ENST200 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2025	this class is one of the most content heavy and work heavy classes i've taken at umd. my chemistry classes were easier than this. the lab had two required essays, the first one being 1000~ words and the second essay being 6-8 pages. thats JUST THE LAB. that is actually an insane amount of work for a fucking lab, not to mention the rocks and minerals quiz, and the fact that youre doing multiple experiments per class (and for a majority of the labs, you WILL be staying the full 3 hours). the class itself course load isnt too bad but he makes you do homework questions twice a week that have little to no connection to the lecture. and the math that you are expected to learn? is not discussed in class. lastly, the professor himself is a dick. i wrote to him regarding my grade on one of the finals and he replied chastising me for my low score (which was a 54%) later on, the TAs told us that the class average on that exam was a 65! SIXTY FIVE and thats AFTER they curved the damn average. i wish this class hadnt been required for my major because it was a shit show. my number one complaint is that we had a 290 something point final AND that fuck ass 6-8 page essay that they gave us a week to do. i hate this class and im sorry to anyone that takes it in the future
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/15/2025	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS FOR A GEN ED FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THIS CLASS ACTUALLY SUCKS. Are you ready for 4 credits worth of busywork that's only ~10% of your grade and 3 exams filled with multiple choices that are strictly designed to trick you? You'll narrow it down to 2, just to figure out that hey! Neither of those is the answer! This class's exams have an average score lower than most organic chemistry exams. Average of ~55. Dr. Weil is considered a god in his field, and he is super passionate and knowledgeable, but he cannot teach whatsoever. Long, stringent tangents that stray way far off the class material. Hope you paid attention to that random tangent, because chances are that's gonna be a question on the exam. Study guides? Nonexistent. All he does is post every single term covered in a unit - no definitions on them, of course, just the term itself. He's sweet and all, but not someone I would recommend taking a 4-credit class from. Take this class with Eni, and your GPA will thank you in the end.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/09/2025	My advice is to take this class in the spring with Eni Baballari. This man lives, breathes, and eats soil and expects you to keep up. I found this class really interesting, but he does too much. His tests are cryptic, even though they're multiple choice, and the average is at best a 65. It's a lot of content, and the textbook he wrote is arduous. He covers much more than he really needs to. It's not impossible, but you have to be willing to know why everything happens. And the labs always go to time. It's important stuff for an ENST major, and he's really passionate about the subject, but unless you really want to know about soil, the other professor is a much better choice. She's much more down-to-earth and is willing to explain things in a digestible manner.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/15/2025	Mostly Easy Class, Light Workload, Nice Professor The class starts out difficult, with a lot of memorization and foreign concepts, but it gets easier in later units. Exams are a mix of multiple choice and open ended. While you can't take home exams, you get time to look over exams and ask questions, which is very helpful. Slides are posted, which is also helpful, but I'd definitely recommend going to all lectures. Eni is very nice and non-judgemental. Even when I was embarrassed about skipping class or not doing well on exams, she was still very nice to me and nice about answering questions. The 3 TA's I interacted with were also very nice and very helpful. Would recommend this class.
Jiye Lee ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/14/2025	Very understanding and helpful TA, she won't give you the lab answers outright but she will point you in the right direction and brought good energy to a 9am lab.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/14/2025	This class required a high amount of time invested to fully grasp the concepts and, for the first half of the semester, I was reading entire textbook chapters to get through the material. However, this being said, Eni knows her material and she is very receptive to questions during lecture, not to mention that she posts all her lecture slides and review material. She was on maternity leave for a portion of the semester but made sure to review the material the long term sub had covered when she returned and caught up the class. The labs are like a completely different class to the lectures but she tries to connect back to what were doing in lab that week.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2025	This is a very hard, work-intensive course. However, Professor Baballari is helpful, a decent lecturer, and wants people to do well. She moves very quickly but that is because there is a lot to cover, and she does her best to answer questions and make sure people understand things. She was on maternity leave for the first half of the semester, so it was a bit weird and we had a long-term sub, but she tried her best to make the transition easy. It is a hard class, but she drops one of the exams, and there are a lot of discussion and lab grades to counteract bad scores.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/10/2025	I loved this class. Dr. Weil is a very engaging professor, and he is knowledgeable in his field. I see people complaining about his tangents and how hard it is to study, but you have to understand that the tangents contain a lot of applied knowledge for the tests. I recommend (1) going to class, and (2) making friends. It is so much easier to do well if you can talk about course material before the tests. Plus, each class has a pair-share activity that requires you to talk to people around you. As for Lab, I did not like my graduate TA; she was often unnecessarily angry/condescending, but I understand where it was coming from to a certain extent. She was, however, very understanding with disabilities and extenuating circumstances, and I believe I would like her if she was not in a leadership role. The undergrad TA was lovely. In terms of the rocks and minerals test, my only advice is to befriend a geology major. In terms of the other tests, Weil posts a list of terms to know. I barely look at this list. Instead, I reviewed all my notes and diagrams that I copied, including tangents/applications (e.g. "in this military expedition, the soil was this type, and it led to this outcome"). I found myself doing fairly well on exams (upper quartile for all but one). My one gripe with Dr. Weil is that he is very much an old white man, in the sense that the way he talks about doing work to help poor people in other countries sometimes feels a bit white savior-esque. That said, he does have a lot of genuine knowledge and experience. His class is the reason I'm doing the soils and watersheds concentration of ENST, and I would absolutely take a class with him again.