George Hurtt

This professor has taught: GEOG140, GEOG301, GEOG398H, GEOG415, GEOG442, GEOG615, GEOG642, GEOG748F

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George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/29/2024	His lectures are extremely boring. 90% of it is just going over exactly what was in the textbook but then there's like five minutes of him talking about current events. His exams are just memorizing random facts from the textbook (like "how many people died in Hurricane Katrina?" and you have to use the exact fact/number in the book even if other sources, like the internet, disagree). Speaking with him at office hours sucks, he's incredibly condescending and doesn't listen very well. I misspoke once and he decided he needed to explain everything to me (like what an adjunct professor is...). This course isn't that hard IF you are allowed to take the exams at home, but if you're not allowed to do that then you'll have to study like crazy, all for a 100-level gen ed class. If there's any way you can get out of taking this class or take it with a different professor, DO THAT.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 05/22/2024	The test questions were not only way too difficult for a 100-level course, they were in some cases so poorly written that they were impossible to understand. They said to ask questions if you were confused, but if you do ask for help, they slightly rephase the question (in a way that does not make it any more comprehensible!) and walk away. The textbook was over 300 dense pages of the most obscure facts and complex vocabulary. There was basically no point in attending class because every test question was pulled from the textbook (yet Professor Hurtt complained that not enough people were attending classes). This was supposed to be a GedEd. I would not have minded this course being difficult, but this was impossible. I put more work into studying for this course then I did for classes that I actually liked that were related to my major, and I still got a worse grade in this class. Overall, a terrible class.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/13/2024	DO NOT TAKE IT! He only reads off the slides (which are copied and pasted from the textbook), and gives no additional or useful input in the slightest. Other students and I tried so hard studying the material, but no matter what there is absolutely no way to memorize 5+ chapters with multiple individual sections inside each, specific details about REALLY current events, and small facts that you can get wrong even if you understand the bigger picture of what a disaster is. None of the tests can be taken remotely anymore, and that's why he was rated so highly in the first place with high grade averages. The grade data looks amazing, but trust me this class has finally made me consider enrolling in therapy and focusing on my mental health. NOT AN EASY GEN ED. He has no passion for teaching, and I bet he's only here for the research opportunities that UMD provides. I wish more than anything that I dropped this class before I wasted time self-teaching the material and before it tanked my GPA. Be better than I was.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 05/13/2024	I just want to say this is the hardest gen-ed I've ever took, I even spent more time on this class than my math class. Dr.Hurtt's lecture just came from the textbook directly, and he just read the powerpoint as the lecture so a lot of people stop to go to the lecture because it does not worth to go. The final is better then the midterm but it's still hard, the average is like 73. You have to spend a lot of time to understand the lecture, the GLE and the questions. So take an easy gen-ed. Also Dr do have a curve but it's still a hard class overall.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/13/2024	The class itself is very easy. 25% of the grade is from just completing the weekly modules, regardless of what grade you get, just based on completion. 25% from the project which was also ridiculously easy if you pick a well known topic. the other 50% is split in half between both exams which are the stupidly hard part of this course. In order to be successful, you'd have to memorize every tiny, specific, minute detail in the textbook which is 300 pages long, and the class slides, which are about 200 pages. The exam questions are so oddly specific that your best bet would be to guess your way through the exam unless you wanna sit there stressing yourself out for 2 hours.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2024	The content itself is not too hard, however, the professor tries his level best to ask for the most minute details on exams. I spent so much time studying for this class (more than my math and CS classes combined) solely due to the insane amount of details you would have to memorize. While he did makeup exam 1 with an extra credit which meant the grade would not take a massive hit, you still end up spending so much time studying for this class. Being a gened, it should not be this hard!
