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Marvin Jones
ASTR230 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/19/2026 |
ASTR230 is NOT a class you want to take if you just need the gen-ed credit. There's a certain demographic of people that might like the class, and if after reading my cripes you like them, then surely take it. If you couldn't guess by my star rating, I unfortunately don't fit it. First of all, there are 3 discussions led by either Marvin or your TA, and a lecture by Marvin every week. Every class is mandatory, as there is an assignment you have to complete with your group every discussion, and with every lecture there is a quiz you have to do, each one worth 1% of your grade. So you can't skip unless you're cool with your grade tanking(though two discussion grades do get dropped). Maybe this is biased because I'm very much a night person, but the lectures at 9 am were a nightmare, and I don't think I could ever pay attention. He knew this, and so he did stuff to capture our attention that was annoying as hell. 9 in the morning and he'd make everyone do jumping jacks, clap our hands, say an alliteration, etc. I understand that he does this with good intention, but on many days it was literally hell to me. If the "fiction" part of the course sounds fu you, don't get excited. It's only about 10% of the class, but I genuinely dreaded it because of how insufferable of a lens we approached it through. He would put up movie clips, badass stuff like the moon crashing into the Earth or people driving through crashing buildings, but instead of it being cool for even 5 seconds, Marvin asked about what made things realistic versus not. And not to hate, but the type of people who answered and whose answers Marvin would praise... I wouldn't wish any of my enemies to watch a movie with them: "Well actually, if the moon were on a collision course with Earth, tidal forces would rip the crust apart long before impact" "The gravitational perturbations alone would destabilize Earth’s orbit and cause catastrophic mantle heating" "At that proximity the Roche limit would be exceeded and the moon would fragment before it ever hit” Stuff that's the literal definition of 🤓👆. Again, I don't mean to hate, these are obviously very smart observations with tons of prior knowledge brought into the course that I simply don't have. But when these are the people raising their hands, it doesn't really give me any desire to participate whatsoever. And no hate to my TA, they were definitely very knowledgable and put a lot of work in, but their voice was low and they often struggled to get everybody's attention after group conversations to continue presenting, especially when Marvin wasn't there as well. Course material and time commitment aside... it's a pretty hard-to-get A. The 4 tests were all abysmal: averages all in the 70s. Not just because the tests were hard, but also because the grading was very odd. There were questions that asked for multiple things at once, and missing one part could cost you the entire question, even if it was worth around 10% of the exam. The same thing happened with math: even if you got the correct numerical answer, you could still lose points for not showing the exact sequence of steps he wanted. For example, writing “70% of the radius” wasn’t enough; you were expected to explicitly write 7π/10π, show the π canceling, and then convert it to 70%, and skipping any of that cost you the entire question(10%!!!) even though the math was identical. There'll also be questions that ask something specific, but you can still lose points even if u answer the specific question because he arbitrarily wanted you to mention something else in the period that was very important. To be fair, I think he and the TAs became better about giving partial credit as the semester went on. The fourth (and easiest) exam, whichmany people skipped because your lowest exam score gets dropped (that’s actually a nice perk), was mostly memorization, and on that exam, they gave full credit for responses that earlier in the semester almost definitely would’ve been nitpicked. Totally random nitpick I have is that he ruined one of my favorite songs. He played the same jazz Youtube video every time we took our 9 am exam, and exactly at the point of the test where I'm screwed and start counting what percent I know I got right, there would be this jazz rendition of Diamonds by Rihanna. I'll never listen to the song the same again. The final project was probably the most fun thing in the class as you were allowed to be creative, make your own story of a journey to a galaxy, making up aliens and planets along the way and presenting it to the class. The only thing I didn't like about it was how you were allowed to be as fun as you wanted in the research paper, but in the presentation you were supposed to be deadpan serious about all the creative things you made. I actually heard one of the TAs saying the part they didn't like about our presentation was how it tried to be punny. Overall, this really isn't a class you want to take if you aren't the specific type of nerd that likes criticizing movies for their realism, likes Marvin's humor, likes 9 ams and having to show up to every class, or just genuinely like astronomy. This class genuinely caused me more headaches than any of my core STEM classes, and if your just looking for something to full-fill the gen-ed, I would look elsewhere. Marvin is passionate and wants the best for you, this class just wasn't something I enjoyed. Thanks for listening to my rant :) |
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Marvin Jones
Anonymous 01/05/2026 |
Marvin is a good professor who keeps the class engaging and makes astronomy seem like a pretty cool subject. The TAs were very chill and I think anyone can do well in this course. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2025 |
