GVPT423 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
James Gimpel GVPT423 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/20/2024	Professor Gimpel genuinely cares about his students and what he teaches. The class was reading heavy, but all of it is interesting and enjoyable. While the lectures can be long, he is an amusing lecturer and likes to engage in discussion with the class. Definitely recommend taking this class, it is easy as long as you just go to class and do the readings.
James Gimpel GVPT423 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2023	I took this class since I was interested in content and do not feel I learned a lot from Professor Gimpel, since I felt most of the class was expanding upon and explaining concepts I already knew. Lectures were 3 hours long largely of him rambling which I was not the biggest fan of, but the course overall was still interesting due to the readings, assignments and few discussions we had. Professor Gimpel did curve our midterm and we otherwise only have had 4 HWs and a final, so it is not too hard either, just occasionally boring.
James Gimpel GVPT423 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2022	Gimpel is pretty chill, and teaches pretty well. Class is 4 homeworks or short papers in different formats, as well as a midterm and a final. MC and some written parts. A LOT of reading, but interesting. Lecture is just going over slides, and studying for exams consists of learning a bunch of terms and concepts. If you are interested in elections, take it, 100% worth it.
James Gimpel GVPT423 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2021	Dr. Gimpel was a good professor! The essays and exams are based heavily on the readings/lecture notes, so reading the required books is really important, but I thought they were easy to understand and more interesting than other class readings. Not many assignments besides the readings. He really seemed to care about his students and the topics, but more class interaction would've been nice.
Eric Uslaner GVPT423 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/18/2015	Honestly one of the worst professors in the entire world. I have no idea how this man still works at this university. I really wish I had listened to the reviews below before taking this class with him so listen to me when I say, do not take this class with him. His lectures are unorganized. I have about 100 pages on notes that are in no particular order at all and just ended up being confusing to me while doing my take home exam. The course load and readings are bearable, but didn't particularly relate to the lectures for that week. I've also just never felt more stupid than sitting in his lecture. It was almost like he could tell when I wasn't understanding what he was saying, and call on me out of nowhere to answer a question, which he obviously knew I didn't know the answer to. After I would say 'I don't know' he would smile and laugh like he got pleasure out of my humiliation. It got so bad that I just stopped attending after a while. There is also no way he reads any of you papers. There are about 25 of us in my class and we would have grades back for 10 pages papers within the next 24 hours. I'm sorry it is not humanly possible to read that many papers in that short of a time period. I truly believe he gives you a grade based on how much he likes you, therefore I do not do very well on my assignments. All in all, just a horrible experience and definitely the worst class I've taken at UMD so far.
Eric Uslaner GVPT423 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/10/2012	Probably the worst professor I've had at UMD thus far. Uslander is rude and arrogant. He is extremely unhelpful to student needs and will immediately dismiss you if you try to talk to him for help or questions on a topic discussed in class or otherwise. Also, his grading is extremely sporadic. Some people would receive C's and D's on an exam or essay while others get A+'s. I would personally read some of these essays from fellow classmates and there was no distinguishable difference between them for such an immense grade difference. Also if you try to speak with him about an unfair grade, he will only get mad at you and basically call you stupid, no matter what your reasoning. Completely terrible, avoid at all costs.
Eric Uslaner GVPT423 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/11/2011	Dr. Uslaner is a decent professor, if he actually shows up to class. When I had him for GVPT423 (a once a week class) he missed 5 classes during the semester...thats almost half of the classes. He is incredibly full of himself. If you agree with what he's saying then you'll be good to go, but heaven forbid you disagree with him and he will punish you for it. He literally said I was being disrespectful to him because I disagreed with one of his stances and refused to discuss it any further. It is questionable as to whether he reads the papers that you turn in. If you have less than 3 outside sources (not including assigned textbooks), you can get no higher than a C on your paper. The final paper for the class was 10 pages long and Dr. Uslaner posted grades a day after we turned in the papers. There were close to 30 people in the class, so if he sat down and did an all-nighter with our papers then perhaps he did in fact read them all, but who really thinks he did that? Not me. If you agree with him, I'm sure his grading is fair. Because I disagreed with him however, he decided to give me a C for the class. When I went to his office to discuss my grade he freaked out and told me to take it to the dean's office. Unfortunately for Uslaner, I took him up on his word, went to the dean's office and they agreed with me and pretty much forced him to give me the grade I deserved...When I was speaking w/ the dean I was informed that 3 other students that semester were also complaining about Uslaner, so this isn't an isolated incident. So in summary, if you can sit around and listen to Uslaner without voicing opposition to any of his opinions, his class will be a breeze. The material is interesting (at least for 423) its just a shame that Uslaner is the one teaching it.
James Gimpel GVPT423 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/02/2008	Good class, good teacher. Lecture was engaging and enjoyable. A lot of readings, but they weren't difficult to understand. Tests were fairly straight forward and if you came to class, or at least did readings, nothing suprised you. Homeworks were ok, but more work than expected. He seems to think that writing 5 or 6 or 7 pages, due the very next week he assigns them is normal. But we only had 4 or 5 a whole semester.

