ENGL125 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
January Santoso ENGL125 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/12/2025	Complete incompetence and chaos. She was responsible for grading most of our assignments, from attendance to mid-terms, and appeared to grade with a random number generator. I know students who don't miss a lectures who received the same scores as a student who knows nothing about poetry and doesn't go to class. She also does not come to class prepared, not knowing the curriculum she is teaching on our discussion dates as well as not being able to answer questions about our assignments. My experience in the class would have been much different if I had either of the other two TA's, and I do not recommend anyone takes the course if she is your TA.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/09/2025	he's a good prof who really cares about poetry and tries his hardest to teach about it. it all comes down to whether you care or not. if you put the slightest bit of effort you'll get an A in the class, but that also means you have to put at least a couple of hours into this class. grading is very forgiving and if you just speak from your heart you're bound to get an A. overall take this class if u need a free A and a gen ed credit
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2025	the dude is obviously very passionate about poetry and what he talks about, so that's nice. do not take this class if you don't like poetry though (a mistake i made) because it will be a hundred times harder for your to complete your assignments. the class itself wasn't too hard, but the midterm lowkey had nothing to do with what was said in the lectures, it was just dependent on your writing skills and following the rubric. most of the TAs were very, very forgiving graders though, so most everyone did pretty well.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/11/2025	If you enjoy poetry at all take this class. It is essentially a free A and the prof weiner is very kind and interesting. Assignments are light (2 1 page essays, 2 memorized poem recitations, 1 midterm, 1 final, and participation in discussion) anything you do wrong you can redo. lecture is not mandatory but it is interesting and discussion is mandatory but only because this is where a lot of your assignments come from (usually a poem writing exercise). As a STEM student this course has been so refreshing and one of my favorite classes at UMD (I wish I could take it again). Older reviews say it is hard but i think course style has changed to make it easier (midterm is only a written portion and things are graded very easily) Oh and did I mention it fills two gen eds? TAKE THIS COURSE!
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/08/2025	my grade was soley because i skipped a few too many discussion sections, but the easiest gen ed you could take. its one of those if you go to class youre already at a 90 classes, its free truly
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/03/2024	Stress-free and low work. We only had 1 test- a midterm worth 51 points, or 20%. Half of it was a written response, which if you didn't get full points on, you could redo till full points. The other half was a mix of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank, with questions about who wrote this, and what was used (like repetition, consonance, etc.) in a given poem. Extra credit on the last day of class (open mic) if you spoke or listened till the end. Overall, heavily recommended.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/26/2024	Very chill but stay off your phone if you can. Really easy workload with the sweetest TA's ever. Lectures are missable for most of the time so if you show up to discussions its a very easy A. And the content is interesting.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	Review from 05/17/2023 is dramatic. The discussions are long but if you have the right TA they're anything but boring. Go for Eric Baker and you're set for life. He's incredibly charismatic and cares a lot about the course. He's lenient and understanding as well. I missed 2 classes for personal reasons and he gave me full points when I turned in missed work. Grading is not harsh lol, it's really not. I never attended lecture and got a 92 on the midterm (the final is not an exam). Prof. Weiner is SO sweet and very parent-like.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	He is very passionate about poetry and a nice guy, but I wouldn't really recommend this class for a gen-ed. The lectures are not required, but there can be assignments in lecture that will count towards your grade that are not announced. Although I barely went to a lecture and am ending with an A+ (Lectures are boring and hard to follow). Your grade is gonna depend on your TA, since they do all the grading for exams, assignments, etc. The midterm was extremely hard for what we learned/study guide, but most people did well because the TA was an extremely forgiving grader. After the midterm, they started to do pop quizzes in discussion based on the lectures that week. If you are not interested in poetry, I really would not recommend this class, it created a lot of unnecessary stress for me for a class I thought was gonna be an easy gen ed.
Eric Baker ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/02/2024	Great TA, like actually the best. He's so chill and helped us a lot when we had a pop quiz or assignment he knew we didn't want to do. Really easy grader if you follow the rubric to assignments, HIGHLY reccomend. (He also always brought us coffee to discussion)
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/02/2024	Easy ish gened, 3 or 4 easy small assignments, midterm, and easy final project. Midterm was annoying to study for but was easy. He is very boring and literally just yaps for 50 min straight. There is literally no reason to go to lecture but he did give us a pop quiz once. Answers emails super fast and is understanding.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/11/2023	really easy and chill. really easy workload and i loved my TA
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2023	Such a stress-free and easy class. Weiner is really passionate about poetry, so he wants to be here, not just because he's being paid to be here. There are 0 exams, we only had 1 quiz in the discussion section. There are 3 papers throughout the semester, very easy though. For the final, you could choose from 3 options (none of them are hard at all). I came in knowing nothing about poetry and came out having a great appreciation for it. I definitely recommend this class.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/17/2023	This class is not hard to get an A in, but it also isnt super easy. You have to go to the most pointless time wasting discussions as they are a hige part of your grade. Also the assignments are pretty time consuming and also graded harshly. Prof. Weiner is nice, but if you arent really into poetry dont take this class.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2023	He is the nicest professor ever. The class is so easy and laid back. You can tell he is very passionate about poetry and his class.
Joshua Weiner ENGL125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/23/2021	Personally, I never was really interested in poetry but Professor Weiner's class is pretty interesting and engaging. He is super nice and his class is very laid back and has no exams and barely any homework assignments. Just make sure you participate in the discussion sections!