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B- foubby 01/27/2025	honestly i really loved this class. the lab is a lot of fun and dr weil, the TAs, and the UTAs were all wonderful to work with. dr weil is visibly very passionate and knowledgable on soils. don't take this class just for fun or a gen ed though, it is a lot of work and the labs are late in the evening, with long field trips. my biggest complaint was how late the labs were scheduled. but if you're not a chronically sleepy commuter like me, you should be fine.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/09/2024	Super interesting class, I loved it so much that I switched my concentration to SWS (was NRM). I think this class has a bit of a rep for being difficult because, all shade intended, the average ENST major is pretty dumb. Either that or they don't pay attention in class and/or read the textbook -- granted, because I thought the subject was interesting, it was probably easier for me to do those things. There is nothing earth shattering in this class, and most of it makes a lot of sense intuitively once you start handling soil a bit in the lab. Most of the content is "new", though, so plan on learning a lot of things. I wouldn't say an insane amount of memorization is needed, it's usually pretty conceptual when it comes to the exams, but there is one diabolical quiz where you have to ID various rocks and minerals. Everyone always does bad on it and then moves on with their lives because it's not actually worth a whole lot of points. The exams are all MCQ, but Dr. Weil prides himself on his ability to write hard questions, which is somewhat justified -- most of the regular strats don't work. Also, we got extra credit on one exam where the average was pretty low, which was just providing course feedback. As for lecture, even if soils isn't your thing, Dr. Weil does try to enliven it with a lot of anecdotes and practical questions, and also does a "pair-share" most lectures, where he asks a question and you work it out with a partner, so that gives a little moment to re-engage when the class is getting a bit long in the teeth -- this is also collected at the end of the semester and may be used in your favor if your grade is borderline. One gripe I have is that the lecture presentation is posted on Canvas as one giant PowerPoint for the whole semester -- my laptop always almost crashes while trying to load the thousand slides. The textbook is also a great resource, especially since Dr. Weil wrote it, so it very closely aligns with the class. Reading the textbook before class or simply on schedule with when the textbook homework (pretty reasonable) is due gives you a big edge in class and can help you stand out by knowing a lot of his "trivia" questions, but I think I'm just a nerd on that one. I hope I can have a class this fun again at UMD.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2024	Professor Baballari is a great teacher in my opinion! She explains things well and ties stuff back to other concepts. However, ENST200 is pretty hard and definitely relies on knowledge of chemistry and plant science. She goes a little fast in her slides, but is open to questions and has ample office hours (that people don't go to). The exams are definitely on the harder side and based on lecture slides so you have to go to lecture to know some of the niche things. Also, participation/attendance is graded. The lab kinda sucks to be honest but is mostly graded on completion.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	Eni is a great professor! ENST200 is definitely a tricky course, but she provides everything you need to succeed, you just have to be willing to put in the work! Super reasonable workload and the labs are usually pretty enjoyable.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/09/2024	Honestly, I think the other negative reviews on here should be taken with a grain of salt, and are most likely people who don't really understand how to study properly for this class and/or didn't take advantage of the many resources provided by Dr. Weil and Eni. Pretty much every concept in this class all builds off each other, so all you really have to do is stay on top of your studying, and make sure you're studying in a way where you're actually applying and understanding the concepts rather than just memorizing terms. The textbook is written by Dr. Weil himself which is really helpful for studying, and he makes it clear what topics you should/shouldn't study before each exam. Overall I never spent more than a few hours a week studying for this class and ended with an A- and only a few points away from an A. The class is also super interesting in general, and Dr. Weil is an incredibly knowledgeable and awesome guy with so many cool and unique experiences around the world, and he can be really funny during lectures. I went into this class thinking it was a bit silly to learn about soil, but soil science is definitely one of the most interesting classes I've taken at UMD. Both Dr. Weil and Eni are extremely kind and caring and you can tell they want their students to succeed. In fact, I was going through a pretty hard time during the semester especially after the first exam, and Dr. Weil noticed and went out of his way to reassure me of my academic abilities despite having never met me before (I am very quiet in class and never go to office hours) which I was extremely appreciative of. Overall this class gets a reputation for being pretty hard but really you don't have much to worry about. I'm not going to lie, the exams are very challenging, but Dr. Weil does this for a reason and always has a very big curve which he explains very well in the syllabus and is incorporated into ELMS grading throughout the semester, so I never worried about what my grade was. Lab was also pretty fun in my opinion but can be very messy at times so don't show up in white or any clothes you wouldn't want to get stained.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2023	This class is extremely hard and time consuming. The exams are the majority of your grade for the class and all other work you have to do is a very minimal percentage. Ray is very knowledgable in the content but does not know how to teach. He goes on rants about stuff that although might be interesting, it is not beneficial towards doing well on exams. There are 3 midterms and a final in the class which makes for a lot of studying. The class average on exams tends to be around 65% which is awful. He does curve the exams and the final grade but it does make it stressful right until the end. I would not recommend taking this class with him. I have heard Eni is a much better teacher so maybe take it with her if you have too.