel. Both of those are on the exams. She explains excel very well too and works through the applications with you. She is very nice with students and tries to have a relationship with them. She clearly knows the subject well and cares about every students learning. I also never had an exam question that wasn't related to the class, and she gives a curve on the exams.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2021	Honestly, this professor is so messy. She can barely explain concepts, her lectures are a disaster, and she isn't that nice with students. Her exams are filled with random questions that are unrelated to what we are learning. I wish the class focused more on Excel and less on conceptual muddle. I suggest you find another professor to take this class, or take it elsewhere.
Sung Hyun Kwon BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2021	he is super sweet and always willing to help at any time. He is super responsive to emails outside of class even before big projects and exams are due and even though he can be a little difficult to understand properly but if you ask him to repeat anything, he is super understanding and will do his best to make sure you understand what he is saying.
Paul Shapiro BMGT301 Anonymous 12/19/2021	Very understanding and grades fairly. The exams are basically everything he goes over in class, which is based off of the textbook. He only put questions that he went over in the study guide. Most of the questions are terms. There is one group project, very easy!
Sung Hyun Kwon BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/01/2021	Very kind and understanding and seems to want everyone to do well. English is not his first language so he does have an accent and make some errors; personally, I've never had any issues understanding him, but apparently some people do. However, if you miss or don't understand something, he's always willing to repeat himself or explain it differently. The weekly textbook quizzes are open-book and open-note, as are the exams. There are 5 Excel assignments throughout the semester and if you go to class and pay attention they're not difficult at all, plus he posts all his lectures and provides other online resources in case you want to review something or have it explained another way. Highly recommend this professor.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Anonymous 11/20/2021	Professor Karake is an amazing professor. The class topics can be so boring, but she makes the environment so friendly and she's pretty funny. She makes sure to know her students personally, and constantly keeps everyone engaged. On top of that, she's really good at teaching. One thing I will say is that her exams and quizzes are really hard. The questions require a lot of critical thinking, and unless you memorize the chapters and her powerpoints and are really good at Excel, they'll be almost impossible to pass. The questions, in my opinion, are beyond what we're capable of understanding as students, so it's quite difficult. But as a person and professor, she's engaging and knowledgeable, though she can be quite strict if you don't pay attention.
Sung Hyun Kwon BMGT301 Anonymous 11/17/2021	One of the best professors I have had so far. He is so kind and understanding. It can be difficult to understand him sometimes, however, the content is not very challenging. He also assigns a reasonable amount of work each week and almost always extends the deadlines for the excel projects if we need more time.
John Bono BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/24/2021	Very organized class layout. Easy to understand and made the material really easy to learn.
John Bono BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/21/2021	Summer, 6-week class. I loved the professor's lectures. He was very engaging and interesting and tried really hard to apply what we were learning to our own majors with examples. Workload was a bit heavy, Fair grading with a curve.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/06/2021	Dr. Karake is the best professor I've had at the University of Maryland. She is an extremely hard working teacher that cares whether her students understand the material she is teaching. She constantly asks if the concepts are clear to the class and has no problem going over things multiple times. I highly recommend taking her class.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting a B+ benmurph 04/22/2020	Professor Karake is my favorite teacher I have had thus far at UMD! She keeps you very engaged in each class and has a personality that could make any topic enjoyable to learn. Good powerpoints and answers any question you have thouroughly.
Zeinab Karake BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/12/2019	Dr. Karake is enthusiastic and cares about students who care about the material. If you do the work, you will be fine. If you need help, the TAs are very insightful and will guide you to figuring it out or clarifying the questions being asked. Start the projects early so you can get help when you need it.
Wei Chen BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/08/2018	DO NOT TAKE HIM
Il-Horn Hann BMGT301 Anonymous 03/01/2018	This professor looks like he tries to appeal to us but he is honestly not that good of a teacher and his material is dry/mundane. The class is useless outside of excel, which we never do in class but do at home instead (lynda.com). The quizzes are random questions purchased from a textbook and do not ask valuable information. You could study for hours and still get a D because they want to know things like what university michael dell went to or what some random guy in the book said about a quote that mark zuckerburg said (not even zuck's quote itself). He doesn't respond to emails and is unhelpful. The quality of the grading is also poor since we need to keep coming back to get points back because the system marked our written answers wrong when they are right, which is highly annoying. It's like this class tries to train you to be an information system of useless information yourself but its just impossible for me to do as a human and very frustrating/unmotivating. He also asks a lot of stupid, self-explanatory questions. This dude conducts in a way that makes it seem like he just went straight from comm 107 to teaching and relies heavily on powerpoint. I would have liked if he could have helped more with guiding students on what they will need to know and use in their life through the course instead of just trying to shove all this random content down my throat. dont know if all bmgt301 classes are like this but do yourslf a favor and avoid this teacher. i dont mean to be mean but his tests and dry material will make you want to hang yourself with a noose. i would have appreciated hands-on excel practice IN class and fairer questions. material isnt hard its just that its so much they want you to digest and your brain has to forget about what they taught you about only paying attention to on objective-relevant details. and sometimes your test will contain more written questions than multiple choice than others, which are generally more tricky since ur just looking for one word, and this can make you do worse than average. useless class and useless professor.
Guodong Gao BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2014	I really like Gordon, don't get me wrong he is a very nice guy and he means well for his class. The problem lies in the fact that he simply does not understand the concept of teaching. He is knowledgeable about the subjects but has an extremely hard time explaining them to his students. More so, he jumps around from topic to topic without really any progression explaining why the two go together. As someone said earlier, his study guides are extremely vague giving us no idea what he actually expects us to know for the exam and then on the exam itself the grades are more vague with questions that can have three separate meanings. Walking into the final, I spent 3 full days looking at the study guide and hoping that the information that I had found for it was what he had wanted only to find out that 3 of the questions were different ideas on the study guide and the exam and quickly dropping from what could have been 100 to an automatic C... It's not entirely his fault though, he clearly is not a faculty member that wants to be teaching, he is there to do his research and has to be plugged in for some unfortunate kids. To anyone stuck in a predicament of 50 credits and they offer this class to bridge the gap, heads up DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS with Gordon... PS if you do not understand broken Chinese/English, this class is not the class for you.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Anonymous 10/15/2014	I decided to take this class based on a recommendation from a friend. Worst decision of my college career. I ended up getting an A- in the class, but had to fight tooth and nail for it. This man was a complete sadist, made a fifteen-page fill-in-the-blank final exam, and was just generally condescending, unhelpful, and rude. He would often crack unrelated jokes during class and failed at teaching his subject. He also refused to give any multiple choice questions at all, saying they would make his class "too easy." Avoid him at ALL COSTS. He is the worst.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Anonymous 12/19/2013	WHO MAKES A 15 PAGE FINAL EXAM???? THIS GUY. AVOID HIM, you won't regret it!
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2013	I really would recommend not taking Corwin for 301. I chose him because the overall reviews looked good and there are naysayers with everyone, but I wish I'd paid closer attention to the lower ratings. Yes, he has videos during class. They are slow, tangentially related to what we're talking about and guaranteed to be on a quiz or test in some obscure form. Yes, he makes jokes and has a nice personality, but his teaching is all over the place. His lectures have 50+ slides, disorganized, and with the homework somewhere on one of them (but in a different place each time. There's also a "study group" practice homework assignment that looks exactly like the regular homework slide, but isn't for turning in, so you could spend an hour on an assignment and realize you should have been doing a different one). I don't know what it is, because if I'm having trouble with a professor I can usually sit down and teach myself what I'm not getting, but this class and I just did not connect. I know more about using programs like Excel and Access now, but the exams focus a lot on concepts, which he only half covers (but pretends he fully covers so he can put whatever he wants on the exam). He is vague teacher and a specific exam-maker, which is a bad combination. There's too much sheer material for you to just learn everything, so you have to pick and choose and hope for the best. Not what I like to have in a class or a professor.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/19/2013	I'm not sure if I have disliked a professor as a person more in my life than Corwin. His jokes are often inappropriate and he is not very helpful if you meet with him after class, although he will repeatedly encourage you to do so. The class itself is boring, though not very hard. 90% of the class just stares at their computer screens while he rambles through a powerpoint or shows irrelevant videos. His only saving grace is that he does try to give his students good grades, probably higher than we deserve. There are multiple opportunities for extra credit and the quizzes/exams are full of ridiculous amounts of partial credit and points added due to a curve. The excel/access/visio portion of the class is helpful and can be a valuable skill to have, but the rest of the course (regarding information technology in general) is incredibly uninteresting. I would avoid taking this class if possible, but it is certainly not the end of the world.
Guodong Gao BMGT301 Expecting an A sukhenkoy1990 01/06/2013	Professor Gao is a great professor for BMGT301. Despite taking his class on Mondays for 2 and a half hours at night, he was able to make the class entertaining and actually pretty interesting for an accounting and finance major. He is very lively during his lectures and covers some topics that are relevant to any business student entering the work force in the near future. The grades consist of some problem sets, case write-ups, participation, two projects, and two exams. Problem sets and case write-ups are very straightforward, and exams are very fair. In fact, Professor Gao gives a study sheet the lecture before the exam so that you know exactly what to study (and he tests you on those topics). He really likes it when students participate, so try to do so during the lectures. Additionally, he gives students a lot of opportunity for extra credit throughout the semester, so getting an A is very realistic if you do your work as assigned.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2013	Definitely take Dr. Corwin for BMGT301. The class is great! He plays a ton of videos because he knows that students can only listen to lecture for so long, and the videos really help. He is a really funny guy, but at the same time he will also do whatever it takes to make sure you understand the material (especially if you go to his office hours). As other people have mentioned there is homework, but it really doesn't take long and is essentially a grade booster. Participation is easy, twice a month for an A. The excel/access/visio assignments aren't a big deal and they help you practice skills that separate you to employers. He offers plenty of extra credit. Take this class, you won't regret it!
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/03/2013	Professor Corwin is a great professor and really cares about his students. The lectures are engaging and he uses a variety of media to keep them fresh. He levels with his students about what they really need to know for an exam, but makes an effort to bring in material that is supplemental and interesting as well. The class is really not difficult. As long as you do the work and stay on top of the material, you won't have any problem getting an A in this class. If you have a problem with the homework, technical or content, he is always happy and enthusiastic to help. He is also pretty hilarious, which can really help those days when the material is dragging a bit. Try to get Corwin if you can!!
