Zeinab Karake

This professor has taught: BMGT301, BMGT301F, BMGT403, BMGT407, BMGT485, BMGT495
Information Review
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2023
Professor Karake is a kind and caring professor. She cares about her students and believes in their success in her class. She broke down all the excel functions well in a way that made the coursework pretty easy if you go to class and pay attention. The exams are pretty difficult, but she curves them a lot so I never got lower than a B. You're also allowed to bring 2 doubled sided cheat sheets for each exam so I didn't need to study a lot, just complied the information and found what I needed during the exam.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2023
I genuinely do not understand why Karake has such low reviews. TAKE 301 WITH HER!! She is probably the best professor that I've had so far. She genuinely seems like she cares about her students, offers lots of office hours where you can get the excel projects done, and is very fair in her exams. Inspired me to double in information systems!! Take the class!!
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/21/2023
Karake is a professor who is clearly very passionate about teaching information systems. Her lectures are pretty engaging and she does a decent job of getting the material through to the students. The main caveat to taking her class, and this is a pretty giant caveat, is that her exams are near impossible to properly study for. While a solid portion of the questions are things that you have learned and will understand if you have paid attention, she always includes a handful of questions that contain the most niche, useless, and unpredictable information from the chapters in the textbook. And when you're asked to study ~4 chapters of maybe a hundred pages, you'll never realistically memorize EVERY SINGLE word and minor anecdotal detail, no matter how many hours you study. Literally every single exam ends up being curved. Overall, I think most everything about Karake's class is fair and enjoyable except for the exams. Too bad the exams make up half of your grade.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/10/2023
Karake is an incredible professor. I had never used Excel before this class and she does a great job of breaking everything down to make each function easy to understand. Weekly quizzes are very easy. For tests you should be fine as long as you write EVERYTHING down on the cheat sheets. Excel projects are fine as long as you go back to the previous excel files from class to see what to do. She is also a great person and genuinely cares about her students and wants them all to succeed.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/21/2023
Karake is the best professor I've had at Smith. She cares so much about all of her students. She goes out of her way to make sure that everyone is on track to learn the material. You will do fine in this class if you attend all of her lectures. When it comes to grading, she has a great curve policy so even though her exams are difficult, you still have a good chance to get an A. Most of her exam questions come from things she verbally says in class, so make sure to pay attention. Also, she gives you ample time to complete the four excel projects that are assigned throughout the semester. GO TO THE TA OFFICE HOURS! They will literally walk you through how to do all of the projects. I learned so much from this class and still made a good grade, so don't let any bad reviews deter you from taking Karake. She is a lovely woman and an amazing teacher.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/01/2023
Professor Karake genuinely cares for her students and their learning. She is engaging and helpful.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
ptailor
05/25/2023
Karake is such a kind woman who takes the time to learn all her students' names and makes the class engaging. She has done so much in life which makes her extremely knowledgeable and experienced in the subject and she genuinely wants everyone to succeed. Always go to TA office hours for the Excel projects and you'll be fine. The exams are kinda difficult but she allowed cheat sheets for them. As long as you put in effort and try you'll do fine.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/24/2023
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH KARAKE!!! I know the ratings look decent, BUT DON'T RISK IT. Her test questions are not relevant and very niche, she basically looks for ways to take points off. The exam questions also don't relate to anything you would actually need to know! She lets you have two pages of notes, but it never EVER ends up helping you. The chapter quizzes and excel projects are alright, but I heard a lot of other professors have easier projects. She's like nice and seems to care about her students, but she doesn't really know how to teach effectively. ALSO HER EXAMS ARE BULLSHIT.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/21/2023
I honestly did not know nothing about excel, and as an international student some of the terms were very hard to understand, but by studying and writing down things I manage to get a B though I was about to fail after the first exam. Just put yourself into work, see the TA's early for your projects, go to the office hours, you can earn an A!
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2023
Dr. Karake is a very kind and caring professor, and knowledgeable in her field. The excel applications and projects were reasonable (and often fun), and the first two exams were very straightforward. The final exam was atrociously hard, with very specific questions that were never discussed in class. Speaking as a student who had >99% in the class before the final… the difficulty level was uncalled for.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
student1230
04/25/2023
Great and knowledgeable professor. Actually helps you understand the concepts we're learning. She makes the class engaging. There are 4 Excel projects that we do during the semester and three exams total.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/03/2023
she was unresponsive towards students and didn't try to make class engaging. never answered emails, and made the exams impossible to do well on without the curve because they were filled with the smallest facts from the book that were hardly mentioned. This class was insanely boring and I feel like I didn't learn even though I did decent in the class. Excel projects were super hard compared to her class examples. I would have failed without the TAs!