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/30/2023	He's a really great teacher who knows a TON about the subject. He is extremely knowledgeable and explains things REALLY well. However, he is not the most captivating teacher although his tangents and extra tidbits are pretty interesting. Tests are pretty hard but nice curve.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/30/2023	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS AS A GENED! If you do have to take this class as a major requirement, try to get Eni Baballari as your lecture professor--she is much more helpful and responsive about questions. I had to take this class as a major requirement and it is one of the most difficult classes I've taken at UMD. Dr. Weil constantly gets off track during lecture (to the point that I stopped going and just read the textbook to learn the content) and does not provide any sort of support for office hours or exam reviews. He puts out a "study guide" which is really just a long list of general terms and concepts to know, but then the exams are really specific and detailed. Also if you miss an exam- even for an excused absence- they will NOT let you take a makeup exam, so be prepared to try your best on every exam. Overall not a great professor- he's accomplished and seems nice as a person but just doesn't know how to teach and needs to retire (I mean come on you've been teaching it for 10 years and still can't provide any support or structure for students?). If you can't get Eni for your lecture professor just make sure to regularly read the textbook as it has all the lecture content without any of the drifting off topic that Dr. Weil constantly does.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/14/2023	Eni is a kind soul who I have met with in office hours, after lecture, and during lab with questions and she has always shown that she wants her students to succeed. Yes, she is not the best lecturer in the department, but she genuinely cares and will do as much as she can to help you. ENST200 is sort of a weed out course so yes I got 70% on two of the midterms but I met with her after each and tried to make my studying mimic the prior exams, and because Eni was very generous with extra credit and the course curve I got an A-. So yes, I would recommend taking a class with Eni.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/17/2023	This is probably the most difficult class I have ever taken at this school. DO NOT TAKE THIS FOR A GED ED. I unfortunately made that mistake. Most people are in this class to meet a degree requirement. I foolishly took this as my lab. The professor only lectures, leaves very little time for questions (if he calls on you), and makes office hours unclear. He is nice and sometimes told interesting stories, but he is took distinguished in his field to actually care about our learning. He cares about sharing his knowledge, but not preparing us for the exams. There is no exam reviews or anything like that. He'll post an extremely long list of terminology to study, which is barely any help. There are no recent practice tests available. Luckily, he curves the tests a few points when everyone did bad and the class is EXTREMELY curved. For reference, my 68 was equivalent to a B. But it was a grind to say the least
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2023	Professor Baballari teaches you everything you need to know to succeed. Students probably don't understand content very well since ENST 200 is so intense and they don't read the textbook. The textbook really helps you breeze by. She is extremely nice and you can always ask to review lectures, exams, or quizzes. Plenty of opportunities to succeed in her class.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/05/2023	The Professor is very kind and cares a lot about the topic. When compared to lab courses in bio and chem I would say this is easier than those. I personally found the subject of soils to be really interesting so I enjoyed it. There are a lot of study materials provided. You really need to read the book and attend lectures to do well in the class.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Anonymous 03/02/2023	Dr. Baballari is a very nice person, but her class is highly disorganized and her exam prep is very unhelpful. The study guide is a bunch of random terms (many of which were not discussed in lecture or in the slides) and no idea of what exactly you should know about the topics. I've genuinely never felt less prepared for an exam in my life.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/12/2021	First off, enst200 is a really hard course and no one really tells you that. There is a lot of complex concepts that you need to learn. If you are taking other AGNR classes, try your best to learn and retain the basic information because you'll definitely need it for upper-level courses. Also, the lab portion of this class is no joke! As for this professor, she is really kind and understanding. The lectures are very boring, but personally, I think it's just the subject. The textbook is somewhat helpful. I recommend going to her office hours, especially if you have questions about your exam grades. btw I took this spring 2020, completely online during COVID.
Eni Baballari ENST200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/28/2021	This professor is nice to her students, but it doesn't really help with her class structure / teaching style. When asked a question, she usually doesn't give a great answer. Her lectures go really fast and they're also pretty boring. The worst part is her exams -- no one ever knows how to prepare because she says to skim the textbook, but then there will be really crazy questions on the exam that you wouldn't know just from lecture. Then there's even questions you wouldn't know at all from this class' content. She will also put questions from other units into the exam you're taking even though it is not cumulative, or relevant to the current unit. She has a test bank that she takes from so some students can get really hard questions that involve a lot of math and so take more time, but others will get simpler ones. The fact that everything is multiple choice makes it really hard because her opinion on the "best" answer choice can be a bit confusing. Overall, it's a very unbalanced class and has been unnecessarily difficult.
Raymond Weil ENST200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/30/2017	My favorite professor so far, and taught my favorite class so far. He has so much experience in the field, and he brings that into the classroom to help make it engaging. However, I think that you do have to think that studying soil is fun to have fun in his class (It's something I didn't expect to do, but I definitely do now!)