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/09/2024	I am taking this class because I needed a gen ed credit and it is currently the hardest and most stressful class I'm taking. The two exams being 50% of your grade is insane because of how extremely hard the exams are. The professor tried to blame part of it on us because a lot of people didn't do the readings or attend lectures, but I did both and still did poorly on the exam. He did give extra credit once he realized that the average on the midterm was 62%. The lectures were pointless and the lead TA was not good, laughing at student's performances on an extra credit assignment because they weren't getting 100%. The grades weren't consistent either, me and my friend had the same exact formatting on the project and she got points off while I did not. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH THIS PROFESSOR.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/08/2024	I am going to be honest; he doesn't deserve a 1 but doesn't deserve a 5 either. I took this class as a major requirement and it began extremely easy, with weekly homework being graded on completion and the only project being a simple paper. The midterm exam was incredibly difficult because he chose minute details from the textbook that you likely only would have retained had you read every last sentence and had a good memory. The questions were mostly not application-based and were not focused on the most important information. The midterm review session was also incredibly misleading. While many were frustrated by this, Dr. Hurtt and the TAs DID take accountability for this and allowed us to complete test corrections for half points back, and gave us extra credit for a grade boost no strings attached. Many individuals in the class were shockingly unprepared as students go (some not knowing if in-text citations should be used). It is WAY too easy to get an A in this course even with the ridiculously specific exams. He also gave us two different extra credit quizzes to be used for the final. 70% of the students don't show up to class and definitely have never opened the textbook. If you have a good memory, you will do fine on the exam. But YALL!!! Textbooks are not a courtesy or given for fun, they must be read if you expect to do well in a course. If you choose not to open yours, your poor performance is on you! Dr. Hurtt has room to improve for exams, but when it comes down to it he is very reasonable.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	Don't go to lectures, study the text book, and pray tbh. Class is super hit or miss, as it seems easy, but the ta's make the exams impossible. We had test corrections and alot of extra credit which saves my grade, but for a simple gen ed we shouldn't have to worry this much. Class work is easy however just click random ones till your right and you get a 100%. Avoid class if you can
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/02/2024	Lectures are pretty pointless. But the biggest problem is with the tests and projects. Certain things were not made clear and little to no help was given, no exam review along with the exam questions were about minuscule details from the textbook which even if you remembered, some answers were just straight up wrong. The project is constant confusion as the rubric is the most bare-bones rubric possible. Do not take this professor as it will add unnecessary stress to an already stressful college life.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 04/08/2024	The best example I can use to summarize Hurtt and this class is that it is a geography class, yet we use a geology textbook. Enough said.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 03/13/2024	Average on 1st exam is 63% at the time of writing this. You can read the textbook, review the slides, look at the GLE's, practice the flashcards, and still get destroyed. He picked the most minor, minuscule details from a 300 page textbook and over 200 slides, that no sane person will remember. The only way to have gotten an A on this exam was to have reviewed daily with 15+ hours plus of studying a few days before the exam. This is a 100 level general education course. The professor's attitude is incredibly condescending if you ask him a question. His TA's specifically told us not to worry about specific details during lecture review. Speaking of lecture review, we were additionally given no study guide or practice exam. I spent less time studying for my discrete mathematics course and got a higher grade. The sad thing is, I highly doubt he'll even care about the low scores. Hopefully I'm wrong.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 03/13/2024	Just walked out of the exam. As the reviews mentioned, Hurtt decided to host the exam in-person for "reliable internet connection." If so, why did a lot of students struggle to connect to Eduroam? Good thing—the TAs prepared for this and had a few printed exams, HOWEVER, that was not enough to keep up with demand. They ran out and had to go print more. Some students took the exam on their phones. An absolute mess. The average for the first exam came out to be a grand total of 63% give or take, median was 64%. He reads right off his slides, so don't bother going to lecture and just read the textbook. Also, memorize every small detail because it might be on your exam. Based on the grade data, around 50% of students got an A-/A in previous semesters, which is respectable. This semester is a different story. This class should not have been changed.