Benjamin Jones

This professor has taught: HLTH672, PSYC100, PSYC200, PSYC420, PSYC450
Information Review
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/21/2024
Class was easy but super boring, you have to attend lectures for the clickers but the exams weren't anything too crazy. Only downside for me was my TA was a harsh grader and took off points for miniscule things.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2023
This class is certainly a 100 level which meant I did find the lectures pretty easy and found myself losing points more because of sentence counts and such than actual incorrect information but Dr. Jones does a really good job lecturing and teaching. He's a super charming guy and clearly cares for and understands his students with grade policies to match. We got 2 of our weekly quizzes dropped and only had to attend discussion every other week which meant this course is very manageable. Would certainly recommend especially if just needing to get the psyc100 credit done
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/01/2023
Awesome guy. super understanding especially revolving around campus issues. Lectures are hard to learn from but if you do the readings you will be fine. Love him
Benjamin Jones
PSYC450

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/26/2023
Dr. Jones is a pretty understanding and lenient guy but the lab portion of this course absolutely sucks. Although I'm pretty good at R, a few of the projects are group projects, which is stupid bc your grade then depends on other people's work, and many times the 2-hour lab alone is not enough time to complete the project with your group members. His current grad TA also docks points for every little error imaginable, even on the weekly discussion notes which are supposedly "low stake" grades. I anticipate an A, but it is ridiculously annoying how hard I have to fight to maintain my grade
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
11/02/2023
do not take professor jones. he does not teach during lectures and his tests don't even cover the material we learn in class. i swear he pulls it out of thin air. he must be writing these reviews himself bc he's not this good.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting a B
Anonymous
07/06/2023
He's nice and all but I found his lectures pointless to go to. It takes less than 20 minutes to read his lecture slides for the 80 minute class. I was disappointed with this class though, mainly because my TA was a horrific grader, and I got a B in the class when I could've easily gotten a A had it not been for my TA.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
06/06/2023
He is obviously passionate about the class but you can't really understand him in lecture. Just hard concept to grasp. -He does participation point which can help raise your grade in the end. -Really, the only way I felt like I passed the class was going to offices hours and meeting with the TA. -When I stopped going to class and just meeting with TA during office hours that's when I started doing well.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/04/2023
Nothing bad to say about this absolute GOAT. He really might be the best professor at Maryland. I hate STAT and think its so boring and confusing but Jones made the material understandable. His tests and homeworks are fair and he really stresses that he wants whats best for his students. Take him if you can because he is HIM! I love this man!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A-
neesh1903
05/24/2023
Honestly not a bad class. The quizzes can sometimes be annoying but he is a very dedicated professor and really knows what he is talking about
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/17/2023
By no means is Benjamin a really bad professor. He usually teaches nicely in his lectures and his TAs are helpful. But the structure of the course makes it very difficult to get an A. So if that’s something you are worried about, you might want to consider other professors. Benjamin literally made the homeworks the most weighted part of the course. And no kidding, they imo are the toughest part of this course. Now maybe my review is not reliable since I procrastinated but even then, you will really need to spend LOTS of time on the practice homework before you do the real homework if you want even a chance of doing well on the real homework. I wish he would weigh the other assignments higher and make the homework contain less questions, like maybe 10-15 questions since we already have a lot on our plates. If you want an easy A, this is not the professor for you. But if you are willing to put the time and organization in, you may have a chance of succeeding.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC420

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2023
I really enjoyed this class with Dr. Jones. My group mates and I got to explore a topic that we felt was interesting and the class has good energy. I did not feel that the Wednesday discussions required mandatory attendance since it was the same people participating anyway, but that's probably my only complaint. He was really helpful in guiding the research experience and is pretty knowledgeable for whenever we had questions. Also offered to completely review the final papers with us before we turned them in, which really eased my stress when finishing it.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/14/2023
He puts on way too many formulas on one slide thinking that it will explain how they were derived but it just makes things more confusing and hard to understand which formula we are actually supposed to use. However, he is easily accessible and goes above and beyond for his students
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/09/2023
Very good teacher, just have to be willing to put in a reasonable amount of work.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/30/2023
joke of a professor and joke of a class. Complete waste of time and worse than high school busy work. the only thing i learned is i hate psyc100 and i wasted my time and money just so i could take a prerequisite.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/30/2023
This is the worst class if you are trying to fill a prerequisite and never want to do anything with psychology. His lectures are long and a waste of time, briefly covering contend and then showing you multiple youtube videos. One lecture was spent almost entirely on the blue/black vs white/gold dress and spun it as "perspective." I find him to be unprofessional, seemingly unqualified as a professor, and truly got nothing out of his class except for the passionate distain for psyc100. On top of his unprofessionalism, his assignments for class are worse than busy work you did in high school and a complete waste of time, then graded harsher than they should for a 100 level class that is the biggest joke. Not an easy A and if you are a busy stem major do not waste your time with this joke of a class or professor.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC420

