GEOL200 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Megan Newcombe GEOL200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/19/2023	A nice professor who taught the class well. No real complaints. The TA kind of carried the assignments portion, but that was how the class was set up for her before she was put to teaching it.
Megan Newcombe GEOL200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2023	i would give her 4.5 stars if i could. she’s a great professor — very fair, good lecturer — but the group project at the end (paper + presentation) felt like we were getting thrown into the deep end. there’s definitely enough resources in terms of the help that the ta gives (shout out katie), but it was a little hard consolidating all of that information into a cohesive paper especially if you end up with a group member who doesn’t do too much work (choose your group members very wisely!!!). weekly reading quizzes (about 50-60 pages worth of material) are relatively fair. only 2 tests in the class, with one being the first midterm and the second being the final which isn’t cumulative.
Megan Newcombe GEOL200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2023	I loved Dr. Newcombe! She is the absolute sweetest and truly cares about her students. She made lecture very engaging and it was very easy to catch up if you missed a class. There were quizzes based on the readings once a week, and I found that doing the quiz (there is no time limit) while reading the assigned chapters was very useful. The exams are pretty fair and she always includes extra credit.
Vedran Lekic GEOL200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2022	First, Dr. Ved is a great professor! He's super nice, and will always be willing to help, clarify material, and offer guidance about how to succeed in the course. Geology can be a lot to some, however, Dr. Ved will go out of his way to ensure that the class is able to fully grasp the material. Despite the GEOL200 lectures being at 9:30am he's still super engaging and enjoys teaching. GEOL200 is not a particularly difficult course, so if you are looking for an interesting I-Series that's not too hard and time consuming I recommend this 1000%. However, you should still pay attention and take notes in lecture. We are required to read 2 books throughout the semester (about 40-50 page reading per week, to be fully transparent), but the books are easy reads that go by quickly. The subsequent weekly reading quizzes aren't heavy percentage wise, an easy way to boost your grade, are only 9-10 questions, and are really the only homework you get (he drops 3 of your lowest ones anyways). Lastly, there are two projects, but they are also quick, the second one is a group one, and as long as you put effort and ask the professor and TAs for help/advice you'll do really great (averages were all in the mid to upper 80s). Overall, this is a really interesting course to take that isn't test intensive, and if you put in effort you'll do really well!
Vedran Lekic GEOL200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/19/2022	This is guy is actually so swag and cool you should def take this class. He's super helpful and answers questions fully. Also super responsive to emails. Exams were fair and the work load wasn't crazy-- the two required readings were interesting and helped me apply the course content to stuff outside of geology.
Vedran Lekic GEOL200 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/01/2022	Great professor with a lot of enthusiam which keeps the class engaging. The work load is not too bad and is pretty much just reading, but both books used in the class are very interesting. The exams reflect the lectures so as long as you go to class and study your notes, you will do pretty well. Overall, I am really glad I took this course and it was definitely one of my favorites this semester.
Laurent Montesi GEOL200 Anonymous 12/09/2021	horrible teacher. assignments are easy but all busywork. you do not actually learn anything. He should know there is an issue with making exams too hard when there are 120 points total to put out of 100 and STILL need to curve the exam. Exams are extremely difficult and the TA grades really harshly.
Laurent Montesi GEOL200 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/31/2019	The flipped class format was a disaster. This flipped class format was supposed to make class more fun and help make learning easier and fun for students. For me it just seems like the professor is too lazy to actually teach his course. Class is just 1hr 15 min of the professor answering questions that students ask. Practically one giant Q and A, 2 times per week, that are also mandatory to go to since he gives out quizzes at the beginning of each class. Montesi also requires students to spend hours each week looking at videos of his online prerecorded lectures. Class seems like a complete waste of time since all of our learning is done by ourselves. 40% of your final grade is also determined by your group project which can either really help you or really hurt you. For me, it really hurt my grade since I got 2 non cooperative group mates and after complaining to the professor, nothing was done to help me. What I expected to be a relatively straightforward, and fun class to satisfy my gen eds turned into a extremely dull, and work heavy class that took up a large chunk of my time that I wanted to spend on other major related courses. I would not recommend anybody to take this course with Montesi.
Laurent Montesi GEOL200 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/02/2018	Montesi was an average/slightly below average professor. The French accent isn't a problem, it's his teaching style. The class was not inherently difficult, but the "flipped lecture" format of this class is just so that he doesn't have to give lectures. Students are expected to watch 5-6, 20-30 minute videos per week on the material. His grammar isn't great and there are a lot of typos in his videos. His test questions often had typos, etc and he would have to make like 5-6 announcements during tests to correct them. All the tests are in class, open notes, and online which makes them easy to do good on, right? Not really, sometimes he asks questions on the smallest details possible and the wording is sometimes downright impossible to understand. He gives kahoot quizzes every other lecture, same story as the tests here. There isn't enough time to read and think about the questions because kahoot only gives you 30 seconds to answer. 40% of your grade is a project on a geological event of your choosing (from a list) and this is done over the whole semester. Overall easy project but his guidelines can be vague and he'll take off points for stuff that he didn't say he wanted in the first place. I got an A- because like I said it's not inherently hard it's just really tedious and annoying and not worth your time for a gen-ed. TL;DR don't take this class.