January Santoso
ENGL125

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/12/2025

Complete incompetence and chaos. She was responsible for grading most of our assignments, from attendance to mid-terms, and appeared to grade with a random number generator. I know students who don't miss a lectures who received the same scores as a student who knows nothing about poetry and doesn't go to class. She also does not come to class prepared, not knowing the curriculum she is teaching on our discussion dates as well as not being able to answer questions about our assignments. My experience in the class would have been much different if I had either of the other two TA's, and I do not recommend anyone takes the course if she is your TA.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/09/2025

he's a good prof who really cares about poetry and tries his hardest to teach about it. it all comes down to whether you care or not. if you put the slightest bit of effort you'll get an A in the class, but that also means you have to put at least a couple of hours into this class. grading is very forgiving and if you just speak from your heart you're bound to get an A. overall take this class if u need a free A and a gen ed credit

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/07/2025

the dude is obviously very passionate about poetry and what he talks about, so that's nice. do not take this class if you don't like poetry though (a mistake i made) because it will be a hundred times harder for your to complete your assignments. the class itself wasn't too hard, but the midterm lowkey had nothing to do with what was said in the lectures, it was just dependent on your writing skills and following the rubric. most of the TAs were very, very forgiving graders though, so most everyone did pretty well.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/11/2025

If you enjoy poetry at all take this class. It is essentially a free A and the prof weiner is very kind and interesting. Assignments are light (2 1 page essays, 2 memorized poem recitations, 1 midterm, 1 final, and participation in discussion) anything you do wrong you can redo. lecture is not mandatory but it is interesting and discussion is mandatory but only because this is where a lot of your assignments come from (usually a poem writing exercise). As a STEM student this course has been so refreshing and one of my favorite classes at UMD (I wish I could take it again). Older reviews say it is hard but i think course style has changed to make it easier (midterm is only a written portion and things are graded very easily) Oh and did I mention it fills two gen eds? TAKE THIS COURSE!

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/08/2025

my grade was soley because i skipped a few too many discussion sections, but the easiest gen ed you could take. its one of those if you go to class youre already at a 90 classes, its free truly

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/03/2024

Stress-free and low work. We only had 1 test- a midterm worth 51 points, or 20%. Half of it was a written response, which if you didn't get full points on, you could redo till full points. The other half was a mix of multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank, with questions about who wrote this, and what was used (like repetition, consonance, etc.) in a given poem. Extra credit on the last day of class (open mic) if you spoke or listened till the end. Overall, heavily recommended.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/26/2024

Very chill but stay off your phone if you can. Really easy workload with the sweetest TA's ever. Lectures are missable for most of the time so if you show up to discussions its a very easy A. And the content is interesting.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/07/2024

Review from 05/17/2023 is dramatic. The discussions are long but if you have the right TA they're anything but boring. Go for Eric Baker and you're set for life. He's incredibly charismatic and cares a lot about the course. He's lenient and understanding as well. I missed 2 classes for personal reasons and he gave me full points when I turned in missed work. Grading is not harsh lol, it's really not. I never attended lecture and got a 92 on the midterm (the final is not an exam). Prof. Weiner is SO sweet and very parent-like.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/07/2024

He is very passionate about poetry and a nice guy, but I wouldn't really recommend this class for a gen-ed. The lectures are not required, but there can be assignments in lecture that will count towards your grade that are not announced. Although I barely went to a lecture and am ending with an A+ (Lectures are boring and hard to follow). Your grade is gonna depend on your TA, since they do all the grading for exams, assignments, etc. The midterm was extremely hard for what we learned/study guide, but most people did well because the TA was an extremely forgiving grader. After the midterm, they started to do pop quizzes in discussion based on the lectures that week. If you are not interested in poetry, I really would not recommend this class, it created a lot of unnecessary stress for me for a class I thought was gonna be an easy gen ed.

Eric Baker
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/02/2024

Great TA, like actually the best. He's so chill and helped us a lot when we had a pop quiz or assignment he knew we didn't want to do. Really easy grader if you follow the rubric to assignments, HIGHLY reccomend. (He also always brought us coffee to discussion)

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/02/2024

Easy ish gened, 3 or 4 easy small assignments, midterm, and easy final project. Midterm was annoying to study for but was easy. He is very boring and literally just yaps for 50 min straight. There is literally no reason to go to lecture but he did give us a pop quiz once. Answers emails super fast and is understanding.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
06/11/2023

really easy and chill. really easy workload and i loved my TA

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/22/2023

Such a stress-free and easy class. Weiner is really passionate about poetry, so he wants to be here, not just because he's being paid to be here. There are 0 exams, we only had 1 quiz in the discussion section. There are 3 papers throughout the semester, very easy though. For the final, you could choose from 3 options (none of them are hard at all). I came in knowing nothing about poetry and came out having a great appreciation for it. I definitely recommend this class.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/17/2023

This class is not hard to get an A in, but it also isnt super easy. You have to go to the most pointless time wasting discussions as they are a hige part of your grade. Also the assignments are pretty time consuming and also graded harshly. Prof. Weiner is nice, but if you arent really into poetry dont take this class.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/11/2023

He is the nicest professor ever. The class is so easy and laid back. You can tell he is very passionate about poetry and his class.

Joshua Weiner
ENGL125

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
03/23/2021

Personally, I never was really interested in poetry but Professor Weiner's class is pretty interesting and engaging. He is super nice and his class is very laid back and has no exams and barely any homework assignments. Just make sure you participate in the discussion sections!

Reviews for ENGL125