Benedikt Diemer

This professor has taught: ASTR100, ASTR340, ASTR399, ASTR620, ASTR670

Sort By:

Information	Review
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/20/2024	Seems like a good lecturer, somewhat engaging lectures. However, exams. The short-response section of the exams are incredibly difficult and harshly graded for a 100 level course. I think the average for short response for the final in the Fall 2023 semester was below 40%. Curve was very generous, bumped me from like a B- to a B+ iirc. Good guy, but the exams are brutal (maybe the curve will save you?)
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Anonymous 01/09/2024	Good professor but terrible class with hard exams and useless projects
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Anonymous 01/04/2024	I took 5 courses during the semester including a law class. Ironically, I took ASTR100 as an "easy gen ed" to count as an elective. Biggest mistake EVER. I thought I was the only one struggling but it turns out most people were. points taken off without explanation, TA was no help. I studied harder for this class than any other and still barely passed AFTER THE CURVE. He's a nice professor but proceed with caution. he left all the Grading to the TA's who were tough. I regret taking this class.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A sbhima 12/19/2023	Overall, this is a good course to take to fulfill your gen ed. Most of the homework is made up of reading about 20 pages of a textbook every week, and taking an open note, open internet quiz. Discussions and lectures are both pretty easy, but there are participation exercises you need to do, so you need to show up to both the discussions and lectures. In terms of the exams, there's a quite a bit of material to learn, so you will need to study for 1-2 hours for each exam. However, if you do the practice exams, you should be fine. Overall, I would take this course as a gen ed.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A awalcza2 12/13/2023	Professor Diemer is an excellent professor. He made sure everyone understood the content and cared about everyone's success. He also did many demonstrations in class that were very cool. There is assignment class every class, but it is only graded for participation. There are 2 projects in the class but they are easy to do and you have plenty of time to complete them. In total there are 2 midterms and a final that are all pretty evenly spaced out. He posts lecture slides at the end of each lecture so you don't have to take notes of you don't want to. The discussions are once a week and they cover things that were taught from the previous week. Overall this is a very interesting, fun, and pretty easy class, if you have a AN INTEREST IN ASTRONOMY.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Anonymous 12/12/2023	Worst professor ever. Hard quizzes and exams and boring lectures
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Anonymous 12/12/2023	Reads of slides, few assignments to prepare for exams and quizzes, hard quizzes and exams, doesn't promptly reply to emails
Benedikt Diemer Anonymous 12/11/2023	literally asked him about my grade, and he scolded me for "complaining too much". Students deserve to know why they got points taken off, and honestly, the instructions for the assignments for the class have been some of the worst I've ever seen.
Benedikt Diemer Anonymous 12/11/2023	exams are very hard, and projects and readings are a complete waste of time
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/11/2023	Let me start off by saying that Professor Diemer himself is a great guy who is very passionate about astronomy which greatly shows in all aspects of his class, but especially his lectures. He was detailed and open to questions, presented organized slides, and honestly knew what he was talking about. My issue with this class is actually not him as a person, but how he set this class up. I don't believe it is set up with the success of the student in mind. In the syllabus, the grading breakdown makes sense and seems easy. However, as the course goes on, at least for me, I felt like I put in all the work I possibly could by going to every lecture and doing the graded participation, doing the weekly quizzes, and the projects (all getting high grades) and yet the midterms would genuinely throw all that work in the garbage with the class averages themselves being 60s for the multiple choice and 50s for the short answers (and then without a curve!) Obviously, my biggest struggle in this class was the exams (both midterms and final). This is an introduction to astronomy class. I'm here for a gen ed, as probably half the class is too. I understood that as we went through the semester that the information being taught was cumulative and every lecture built off of each other. This caused the content to be very heavy and have a lot of aspects that took a long time to understand completely and handle all at once. That being said, the exams themselves took everything from the 100 level lecture content to a 300 level application of knowledge. I had never taken a physics dominated class in high school, which might have been my downfall, except for the fact that this class is labeled as a 100 level class and should be even ground for all students to be able to understand and apply concepts equally. Exam questions were detailed to the point where I would have to remember the exact bullet point on the exact part of my notes to even have an attempt to get it right, which to me should just not be how an exam is set up. I feel like as an intro course it should be more about applying general concepts and showing efficiency in understanding those concepts instead of giving extreme details. For reference, I have also been a straight A student, and this is the first time I will likely be getting a C+ as a final grade in my life. And the only reason I am putting this much time and energy into writing this long review is because when I looked at these reviews during the dark time when I got my first midterm grade back everything seemed to be sunshine and rainbows and I genuinely felt gaslighted. So here's the warning I wish I had: If you love physics, possibly read about black holes, general relativity, and the very complex life cycle of stars in your free time, AND already know or have an interest in all the characteristics of every planet (and every single one of their moons!), take this class! You will absolutely love it, and might even do better than the rest of the class for the exams. I wish you the best of luck, you STEM geniuses. For those who are social science based, thought this would be an okay gen-ed natural sciences credit because the sun and the moon are interesting, and think that a nice professor is equivalent to an easy class, I'd like to see you try. Please take my experience as a lesson to stick to what you're good at and go with PSYCH100. I promise you, ignorance is bliss when understanding the solar system and the whole universe itself.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/07/2023	I skipped this class for 2 months because the course material aligns almost zero with the quizzes, midterms, and projects. My grade has relied exclusively on hours of doing my own readings, only for the quiz questions to be pulled from online quizlets. The projects are graded with bias and without explanation, and the short answer midterm questions are ridiculously difficult for a class advertised as a manageable gen-ed for non-STEM majors.