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Anonymous 11/19/2012	The fact that he isn't getting unanimous 5 star scores kind of surprises me. Professor Corwin is a super nice guy and is eager to help students learn the material. Pros: - He is nice and is willing to meet with students any time -Understands that the material is boring -Homework is easy and not strictly graded -Exams are straightforward -Shows videos and makes material easy to learn -Asks for feedback daily and what he can do better Cons: -Takes attendance every lecture -Has written homework assignments every night (although they are easy points that help boost your grade, and help you learn the material without having to read the textbook)
Donald Riley BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/06/2012	Riley was okay. He rambled a LOT in every class, and usually spent the first 30 minutes solving technical issues and going over homework. He did try to make the class more interesting by getting us involved in discussions and talking about timely topics, but I always found myself drifting away. If you already know a lot about technology (which you probably do if you're majoring in IS) then you'll find yourself very bored most of the time. This is definitely tailored to the less tech-inclined part of the business school. The homeworks are worth a LOT of points so make sure you do them and do them well. The exams are okay. The first one had a few Excel problems that you had to solve, but the rest is just short written responses and a matching section. The final was pretty much all written responses and matching. There's also a group project that's fairly easy. If you're expecting a ton of hands-on work with databases, this isn't the class. It's a lot more focused on conceptual matters.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/09/2012	He class is boring. He is teaching nothing. For a good grade, just read the text and do the homework. He teaches nothing but he takes attendance. He class is easy but you will learn nothing. There are homework every meeting. So there will be like 25+ homework throughout the whole semester. Take his class if you like to do homework, get a good grade, but learn nothing.
Sivakumar Viswanathan BMGT301 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/26/2011	I feel this class was very challenging for an introduction course to information technology. Exams were very difficult, you really have to study and know the concepts. The excel and access assignments was challenging too, but I got A+ on the both assignments. Here's a tip: get an IS major or someone who took BMGT301 to help you. With that being said, he does curve at the end. I got an 80% on the mid-term exam and 70% on the final exam and somehow managed to get an A-.
Sivakumar Viswanathan BMGT301 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/23/2011	Siva is an incredibly smart man and really knows what he is talking about when it comes to info systems. He should be teaching upper level classes instead of intro. This is not good for business school students that just want to knock out useless bmgt301. He generally can see through BS answers on exams. he makes 3 or 4 versions of his exams that are all completely different so cheating is impossible. he posts his powerpoints online so paying attention during class is not necessary. He sent around a sign-in sheet for class participation. bottom line, if you are actually interested in info systems, this is a good teacher but if you were like me and just wanted to knock out another useless core, I'd look for another teacher.
Sivakumar Viswanathan BMGT301 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/16/2011	This class was extremely challenging for an "introduction" course. Siva was very hard to understand and not very considerate of student questions or concerns. He generally teaches graduate courses and therefore has very high, unreasonable expectations for his undergraduate students. You have to attend class in order to fill in the power point slides. The quizzes and exams are exceptionally challenging. The Excel and Access assignments are nearly impossible. He makes himself available for office hours but tends to speak down upon students rather than send an approachable vibe. I highly recommend taking the course with another professor, or choosing the freshman fellows option. Otherwise, you need to constantly review the material and ask clarifying questions to earn a decent grade.
Guodong Gao BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2010	Gao is a great teacher. He is very insightful and has a lot of knowledge to bring to the table. He really knows the material. He cares about his students as well. His accent only gave me a slight problem, but you'll probably have to deal with this many times in your college career.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 ccbrown 05/15/2010	Corwin is awesome!! He's passionate/knows what he's talking about unlike some of the other professors that teach 301. There is a lot of daily homework, but it's really not too hard and keeps you on top of what you're learning. He's very helpful if you ever stop by his office as well, especially if you don't understand the access/excel assignments. He cares about his students and among other things gets food for the class throughout the semester.
Hassan Ibrahim BMGT301 Expecting an A- AccountingTerp 04/26/2010	I agree with what the previous person said. He is very approachable before / during / after class. He makes the class enjoyable by telling jokes and relating course material to real life situations. Exams arent terribly hard, but you need to study. 2 projects total (1-excel 1-access). Not too bad at all
Guodong Gao BMGT301 Anonymous 12/25/2009	Gao is an awful professor, and I would warn anyone against taking a course with him. He has no outlined structure to his lectures at all, and jumps from one topic to another without creating any comprehensible flow. His exams are very very vague, and his grading is extremely arbitrary. He does not value hard work and his grades do not reflect a students effort and success. He took a supposedly easy course and turned it into the most difficult one because there was no way to know if you have prepared enough. I would not even want my worst enemy taking his course, and I strongly recommend that, if you can, you find a different professor for this course.
Guodong Gao BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2009	Gao really is a great teacher. He legitimately cares about the welfare of his students and has experience in the field. He strives for class participation which can be difficult because not many students care, but he REALLY appreciates it if you participate. He brought us candy during our examinations, pretty much because he felt guilty for making us do work. Overall, Gao is a great teacher and I would highly recommend him to other students. If he taught another class I'd take it almost without exception.
Guodong Gao BMGT301 Anonymous 11/18/2009	He's not a bad professor, but certainly not phenominal by any means. This class isn't that difficult and there isn't alot of overly difficult work involved. However, he has an overpowering chinese accent that makes listening to his lectures excruciatingly painfull and difficult to understand. I suggest choosing a different teacher because his poor english just annoyed me. Also, he often goes at a fast pace during his lectures which can be vague at times. He prints out slides for you. And his tests have easy questions as well as questions that are worded poorly because his english is terrible as I said, and may often trick you or will be so random and therfore difficult.
Hassan Ibrahim BMGT301 Expecting an A- madriano 10/03/2009	I took him during the summer session he teaches you only what you need to know. He understand that this is an INTRO to Info Sys. class and won't bore you useless info your not interested in. However, if your an Info. sys. major he is very knowledgeable and will have no problem discussing anything with his student. He's easy to talk to and helped me with my access project.
Scott Hudson BMGT301 Expecting an A+ natashkamd 05/28/2009	His exams are crazy (=stupid), all essay questions and if it doesn't match his answer key 100%, it's pretty much marked wrong. And a lot of these questions are subjective! The only way to get an A is to print out the readings before class and highlight what he goes over (he only askes about the paragraphs he himself highlights on the overhead, so it is doable...). Assignments were easy if you're computer friendly. Wouldn't take him again.
Donald Riley BMGT301 Anonymous 05/16/2009	One of the worst professors to have ever step foot on the face of the Earth. He speaks in monotone and expects everyone to memorize the most minute details on tests. Quizzes are absolutely laughable as sometimes they are worth 35 points while others are worth 10 points. For assignments, the guy shows random unrelated slides and expects students to go home and ace the assignment. He makes everyone bring laptops but even if he does not, everyone would bring them because you'd rather be studying material from middle school then listen to his babble for 75 minutes. The TA is completely incompetent and simply put, horrific. I get exasperated every time I receive my assignment grade because of the idiot's inability to grade. It takes him 5 days to respond to an email and is never approachable outside of class. It is as if he has a social hatred for the world, besides the professor that he works. They were meant to be together, to say the least. Highly recommended if you want to go through the worst time of your life. Not recommended if you desire otherwise.
Donald Riley BMGT301 Anonymous 04/27/2009	He has absolutely no business being in a classroom. He knows a lot about the subject but lectures are extremely boring and pointless. Do not ever ask questions because he will tear you down in front of the entire class and make you feel incompetent. Befriend the TA because he grades everything and if you argue about your grade on something you can usually get some points back. Basically do not take his class unless you already know a lot about the subject so you can just teach yourself.
Scott Hudson BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/22/2009	Professor Hudson is not the best teacher out there. He seems like he tries hard and means well, but it appears that he just doesn't know his stuff. He works on a mainframe at Chevy Chase Bank, but doesn't seem to know how to work a computer all that well. The class is pretty easy though, and I would recommend him for this reason. For homework and projects, however, he doesn't always teach all of the material necessary, and there is no text book. I relied on google for a few lessons on Excel and SQL.
Donald Riley BMGT301 Anonymous 03/30/2009	This guy is the worst professor to take. The TA is on a power trip and will take a ludicrous amount of points off tests and assignments. The tests and quizzes are difficult and don't expect to learn anything in class.
Scott Hudson BMGT301 Anonymous 03/22/2009	Incompetent, doesn't know what he's talking about, answers questions in a way that has nothing to do with the questions at all, and etc. I have no idea how this idiot got a job at the Smith school of business. There is no book in the class, just online readings, which is fine since you have readings to learn from since it's impossible to learn from lectures. This is fine up to a point in the class where there are no more readings and you have to learn from his lectures, which is impossible. No one ever knows what's going on in the class. I ended up dropping the course and decided to take it next semester with another professor. BTW, if you will want to take this class with him, let me warn you that his previous grade distributions for this class was something of 18% A's, 30% B's and so on. 18%A's in a class where usually 50% of the students gets A's? I'll let you decide. P.S. The quizzes he gives, which are 5% of your entire grade, are 10 pages each and all essay questions while apparently other instructor's quizzes are one page.
Scott Hudson BMGT301 Expecting a ? Anonymous 03/10/2009	He is so bad its ridiculous. He is a pilot for southwest, not a teacher at a top 20 business school. God awful. Knows nothing. Can't follow him.
Donald Riley BMGT301 Anonymous 02/23/2009	This guy is completely incompetent. The class is boring and is a waste of time. Avoid at all cost. This is a universal consensus in the class.
Barnet Corwin BMGT301 solitsolit1 02/02/2009	AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. I had him this semester, it was the first time he taught an undergrad class. He's only taught PhD/MBA students before and he is WAY too intense. He assigned 30 pages of reading the very first day of class and has papers required every day. He also assigns podcasts as reading which are really annoying. He takes attendance every single day. He grades on a curve. If he catches anyone not paying attention he'll walk up to that part of the room and stare at them while he's talking. He loves to mention the fact that he got his PhD at Penn. He takes this class, which is supposed to be just a basic primer on Excel and Access, and turns it into some sort of high-level examination of the role of technology in business and our lives. He goes way overboard with everything, has some truly terrible methods of forcing group participation in class, and is an terrible lecturer. He also doesn't realize that everyone in the class hated him within the first 15 minutes. I repeat: avoid him at all costs.
Scott Hudson BMGT301 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/02/2009	Completely incompetent. Has no grasp on content material and class often feels as if the professor is some senile grandparent who was recently taught how computers work. Completely out of touch with current technology and as a consequence, teaches basics that became vastly obsolete years ago. Dated and obsolete, the professor often attempts to hide his ignorance by using a bevy of technological jargon and buzzwords but misuses them to the point where they mean nothing at all.
Sivakumar Viswanathan BMGT301 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/28/2008	Overall, professor Siva cares about the students. He isnt mean and tries to teach. Unfortunately, his class is terribly boring and utterly useless. He is hard to understand and does not make the course work interesting. Powerpoint slides will do instead of attendance, but tests are a little challenging. Overall, I thought it was a big waste of my time
Guodong Gao BMGT301 bkubic 02/26/2008	Professor Gao is phenominal. Even though his tests are easy, his dynamic teaching style, interesting lectures, and bad jokes make every class worthwhile to go to.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/11/2024