James Gimpel
GVPT423

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/20/2024

Professor Gimpel genuinely cares about his students and what he teaches. The class was reading heavy, but all of it is interesting and enjoyable. While the lectures can be long, he is an amusing lecturer and likes to engage in discussion with the class. Definitely recommend taking this class, it is easy as long as you just go to class and do the readings.

James Gimpel
GVPT423

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2023

I took this class since I was interested in content and do not feel I learned a lot from Professor Gimpel, since I felt most of the class was expanding upon and explaining concepts I already knew. Lectures were 3 hours long largely of him rambling which I was not the biggest fan of, but the course overall was still interesting due to the readings, assignments and few discussions we had. Professor Gimpel did curve our midterm and we otherwise only have had 4 HWs and a final, so it is not too hard either, just occasionally boring.

James Gimpel
GVPT423

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2022

Gimpel is pretty chill, and teaches pretty well. Class is 4 homeworks or short papers in different formats, as well as a midterm and a final. MC and some written parts. A LOT of reading, but interesting. Lecture is just going over slides, and studying for exams consists of learning a bunch of terms and concepts. If you are interested in elections, take it, 100% worth it.

James Gimpel
GVPT423

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2021

Dr. Gimpel was a good professor! The essays and exams are based heavily on the readings/lecture notes, so reading the required books is really important, but I thought they were easy to understand and more interesting than other class readings. Not many assignments besides the readings. He really seemed to care about his students and the topics, but more class interaction would've been nice.

Eric Uslaner
GVPT423

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/18/2015

Honestly one of the worst professors in the entire world. I have no idea how this man still works at this university. I really wish I had listened to the reviews below before taking this class with him so listen to me when I say, do not take this class with him. His lectures are unorganized. I have about 100 pages on notes that are in no particular order at all and just ended up being confusing to me while doing my take home exam. The course load and readings are bearable, but didn't particularly relate to the lectures for that week. I've also just never felt more stupid than sitting in his lecture. It was almost like he could tell when I wasn't understanding what he was saying, and call on me out of nowhere to answer a question, which he obviously knew I didn't know the answer to. After I would say 'I don't know' he would smile and laugh like he got pleasure out of my humiliation. It got so bad that I just stopped attending after a while. There is also no way he reads any of you papers. There are about 25 of us in my class and we would have grades back for 10 pages papers within the next 24 hours. I'm sorry it is not humanly possible to read that many papers in that short of a time period. I truly believe he gives you a grade based on how much he likes you, therefore I do not do very well on my assignments. All in all, just a horrible experience and definitely the worst class I've taken at UMD so far.

Eric Uslaner
GVPT423

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/10/2012

Probably the worst professor I've had at UMD thus far. Uslander is rude and arrogant. He is extremely unhelpful to student needs and will immediately dismiss you if you try to talk to him for help or questions on a topic discussed in class or otherwise. Also, his grading is extremely sporadic. Some people would receive C's and D's on an exam or essay while others get A+'s. I would personally read some of these essays from fellow classmates and there was no distinguishable difference between them for such an immense grade difference. Also if you try to speak with him about an unfair grade, he will only get mad at you and basically call you stupid, no matter what your reasoning. Completely terrible, avoid at all costs.

Eric Uslaner
GVPT423

Expecting a B
Anonymous
04/11/2011

Dr. Uslaner is a decent professor, if he actually shows up to class. When I had him for GVPT423 (a once a week class) he missed 5 classes during the semester...thats almost half of the classes. He is incredibly full of himself. If you agree with what he's saying then you'll be good to go, but heaven forbid you disagree with him and he will punish you for it. He literally said I was being disrespectful to him because I disagreed with one of his stances and refused to discuss it any further. It is questionable as to whether he reads the papers that you turn in. If you have less than 3 outside sources (not including assigned textbooks), you can get no higher than a C on your paper. The final paper for the class was 10 pages long and Dr. Uslaner posted grades a day after we turned in the papers. There were close to 30 people in the class, so if he sat down and did an all-nighter with our papers then perhaps he did in fact read them all, but who really thinks he did that? Not me. If you agree with him, I'm sure his grading is fair. Because I disagreed with him however, he decided to give me a C for the class. When I went to his office to discuss my grade he freaked out and told me to take it to the dean's office. Unfortunately for Uslaner, I took him up on his word, went to the dean's office and they agreed with me and pretty much forced him to give me the grade I deserved...When I was speaking w/ the dean I was informed that 3 other students that semester were also complaining about Uslaner, so this isn't an isolated incident. So in summary, if you can sit around and listen to Uslaner without voicing opposition to any of his opinions, his class will be a breeze. The material is interesting (at least for 423) its just a shame that Uslaner is the one teaching it.

James Gimpel
GVPT423

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/02/2008

Good class, good teacher. Lecture was engaging and enjoyable. A lot of readings, but they weren't difficult to understand. Tests were fairly straight forward and if you came to class, or at least did readings, nothing suprised you. Homeworks were ok, but more work than expected. He seems to think that writing 5 or 6 or 7 pages, due the very next week he assigns them is normal. But we only had 4 or 5 a whole semester.

Reviews for GVPT423