Megan Newcombe
GEOL200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/19/2023

A nice professor who taught the class well. No real complaints. The TA kind of carried the assignments portion, but that was how the class was set up for her before she was put to teaching it.

Megan Newcombe
GEOL200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2023

i would give her 4.5 stars if i could. she’s a great professor — very fair, good lecturer — but the group project at the end (paper + presentation) felt like we were getting thrown into the deep end. there’s definitely enough resources in terms of the help that the ta gives (shout out katie), but it was a little hard consolidating all of that information into a cohesive paper especially if you end up with a group member who doesn’t do too much work (choose your group members very wisely!!!). weekly reading quizzes (about 50-60 pages worth of material) are relatively fair. only 2 tests in the class, with one being the first midterm and the second being the final which isn’t cumulative.

Megan Newcombe
GEOL200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2023

I loved Dr. Newcombe! She is the absolute sweetest and truly cares about her students. She made lecture very engaging and it was very easy to catch up if you missed a class. There were quizzes based on the readings once a week, and I found that doing the quiz (there is no time limit) while reading the assigned chapters was very useful. The exams are pretty fair and she always includes extra credit.

Vedran Lekic
GEOL200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2022

First, Dr. Ved is a great professor! He's super nice, and will always be willing to help, clarify material, and offer guidance about how to succeed in the course. Geology can be a lot to some, however, Dr. Ved will go out of his way to ensure that the class is able to fully grasp the material. Despite the GEOL200 lectures being at 9:30am he's still super engaging and enjoys teaching. GEOL200 is not a particularly difficult course, so if you are looking for an interesting I-Series that's not too hard and time consuming I recommend this 1000%. However, you should still pay attention and take notes in lecture. We are required to read 2 books throughout the semester (about 40-50 page reading per week, to be fully transparent), but the books are easy reads that go by quickly. The subsequent weekly reading quizzes aren't heavy percentage wise, an easy way to boost your grade, are only 9-10 questions, and are really the only homework you get (he drops 3 of your lowest ones anyways). Lastly, there are two projects, but they are also quick, the second one is a group one, and as long as you put effort and ask the professor and TAs for help/advice you'll do really great (averages were all in the mid to upper 80s). Overall, this is a really interesting course to take that isn't test intensive, and if you put in effort you'll do really well!

Vedran Lekic
GEOL200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/19/2022

This is guy is actually so swag and cool you should def take this class. He's super helpful and answers questions fully. Also super responsive to emails. Exams were fair and the work load wasn't crazy-- the two required readings were interesting and helped me apply the course content to stuff outside of geology.

Vedran Lekic
GEOL200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/01/2022

Great professor with a lot of enthusiam which keeps the class engaging. The work load is not too bad and is pretty much just reading, but both books used in the class are very interesting. The exams reflect the lectures so as long as you go to class and study your notes, you will do pretty well. Overall, I am really glad I took this course and it was definitely one of my favorites this semester.

Laurent Montesi
GEOL200

Anonymous
12/09/2021

horrible teacher. assignments are easy but all busywork. you do not actually learn anything. He should know there is an issue with making exams too hard when there are 120 points total to put out of 100 and STILL need to curve the exam. Exams are extremely difficult and the TA grades really harshly.

Laurent Montesi
GEOL200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/31/2019

The flipped class format was a disaster. This flipped class format was supposed to make class more fun and help make learning easier and fun for students. For me it just seems like the professor is too lazy to actually teach his course. Class is just 1hr 15 min of the professor answering questions that students ask. Practically one giant Q and A, 2 times per week, that are also mandatory to go to since he gives out quizzes at the beginning of each class. Montesi also requires students to spend hours each week looking at videos of his online prerecorded lectures. Class seems like a complete waste of time since all of our learning is done by ourselves. 40% of your final grade is also determined by your group project which can either really help you or really hurt you. For me, it really hurt my grade since I got 2 non cooperative group mates and after complaining to the professor, nothing was done to help me. What I expected to be a relatively straightforward, and fun class to satisfy my gen eds turned into a extremely dull, and work heavy class that took up a large chunk of my time that I wanted to spend on other major related courses. I would not recommend anybody to take this course with Montesi.

Laurent Montesi
GEOL200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/02/2018

Montesi was an average/slightly below average professor. The French accent isn't a problem, it's his teaching style. The class was not inherently difficult, but the "flipped lecture" format of this class is just so that he doesn't have to give lectures. Students are expected to watch 5-6, 20-30 minute videos per week on the material. His grammar isn't great and there are a lot of typos in his videos. His test questions often had typos, etc and he would have to make like 5-6 announcements during tests to correct them. All the tests are in class, open notes, and online which makes them easy to do good on, right? Not really, sometimes he asks questions on the smallest details possible and the wording is sometimes downright impossible to understand. He gives kahoot quizzes every other lecture, same story as the tests here. There isn't enough time to read and think about the questions because kahoot only gives you 30 seconds to answer. 40% of your grade is a project on a geological event of your choosing (from a list) and this is done over the whole semester. Overall easy project but his guidelines can be vague and he'll take off points for stuff that he didn't say he wanted in the first place. I got an A- because like I said it's not inherently hard it's just really tedious and annoying and not worth your time for a gen-ed. TL;DR don't take this class.

Reviews for GEOL200