Many many people like Karake, which I understand because she likes to joke around and she seems to get to know each student individually. However, I just don't like the way she teaches. I think her "jokes" are sometimes really passive aggressive or just straight up rude, and the fact that she knows everyone by face and name is really jarring to me. She also snaps at students that aren't paying attention which I think is super weird. I'm giving her a three stars because she's a good professor; the Excel bites we do in class are useful and keep people engaged, and she answers any questions students might have for her. However, her slides are not that informative and so you have to just listen to what she says, which can be difficult because the content is just so boring. It's not a hard class, but I thought a lot of assignments felt like busywork and Excel projects are difficult (my biggest tip is just to go to the TA). Overall, I'd recommend her as a professor, but I just didn't like her personally.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/11/2024

She is a very knowledgeable. I am taking her this semester and her exams are a bit though but if you go over the textbook you should score good.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a C
Anonymous
11/09/2024

Giving this class a 2 star soley on the fact that i like Motwani as a person. She is very knowledgable but her lectures can often be confusing and unstructured. As long as you put in your best effort and maintain a good relationship with her and go to her when you need help you will not have a problem passing the class.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/04/2024

The Excel exam in this class is crazy! 100 questions and only 70 minutes, which wouldnt be bad but some of the questions had light mental math involved which only took away time on top of the already short time limit. Exam's are much harder and longer than Karake's class.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
10/31/2024

wow, this course was a lot, and so much reading lol, very nice professor but classes that are mainly theoretical suck like this one. Instructions for assignments are also vague and confusing sometimes. great professor but not very great course.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Anonymous
10/24/2024

Only giving 2 stars because I feel bad since she is good at her field and occasionally nice. She wants her students to succeed and is passionate but WOW does she suck. Makes an intro to information systems class a living hell. Exams are like a trivia. Extremely difficult for literally no reason. Can be very condescending when you ask questions. Avoid unless you need to take with Bharti.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Anonymous
10/24/2024

