HNUH218A | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Richard Bell HNUH218A Expecting an A Anonymous 01/15/2022	Don't have to memorize any content until the final which is fairly easy. The majority of the grade comes from essays which are graded by the TA who helps you improve your essay during office hours before you submit it. Make sure you participate in discussions as that's a big part of your grade. As for Professor Bell, he's an extremely interesting lecturer and even moved our final online and made it open note due to rising covid cases.
Richard Bell HNUH218A Expecting an A Anonymous 01/11/2022	Big Rick is undoubtedly one of the best lecturers I've ever had. Each of his classes was clearly well planned out, engaging, and surprisingly enjoyable. With any other professor I'm sure I would've had trouble staying awake in this 9am class, but Bell made it easy. As others have pointed out, there is a fair amount of reading in this course—around 30 pages or so a week—but as long as you don't wait until the night before to start reading, I think it's pretty manageable (other than one week where we were supposed to read 180 pages of a novel). Bell sets high expectations for his students since they're UMD's "best and brightest," as he likes to say, but he also cares a lot about them and values their input on assignments. Despite Big Rick's tall height, he's very friendly and approachable and always willing to answer any questions students have about course material. All in all, I definitely enjoyed his class and appreciated him as a professor.
Richard Bell HNUH218A Expecting an A- Anonymous 06/02/2021	Rick is a very talented lecturer. They feel more like story times than anything; he does a great job telling narratives of whatever concept you learn about. However, his assignments for HNUH218A could be so much better. There were 4 papers in total, two of them requiring ~15 newspaper sources. These were extremely draining and difficult to write. Other than his assignments, Bell is a really cool guy.
Richard Bell HNUH218A Expecting an A Anonymous 01/14/2021	Professor Bell is hands down one of the best lecturers I've ever had. His lectures are well prepared and thorough and engaging. The workload is probably what you would expect from an honors course, and it was very much appropriate in my opinion. The first paper might have a steep learning curve for some as far as finding and analyzing appropriate and adequate sources, but the subsequent papers felt more comfortable to me. readings can sometimes be a headache, but the discussions are chill and as long as you actively participate a few times each meeting you'll be fine. The TA was very fair and not harsh in grading. Professor Bell overall clearly cares about his students.
Richard Bell HNUH218A Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2020	Professor Bell is great. He's very engaging. The papers and discussion sections are pretty chill. The graduate TA that grades the papers is pretty chill. The sources that you are stuck on using are difficult to use since it's pretty much all primary sources or the slides. After the first paper, the others should not be so difficult.
Richard Bell HNUH218A Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/15/2020	Pros: Very good lecturer, he's engaging and interesting, if you like history. You actually learn a lot. Cons: The papers and discussions just suck. There's 3 papers that you have to write, and all of them require you to use at least 15 primary sources from newspapers. No online resources allowed. You can use lecture slides and discussion readings though. Discussion section participation is also a quarter of your grade, and the readings are usually very long (10+ pages).

Richard Bell
HNUH218A

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/15/2022

Don't have to memorize any content until the final which is fairly easy. The majority of the grade comes from essays which are graded by the TA who helps you improve your essay during office hours before you submit it. Make sure you participate in discussions as that's a big part of your grade. As for Professor Bell, he's an extremely interesting lecturer and even moved our final online and made it open note due to rising covid cases.

Richard Bell
HNUH218A

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/11/2022

Big Rick is undoubtedly one of the best lecturers I've ever had. Each of his classes was clearly well planned out, engaging, and surprisingly enjoyable. With any other professor I'm sure I would've had trouble staying awake in this 9am class, but Bell made it easy. As others have pointed out, there is a fair amount of reading in this course—around 30 pages or so a week—but as long as you don't wait until the night before to start reading, I think it's pretty manageable (other than one week where we were supposed to read 180 pages of a novel). Bell sets high expectations for his students since they're UMD's "best and brightest," as he likes to say, but he also cares a lot about them and values their input on assignments. Despite Big Rick's tall height, he's very friendly and approachable and always willing to answer any questions students have about course material. All in all, I definitely enjoyed his class and appreciated him as a professor.

Richard Bell
HNUH218A

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
06/02/2021

Rick is a very talented lecturer. They feel more like story times than anything; he does a great job telling narratives of whatever concept you learn about. However, his assignments for HNUH218A could be so much better. There were 4 papers in total, two of them requiring ~15 newspaper sources. These were extremely draining and difficult to write. Other than his assignments, Bell is a really cool guy.

Richard Bell
HNUH218A

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/14/2021

Professor Bell is hands down one of the best lecturers I've ever had. His lectures are well prepared and thorough and engaging. The workload is probably what you would expect from an honors course, and it was very much appropriate in my opinion. The first paper might have a steep learning curve for some as far as finding and analyzing appropriate and adequate sources, but the subsequent papers felt more comfortable to me. readings can sometimes be a headache, but the discussions are chill and as long as you actively participate a few times each meeting you'll be fine. The TA was very fair and not harsh in grading. Professor Bell overall clearly cares about his students.

Richard Bell
HNUH218A

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2020

Professor Bell is great. He's very engaging. The papers and discussion sections are pretty chill. The graduate TA that grades the papers is pretty chill. The sources that you are stuck on using are difficult to use since it's pretty much all primary sources or the slides. After the first paper, the others should not be so difficult.

Richard Bell
HNUH218A

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
11/15/2020

Pros: Very good lecturer, he's engaging and interesting, if you like history. You actually learn a lot. Cons: The papers and discussions just suck. There's 3 papers that you have to write, and all of them require you to use at least 15 primary sources from newspapers. No online resources allowed. You can use lecture slides and discussion readings though. Discussion section participation is also a quarter of your grade, and the readings are usually very long (10+ pages).

Reviews for HNUH218A