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/23/2025

this class is one of the most content heavy and work heavy classes i've taken at umd. my chemistry classes were easier than this. the lab had two required essays, the first one being 1000~ words and the second essay being 6-8 pages. thats JUST THE LAB. that is actually an insane amount of work for a fucking lab, not to mention the rocks and minerals quiz, and the fact that youre doing multiple experiments per class (and for a majority of the labs, you WILL be staying the full 3 hours). the class itself course load isnt too bad but he makes you do homework questions twice a week that have little to no connection to the lecture. and the math that you are expected to learn? is not discussed in class. lastly, the professor himself is a dick. i wrote to him regarding my grade on one of the finals and he replied chastising me for my low score (which was a 54%) later on, the TAs told us that the class average on that exam was a 65! SIXTY FIVE and thats AFTER they curved the damn average. i wish this class hadnt been required for my major because it was a shit show. my number one complaint is that we had a 290 something point final AND that fuck ass 6-8 page essay that they gave us a week to do. i hate this class and im sorry to anyone that takes it in the future

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/15/2025

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS FOR A GEN ED FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THIS CLASS ACTUALLY SUCKS. Are you ready for 4 credits worth of busywork that's only ~10% of your grade and 3 exams filled with multiple choices that are strictly designed to trick you? You'll narrow it down to 2, just to figure out that hey! Neither of those is the answer! This class's exams have an average score lower than most organic chemistry exams. Average of ~55. Dr. Weil is considered a god in his field, and he is super passionate and knowledgeable, but he cannot teach whatsoever. Long, stringent tangents that stray way far off the class material. Hope you paid attention to that random tangent, because chances are that's gonna be a question on the exam. Study guides? Nonexistent. All he does is post every single term covered in a unit - no definitions on them, of course, just the term itself. He's sweet and all, but not someone I would recommend taking a 4-credit class from. Take this class with Eni, and your GPA will thank you in the end.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/09/2025

My advice is to take this class in the spring with Eni Baballari. This man lives, breathes, and eats soil and expects you to keep up. I found this class really interesting, but he does too much. His tests are cryptic, even though they're multiple choice, and the average is at best a 65. It's a lot of content, and the textbook he wrote is arduous. He covers much more than he really needs to. It's not impossible, but you have to be willing to know why everything happens. And the labs always go to time. It's important stuff for an ENST major, and he's really passionate about the subject, but unless you really want to know about soil, the other professor is a much better choice. She's much more down-to-earth and is willing to explain things in a digestible manner.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/15/2025