Only giving 2 stars because I feel bad since she is good at her field and occasionally nice. She wants her students to succeed and is passionate but WOW does she suck. Makes an intro to information systems class a living hell. Exams are like a trivia. Extremely difficult for literally no reason. Can be very condescending when you ask questions. Avoid unless you need to take with Bharti.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/01/2024

horrible professor, she rushes you and doesnt give you a chance to learn. she also threatens to make stuff harder when we dont undersyand the content

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
08/28/2024

She is very nice and has a great understanding of the topic. The grading system is stressful but worked out for me. Make sure to put effort into your projects and you can reach out to the TA for help. I would recommend taking this class.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2024

Professor Motwani is a great and caring professor. She provides many opportunities to bring your grade up through extra credit, participation, and homeworks. Though the course isn't solely based on exams, you will do well on them if you pay attention in class and read the book. About half of the class is spent working on applications like Excel and Tableau, which I found nice because it kept me focused throughout the 1 hour and 15 minute section. I came into the class with no prior skills in Excel and now I can efficiently use it which has helped me in my other courses. I suggest talking to the professor and TA for help on projects and homeworks; they are very approachable and straightforward and will tell you what they are looking for. As long as you put effort into the course then you can 100% get an A.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2024

If you show up to class you will do well. Projects are not too bad if you go to office hours the ta's will help you out. I found the class to be quite fun.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2024

Professor Motwani was one of my favorite professors this semester. She always engaged the class and would help answer any question. As someone with little background in Excel, HTML, and Tableau she explained everything perfectly for my understanding. I also found her class to be one of the most practical classes I am taking this semester and I have already found ways to talk about it during job interviews. Overall, a great professor if you come to class ready to pay attention and learn!

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2024

Prof Motwani is very sweet and teaches skills that are helpful for our future careers. On average, we spend half of the class working on excel, tableau, and other applications. In the beginning of the class, I had little to no skills in excel and now I know how to efficiently use excel which has helped me in other classes. Your grade in the class isn’t fully based on exams and there was an extra credit opportunity that helped me boost my grade. During class there are clicker questions that go in as participation points at the end of the semester. We also had multiple projects which helped me get a better grade in the class. If you pay attention in class and read the book then the exams won’t be too hard. The professor and TA are very approachable and make it clear what the expectations are for the assignments.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/16/2024

She's an absolute moron and the test material is useless. Learned everything needed about excel and tableau on my own.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/10/2024

Dr. Karake is a very nice and caring professor. She she cares about her students and wants them to succed/ She go through a lecture in the first half of class then the second half we go over excel problems (which she records, and are useful). She breaks it down into thorough detail. I will say her lectures are a little boring, and sometimes hard to focus on. As for exams, she allows us a page of cheat sheet, front and back, but I will say, its hard to predict what is going to be on the exam (textbook wise). I did not try fully, and even I didn't do bad in the course. Excel projects take a lot of time, so make sure you start them early. Overall, course wasn't bad nor professor.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/10/2024

Don't listen to the bad reviews she's amazing and if you go to class you will do well. TAs will help with excel projects and youll get full points if you just try.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
03/28/2024

I would say she is one of the best professors for 301. People are just unnecessary giving her less rating. She answers all the questions after class. I would definitely take her class again.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
03/28/2024

She is one of the best professors. I don't know why people are giving her bad reviews for no reason. She gives her best to answer all the questions. I would definitely take her class again.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
03/07/2024

Do not take her. The other professors only teach excel, but she goes through excel, and then "teaches" python and tableau. You don't actually learn any python, she just gives you the code and you make the smallest little adjustments. She often brags about how smart she is and how she has written so many award winning books, which is great for her, but when she laughs at a student for asking a question, it doesn't make her seem like a very good professor. The project/homework questions are very confusing and can be interpreted in a variety of different ways but only one way is correct. The exams cover the "theory" material which does not seem relevant to the stuff we actually do in class and she does a poor job of explaining it. I am normally a very good student but this class was brutal. I ended with an 89.96% but she would not round it up because she normally does a reverse curve so I got a B+. I do not recommend this professor for 301 unless you are an infosystems major and this is what you truly care about.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Anonymous
02/28/2024

The WORST professor I have ever had. She was absolutely horrible and did not teach at all. The expectations for assignments were so confusing and the exam questions did not make any sense. She curved my grade down to meet the "target GPA" which made me really frustrated. The project was so dumb and I felt so disrespected in this class because of her. Do not take her if you have the choice.

John Bono
BMGT301

Anonymous
01/18/2024

Everyone saying he does not care about his students has not taken the time to talk to him. My friend was dong poorly in the class and she would email him and meet with him in office hours and he was more than encouraging and helpful. John Bono is a very intelligent person who relays information as clearly as he can when introducing this subject matter to his students. He encourages questions and will make sure you understand. ASK QUESTIONS!!! and partcipate. Do not miss his class becuase he teaches so much each class. His class is very interactive as well. As someone who had no prior experience with coding I found his class to be very comphrehensive. That being said it is a challenging class and the exams are hard, but it is a rewarding class. He demeanor may come off as curt but he really does care. He does not mess around with deadlines and is very clear about his expectations. He gives a very generous curve to the end of the class as well. I learned so much in this class and as long as you put the work in you will pass.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/18/2023

She cares about the students and teaches relevant practical materials such as Python, Tableau, Access, HTML, and Excel. However, she has bad time management and it’s annoying that even though there’s so much emphasis on the practical stuff during class, those are not the things on the exam. The theoretical info on the exams is interesting, but is rushed on during class. Some of the exam questions are stupid and you wouldn’t know the answer unless you memorize the most useless facts in the textbook. The exams are okay if you study and the projects are pretty easy as long as you pay attention in class. Her instructions are vague at times and her email responses aren’t the best. For an introductory class for IS, it’s more difficult than it needs to be and doesn’t seem like most of the stuff that is related to the more advanced IS courses. Overall, an okay class and easy to get higher than a B.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/14/2023

Shes very knowledgable on the topic but not a great professor. The class isn't hard and the exams are straight forward. The biggest issue with the class is Professor Motwanis grading. I have a 92.5 in the class which is a B+ in this class. Very disappointing that the grade does not reflect the work i've put in and everything I have learned that is reflected in my percentage is not reflected in a letter grade. The curve for this class as left a sour taste in the mouth of many students.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/14/2023

She makes this class unecessarily difficult. Coming into this I already had been working with python and excel for a while, so the assignments were easy (as they should be). Generally knowing the content for a class should be a good sign of an easy class, but her arbitrary wording and vague rubrics/standards makes it unclear what is the 'correct' way of doing what she wants. One item on the final presentation rubric was 'go above and beyond', worth 15% of that grade, not extra credit. Overall this all stems from her having a different english background which causes this communication disconnect. I would strongly recommend looking for another professor for this class.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2023

I genuinely do not understand why Karake has such low reviews. TAKE 301 WITH HER!! She is probably the best professor that I've had so far. She genuinely seems like she cares about her students, offers lots of office hours where you can get the excel projects done, and is very fair in her exams. Inspired me to double in information systems!! Take the class!!

