| Information | Review |
|---|---|
|
Daniel Butts
BSCI353 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/16/2025 |
I loved this class and Dr. Butts! I'm a bio major so I was pretty nervous going in - I have 0 neuro experience. But Dr. Butts made everything super digestible and his interest in the subject def shines through and makes it a pretty interesting class to study for. Don't get me wrong - you do have to study well. For each exam, I watched each lecture recording, took some good notes, did his review questions (which give a pretty good gauge of the exam questions), and went to his review session (not rly necessary) - doing all that allowed me to average around a 95 on all the exams, including the final. Yes, you have to put in the time, but everything is clear, organized, and learnable. He also makes it clear that he wants you to do well - he is willing to meet outside of class/office hours if you can't make the scheduled office hours / review sessions. There is no curve which is scary, but as long as you put in around 8ish total hours to prep for exams, you won't need it. Also, he does 5 group worksheets, which is a guaranteed 100/100 each as long as you complete it. The weekly quizzes are also easy to get consistent 9/10 and 10/10s on. Overall, I enjoyed this class a lot and really like Dr. Butts as a professor. Def reccomend! |
|
Daniel Butts
BSCI353 Expecting an A- Anonymous 06/26/2023 |
This class was pretty difficult and required A LOT of memorization. Dr. Butts does provide practice/sample questions before exams which were very helpful since some questions did appear on the exams. He recorded lectures, but there were clickers so you shouldn’t skip class. There were also worksheets almost every week which were done in groups. There also usually isn’t a curve, but there was a ~2% curve this semester because the final exam average was poor. So, there really isn’t “competition” and anyone could get an A. |
|
Daniel Butts
BSCI353 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2022 |
Glad I took Bsci353 with Dr. Butts! In order to do well in his class you really need to understand the lecture concepts, instead of memorization like some other biology classes. Understand what the graphs and diagrams in the lecture slides and that will help you immensely with his exams. Gave a mini exam worth only 5% before the first big midterm which was useful to understand how he will write exams. He was always nice and responsive to questions. Would take the class with him again! |
|
Daniel Butts
Anonymous 12/21/2012 |
I actually enjoyed neurophys with Dr. Butts. He is clearly very passionate and extremely knowledgable about the subject. He's also super nice! I can see how this class may be challenging though. The lectures are delivered like scientific talks (a lot of figures and little words) so you must understand and not just memorize everything. So I thought the book was necessary to clarify things when going over the material again. If you understand everything on his slides, then the exam should be very fair. The material is difficult but fascinating. Fun class! |
|
Daniel Butts
Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2012 |
While I can agree with some parts of the review below that Dr. Butts can be a bit confusing, he is really one of the nicest and most caring professors I've encountered at UMD. Although his explanations were sometimes confusing and the textbook was usually needed for extra explanations when studying, Dr. Butts was overly willing to meet with students whenever and answered questions via email quickly and with very thorough responses. He truly wants every student to do well and his tests are very fair based on what he emphasizes in class. As long as you go to class and show him that you actually care, you'll be totally fine in one of his classes. Study the main concepts and if you remember what he emphasizes in class, then you can pretty much predict what the big questions on his tests will be. After this semester, I would definitely take another class with Dr. Butts. |
|
Daniel Butts
Anonymous 11/30/2012 |
Dr. Butts will be teaching another intro to neuroscience class after this semester, since 453 won't exist anymore, but i highly do not recommend any class with him. unfortunately, he is a horrible lecturer but a very nice man. i don't know how lenient he is going to be when assigning grades, but i should have taken 353 which is supposed to be easier anyway, or taken the 8AM 446. it's super hard to follow his lectures. i end up teaching myself from the textbook but going to class anyway to keep up appearances, maybe he will factor this into the grade somehow since most people don't bother showing up just to nap for 75 minutes. |