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a W Anonymous 03/13/2024	DO NOT TAKE!! Test questions look like they were pulled straight from a 400 level class. Questions are on complete minusha. Hurtt is a terrible lecturer and has no idea what's happening in his own class. We didn't know whether the exam was in-person until two days before the exam, as he said it's "strongly recommended" to take it in person, and then decided that somehow meant required. The head TA Robyn is extremely demeaning to both students and the other TAs.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/13/2024	Quite shocked to find that his rating was so low. Hurtt mainly keeps lecture to reviewing material in the textbook with some current events. Attending lecture isn't at all mandatory and if you read the textbook, you should be fine. Pretty easy gen ed class but still very interesting. Kinda like having a slightly harder 8th grade Earth sciences class. Lectures are super laid back for those who chose to attend, and he clearly cares about what he's teaching. To the people who said this class was difficult or harder than expected, consider dropping out. Homework graded for completion literally makes up 25% of your grade. The final project is only 5 pages long. And to the person who said he changed the format of the lecture last minute, no he did not. You just weren't paying attention as the test was always going to be in person / hybrid with exception given if you had a schedule conflict. If you are looking for an easy but engaging Gen-ed, I would recommend this professor's course.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 03/12/2024	This professor absolutely sucks do not take him. Lectures are extremely boring and class is made harder than it should be. Took for Easy gen ed and ended up being super hard.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting a W Anonymous 03/12/2024	Class is simply a joke. Horrible instruction and awful TA's. Took as an easy gen ed but is becoming stressful and a waste of time. DO NOT RECOMMEND!
George Hurtt GEOG140 Anonymous 03/10/2024	Class is boring, and not helpful at all.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/10/2024	Horrible professor. He changed the exam from remote online to in-person two weeks before the first midterm. The lectures are honestly extremely boring and do not help at all. Read the textbook and memorize all the minutiae cause you will probably be tested on those. Current events were good but only added to more work. Do not take this class with this professor. The course itself is easy but the professor made it so much harder.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/31/2024	Lectures were pretty boring and 99% of the information could be found in the textbook. The worst though, were that the exams were on very tiny meaningless facts ("how many people died in Hurricane Katrina), and the answers were specifically from the textbook. So while studying you couldn't google "How many people died in Hurricane Katrina" because actual estimates vary a lot and you need the specific and likely inaccurate answer from the textbook. It made the class weirdly difficult, because not everyone can memorize every associated fact with every natural disaster, especially very arbitrary numbers like that. Also, I went to talk to this professor in person and he was incredibly rude and condescending--there was a miscommunication early in the conversation and whenever I tried to clear it up he would just get angrier at me and imply I was stupid for miscommunicating in the first place.
George Hurtt GEOG140 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2023	Hurtt is a pretty nice guy and not a bad lecturer. The content is quite interesting and he incorporates current, relevant natural disasters into the curriculum. Lectures are not mandatory, and most information can be gleaned from the online E-Book and slideshows, which are posted on ELMS. Class is 25% online homework, which is automatically full points if you just do it - you don't lose points for wrong answers, and it ended up amounting to <20 minutes per week. 25% each for a midterm and the final exam, which were 40-something multiple choice question ELMS quizzes. He gave the option to take them remotely, which was cool of him, and the exams themselves felt perfectly fair (B average). Last 25% is two parts: a 1 page summary assignment about a natural disaster and a 5 page paper elaborating on the summary that were both graded very kindly (median grades were 20 out of 20 and 88 out of 90). A lot of people stopped coming to lectures because you can honestly skip most of them and get an A, so he offered extra credit assignments for people who attended, which was sweet. Overall, solid gen-ed if you want a good grade without a lot of effort, but the class is really quite fascinating if you do.
George Hurtt GEOG415 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/08/2021	Took class in Spring 2021. Live lectures were pointless to attend most weeks as he did a lot of monologue on off topics. Had a group "research" project to do over the semester which was sporadically mentioned and checked in on over the semester (for which guidelines were unclear and confusing a good majority of the time). The 2 closed note exams were identical formats. Both were unreasonable for the amount of time he expected us to complete them in (1 hr 15 min with 3 sections which included matching, fill in blanks, and short answers for undergrads, but also a fourth long essay for grad students) and based on random details from the research papers he assigned (when I say random he wanted specific percents recalled in one of the fill-in-the-blanks).