Thomas Holtz

This professor has taught: BSCI238A, BSCI333, CPSG100, CPSG101, CPSG200, CPSG230, CPSG240, CPSG250, CPSP118G, CPSP119G, CPSP218G, CPSP239G, CPSP249G, CPSP259G, CPSP359G, GEOL102, GEOL104, GEOL204, GEOL331, GEOL386, GEOL431, HONR259C

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Thomas Holtz CPSG100 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/10/2024	Dr. Holtz is an extremely nice person; however the content of the lecture was not too engaging for me. However, I can see how if you were interested in the topic that his amazing and fun energy could rub off on you.
Thomas Holtz GEOL102 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2024	If you want a super easy gen ed I would not recommend. There is a 5 point attendance grade every class, you can miss 5 though. There is an insane amount of information to learn it's basically impossible to do all of the homeworks and midterms without looking up answers. There are 10 homeworks about 1 a week and the lowest one is dropped, but some of them were difficult and you can't really look up the answers. There are 3 midterms that were online, the final is also online. They are all timed and all multiple choice. If you are interested in the subject and have extra time to learn everything than you will be fine but if you want an easy A don't take this.
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/13/2024	Pros: -Incredibly passionate professor, who has a pretty entertaining lecture style. He is kind of a real life cartoon character. -Course material is pretty interesting for the most part. -Fairly easy homeworks that often rely more on your ability to read than your ability to understand the material. -Project where you travel to DC and do a scavenger hunt at the Smithsonian. -Open-note midterms -Final project instead of exam that is weighed at about 10% of the grade and is graded very leniently. -Profuse extra credit that will negate pretty much any point deductions. Frankly, I am not sure it is possible to get below an A if you give a little effort for the course. (Minor) Cons: -There is an attendance grade in the form of "QOTDs," but I ended up not attending ~50% of the lectures and the grade hit was so minimal that it did not matter. It's weighted at like 5%. You also get 4 free absences (lol). -Discussion sections feel like busywork. My TAs were very chill though. I think this is an amazing course to check off the DSNS (no lab) requirement.
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/13/2024	Excellent professor. Exams are online and other assignments aren't too difficult. Able to miss 4 classes with no penalty but must answer the Question of the Day for participation points during lecture
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2024	One of the best professors I've had at UMD and one of the most interesting classes I've taken. This class was an easy A, but it was also super interesting. It's everything you want in a gened. Lectures are recorded and exams are open-note and take-home. You can even use Dr. Holtz's extensive lecture notes for the exam. The final was just a group project that was pretty straightforward. Super easy and super chill.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A- Buss003 01/06/2024	Attendance is taken through a question of the day and he excuses 5 giving you 5 absences all semester. The two midterms and finals were timed online test that were open note and you could take anytime in a span of three days. Holtz is very passionate about what he teaches and he clearly cares about people learning the subject. He isn't all serious he jokes around a decent amount which is nice and he just overall seems like a cool dude. If you need a natural science take this class.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting a B+ gc123 12/26/2023	This class was more challenging than I anticipated. There are four exams, clicker questions/qotd each class, a weekly homework assignment, and a smithsonian scavenger hunt project. The homework answers are often online, but there is a lack of information regarding the exams, so I recommend taking good notes. I did not and the second exam killed my grade. I had no reason to interact with Holtz across the semester, but from what I did see, he is very kind and approachable. It is clear he is passionate about dinosaurs and would be willing to answer any questions and likely assist a student if they needed it.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/21/2023	Holtz was a fantastic professor, and he made the class really fun! He's super passionate, and his lectures will keep you engaged. Super approachable and very helpful during office hours. If you show up to office hours he'll show you some of his fossil collection. If you loved Jurassic Park or have an interest in dinosaurs, I highly recommend this class. WARNING: His class relies on A LOT of memorization. His exams are open-note, but the 2nd midterm and final were tough. If you're terrible with memorization, then this class may not be the best choice for you. I was ok with memorization and barely reached an A- He records his lectures, but you can't miss more than five classes due to short answer assignments. Homeworks and Midterms have extra credit and you get to go on a self-guided trip to the Smithsonian for an assignment (alone or in a group). I wouldn't say this was an easy A, but if you love dinosaurs, it'll be worthwhile.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A brenna44 12/11/2023	I had holtz for geology last year too and he was amazing. Great lecturer and really cares about the topic and teaching it