Mostly Easy Class, Light Workload, Nice Professor The class starts out difficult, with a lot of memorization and foreign concepts, but it gets easier in later units. Exams are a mix of multiple choice and open ended. While you can't take home exams, you get time to look over exams and ask questions, which is very helpful. Slides are posted, which is also helpful, but I'd definitely recommend going to all lectures. Eni is very nice and non-judgemental. Even when I was embarrassed about skipping class or not doing well on exams, she was still very nice to me and nice about answering questions. The 3 TA's I interacted with were also very nice and very helpful. Would recommend this class.

Jiye Lee
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/14/2025

Very understanding and helpful TA, she won't give you the lab answers outright but she will point you in the right direction and brought good energy to a 9am lab.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/14/2025

This class required a high amount of time invested to fully grasp the concepts and, for the first half of the semester, I was reading entire textbook chapters to get through the material. However, this being said, Eni knows her material and she is very receptive to questions during lecture, not to mention that she posts all her lecture slides and review material. She was on maternity leave for a portion of the semester but made sure to review the material the long term sub had covered when she returned and caught up the class. The labs are like a completely different class to the lectures but she tries to connect back to what were doing in lab that week.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/05/2025

This is a very hard, work-intensive course. However, Professor Baballari is helpful, a decent lecturer, and wants people to do well. She moves very quickly but that is because there is a lot to cover, and she does her best to answer questions and make sure people understand things. She was on maternity leave for the first half of the semester, so it was a bit weird and we had a long-term sub, but she tried her best to make the transition easy. It is a hard class, but she drops one of the exams, and there are a lot of discussion and lab grades to counteract bad scores.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
04/10/2025

I loved this class. Dr. Weil is a very engaging professor, and he is knowledgeable in his field. I see people complaining about his tangents and how hard it is to study, but you have to understand that the tangents contain a lot of applied knowledge for the tests. I recommend (1) going to class, and (2) making friends. It is so much easier to do well if you can talk about course material before the tests. Plus, each class has a pair-share activity that requires you to talk to people around you. As for Lab, I did not like my graduate TA; she was often unnecessarily angry/condescending, but I understand where it was coming from to a certain extent. She was, however, very understanding with disabilities and extenuating circumstances, and I believe I would like her if she was not in a leadership role. The undergrad TA was lovely. In terms of the rocks and minerals test, my only advice is to befriend a geology major. In terms of the other tests, Weil posts a list of terms to know. I barely look at this list. Instead, I reviewed all my notes and diagrams that I copied, including tangents/applications (e.g. "in this military expedition, the soil was this type, and it led to this outcome"). I found myself doing fairly well on exams (upper quartile for all but one). My one gripe with Dr. Weil is that he is very much an old white man, in the sense that the way he talks about doing work to help poor people in other countries sometimes feels a bit white savior-esque. That said, he does have a lot of genuine knowledge and experience. His class is the reason I'm doing the soils and watersheds concentration of ENST, and I would absolutely take a class with him again.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B-
foubby
01/27/2025

honestly i really loved this class. the lab is a lot of fun and dr weil, the TAs, and the UTAs were all wonderful to work with. dr weil is visibly very passionate and knowledgable on soils. don't take this class just for fun or a gen ed though, it is a lot of work and the labs are late in the evening, with long field trips. my biggest complaint was how late the labs were scheduled. but if you're not a chronically sleepy commuter like me, you should be fine.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/09/2024

