Stephen Brighton | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/22/2024	The class is quite easy and the topic was interesting to me but I knew people who were bored out of their minds because of the subject. Overall, Brighton is a good teacher and his lectures are at least entertaining enough to keep me focused on what he is talking about. They will ask you to purchase the textbook but it is not necessary at all so do not waste your money on it. The class is incredibly easy and the class averages for each of the exams were around a 90/100. The information he provides on the slides are helpful and he does post them on elms but a lot of the content he covers and test on is not written down so attending lectures is important. 90% of the final grade is composed of 3 exams (2 midterms and a final, all of which are memorization-based with multiple choice questions and fill-in-the-blanks) and the other 10% is from 5 question quizzes from discussion. If you want an easy gen ed or if you are genuinely interested in archaeology, Brighton is probably the best.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Anonymous 05/17/2022	Not a bad professor, but a really bad class. They don't grade anything. Tomorrow is the last day of exams and there is not a single grade put in elms. Grade is dependent upon 10 quizzes (10%) and 3 exams (90%). The lecture slides provide little to no information and classes are not recorded so if you miss any you're pretty much screwed, although he is pretty understanding about covid. Dr. Brighton is not a bad lecturer, but the class is so lecture heavy it can be hard to keep up and write down information when he goes on tangents. The questions on exams are extremely specific and it often feels like one of those classes that cares more about how much you memorize than how much you actually learned. The class average for the 2nd exam was around a 62 so proceed with caution.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2019	this man is really funny and he is very respectful and wants his students to learn and understand the material, which isn't that difficult by the way. it's mostly memorization, but the tests were really easy, however this may be because the TA made the tests pretty easy. my TA was madeline laub, if that is your TA as well then i heavily recommend you stay in this class. it really isn't that hard of a class, and i SUCK at gen eds.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/11/2015	Professor Brighton is one of the best professors I have had at UMD. He is a very fun and approachable guy who will do as much as he can for you. He made the dull material in intro to archaeology bearable. His class is very easy to begin with. You don't have to go to class to succeed in this class, but I found him very entertaining and I went to every class. Highly suggest this prof.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Expecting a B- Reactionist 12/06/2011	Boring lecture and even much boring discussion. If you want to get easy CORE credit, you should wait for Prof. Palus to teach this class. He is a boring lecturer too, but he is surprisingly generous and easier.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Expecting an A+ collegestudent 05/24/2011	I loved Professor Brighton he was a really nice guy and if you had any questions he would give you great answers. It was seriously an Easy A I got a 100 and a 96 on the two midterm exams. You have three tests including the final two short lab papers and like 5 quizzes His slides do kind of suck though they don't really have much content they have a lot of photos but if you write down what he talks about you should be fine. If you bought the book that helped too.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 jamgord 05/04/2010	Stephen Brighton is a really nice, approachable guy. He definitely knows the material he is covering, which is good if you have any specific questions that go beyond the info from lectures. The weekly quizzes in discussion are pretty easy, and the tests for our semester were in essay form. For the essays, you need to memorize specific people or examples so you won't get points taken off for being too vague. I love all of his little jokes and short side-stories that relate to the topic in class. He does go through his powerpoint fairly quickly, (but he is thorough,) and that means you usually get out of class a few minutes early! It's not the most exciting class, but the middle section on hominid evolution is the most interesting.
Stephen Brighton ANTH240 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/30/2009	Very boring, monotone lectures. TAs are competent at best; the discussion consist mainly of milling around in the so called lab washing artifacts- that is cleaning mud from things like beer bottles and petrified feces-multiple times. Just a waste of time basically. The lectures are not posted online, and there is absoltely no point in buying in the book if you write down what he says in lecture-which brings me to his lecture style. He has a powerpoint with minimal words and a bunch of pictures, and he goes on and on about things that are sometimes not relevant, and certainly not in the book. He goes very fast, so I would suggest to bring a recorder. His exams are all objective, and non-cumulative-could be a plus based on how you look at it. In other words, the final is based solely on material covered since the last exam. The exams are extremely easy, and should require only a glance over the notes, but the class made me feel like we were more focused on memorizing facts rather than actually learning things. Avoid-or at least consider M. Palus.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/22/2024