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/13/2023

Great teacher if you attend class. She teaches everything you need to know to get perfect scores on the assignments and exams, and provides adequate examples with in-class demonstrations of the "technical" half of the course material and slides for the "theory" half of the material. Exams were straightforward and did not rely on technical knowledge that was tested in the assignments but rather the theory that was presented from the slides. If you are a beginner in Excel, Python, or Tableau, you will be fine, the material covered in each class section perfectly mirrors what is done in the homework and projects so homework and projects were not overly difficult. As long as you go to class, pay attention, and put in the effort to complete assignments, you will get a good grade.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/18/2023

Professor Motwani is very knowledgable and you will learn a lot as long as you simply pay attention. Exams are very straightforward, mostly multiple choice questions, and I got A's on both so far. Some of these reviews feel a bit harsh on her and they are probably from the students that fool around during class or just dislike her for no reason. Some assignments were a bit confusing but she always sends announcements to clear things up. I was originally nervous as this was her first semester teaching, but I think she did well.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/14/2023

Professor Motwani is very nice and gives you all of the resources you need to succeed. The exams are really easy if you listen to her lectures and skim over the textbook and the skills we learn are actually useful. She really encourages class participation and is happy to help when someone is struggling in class.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/10/2023

Karake is an incredible professor. I had never used Excel before this class and she does a great job of breaking everything down to make each function easy to understand. Weekly quizzes are very easy. For tests you should be fine as long as you write EVERYTHING down on the cheat sheets. Excel projects are fine as long as you go back to the previous excel files from class to see what to do. She is also a great person and genuinely cares about her students and wants them all to succeed.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
11/09/2023

His slides are copied from another professor, Karake, but the slides are pretty easy to understand and he does post the slides on Canvas. I stopped going to lectures halfway through since his lectures are very boring and he basically reads off the slides word for word. There are in-class quizzes that are announced one class before and exams that are actually pretty difficult even though exams are open note. On the final, a lot of questions were poorly worded and some were not covered in class content. Overall, this class should be easy but don't take it with Aikins if you want an easy A or interesting lectures. He also takes a while to upload grades and TAs are very slow. Some people couldn't go to TA office hours because they simply were not there and are unresponsive to emails. I procrastinated a lot on excel projects hence the low grade but i think average for this class is like a high B with Aikins. His accent is kind of difficult to understand for other people but I personally think it's fine. I just don't like that he reads off the slides.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
10/31/2023

Lovely nice lady, trash teacher. The class is split into two aspects, practical skills and theoretical knowledge. The practical skills are interesting and provide exposure to Excel, Python, Tableau, and some web design. There is one assignment per week related to these skills, and a few projects. This is fairly easy and a good way to learn. The problem I have is with this "theoretical knowledge", which is what the exams are on. The questions are poorly written which makes easy concepts turn incredibly hard and the concepts in general are just stupid, and come across as more like "fun facts" than actual knowledge. This is followed by an array of other annoying questions that she hardly reviews and are worded completely different from the textbook. Avoid this professor if you can, I mean it. I am really disappointed with UMD because this course can be 10x better, from what I have heard other professors structure this course differently and are easier. I wouldn't take another class with her if my life depended on it. She is a kind and lovely lady, but I just have to be honest and warn my future terps.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/25/2023

Seems inexperienced. She rushes through Excel and Python content, so, if you're a beginner at either, it will be difficult to complete those types of assignments. On top of that, her assignment directions are not clear, even to the point where my class spends the first 30 minutes of class asking her questions regarding what the assignment directions mean. She's horrible at time management. Hands-on learning is fun and important, but it shouldn't take up the whole class period, especially since none of that content will be on exams. As far as exams go, they're easy if you study content on her slideshows. The only issue is you're going to have to put the time in to memorize content and read the book she assigns (since she never has time to go over this content during class time). It's also her way or the highway. Any time you challenge her, she gets frustrated and flustered, and then just says you're wrong. She's frustrating to deal with and makes the class more stressful than it needs to be.

Bharti Motwani
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/28/2023

She actually cares about how people are doing in the class. The exam was easy, just read the slides. Most of the class is legit learning excel.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/21/2023

Karake is the best professor I've had at Smith. She cares so much about all of her students. She goes out of her way to make sure that everyone is on track to learn the material. You will do fine in this class if you attend all of her lectures. When it comes to grading, she has a great curve policy so even though her exams are difficult, you still have a good chance to get an A. Most of her exam questions come from things she verbally says in class, so make sure to pay attention. Also, she gives you ample time to complete the four excel projects that are assigned throughout the semester. GO TO THE TA OFFICE HOURS! They will literally walk you through how to do all of the projects. I learned so much from this class and still made a good grade, so don't let any bad reviews deter you from taking Karake. She is a lovely woman and an amazing teacher.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
ptailor
05/25/2023

Karake is such a kind woman who takes the time to learn all her students' names and makes the class engaging. She has done so much in life which makes her extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the subject and she genuinely wants everyone to succeed. Always go to TA office hours for the Excel projects and you'll be fine. The exams are kinda difficult but she allowed cheat sheets for them. As long as you put in effort and try you'll do fine.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/24/2023

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH KARAKE!!! I know the ratings look decent, BUT DON'T RISK IT. Her test questions are not relevant and very niche, she basically looks for ways to take points off. The exam questions also don't relate to anything you would actually need to know! She lets you have two pages of notes, but it never EVER ends up helping you. The chapter quizzes and excel projects are alright, but I heard a lot of other professors have easier projects. She's like nice and seems to care about her students, but she doesn't really know how to teach effectively. ALSO HER EXAMS ARE BULLSHIT.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2023

Dr. Karake is a very kind and caring professor, and knowledgeable in her field. The excel applications and projects were reasonable (and often fun), and the first two exams were very straightforward. The final exam was atrociously hard, with very specific questions that were never discussed in class. Speaking as a student who had >99% in the class before the final… the difficulty level was uncalled for.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/19/2023

The professor's slides are incredibly horrible, modules are incredibly horrible, and the exams were grammatical nightmares. Nice guy though.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/16/2023

As others have mentioned - his lecture mainly consists of reading off the slides. You don't necessarily need to come to class to learn the material. As long as you go over the powerpoints (which he posts) and read the textbook, then you should do well in the course. I seldom went to class and still managed to get a B. The reason I did not get an A was because of the difficulty of the final exam. I relied too heavily on the fact that he allowed notes during exams. If you put in more effort than I did, then you should easily get an A. I would recommend this course if you're looking for a lax course in which you would approach it much like an online course - you read the material, come to class on quiz day, then study the material for the next assignment. Those expecting a deep engaging professor seek elsewhere. One final note: Excel is not as prevalent as I thought it would be. You really only need to know a few functions for the excel projects.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/13/2023

He's really nice but his lectures are extremely boring since he just goes over the slides which are pulled directly from the textbook (don't waste your money buying the textbook bc we didn't look at it a single time). His quizzes and exams are pulled directly from the slides but often have questions about really specific details from slides that he didn't go over during class. The formatting of the tests is also really poor; there are a lot of questions that have typos, are misspelled, and don't make sense grammatically. When you ask him or the TAs about it they aren't very helpful either. He'll tell you that specific topics will be on the exams and that you don't have to worry about the other topics but then he goes and puts them on the exam anyways so make sure that you study ALL the slides in depth. Overall, the class itself was not a lot of work and he was a chill professor, but I hated taking tests in this class because they're so unstructured, specific-to-tiny-details-that-don't-matter, and unpredictable.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
student1230
04/25/2023

Great and knowledgeable professor. Actually helps you understand the concepts we're learning. She makes the class engaging. There are 4 Excel projects that we do during the semester and three exams total.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Anonymous
01/18/2023

Very nice man, completely oblivious though. His canvas isn't even his, its a copy and paste of Karakes. Unfortunately is he's not reading from his powerpoint, he makes almost know sense. I stopped going to lectures and spending that time teaching myself the material and I started doing far better. He cares very much about his students and self proclaims his class is very easy, but its not. Get ready to memorize a munch of terms that don't even intertwine into concepts. Its painfully boring material and very repetitive and at the very end, a total nightmare. Probably would've been better if the TA's weren't completely useless, but they were mind-numbingly stupid. Definitely a very kind man, the class is barely tolerable if its not your major though.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/25/2022

I also don't understand why people like this professor or why she (according to herself) is so highly respected in academia. I don't think she's great at explaining things, and you pretty much see each concept only covered once, which is strange in a class rooted in application. She writes her own word problems for homework assignments and the grammar makes the assignments unclear or ambiguous. She does clearly love the subject and seems to like her students. She does also come across as condescending as noted by others, but some things you have to take as a cultural difference being perceived a certain way. All of that said, an A is possible. Despite the frustration. I have since taken courses of this subject but more advanced, and had to work less hard to do more complicated coding because the information was taught better by different professors.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/19/2022

I'm sure the professor is a great guy, but the lecture was so unstructured and it seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. He was mainly reading off the slides and the Excel projects are okay. It's annoying that they expect us to know everything about using Excel properly. Take BMGT301 with Paul Shapiro. I hear he's good.