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/10/2023	As everyone says, Prof. Holtz is extremely passionate about what he teaches, sometimes to a fault. Try not to schedule classes right after this one because he does have a tendency to talk over the 50min allotted period, and he does, sometimes, post a panopto recording to finish off that day's lecture. When he does post recordings, they can go well over the 50min mark, which he explains with "I go much slower in the records than I do in class, and I try to answer any questions that students may have while watching the lecture." (to me it wasn't that bad, but if you're short on time or have other hw to do, it can be a bit of a pain.) Attendance is somewhat mandatory: he asks QoTDs and you have to answer them on ELMS within a certain timeframe for them to be counted. He does drop five of these grades, so you can be absent for five classes and not have it count against you. The lectures are fairly dense, and if you have no background in science whatsoever it can be quite difficult. The hws are fairly easy (an ELMS "quiz" due every Friday night, and he offers extra credit questions). The midterms greatly increased in difficulty (imo) and you only have an hour to do them (again, he offers extra credit on these). There's a major project due around 3/4s of the way through the semester where you have to go to the Smithsonian and answer a packet and turn it in (he gives you a few weeks to do this and tells you when the best time (as in where we are in the content) to go). Some lectures can be less interesting than others, but he tries to keep it all interesting (expect a LOT of memes). Overall, I definitely recommend Prof. Holtz to any student who has to take this course. It wasn't an easy gen ed, so don't think you can take it and expect an easy A. At the very beginning of the course he compares his class to Orgo Chem, so expect it to be challenging.
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2023	Super great professor you can really tell that he enjoys taking about this stuff. Take this class if you can!
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/10/2023	Awesome professor. Super enthusiastic about what he teaches. He is also super approachable and I find it very fun to converse with him. His classes are extremely interesting and his assignments are fun. If you have a remote interest in prehistoric life, you should take his class. His exams are online and open note too, with lots of extra credit questions. I have over a 100% in the course. I took the class for my minor in paleobiology and hope I can take more of his classes in the future.
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/19/2022	It is my favorite course at college!!! Prof Holtz is very nice and he is passionate about what he teaches. The lecture is very interesting and you can learn a lot about fossils. If you love paleontology I would highly recommend all his courses.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Anonymous 11/08/2022	If you are looking for an easy gen ed, this is not the class for you. If you are truly passionate about dinosaurs you may get a lot out of this class, but if you are not it will most likely not be interesting for you. If you don't have a geology experience, this class will hard, as he goes through the background topics very quickly. He is a passionate professor and knows his stuff, but he does not recognize that many of his students may not have a science background (because, again, this is a gen ed) and he is not accommodating of that gap. He threatened to make the midterm harder as retribution when he did not feel the class was taking the course seriously. Overall, he expects way too much for a 100 level gen ed, and he is perfectly fine with being vindictive if he feels the class is not reaching his lofty expectations.
Thomas Holtz CPSG200 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2021	Very easy 1 credit course, put almost no effort into it, but still gained a lot of good knowledge. Probs the best of the 3 cpsg courses. Holtz is very enthusiastic about what he teaches and its great
Thomas Holtz CPSG101 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2021	The second part of SGC is a lot more work, however, Dr. Holtz explains it all really well, and his lectures are honestly amazing. He, Merck, and the TAs grade things very VERY leniently, and by the end you'll definitely feel like you learned a lot.