He is really nice. Labs and discussion usually end 30min to an hour early. I think it’s one of the easiest lab classes here. The exams are usually very similar to the practice. It’s a good class to take if you need to knock out DSNL for less work. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2025 |
Pretty nice guys, tries to be engaging, which I really appreciated. Lots of busy work, assignments after every lecture, and tedious homework. I ended up doing decently in the class because there are a lot of assignments besides exams. If you need a science credit and are willing to do some work, I would recommend this! |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2025 |
Professor is actually really engaging. However lectures were not mandatory, only specific times where he would tell you before if there was an in lecture activity you really need to show up (but lowest two lecture activities get dropped so really you dont need to go). However, he does give a lot of extra credit if you participate in the lecture. Labs and discussions are all required, but TA's are great, and really helpful. It shouldn't take more than an an hour - an hour 15 per lab, and we typically got out 15-20 minutes early from discussion. Lowest lab also gets dropped. He gave ample time to do the work, often times he delayed the homework assignments. He gives review sheets before every exam that are very similar to whats going to be on the exam, personally if you memorize and know everything from the review sheet you should be able to get a B on every exam. There is some stuff that he'll throw in not on the review sheet, but if you want to get by with the least amount of studying just doing the review sheet and knowing that will get you an A as long as you dont skip lab and discussion. My TA vouched for me at the end of the course and professor rounded me up to an A (i was only .15 shy) TLDR: recommend taking for a relatively low stress science lab course |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/16/2025 |
Honestly I wanted to make an honest review on here. It is an easy A-, NOT an A. I needed an A in the class and I attended every lecture, lab, discussion section and submitted every lecture assignment that is due after every single time the class meets. The exams were MOSTLY similar to the mock exam, but there were come random curve balls and you have NO answer key so you dont even know what he is looking for and AI to check answers may be wrong and screw you over for the test. That being said an A is a 95 and I got a 77.5, 84.5 and 85.25 on the final. I had studied for hours and for it it to be an easy exam, they weren't. Yes he is engaging and whatever I just thought it was an easy A but for the amount of work outside of class it is not, it is an easy A- |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2025 |
If you need the science lab credit go for this class. The labs are fairly simple, and they are all computer simulations, no lab reports as well. Lecture can be interesting at times but there are small assignments you have to do after every lecture that are due the night of. Exams are stupid easy with the practice exams being almost 1-to-1 with the actual exams. There are 4 homeworks which he gives ~3 weeks to do, they are not the hardest but are very time consuming, I'm pretty sure he expects some outside research when doing the math problems on homeworks. But DO NOT use AI, he is very strict about it. Highly recommend the professor since he is entertaining and does his best to keep the class fun. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/25/2025 |
pretty funny guy. If you need to take a lab to graduate, this is not a bad choice at all! There's a small assignment due every night that there's lecture so that's a heads up. He expresses how he will fail you if he catches you cheating or using A.I, but if you get caught you probably deserve it. Don't hesitate to take this class though, Should get an A, even though its a lab! |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/20/2025 |
He's a good professor who tries hard to make lectures interesting. He also gives a lot of easy grades (homework and lecture asignments) to helpo boost your grade. Although you only have about 12 hours to do them and if you turn it in even a day after the due date you will get no credit so watch out for that. The midterms are generally easy, and he gives study guides and practice exams. The only thing that bothers me is he makes a big deal about showing up to lectures and will even add questions on the exams where you have to reference activities done in lecture to get points. Other than that though he's a pretty fair grader and a good lecturer. For the natural science with lab gen ed, this is a good class to take just be ready for all the easy busy work you'll have to do and study well for the exams. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting a W Anonymous 11/06/2025 |
Very funny guy and engaging, but I must warn everyone LOUD and CLEAR. Do not use AI for ANYTHING. Not even the tiniest math problem on homework. I got kicked out of the course for doing this. Yeah, this is easier than most lab courses, but if you are too lazy to do busy work DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. My life may be ruined over this. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/07/2025 |
Great prof. Loves what he does and makes lectures fun. The homework was time consuming but doable. Labs were easy and the TAs are great. The exams are just like the practice. The final was the easiest thing i've ever done. Class attendance is not necessary but discussion and lab is. I think I went to class 5 times. Three times for exams, the first day, and when he said we were doing an activity in which attendance was mandatory. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/05/2025 |