Paul Shapiro
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/16/2022

Dr. Shapiro is very nice and understanding. He is incredibly knowledgeable, but sometimes it's difficult to understand some lessons because of the the jargon he uses. The course itself is not a lot of work and the exams are closely based on the textbook and Dr. Shapiro will review everything on the exam during review sessions.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Anonymous
12/13/2022

Nice guy but he does not know how to teach. The class was horribly structured and TAs were useless.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/26/2022

Professors like Karake are the reason tenure is a bad idea. She's just given up if you can even get a response from emails you send. She doesn't have very engaging lectures and if I didn't have the help of the TAs, I'm pretty sure I'd be failing the class. It's made me question if I want to stay an IS major. From talking to my friends, I wish I would have taken it with Shapiro. They look like they are doing cool things in that class. Take anyone else if you can.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/23/2022

Dr. Karake is easily one of the best professors I've had at UMD and she makes sure to focus on what you will actually use in your career. She clearly loves teaching and makes it clear how much she respects and appreciates all of her students. Her class is my favorite every week!

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
10/12/2022

Professor Karake is by far the best professor in the entire business school. Her class may be difficult but all of the skills you learn translate directly into jobs/internships. If you take the class seriously and aim to grasp excel skills instead of cramming information the night before exams you will take away lots of valuable skills.

Lawrence Aikins
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/18/2022

Lawrence Aikins is my man. Great professor

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/30/2022

I don't understand the negative reviews for professor Karake. She isn't messy at all and has well structured lectures. Usually about half of it is conceptual applications of info systems and then the other half is excel. Both of those are on the exams. She explains excel very well too and works through the applications with you. She is very nice with students and tries to have a relationship with them. She clearly knows the subject well and cares about every students learning. I also never had an exam question that wasn't related to the class, and she gives a curve on the exams.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2021

Honestly, this professor is so messy. She can barely explain concepts, her lectures are a disaster, and she isn't that nice with students. Her exams are filled with random questions that are unrelated to what we are learning. I wish the class focused more on Excel and less on conceptual muddle. I suggest you find another professor to take this class, or take it elsewhere.

Sung Hyun Kwon
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/20/2021

he is super sweet and always willing to help at any time. He is super responsive to emails outside of class even before big projects and exams are due and even though he can be a little difficult to understand properly but if you ask him to repeat anything, he is super understanding and will do his best to make sure you understand what he is saying.

Paul Shapiro
BMGT301

Anonymous
12/19/2021

Very understanding and grades fairly. The exams are basically everything he goes over in class, which is based off of the textbook. He only put questions that he went over in the study guide. Most of the questions are terms. There is one group project, very easy!

Sung Hyun Kwon
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/01/2021

Very kind and understanding and seems to want everyone to do well. English is not his first language so he does have an accent and make some errors; personally, I've never had any issues understanding him, but apparently some people do. However, if you miss or don't understand something, he's always willing to repeat himself or explain it differently. The weekly textbook quizzes are open-book and open-note, as are the exams. There are 5 Excel assignments throughout the semester and if you go to class and pay attention they're not difficult at all, plus he posts all his lectures and provides other online resources in case you want to review something or have it explained another way. Highly recommend this professor.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Anonymous
11/20/2021

Professor Karake is an amazing professor. The class topics can be so boring, but she makes the environment so friendly and she's pretty funny. She makes sure to know her students personally, and constantly keeps everyone engaged. On top of that, she's really good at teaching. One thing I will say is that her exams and quizzes are really hard. The questions require a lot of critical thinking, and unless you memorize the chapters and her powerpoints and are really good at Excel, they'll be almost impossible to pass. The questions, in my opinion, are beyond what we're capable of understanding as students, so it's quite difficult. But as a person and professor, she's engaging and knowledgeable, though she can be quite strict if you don't pay attention.

Sung Hyun Kwon
BMGT301

Anonymous
11/17/2021

One of the best professors I have had so far. He is so kind and understanding. It can be difficult to understand him sometimes, however, the content is not very challenging. He also assigns a reasonable amount of work each week and almost always extends the deadlines for the excel projects if we need more time.

John Bono
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/24/2021

Very organized class layout. Easy to understand and made the material really easy to learn.

John Bono
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/21/2021

Summer, 6-week class. I loved the professor's lectures. He was very engaging and interesting and tried really hard to apply what we were learning to our own majors with examples. Workload was a bit heavy, Fair grading with a curve.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/06/2021

Dr. Karake is the best professor I've had at the University of Maryland. She is an extremely hard working teacher that cares whether her students understand the material she is teaching. She constantly asks if the concepts are clear to the class and has no problem going over things multiple times. I highly recommend taking her class.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
benmurph
04/22/2020

Professor Karake is my favorite teacher I have had thus far at UMD! She keeps you very engaged in each class and has a personality that could make any topic enjoyable to learn. Good powerpoints and answers any question you have thouroughly.

Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/12/2019

Dr. Karake is enthusiastic and cares about students who care about the material. If you do the work, you will be fine. If you need help, the TAs are very insightful and will guide you to figuring it out or clarifying the questions being asked. Start the projects early so you can get help when you need it.

Wei Chen
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/08/2018

DO NOT TAKE HIM

Il-Horn Hann
BMGT301

Anonymous
03/01/2018

This professor looks like he tries to appeal to us but he is honestly not that good of a teacher and his material is dry/mundane. The class is useless outside of excel, which we never do in class but do at home instead (lynda.com). The quizzes are random questions purchased from a textbook and do not ask valuable information. You could study for hours and still get a D because they want to know things like what university michael dell went to or what some random guy in the book said about a quote that mark zuckerburg said (not even zuck's quote itself). He doesn't respond to emails and is unhelpful. The quality of the grading is also poor since we need to keep coming back to get points back because the system marked our written answers wrong when they are right, which is highly annoying. It's like this class tries to train you to be an information system of useless information yourself but its just impossible for me to do as a human and very frustrating/unmotivating. He also asks a lot of stupid, self-explanatory questions. This dude conducts in a way that makes it seem like he just went straight from comm 107 to teaching and relies heavily on powerpoint. I would have liked if he could have helped more with guiding students on what they will need to know and use in their life through the course instead of just trying to shove all this random content down my throat. dont know if all bmgt301 classes are like this but do yourslf a favor and avoid this teacher. i dont mean to be mean but his tests and dry material will make you want to hang yourself with a noose. i would have appreciated hands-on excel practice IN class and fairer questions. material isnt hard its just that its so much they want you to digest and your brain has to forget about what they taught you about only paying attention to on objective-relevant details. and sometimes your test will contain more written questions than multiple choice than others, which are generally more tricky since ur just looking for one word, and this can make you do worse than average. useless class and useless professor.

