| Information | Review |
|---|---|
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/22/2023 |
Professor Halsted is a great person and teacher. It comes across that his main focus in the course is honestly to try to engage his students in history, which I admire. His lectures are interesting and he is always willing to answer questions. That being said, my discussion sections lacked that same quality. I felt comparatively less care from my TA, which, combined with slightly tough grading, made my likeability of this class decline. The assignments themselves are not difficult; the only real responsibilities are weekly discussion posts creating questions regarding one or multiple historical readings and 3 essays, which are relatively loose in their topic requirements, enabling you to write about the documents you understand the most. I would recommend this course, however, only to those who already enjoy this subject. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/18/2023 |
Professor Halsted is one of the best teachers you will have at UMD. He genuinely cares about his students and is super flexible about deadlines. The only assignments are one primary source reading once a week+a question about it and 3 essays. Super engaging lecturer, but doesn't take attendance and records all of his classes so you don't have to go if you don't want to. Does a great job explaining concepts. Phenomenal teacher! |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/08/2023 |
Prof. Halsted is a great guy and clearly very passionate about the course. Lectures are not mandatory, but are fairly engaging and worth attending. The only downside is that your grade heavily relies on the 3 essays, which can be hard if writing isn't for you. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/04/2023 |
Professor Halsted is amazing! He is very passionate about the topics that he's teaching. He clearly knows his stuff and takes the time to answer questions while speaking. His lectures are interesting and well-paced for the most part, though he does run over time occasionally. However, the class itself is less fantastic. A majority of the grade depends on three essays, and you only get two weeks prior to the essay due date to work on them (due to the professor individually releasing the prompts). The discussions are left to the TAs, which is fine, but there is definitely a decline in teaching quality. The essays are challenging, but the discussion and participation points balance it out. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/02/2023 |
This class was quite difficult for me because I do not find the topics interesting. I did my best on the 3 essays (20% each) and the discussion questions (20% total) but I guess they weren't compelling to my TA. I received low B's on my essays and got 1/2 points (50%) for many discussion questions which tanked my grade. However, the professor is clearly passionate about what he teaches and is a nice guy. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/30/2023 |
Very passionate about what he teaches and makes the lectures engaging most of the time. If you can write essays you will do well in the class. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/30/2023 |
Halstead is very passionate about what he teaches and keeps most of the lectures engaging. Attendance is not mandatory and all lectures were recorded and posted online. There are three papers each worth 20% which makes up most of your grade. Overall an easy class if you can write essays. The downside is that your grades will vary greatly based on your TA. My TA graded everything very late and was not helpful during the discussion sections. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/09/2023 |
Loved this class and professor. He's down-to-earth and entertaining. I loved that the class was not just about European Medieval history but touched on other parts of the world too. I think attending his lectures isn't necessary, but he is a good lecturer so it's worth it. Reading the material before discussion should be enough to participate and the papers can be done just by reading the material as well. |
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Christopher Halsted
HIST111 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/06/2023 |
Amazing professor. He's very engaging and funny, and makes the material easy to understand. I pretty much just took the course without any prior interest just to get a gen ed out of the way, but he was surprisingly interesting. Your grade is based on three essays, each worth 20%. Another 20% is in questions you ask each week about the readings, and then the other 20% is just going to discussion and participating. I'd really recommend this course and professor to anyone looking for an engaging class. |