Thomas Holtz CPSG101 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2021	This class is much more work than it should be, but as a professor for this 1 credit course, he is very kind an approachable and grades VERY leniently in this course. He also loves to throw jokes around, however, sometimes he flips the switch and becomes way too serious sometimes and again the work given for this class is way more than it should be.
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2021	Holtz really loves his stuff. For those who do not know, Holtz is a world renown Paleontologist (Studies Dinosaurs), and his love for the topic in this class is quite evident. However, I do not think he handled the switch to online too well. His lectures (pre-recorded) would be around 3 hours in length, thsi combined with the fact that we had mandatory discussion sections and an "optional" review session, meant his class took way too much work and time than it should have for a gen ed. The homework assignments for this class also took way too long, however, I will note that out of the 8 total homework assignments, 7 of them were in the first 5 weeks of the course, which for the rest of the course there was essentially no homework, except for weekly discussion posts and a bi-weekly quiz (of which 2 lowest are dropped). He also gives around 5 bonus points on each exam (usually easy questions), so it is a nice buffer. If you are taking this class for the Dinosaurs in its name, fair warning, this class is more of an evolution class or a speed run of history of life on the planet. We spent 2 lectures on Dinosaurs themselves, and you only really learned about their evolutionary traits or some special things about them as a whole. Like for example we did not talk about like anything about the Cretaceous Period which I find ironic because Holtz specializes in Tyrannosaurs (we did cover the extinction in great detail). We also spent a good chunk of time on stuff like paleoclimate (which while important) , is extremely boring and took up waaayy too much time. If you came to this class for an easy gen-ed, I believe the ease of this class is based solely on your love of prehistoric life, I loved dinosaurs and etc growing up, so this class was quite enjoyable and I did quite well on all of the midterms and finals because of that, however , this class can be challenging for those who werent as invested into Walking with Dinosaurs and etc when they were kids.
Thomas Holtz CPSG100 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/06/2021	Dr. Holtz is great. He's like the blue to Dr. Merck's red, he's a bit mellow but he also has his goofy side. He definitely tried his best to make online colloquium as fun and engaging as possible
Thomas Holtz CPSG100 Anonymous 12/20/2020	Very nice person, and tries to make things engaging. All assignments were very reasonable, and he was very lenient about grades. However, his online teaching style sometimes fell flat making the class sort of boring at times.
Thomas Holtz CPSG200 Anonymous 12/14/2020	Holtz is amazing. Quizzes, Exams, Assignments, Projects, etc.. all are very reasonable and he is understanding if you have some issue with submitting things right when they're due. I would recommend him 100%
Thomas Holtz HONR259C Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/10/2020	DINOSAURS! Wasn't much of a dinosaur obsessor growing up (although I was always fascinated with them), but this easy-going class/seminar made the evolution and methods of research of dinosaurs extremely interesting (dinos are now my favorite animals). Professor Holtz is super knowledgable about everything and is a great professor and person. Even though our quizzes were easy and didn't cover everything he talked about, he presented very concise details about the topics covered, and I was grateful for it! The class itself is super chill. Lecture twice a week, basic essay on a research paper due every week, quiz every two weeks, and a fun media presentation capstone final on any topic of your choice! One of the most fun classes I've taken at UMD as a CS major.
Thomas Holtz GEOL204 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/13/2019	Exams, quizzes, and assignments are great. You don't need to go to class, just take half an hour a week to read the lecture notes he posts online.
Thomas Holtz Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/20/2018	Best professor I have had at UMD! Funny guy, interesting lectures, enthusiastic about the subjects he teaches, lots of extra credit... all around great!!