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/06/2023	I would have given Professor Diemer 5 stars because he is so passionate about what he teaches but the way the class is set up is horrible. Diemer will answer any questions and you can tell he really loves astronomy and wants others to love it too. What is so horrible about this class is the grades. I mean it is a 100 level introductory course and the midterm MCQ averages was in the 70s and the short answer was in the 40s. This has happened with both midterms and no change has been made. And the individual tests are not curved. The class isn't over yet but Diemer said he will probably curve overall grades at the end. The lectures consist of a 50 slide slideshow each lecture of new information. Also each class there is a set of workbook problems to do as participation but we never go over the answers and even if you get every single answer wrong, you will get a 100 on them. There are also 2 projects but you can't get above a 90/100 without a "wow factor". Seems silly for a college class. My TA was not good at teaching so discussion sections were also pointless. I think that this class just includes way too much information that needs to be taught so my issues are with the content and not the professor. Essentially find a different science to take as your gen-ed as this one is way too much work for no reward (not an easy A).
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Anonymous 12/03/2023	Don't take this class for a gen ed. It's unnecessarily difficult. The quiz and exam questions are ridiculously conceptual as if you had years of experience in astronomy already, and exam averages for the fall 2023 semester have been very low (e.g. 70s for multiple choice and 40-50s for the short answer). In conclusion, if you're looking for a gen ed and an introductory astronomy course, this is not the course to take. I also don't get the point of the lecture and discussion activities from the book if they're just for completion. One big complaint for projects: what is the point of having a "wow factor" make up 10% of the grade? That's subjective, no? I think the professor needs to take into consideration that this is an introductory astronomy class and readjust the questions and rubric for exams.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/30/2023	He is a very nice person and very passionate about his craft. My only complaint is that there is rarely any test preparation and the exams are really difficult for having no great resources to study. This is an introductory class and it is genuinely so difficult. I would not recommend taking it if you are not interested in astronomy.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/20/2023	Very easy. Had us go to only one lecture a week. Discussion was sitting through a presentation and a 50 word response. Homework was a discussion post every other week and a weekly set of questions and you get 2 attempts. Chill prof.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	Chill guy, very cool class demonstrations. Vast majority of the class is done asynchronously online, and you only have to go to one of the two lectures a week. He added a final exam this semester, it was brutal but only 15% of your grade. It's very easy to go into the final with a 95 or above in the class, so it's pretty low-pressure. Discussions were super pointless, but it may have just been my TA.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	Straightforward class with a lot of asynchronous work that at times felt like busywork. A big chunk of your grade comes from open note "appraisals" so that was nice. Otherwise, the professor seemed knowledgeable and there weren't any issues.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2023	Prof Diemer is a great guy and great professor. He explains concepts well and clearly, and has a lot of demonstrations that helped me grasp concepts better. My one complaint is that the entire semester every assignment and quiz were online and open note, but he's making the final in-person and closed note. He totally has a right to do so, and it's probably my bad for taking the class because I heard the final was online. Go to lectures, and please study the material throughout the semester or by the end you'll be cramming for the exam.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2023	Really nice guy. I'm a little scared of the final since we really haven't learned much. The homework are super easy.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/02/2023	Brilliant instructor! Always has a demonstration in class that gets students excited about the material. The course is very straightforward, most of the assignment are asynchronous online. I highly recommend you take if you're looking for a quick and painless no lab science gen ed.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2021	If I could give him 6 stars I would. I've had my fair share of good professors and Diemer is BY FAR the best prof I've had at UMD. At the end of the last lecture of the semester the entire class clapped for him, like a full round of applause because he made the semester so fun, and he deserved every bit of it. Diemer would crack jokes, talk about current astro events, and made the course fun all around which made it enjoyable to go to each lecture, I wanted to go each day. He also would answer any questions students had mid lecture and if he didn't know the answer he'd let you know and would look it up after lecture so that next class he could answer it correctly for you. Each lecture he was so well prepared, it was like he knew his lecture like the back of his hand. Overall just an awesome experience. If you're an architecture major I would still recommend taking ASTR340 even though it has NOTHING to do with anything you'll do in life, purely because you can take Diemer. Quite simply, he's the GOAT.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/09/2021	Class can be a bit difficult but he curves it. Now, even though the class was hard when I took it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. One of my favorite ASTR courses. I got to learn a lot and it was really easy to approach him with any questions or doubts that I had.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/25/2021	The class was difficult, but Diemer tried his best to make the material work for us. Make sure you study well and you'll be fine on his exams. I didn't study enough for the final and it brought my grade down significantly.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/12/2021	Good and kind professor. The only downside is the homeworks and exams which were pretty difficult.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/05/2021	Super nice professor who did a really good job of transitioning to online learning. Don’t expect an easy A, but easily the most interesting astronomy course I’ve taken so far and Diemer does a good job of explaining and motivating information
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/01/2020	Super nice guy. Homework and exams are long and hard, but the professor is accommodating and tries to make the material work for us. I recommend taking him.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/13/2020	Long long homeworks and extremely vague, but the grading is lenient so it makes up for it. Exams are hard too. Not an easy A, and quite a bit of workload.
Benedikt Diemer ASTR340 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/12/2020	Lectures are kind of boring, homework is long, and exams are difficult. But the professor is pretty chill and grades leniently, so you can expect to have a decent grade.