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/19/2014

I really like Gordon, don't get me wrong he is a very nice guy and he means well for his class. The problem lies in the fact that he simply does not understand the concept of teaching. He is knowledgeable about the subjects but has an extremely hard time explaining them to his students. More so, he jumps around from topic to topic without really any progression explaining why the two go together. As someone said earlier, his study guides are extremely vague giving us no idea what he actually expects us to know for the exam and then on the exam itself the grades are more vague with questions that can have three separate meanings. Walking into the final, I spent 3 full days looking at the study guide and hoping that the information that I had found for it was what he had wanted only to find out that 3 of the questions were different ideas on the study guide and the exam and quickly dropping from what could have been 100 to an automatic C... It's not entirely his fault though, he clearly is not a faculty member that wants to be teaching, he is there to do his research and has to be plugged in for some unfortunate kids. To anyone stuck in a predicament of 50 credits and they offer this class to bridge the gap, heads up DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS with Gordon... PS if you do not understand broken Chinese/English, this class is not the class for you.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Anonymous
10/15/2014

I decided to take this class based on a recommendation from a friend. Worst decision of my college career. I ended up getting an A- in the class, but had to fight tooth and nail for it. This man was a complete sadist, made a fifteen-page fill-in-the-blank final exam, and was just generally condescending, unhelpful, and rude. He would often crack unrelated jokes during class and failed at teaching his subject. He also refused to give any multiple choice questions at all, saying they would make his class "too easy." Avoid him at ALL COSTS. He is the worst.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Anonymous
12/19/2013

WHO MAKES A 15 PAGE FINAL EXAM???? THIS GUY. AVOID HIM, you won't regret it!

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/16/2013

I really would recommend not taking Corwin for 301. I chose him because the overall reviews looked good and there are naysayers with everyone, but I wish I'd paid closer attention to the lower ratings. Yes, he has videos during class. They are slow, tangentially related to what we're talking about and guaranteed to be on a quiz or test in some obscure form. Yes, he makes jokes and has a nice personality, but his teaching is all over the place. His lectures have 50+ slides, disorganized, and with the homework somewhere on one of them (but in a different place each time. There's also a "study group" practice homework assignment that looks exactly like the regular homework slide, but isn't for turning in, so you could spend an hour on an assignment and realize you should have been doing a different one). I don't know what it is, because if I'm having trouble with a professor I can usually sit down and teach myself what I'm not getting, but this class and I just did not connect. I know more about using programs like Excel and Access now, but the exams focus a lot on concepts, which he only half covers (but pretends he fully covers so he can put whatever he wants on the exam). He is vague teacher and a specific exam-maker, which is a bad combination. There's too much sheer material for you to just learn everything, so you have to pick and choose and hope for the best. Not what I like to have in a class or a professor.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/19/2013

I'm not sure if I have disliked a professor as a person more in my life than Corwin. His jokes are often inappropriate and he is not very helpful if you meet with him after class, although he will repeatedly encourage you to do so. The class itself is boring, though not very hard. 90% of the class just stares at their computer screens while he rambles through a powerpoint or shows irrelevant videos. His only saving grace is that he does try to give his students good grades, probably higher than we deserve. There are multiple opportunities for extra credit and the quizzes/exams are full of ridiculous amounts of partial credit and points added due to a curve. The excel/access/visio portion of the class is helpful and can be a valuable skill to have, but the rest of the course (regarding information technology in general) is incredibly uninteresting. I would avoid taking this class if possible, but it is certainly not the end of the world.

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

Expecting an A
sukhenkoy1990
01/06/2013

Professor Gao is a great professor for BMGT301. Despite taking his class on Mondays for 2 and a half hours at night, he was able to make the class entertaining and actually pretty interesting for an accounting and finance major. He is very lively during his lectures and covers some topics that are relevant to any business student entering the work force in the near future. The grades consist of some problem sets, case write-ups, participation, two projects, and two exams. Problem sets and case write-ups are very straightforward, and exams are very fair. In fact, Professor Gao gives a study sheet the lecture before the exam so that you know exactly what to study (and he tests you on those topics). He really likes it when students participate, so try to do so during the lectures. Additionally, he gives students a lot of opportunity for extra credit throughout the semester, so getting an A is very realistic if you do your work as assigned.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/03/2013

Definitely take Dr. Corwin for BMGT301. The class is great! He plays a ton of videos because he knows that students can only listen to lecture for so long, and the videos really help. He is a really funny guy, but at the same time he will also do whatever it takes to make sure you understand the material (especially if you go to his office hours). As other people have mentioned there is homework, but it really doesn't take long and is essentially a grade booster. Participation is easy, twice a month for an A. The excel/access/visio assignments aren't a big deal and they help you practice skills that separate you to employers. He offers plenty of extra credit. Take this class, you won't regret it!

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/03/2013

Professor Corwin is a great professor and really cares about his students. The lectures are engaging and he uses a variety of media to keep them fresh. He levels with his students about what they really need to know for an exam, but makes an effort to bring in material that is supplemental and interesting as well. The class is really not difficult. As long as you do the work and stay on top of the material, you won't have any problem getting an A in this class. If you have a problem with the homework, technical or content, he is always happy and enthusiastic to help. He is also pretty hilarious, which can really help those days when the material is dragging a bit. Try to get Corwin if you can!!

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Anonymous
11/19/2012

The fact that he isn't getting unanimous 5 star scores kind of surprises me. Professor Corwin is a super nice guy and is eager to help students learn the material. Pros: - He is nice and is willing to meet with students any time -Understands that the material is boring -Homework is easy and not strictly graded -Exams are straightforward -Shows videos and makes material easy to learn -Asks for feedback daily and what he can do better Cons: -Takes attendance every lecture -Has written homework assignments every night (although they are easy points that help boost your grade, and help you learn the material without having to read the textbook)

Donald Riley
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/06/2012

Riley was okay. He rambled a LOT in every class, and usually spent the first 30 minutes solving technical issues and going over homework. He did try to make the class more interesting by getting us involved in discussions and talking about timely topics, but I always found myself drifting away. If you already know a lot about technology (which you probably do if you're majoring in IS) then you'll find yourself very bored most of the time. This is definitely tailored to the less tech-inclined part of the business school. The homeworks are worth a LOT of points so make sure you do them and do them well. The exams are okay. The first one had a few Excel problems that you had to solve, but the rest is just short written responses and a matching section. The final was pretty much all written responses and matching. There's also a group project that's fairly easy. If you're expecting a ton of hands-on work with databases, this isn't the class. It's a lot more focused on conceptual matters.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/09/2012

He class is boring. He is teaching nothing. For a good grade, just read the text and do the homework. He teaches nothing but he takes attendance. He class is easy but you will learn nothing. There are homework every meeting. So there will be like 25+ homework throughout the whole semester. Take his class if you like to do homework, get a good grade, but learn nothing.

Sivakumar Viswanathan
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/26/2011

I feel this class was very challenging for an introduction course to information technology. Exams were very difficult, you really have to study and know the concepts. The excel and access assignments was challenging too, but I got A+ on the both assignments. Here's a tip: get an IS major or someone who took BMGT301 to help you. With that being said, he does curve at the end. I got an 80% on the mid-term exam and 70% on the final exam and somehow managed to get an A-.

Sivakumar Viswanathan
BMGT301

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/23/2011

Siva is an incredibly smart man and really knows what he is talking about when it comes to info systems. He should be teaching upper level classes instead of intro. This is not good for business school students that just want to knock out useless bmgt301. He generally can see through BS answers on exams. he makes 3 or 4 versions of his exams that are all completely different so cheating is impossible. he posts his powerpoints online so paying attention during class is not necessary. He sent around a sign-in sheet for class participation. bottom line, if you are actually interested in info systems, this is a good teacher but if you were like me and just wanted to knock out another useless core, I'd look for another teacher.

Sivakumar Viswanathan
BMGT301

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/16/2011

This class was extremely challenging for an "introduction" course. Siva was very hard to understand and not very considerate of student questions or concerns. He generally teaches graduate courses and therefore has very high, unreasonable expectations for his undergraduate students. You have to attend class in order to fill in the power point slides. The quizzes and exams are exceptionally challenging. The Excel and Access assignments are nearly impossible. He makes himself available for office hours but tends to speak down upon students rather than send an approachable vibe. I highly recommend taking the course with another professor, or choosing the freshman fellows option. Otherwise, you need to constantly review the material and ask clarifying questions to earn a decent grade.