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/24/2023
Dr. Jones is the best professor I've had here at UMD. He makes lectures very interesting and engaging. He also makes sure no student falls behind and is very good at explaining and teaching course material. Overall, I highly recommend you take Dr. Jones in any class; there's not too many professors out there that actually care about us students.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/26/2023
Professor Jones is entertaining and endearing, he may ramble a bit in his lectures but they are generally fun to listen to. There are a lot of assignments throughout each week, but they are generally not difficult and not too time-consuming. Very laid back and fun intro course!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/15/2022
Good lecturer and makes lectures informative and entertaining. Exams are online and open note which is nice. Discussions are biweekly and mandatory. Overall great teacher and a good class.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2022
Dr. Jones is a good lecturer, and his classes are very interesting and engaging. You will likely enjoy this class. Some of the application activities are difficult (particularly the ones were you are required to read actual psychology studies), but overall I enjoyed the class quite a bit. The exams are super easy and open note.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/01/2022
I took him in Spring 2022. He's a good lecturer and tries to make the content interesting. Aside from the PowerPoints, he also includes visuals (mainly videos) to accompany the information. The workload of the course was extremely heavy for a 100-level class in my opinion, but I think that's uniform throughout all sections regardless of professor. Lectures weren't mandatory, but he did have clicker assignments during lecture that were graded for participation. The discussions were mandatory and they take attendance each time, and they happen every other week. There's an online textbook that's provided for all students. There were 3 take-home exams (including the final) when I had him, application activities every other week (the week's that you didn't have discussion), worksheets (which are like quizzes on ELMS) for each module, and learning activities. He also had exam reflections to try to gain back some points on exams. I would grade the general course worse, but Dr. Jones makes it bearable for the most part.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/22/2022
The lecture content is interesting and he's a good lecturer - definitely a character to listen to. Lecture is not mandatory, discussion sections are. Textbook is free and accessible online. If you don't plan accordingly, his assignments can be overwhelming and difficult because they are due in the middle of the week at 4pm (usually). They will be difficult to do well on if you don't read so don't think you can get away with a good grade by not doing the required weekly readings. The readings are time consuming as well but I found them pretty interesting so it wasn't too bad. Discussion sections are mandatory and they grade you on your attendance/participation. Honestly, the discussion section was the worst part of this class because the activities weren't helpful or relevant, just busy work. It would've been nice if they had reiterated content/ideas learned in lecture but nope, they fed you an entirely different topic irrelevant to lecture. Aside from that, it's a good class. You will be REQUIRED to volunteer for research studies for a total of three credits, most of which you can do online. Just make sure to knock them out earlier on because you have to do them on your own time and they are annoying to do. Great class, highly recommend professor Jones.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/17/2022
I literally love Professor Jones he was such a great teacher!! I had no knowledge of statistics prior to this course and was nervous it would be hard to keep up, but Professor Jones was a great lecturer and made sure no one fell behind. Halfway through the semester he changed the format of the homeworks to be more accommodating to student concerns, and everyone improved their grades. He even cracked some jokes in class which made it less boring. The only thing I didn't like was the R homeworks, but it's part of the course so whatever. Definitely take him, he wants you to do well and cares about his students.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2022
Dr. Jones is such a good teacher and wants to make the class as enjoyable as possible. He really cares about his students and wants to help you succeed. He understands that stats can be hard, so he gives example in class and walks you through it to make sure you understand. The TAs are also super helpful! Take Dr. Jones.. I highly recommend!!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/13/2022
Very great professor, he really cares about his student's learning and wants them to do well. He picks really good TA's who are really accommodating and nice and want to help you as much as possible. He talks very fast in lecture which can make this class in particular very hard but he records every lecture so I stopped going to in person class and only watched the lectures so that I could take my own notes and take my time with it. There are 3 exams, including the final, worth 10% of the grade each, as well as weekly homeworks with 20-35 questions and either a short reflection or an R programming assignment. The R assignments can be time consuming but are kind of easy. This topic can be really hard to grasp but Dr. Jones makes it bearable. 10/10 recommend him to take this class with.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Anonymous