The class is quite easy and the topic was interesting to me but I knew people who were bored out of their minds because of the subject. Overall, Brighton is a good teacher and his lectures are at least entertaining enough to keep me focused on what he is talking about. They will ask you to purchase the textbook but it is not necessary at all so do not waste your money on it. The class is incredibly easy and the class averages for each of the exams were around a 90/100. The information he provides on the slides are helpful and he does post them on elms but a lot of the content he covers and test on is not written down so attending lectures is important. 90% of the final grade is composed of 3 exams (2 midterms and a final, all of which are memorization-based with multiple choice questions and fill-in-the-blanks) and the other 10% is from 5 question quizzes from discussion. If you want an easy gen ed or if you are genuinely interested in archaeology, Brighton is probably the best.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Anonymous
05/17/2022

Not a bad professor, but a really bad class. They don't grade anything. Tomorrow is the last day of exams and there is not a single grade put in elms. Grade is dependent upon 10 quizzes (10%) and 3 exams (90%). The lecture slides provide little to no information and classes are not recorded so if you miss any you're pretty much screwed, although he is pretty understanding about covid. Dr. Brighton is not a bad lecturer, but the class is so lecture heavy it can be hard to keep up and write down information when he goes on tangents. The questions on exams are extremely specific and it often feels like one of those classes that cares more about how much you memorize than how much you actually learned. The class average for the 2nd exam was around a 62 so proceed with caution.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2019

this man is really funny and he is very respectful and wants his students to learn and understand the material, which isn't that difficult by the way. it's mostly memorization, but the tests were really easy, however this may be because the TA made the tests pretty easy. my TA was madeline laub, if that is your TA as well then i heavily recommend you stay in this class. it really isn't that hard of a class, and i SUCK at gen eds.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/11/2015

Professor Brighton is one of the best professors I have had at UMD. He is a very fun and approachable guy who will do as much as he can for you. He made the dull material in intro to archaeology bearable. His class is very easy to begin with. You don't have to go to class to succeed in this class, but I found him very entertaining and I went to every class. Highly suggest this prof.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Expecting a B-
Reactionist
12/06/2011

Boring lecture and even much boring discussion. If you want to get easy CORE credit, you should wait for Prof. Palus to teach this class. He is a boring lecturer too, but he is surprisingly generous and easier.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Expecting an A+
collegestudent
05/24/2011

I loved Professor Brighton he was a really nice guy and if you had any questions he would give you great answers. It was seriously an Easy A I got a 100 and a 96 on the two midterm exams. You have three tests including the final two short lab papers and like 5 quizzes His slides do kind of suck though they don't really have much content they have a lot of photos but if you write down what he talks about you should be fine. If you bought the book that helped too.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

jamgord
05/04/2010

Stephen Brighton is a really nice, approachable guy. He definitely knows the material he is covering, which is good if you have any specific questions that go beyond the info from lectures. The weekly quizzes in discussion are pretty easy, and the tests for our semester were in essay form. For the essays, you need to memorize specific people or examples so you won't get points taken off for being too vague. I love all of his little jokes and short side-stories that relate to the topic in class. He does go through his powerpoint fairly quickly, (but he is thorough,) and that means you usually get out of class a few minutes early! It's not the most exciting class, but the middle section on hominid evolution is the most interesting.

Stephen Brighton
ANTH240

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/30/2009

Very boring, monotone lectures. TAs are competent at best; the discussion consist mainly of milling around in the so called lab washing artifacts- that is cleaning mud from things like beer bottles and petrified feces-multiple times. Just a waste of time basically. The lectures are not posted online, and there is absoltely no point in buying in the book if you write down what he says in lecture-which brings me to his lecture style. He has a powerpoint with minimal words and a bunch of pictures, and he goes on and on about things that are sometimes not relevant, and certainly not in the book. He goes very fast, so I would suggest to bring a recorder. His exams are all objective, and non-cumulative-could be a plus based on how you look at it. In other words, the final is based solely on material covered since the last exam. The exams are extremely easy, and should require only a glance over the notes, but the class made me feel like we were more focused on memorizing facts rather than actually learning things. Avoid-or at least consider M. Palus.