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2010

Gao is a great teacher. He is very insightful and has a lot of knowledge to bring to the table. He really knows the material. He cares about his students as well. His accent only gave me a slight problem, but you'll probably have to deal with this many times in your college career.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

ccbrown
05/15/2010

Corwin is awesome!! He's passionate/knows what he's talking about unlike some of the other professors that teach 301. There is a lot of daily homework, but it's really not too hard and keeps you on top of what you're learning. He's very helpful if you ever stop by his office as well, especially if you don't understand the access/excel assignments. He cares about his students and among other things gets food for the class throughout the semester.

Hassan Ibrahim
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
AccountingTerp
04/26/2010

I agree with what the previous person said. He is very approachable before / during / after class. He makes the class enjoyable by telling jokes and relating course material to real life situations. Exams arent terribly hard, but you need to study. 2 projects total (1-excel 1-access). Not too bad at all

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

Anonymous
12/25/2009

Gao is an awful professor, and I would warn anyone against taking a course with him. He has no outlined structure to his lectures at all, and jumps from one topic to another without creating any comprehensible flow. His exams are very very vague, and his grading is extremely arbitrary. He does not value hard work and his grades do not reflect a students effort and success. He took a supposedly easy course and turned it into the most difficult one because there was no way to know if you have prepared enough. I would not even want my worst enemy taking his course, and I strongly recommend that, if you can, you find a different professor for this course.

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/05/2009

Gao really is a great teacher. He legitimately cares about the welfare of his students and has experience in the field. He strives for class participation which can be difficult because not many students care, but he REALLY appreciates it if you participate. He brought us candy during our examinations, pretty much because he felt guilty for making us do work. Overall, Gao is a great teacher and I would highly recommend him to other students. If he taught another class I'd take it almost without exception.

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

Anonymous
11/18/2009

He's not a bad professor, but certainly not phenominal by any means. This class isn't that difficult and there isn't alot of overly difficult work involved. However, he has an overpowering chinese accent that makes listening to his lectures excruciatingly painfull and difficult to understand. I suggest choosing a different teacher because his poor english just annoyed me. Also, he often goes at a fast pace during his lectures which can be vague at times. He prints out slides for you. And his tests have easy questions as well as questions that are worded poorly because his english is terrible as I said, and may often trick you or will be so random and therfore difficult.

Hassan Ibrahim
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
madriano
10/03/2009

I took him during the summer session he teaches you only what you need to know. He understand that this is an INTRO to Info Sys. class and won't bore you useless info your not interested in. However, if your an Info. sys. major he is very knowledgeable and will have no problem discussing anything with his student. He's easy to talk to and helped me with my access project.

Scott Hudson
BMGT301

Expecting an A+
natashkamd
05/28/2009

His exams are crazy (=stupid), all essay questions and if it doesn't match his answer key 100%, it's pretty much marked wrong. And a lot of these questions are subjective! The only way to get an A is to print out the readings before class and highlight what he goes over (he only askes about the paragraphs he himself highlights on the overhead, so it is doable...). Assignments were easy if you're computer friendly. Wouldn't take him again.

Donald Riley
BMGT301

Anonymous
05/16/2009

One of the worst professors to have ever step foot on the face of the Earth. He speaks in monotone and expects everyone to memorize the most minute details on tests. Quizzes are absolutely laughable as sometimes they are worth 35 points while others are worth 10 points. For assignments, the guy shows random unrelated slides and expects students to go home and ace the assignment. He makes everyone bring laptops but even if he does not, everyone would bring them because you'd rather be studying material from middle school then listen to his babble for 75 minutes. The TA is completely incompetent and simply put, horrific. I get exasperated every time I receive my assignment grade because of the idiot's inability to grade. It takes him 5 days to respond to an email and is never approachable outside of class. It is as if he has a social hatred for the world, besides the professor that he works. They were meant to be together, to say the least. Highly recommended if you want to go through the worst time of your life. Not recommended if you desire otherwise.

Donald Riley
BMGT301

Anonymous
04/27/2009

He has absolutely no business being in a classroom. He knows a lot about the subject but lectures are extremely boring and pointless. Do not ever ask questions because he will tear you down in front of the entire class and make you feel incompetent. Befriend the TA because he grades everything and if you argue about your grade on something you can usually get some points back. Basically do not take his class unless you already know a lot about the subject so you can just teach yourself.

Scott Hudson
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/22/2009

Professor Hudson is not the best teacher out there. He seems like he tries hard and means well, but it appears that he just doesn't know his stuff. He works on a mainframe at Chevy Chase Bank, but doesn't seem to know how to work a computer all that well. The class is pretty easy though, and I would recommend him for this reason. For homework and projects, however, he doesn't always teach all of the material necessary, and there is no text book. I relied on google for a few lessons on Excel and SQL.

Donald Riley
BMGT301

Anonymous
03/30/2009

This guy is the worst professor to take. The TA is on a power trip and will take a ludicrous amount of points off tests and assignments. The tests and quizzes are difficult and don't expect to learn anything in class.

Scott Hudson
BMGT301

Anonymous
03/22/2009

Incompetent, doesn't know what he's talking about, answers questions in a way that has nothing to do with the questions at all, and etc. I have no idea how this idiot got a job at the Smith school of business. There is no book in the class, just online readings, which is fine since you have readings to learn from since it's impossible to learn from lectures. This is fine up to a point in the class where there are no more readings and you have to learn from his lectures, which is impossible. No one ever knows what's going on in the class. I ended up dropping the course and decided to take it next semester with another professor. BTW, if you will want to take this class with him, let me warn you that his previous grade distributions for this class was something of 18% A's, 30% B's and so on. 18%A's in a class where usually 50% of the students gets A's? I'll let you decide. P.S. The quizzes he gives, which are 5% of your entire grade, are 10 pages each and all essay questions while apparently other instructor's quizzes are one page.

Scott Hudson
BMGT301

Expecting a ?
Anonymous
03/10/2009

He is so bad its ridiculous. He is a pilot for southwest, not a teacher at a top 20 business school. God awful. Knows nothing. Can't follow him.

Donald Riley
BMGT301

Anonymous
02/23/2009

This guy is completely incompetent. The class is boring and is a waste of time. Avoid at all cost. This is a universal consensus in the class.

Barnet Corwin
BMGT301

solitsolit1
02/02/2009

AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS. I had him this semester, it was the first time he taught an undergrad class. He's only taught PhD/MBA students before and he is WAY too intense. He assigned 30 pages of reading the very first day of class and has papers required every day. He also assigns podcasts as reading which are really annoying. He takes attendance every single day. He grades on a curve. If he catches anyone not paying attention he'll walk up to that part of the room and stare at them while he's talking. He loves to mention the fact that he got his PhD at Penn. He takes this class, which is supposed to be just a basic primer on Excel and Access, and turns it into some sort of high-level examination of the role of technology in business and our lives. He goes way overboard with everything, has some truly terrible methods of forcing group participation in class, and is an terrible lecturer. He also doesn't realize that everyone in the class hated him within the first 15 minutes. I repeat: avoid him at all costs.

Scott Hudson
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/02/2009

Completely incompetent. Has no grasp on content material and class often feels as if the professor is some senile grandparent who was recently taught how computers work. Completely out of touch with current technology and as a consequence, teaches basics that became vastly obsolete years ago. Dated and obsolete, the professor often attempts to hide his ignorance by using a bevy of technological jargon and buzzwords but misuses them to the point where they mean nothing at all.

Sivakumar Viswanathan
BMGT301

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/28/2008

Overall, professor Siva cares about the students. He isnt mean and tries to teach. Unfortunately, his class is terribly boring and utterly useless. He is hard to understand and does not make the course work interesting. Powerpoint slides will do instead of attendance, but tests are a little challenging. Overall, I thought it was a big waste of my time

Guodong Gao
BMGT301

bkubic
02/26/2008

Professor Gao is phenominal. Even though his tests are easy, his dynamic teaching style, interesting lectures, and bad jokes make every class worthwhile to go to.

Reviews for BMGT301