05/12/2022
(junie) b jones was great. He's really kind and tries to take everybody's opinions into consideration, covers content pretty well, tries to grade as fair as possible. Class has lots of clicker credit and homeworks were fine at least after he fixed the formatting. If you're having trouble with R def go to the TA session and maybe even jones' office hours. He's caring and laid back at the same time only thing is that I wished he was a little more assertive. Still great tho he made statistical methods seem simple. Also helps to learn how to do math in excel/spreadsheet I think he said he might teach that in future semesters but if not it's definitely worth looking into.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/05/2022
Engaging lectures and great prof that really cares about his students' learning. We had 3 exams, weekly homework 20-35 questions, clicker questions, and SRW papers and R programming assignments (due alternating weeks), which was all fair but still challenging and a lot of work. He posts his slides, lectures, and textbook blog online. My only complaint for Dr. Jones is that he talks WAY too fast so it's hard to keep up.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/14/2022
Dr. Jones is great! he is young which is nice because he gets or sense of humor and the class as a whole is pretty chill! People are complaining about the work but it's one quiz on elms each week that you have an entire week to do, it's untimed, and you can open and close it as many times as you want. Exams were online even though the class was in person which was nice! He makes the content interesting and even lets you earn extra points after exams as a chance to kind of "redo it". Hihgly recommend Dr. Jones, he's great!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Anonymous
03/06/2022
Dr. Jones lectures very well, and it is very convenient that you can watch the lectures online. My only complaint is the amount of work. Every week, you have about 6 hours of homework from this class alone. He does not provide extensions nor does he reply to your emails about feeling overwhelmed with work.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/09/2021
i only went to two lectures and still got an a. jones is pretty convenient bc you can watch lectures on elms. you don't need to buy a textbook. his recorded lectures were always great. great for intro to psyc!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/01/2021
I had Dr Jones for online class still. I started out going to live class, but I honestly felt as if the class were going kind of slow, I felt myself not being able to actually focus on class because of that and so I would just not go to class and watch it asynchronously at 2x speed, which made it a lot more lively and exciting. Class itself was pretty easy, there wasn't a crazy amount of work ever and the tests were pretty straight forward. He also gives a lot of time to take the test which is pretty nice. For this class specifically, R programming assignments were pretty weird and I felt that they were pretty disconnected from the class itself. Sum up, it was a pretty easy class but not that exciting, hard to stay engaged.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Expecting a B+
hannie714
04/30/2021
really nice professor and very accommodating. I was very disappointed with my grade but it was fully on me that I got it. I would definitely recommend taking psyc200 with him!!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC200

Anonymous
04/21/2021
I cannot express how awesome Dr. Jones is! He's really patient with all students and funny in his lectures. PSYC200 is a difficult course in and of itself, but Dr. Jones made it a lot more bearable.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/06/2021
Definitely a 10/10 professor. His lectures were super fun and engaging, and the assignments he gave each week helped solidify the material we had to learn. Definitely a professor I reccomend
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/14/2020
Dr. Jones was a solid teacher. Although my course was 100% asynchronous I could still gather that he was knowledgeable about the topics and passionate about helping students succeed. The textbook for this course was amazing (and free). Dr. Jones gave lots of interesting assignments and was extremely consistent in the amount of work he required each week. I do wish we had more ways to incorporate more interaction with other students, but I understand the course was all online and asynchronous which made it difficult.
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/12/2020
great professor and very nice. answers emails super fast and cares for his students!
Benjamin Jones
PSYC100

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/12/2019
Honestly one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. He explain concepts very well, make class fun by doing activities that help us understand and remember different concepts, and cracking a few jokes. He genuinely wants his students to learn the material. His tests are tricky, but if you study really hard, go to his office hours, and get good homework/quiz/attendance scores, you should do fine. I’d expect A- if you work really hard but it’s so worth it because he’s a great teacher.