Funny guy and the class was pretty interesting. Homeworks and labs could be a little confusing at times but I'll give him a pass since they were graded kind of leniently. |
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Marvin Jones
Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/13/2025 |
I really liked this professor, he’s funny, nice, understanding, and clearly passionate about the subject. You can tell he genuinely wants students to do well. That said, the class itself was moderately tough just because it required a lot of outside studying. The weekly labs didn’t really teach much and felt like a waste of time. Discussions were also super annoying, especially the required “debates,” which made no sense and felt forced, that part’s more on the TAs though. The homework was way harder than anything on the exams, which was kind of frustrating. Plus, there were lecture exercises twice a week on top of labs, discussions, and homework, which made the workload feel a bit excessive. Overall, it was okay, definitely not the worst science lab class, but not the easiest either. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- chadvader29 05/11/2025 |
Professor Jones is a great lecturer and clearly loves teaching. He is passionate about the subject and cares about his students learning and doing well in his course. His exams are essentially identical to the provided study guides (although these guides do not include an answer key, which seems kind of dumb to me) and the midterms have surprisingly little bearing on your final grade, which takes a lot of the stress off. He makes astronomy an interesting topic, in my opinion. Grades are pretty easy to maintain with free easy work, so overall, failing this class is more difficult than other 4 credit gen eds. |
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Marvin Jones
Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2024 |
Funny dude-- keeps otherwise boring lectures entertaining. Nonetheless, I still spent most lectures on my phone. Tons of free grades thru the sem allows for less pressure on exams. No curve in class, 95% is an A because of plentiful extra credit. Not too much work besides 5 homeworks throughout the sem. 87, 87, and 78 on exams got me to a 93% which was an A- with plenty room to spare. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2024 |
There is honestly no reason not to get an A in this class. Jones is nice, funny, and wants his students to do well and get good grades. He's very generous with extra credit and his exams are identical to the study guide. If you put some effort in you will do well. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR230 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2024 |
Honestly, very nice professor and our TA was awesome. He definitely cared a lot about how you do in the course, and I don't just say that about everybody. The class meets four times a week, which is a bit much, but it gets better over time. I actually found the discussions to be a bit fun, so I didn't mind much. Three discussions and one lecture, all of which you must attend. 10% of your grade is lecture quizzes, which you do on the computer and you only need 50% to get full credit. 40% of your grade is discussion worksheets, which you do in groups on the computer and they're graded for "blood, sweat, and tears." There's really no reason you shouldn't be able to get full points in both of these categories. That 50% of your grade is basically given to you for free. The other 50%, you've got to work for. There are 5 units, the first four of which have tests, and the lowest one gets dropped. The tests make up 30% of your grade. The Unit 1 test (on Gravity) and the Unit 4 test (on Biology) are pretty simple. The Unit 3 test (Chemistry) is a bit more challenging. Unit 2 test (Flux), was, well, I'll just post the test medians here so you can see for yourself: Unit 1 - 81/100; Unit 2 - 57/100; Unit 3 - 78/100; Unit 4 - 77/100. Definitely some rough grades for a gened, so you're going to have to put in a bit of work. The exams really weren't that hard in my opinion, though (except for the Unit 2 exam, which I felt we didn't get nearly enough time for). Luckily, the lecture quizzes and the discussions are free points, and Professor Jones also gives you a review sheet before the exam with ~40 questions that you can work through. Around half of the questions on the exam are pulled from the review sheet. The other half of the questions are applying what you know, which can certainly be harder. The last 20% of your grade is a group project. You get the entire semester to work on it in your group. You basically have to design your own stellar system. You have to make it both plausible (consistent with calculations and science) and creative (not too much like our Solar System). You have to make a presentation on your stellar system, which is 15% of your project grade, and you have to write a paper on it, which is 85% of your project grade. If you don't wait until the last moment and check in with the TAs and/or Professor Jones if you have any questions, you'll be just fine. Another note is that this was the first semester that Professor Jones taught this course, and all things considered, it actually went quite smoothly. One important thing to note, though, is that despite being called "The Science and Fiction of Planetary Systems," this class is about 85% science and 15% fiction. The professor who taught this course previously had a lot of assigned sci-fi readings. Luckily, Professor Jones didn't have us do them, although you certainly could if you wanted to. Overall, I'm giving this a 4/5 stars. Very solid professor, very solid course. The tests are a bit on the harder side, so just make sure you don't procrastinate on studying, do the review questions, and go to office hours and ask questions. Professor Jones and the TAs definitely want you to succeed. This class is a very solid choice and you certainly can't go wrong with it. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024 |