Super interesting class, I loved it so much that I switched my concentration to SWS (was NRM). I think this class has a bit of a rep for being difficult because, all shade intended, the average ENST major is pretty dumb. Either that or they don't pay attention in class and/or read the textbook -- granted, because I thought the subject was interesting, it was probably easier for me to do those things. There is nothing earth shattering in this class, and most of it makes a lot of sense intuitively once you start handling soil a bit in the lab. Most of the content is "new", though, so plan on learning a lot of things. I wouldn't say an insane amount of memorization is needed, it's usually pretty conceptual when it comes to the exams, but there is one diabolical quiz where you have to ID various rocks and minerals. Everyone always does bad on it and then moves on with their lives because it's not actually worth a whole lot of points. The exams are all MCQ, but Dr. Weil prides himself on his ability to write hard questions, which is somewhat justified -- most of the regular strats don't work. Also, we got extra credit on one exam where the average was pretty low, which was just providing course feedback. As for lecture, even if soils isn't your thing, Dr. Weil does try to enliven it with a lot of anecdotes and practical questions, and also does a "pair-share" most lectures, where he asks a question and you work it out with a partner, so that gives a little moment to re-engage when the class is getting a bit long in the teeth -- this is also collected at the end of the semester and may be used in your favor if your grade is borderline. One gripe I have is that the lecture presentation is posted on Canvas as one giant PowerPoint for the whole semester -- my laptop always almost crashes while trying to load the thousand slides. The textbook is also a great resource, especially since Dr. Weil wrote it, so it very closely aligns with the class. Reading the textbook before class or simply on schedule with when the textbook homework (pretty reasonable) is due gives you a big edge in class and can help you stand out by knowing a lot of his "trivia" questions, but I think I'm just a nerd on that one. I hope I can have a class this fun again at UMD.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/09/2024

Professor Baballari is a great teacher in my opinion! She explains things well and ties stuff back to other concepts. However, ENST200 is pretty hard and definitely relies on knowledge of chemistry and plant science. She goes a little fast in her slides, but is open to questions and has ample office hours (that people don't go to). The exams are definitely on the harder side and based on lecture slides so you have to go to lecture to know some of the niche things. Also, participation/attendance is graded. The lab kinda sucks to be honest but is mostly graded on completion.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/07/2024

Eni is a great professor! ENST200 is definitely a tricky course, but she provides everything you need to succeed, you just have to be willing to put in the work! Super reasonable workload and the labs are usually pretty enjoyable.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/09/2024

Honestly, I think the other negative reviews on here should be taken with a grain of salt, and are most likely people who don't really understand how to study properly for this class and/or didn't take advantage of the many resources provided by Dr. Weil and Eni. Pretty much every concept in this class all builds off each other, so all you really have to do is stay on top of your studying, and make sure you're studying in a way where you're actually applying and understanding the concepts rather than just memorizing terms. The textbook is written by Dr. Weil himself which is really helpful for studying, and he makes it clear what topics you should/shouldn't study before each exam. Overall I never spent more than a few hours a week studying for this class and ended with an A- and only a few points away from an A. The class is also super interesting in general, and Dr. Weil is an incredibly knowledgeable and awesome guy with so many cool and unique experiences around the world, and he can be really funny during lectures. I went into this class thinking it was a bit silly to learn about soil, but soil science is definitely one of the most interesting classes I've taken at UMD. Both Dr. Weil and Eni are extremely kind and caring and you can tell they want their students to succeed. In fact, I was going through a pretty hard time during the semester especially after the first exam, and Dr. Weil noticed and went out of his way to reassure me of my academic abilities despite having never met me before (I am very quiet in class and never go to office hours) which I was extremely appreciative of. Overall this class gets a reputation for being pretty hard but really you don't have much to worry about. I'm not going to lie, the exams are very challenging, but Dr. Weil does this for a reason and always has a very big curve which he explains very well in the syllabus and is incorporated into ELMS grading throughout the semester, so I never worried about what my grade was. Lab was also pretty fun in my opinion but can be very messy at times so don't show up in white or any clothes you wouldn't want to get stained.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/14/2023

This class is extremely hard and time consuming. The exams are the majority of your grade for the class and all other work you have to do is a very minimal percentage. Ray is very knowledgable in the content but does not know how to teach. He goes on rants about stuff that although might be interesting, it is not beneficial towards doing well on exams. There are 3 midterms and a final in the class which makes for a lot of studying. The class average on exams tends to be around 65% which is awful. He does curve the exams and the final grade but it does make it stressful right until the end. I would not recommend taking this class with him. I have heard Eni is a much better teacher so maybe take it with her if you have too.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/30/2023

He's a really great teacher who knows a TON about the subject. He is extremely knowledgeable and explains things REALLY well. However, he is not the most captivating teacher although his tangents and extra tidbits are pretty interesting. Tests are pretty hard but nice curve.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/30/2023