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2015	Great professor! He's funny and likes to tell corny jokes. You can tell he's super passionate about this topic. He gets so excited like a little boy talking about the subject. There is a lot of memorization that goes into this class. Don't take it unless you can memorize facts and names very well. Holtz even said up front that this class relies on memorization A LOT. If you put in the work and effort, you can get an A. The quizzes are easy, and his midterms usually use some of the questions from the quizzes. Class is great! I took it in Freshmen Connection and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/26/2014	worst class ever. Clicker quizzes every day so you can never skip, so boring. Had 4 online tests so you didn't have to pay attention because you could look up the answers but the final is in class so unless you CRAM for the final you are not bound to do well. Wouldn't recommend
Thomas Holtz Anonymous 08/24/2014	Very engaging professor and very passionate towards the stuff he teaches. He is arrogant though, but his humor and style of teaching makes up for it. Pretty easy class.
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A asharm93 01/13/2013	This class can be easy if you just keep up. Otherwise you are gonna be lost with scientific words you don't know. The class structure is based around 4 online tests, clicker quizzes, and like 2 other assignments. His entire note guide (which is extremely detailed) is online and all the tests which are online (minus the final) can be done using these notes. I can't find an excuse as to why you would get a low grade besides you being extremely lazy or just legit stupid. He is corny, but he is amazingly smart and wants you to understand. I liked the class and wouldn't mind taking the second part of it sometime.
Thomas Holtz GEOL102 Expecting an A Fabian Castro 11/17/2011	This guy sucks. He's so stubborn and he's just plain annoying. DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS IF YOU DON'T NEED IT!!
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting a B sukeung 12/08/2010	He's a really good teacher but you have to study so much for the tests. The first test was easy..but the second killed me. You can't forget to take the quizs because they add up in the end.
Thomas Holtz GEOL102 Expecting an A+ vaalbara 05/19/2010	Great guy. He's honestly interested in the stuff he teaches (and it shows). Class is pretty straightforward - lecture is optional, but it's probably in your best interest to go since his tests are based more off lecture than the book (which I never opened). He makes a lot of corny jokes (and internet references...), and his tests usually have an abundance of extra credit points.
Thomas Holtz Anonymous 12/27/2009	This class is not worth it. Its nice because the notes are online but there is so much material on tests and you need to know the all material for every exam. Beware of the grading policy also. The quizzes don't help your grade that much and make sure you do well on the Smithsonian project 1 because its worth a lot more than the second.
Thomas Holtz Expecting an A Anonymous 06/01/2009	This class is really not too challenging at all. Almost all the lecture material is posted online and the exams aren't too overwhelming. The only downside to this class is that is usually work done in discussion, so you really should attend-there's also quizzes every couple of weeks, too. However, most of the time discussion will at least be an opportunity to boost your grade and depending on who your TA is, it might not be a lot of work. The only big discussion assignment was the Kyoto project near the end, but that wasn't even bad. Although most of this class is okay, a big negative about this class is that it's co-taught by 3 professors, so it seems a big "scattered" and overwhelming at times. Just make sure you go through the slides before exams (there are two midterms and a final) and ask any questions about the material and you should be okay......... Out of the three professors, I thought Holtz was the best! Granted, sometimes it's hard to keep track of all the information he presents, but he brings energy and some humor to the lectures and keeps things "fresh"-you can tell he's really passionate about what he's doing......good luck!
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A toiletpaper55 12/29/2008	This class is harder than it sounds. It ended up being a lot more work than i wanted it to be. the book is pointless so dont buy it. the online notes are nice but they dont cover everything so you have to go to class which sucks since its at 10am. The exams arent too bad but the class is a lot of work
Thomas Holtz GEOL104 Expecting an A+ albender 12/12/2008	Dr Holtz is a fantastic professor. He tells the corniest jokes, which make his lectures very enjoyable, and he is great at explaining the concepts in the course. He's also great at waking up the class when the content gets a bit boring. There are extra credit questions on virtually every assignment/quiz/exam, so as long as you pay attention in the lectures you're sure to get a good grade.
Thomas Holtz GEOL102 Anonymous 01/19/2008	Great teacher. He tells rather corny jokes, but covers the material very well and lets you know exactly whats going to be on the exams.