The dude is super passionate about teaching and you will learn a lot if you take this class with him. I've taken quite a few classes at UMD and he is one of the few who genuinely cares about the students and loves teaching. Practice exams are pretty similar difficulty wise to what will be seen on actual exams. Some of the questions were a direct copy and paste from the study guide. exams have no curve balls, are pretty surface level, and have a bonus question. Homeworks also have bonus questions which take like less than 20 seconds to solve. The posts below me are a bit of a red herring so let me elaborate (keep in mind this is based on fall 2024 so the structure of the course may change in the future). There are indeed 5 "homework's" in the class and the assignments themselves are not really "apply what you learned in lecture" but rather "do some research to figure out the answers." This is a bit different from the traditional types of homework's given in other classes, but the assignment itself shouldn't take longer than an hour if you are actually trying. It's mostly just figuring out the formulas/constants (which you can google and just cite it) and plugging in values (math just includes basic algebra). You have 2 weeks to complete each homework and are given out sparingly. Keep in mind this is a 4 credit class so are expected to put in a bit more work compared to other gen eds. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/07/2024 |
If you are not really interested in astronomy or not a science major, I suggest not taking this class. While I believe that Professor Jones is a very nice person and is funny, if you cannot comprehend difficult material in all science-y terms, it is difficult. Our first midterm, he said to not ask for any equation sheets or practice questions. The class average on that test was a 76%. The second midterm he provided both an equation sheet and practice questions which made me feel way more prepared. Prof. Jones does a good job at including group activities during lecture to switch it up a bit, but when he lectures on slides, my TA told me that only about 5-10 of the slides out of 40-50 are actually important for tests. There are only 5 (I believe) "Homework" assignments, but each problem is very difficult and much harder than anything you would do on the test. You need to be able to understand complex word problems and math in order to succeed well in this class. The only reason why I have an A is because of the extra credit opportunities on the homework assignments and tests. I suggest meeting with your TA to go over the Homework answers because it is so difficult. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Anonymous 10/12/2024 |
The professor is nice, the TA's are nice, but the only thing is the homework's will become extremely difficult for you if you aren't too much into math or aren't a physics major. They intentionally make the homework's more difficult than it needs to be, so if you aren't a math person and don't understand the concepts you definitely need to go to office hours with the TA or the professor. There are also only guided study guides for the exams, but there are no previous practice exams that you can actually practice on. If you are taking this as a GenEd then I guess it's a okay class to take, but if you are taking this to boost your GPA then you may want to reconsider another course for natural sciences w/lab. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR288B Expecting an A Anonymous 09/11/2024 |
Really nice professor. Cares about students. Problem Sets reasonable. Passionate about math. If you have this professor and fail, it is genuinely your fault. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR101 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/08/2024 |
Extremely well-prepared, lectures are interesting, overall a genuinely enjoyable class. He's also a super chill guy and it's clear he's passionate about what he teaches. All slides, review questions, etc are posted in files ahead of time so you can review the material before lectures. Exams are pretty similar to review sheets so if you put time into them you should do well. Grading structure is fair and workload is good. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR300 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2024 |
Really nice and engaging professor. He tries to make every class engaging but for the most part, it's like any lecture and its hard to always stay focused. He did take attendance in the beginning of the semester and had some spontaneous attendance group activities, but he only started doing that when he realized people never showed up to class. Workload is really chill. 1 homework every 2-3 weeks. 2 group presentations about some topic (pretty light). Exams are the study guide. Chill class, would take again with prof jones. |
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Marvin Jones
ASTR300 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/08/2023 |
this guy is a good professor, he tries to make class engaging but most of you are going to be on your phones anyway lol. besides that the homeworks are easy, and you will be doing a couple group presentations throughout the course just 5-10 minutes. and the exams are also easy as long as your do his study guides, they are basically 1-1 |