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS AS A GENED! If you do have to take this class as a major requirement, try to get Eni Baballari as your lecture professor--she is much more helpful and responsive about questions. I had to take this class as a major requirement and it is one of the most difficult classes I've taken at UMD. Dr. Weil constantly gets off track during lecture (to the point that I stopped going and just read the textbook to learn the content) and does not provide any sort of support for office hours or exam reviews. He puts out a "study guide" which is really just a long list of general terms and concepts to know, but then the exams are really specific and detailed. Also if you miss an exam- even for an excused absence- they will NOT let you take a makeup exam, so be prepared to try your best on every exam. Overall not a great professor- he's accomplished and seems nice as a person but just doesn't know how to teach and needs to retire (I mean come on you've been teaching it for 10 years and still can't provide any support or structure for students?). If you can't get Eni for your lecture professor just make sure to regularly read the textbook as it has all the lecture content without any of the drifting off topic that Dr. Weil constantly does.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
07/14/2023

Eni is a kind soul who I have met with in office hours, after lecture, and during lab with questions and she has always shown that she wants her students to succeed. Yes, she is not the best lecturer in the department, but she genuinely cares and will do as much as she can to help you. ENST200 is sort of a weed out course so yes I got 70% on two of the midterms but I met with her after each and tried to make my studying mimic the prior exams, and because Eni was very generous with extra credit and the course curve I got an A-. So yes, I would recommend taking a class with Eni.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/17/2023

This is probably the most difficult class I have ever taken at this school. DO NOT TAKE THIS FOR A GED ED. I unfortunately made that mistake. Most people are in this class to meet a degree requirement. I foolishly took this as my lab. The professor only lectures, leaves very little time for questions (if he calls on you), and makes office hours unclear. He is nice and sometimes told interesting stories, but he is took distinguished in his field to actually care about our learning. He cares about sharing his knowledge, but not preparing us for the exams. There is no exam reviews or anything like that. He'll post an extremely long list of terminology to study, which is barely any help. There are no recent practice tests available. Luckily, he curves the tests a few points when everyone did bad and the class is EXTREMELY curved. For reference, my 68 was equivalent to a B. But it was a grind to say the least

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/05/2023

Professor Baballari teaches you everything you need to know to succeed. Students probably don't understand content very well since ENST 200 is so intense and they don't read the textbook. The textbook really helps you breeze by. She is extremely nice and you can always ask to review lectures, exams, or quizzes. Plenty of opportunities to succeed in her class.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/05/2023

The Professor is very kind and cares a lot about the topic. When compared to lab courses in bio and chem I would say this is easier than those. I personally found the subject of soils to be really interesting so I enjoyed it. There are a lot of study materials provided. You really need to read the book and attend lectures to do well in the class.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Anonymous
03/02/2023

Dr. Baballari is a very nice person, but her class is highly disorganized and her exam prep is very unhelpful. The study guide is a bunch of random terms (many of which were not discussed in lecture or in the slides) and no idea of what exactly you should know about the topics. I've genuinely never felt less prepared for an exam in my life.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/12/2021

First off, enst200 is a really hard course and no one really tells you that. There is a lot of complex concepts that you need to learn. If you are taking other AGNR classes, try your best to learn and retain the basic information because you'll definitely need it for upper-level courses. Also, the lab portion of this class is no joke! As for this professor, she is really kind and understanding. The lectures are very boring, but personally, I think it's just the subject. The textbook is somewhat helpful. I recommend going to her office hours, especially if you have questions about your exam grades. btw I took this spring 2020, completely online during COVID.

Eni Baballari
ENST200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/28/2021

This professor is nice to her students, but it doesn't really help with her class structure / teaching style. When asked a question, she usually doesn't give a great answer. Her lectures go really fast and they're also pretty boring. The worst part is her exams -- no one ever knows how to prepare because she says to skim the textbook, but then there will be really crazy questions on the exam that you wouldn't know just from lecture. Then there's even questions you wouldn't know at all from this class' content. She will also put questions from other units into the exam you're taking even though it is not cumulative, or relevant to the current unit. She has a test bank that she takes from so some students can get really hard questions that involve a lot of math and so take more time, but others will get simpler ones. The fact that everything is multiple choice makes it really hard because her opinion on the "best" answer choice can be a bit confusing. Overall, it's a very unbalanced class and has been unnecessarily difficult.

Raymond Weil
ENST200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/30/2017

My favorite professor so far, and taught my favorite class so far. He has so much experience in the field, and he brings that into the classroom to help make it engaging. However, I think that you do have to think that studying soil is fun to have fun in his class (It's something I didn't expect to do, but I definitely do now!)

Reviews for ENST200