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/25/2022
I also don't understand why people like this professor or why she (according to herself) is so highly respected in academia. I don't think she's great at explaining things, and you pretty much see each concept only covered once, which is strange in a class rooted in application. She writes her own word problems for homework assignments and the grammar makes the assignments unclear or ambiguous. She does clearly love the subject and seems to like her students. She does also come across as condescending as noted by others, but some things you have to take as a cultural difference being perceived a certain way. All of that said, an A is possible. Despite the frustration. I have since taken courses of this subject but more advanced, and had to work less hard to do more complicated coding because the information was taught better by different professors.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/24/2022
I don't recommend her because she talks down to people. This class is unnecessarily difficult and she can't teach well. The exams are filled with the most random stuff. Take a different professor!
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Anonymous
12/22/2022
Probably the worst professor I’ve had at Maryland. She is extremely condescending and unorganized. While she gives you a study guide and note sheet on the exams, the study guide has very little to do with the actual exams. The questions on the exams are extremely specific. If you don’t read the book you will struggle. She also doesn’t respond to emails. With that being said she does always say she wants her students to do well.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Anonymous
12/18/2022
she’s incredibly sweet and wants all her students to succeed. all the exam material is either in the slides or discussed in class, and she lets you have a sheet of notes. engaging lectures and useful, applicable material
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/26/2022
Professors like Karake are the reason tenure is a bad idea. She's just given up if you can even get a response from emails you send. She doesn't have very engaging lectures and if I didn't have the help of the TAs, I'm pretty sure I'd be failing the class. It's made me question if I want to stay an IS major. From talking to my friends, I wish I would have taken it with Shapiro. They look like they are doing cool things in that class. Take anyone else if you can.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/23/2022
Dr. Karake is easily one of the best professors I've had at UMD and she makes sure to focus on what you will actually use in your career. She clearly loves teaching and makes it clear how much she respects and appreciates all of her students. Her class is my favorite every week!
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting a B
Anonymous
11/17/2022
I don't understand how people like her so much, she can be pretty condescending. Exams throw in random concepts that are never/rarely mentioned in class. She doesn't care about the success of students and expects people to understand excel right off the bat. If you aren't good with excel and data, I would strongly recommend taking this with a different professor or community college.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/14/2022
She is actually such a good professor. She genuinely cares about her students and if you pay attention you'll do well
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/06/2022
She reads off the slides and then whizzes through excel without a break-the excel projects are pretty difficult and the most helpful resources are the TAs. She never replies to emails and the lectures are very very boring, exams are difficult and contain very specific questions from the book.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
10/12/2022
Professor Karake is by far the best professor in the entire business school. Her class may be difficult but all of the skills you learn translate directly into jobs/internships. If you take the class seriously and aim to grasp excel skills instead of cramming information the night before exams you will take away lots of valuable skills.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/30/2022
I don't understand the negative reviews for professor Karake. She isn't messy at all and has well structured lectures. Usually about half of it is conceptual applications of info systems and then the other half is excel. Both of those are on the exams. She explains excel very well too and works through the applications with you. She is very nice with students and tries to have a relationship with them. She clearly knows the subject well and cares about every students learning. I also never had an exam question that wasn't related to the class, and she gives a curve on the exams.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2021
Honestly, this professor is so messy. She can barely explain concepts, her lectures are a disaster, and she isn't that nice with students. Her exams are filled with random questions that are unrelated to what we are learning. I wish the class focused more on Excel and less on conceptual muddle. I suggest you find another professor to take this class, or take it elsewhere.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/14/2021
Karake is very sweet and tries to have a relationship with her students. Unfortunately, this class is relatively difficult unless you really like excel. Her lectures tend to end in tangents and don't really help with class content. Exams were kinda difficult since you never really knew what you were walking into.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Anonymous
11/20/2021
Professor Karake is an amazing professor. The class topics can be so boring, but she makes the environment so friendly and she's pretty funny. She makes sure to know her students personally, and constantly keeps everyone engaged. On top of that, she's really good at teaching. One thing I will say is that her exams and quizzes are really hard. The questions require a lot of critical thinking, and unless you memorize the chapters and her powerpoints and are really good at Excel, they'll be almost impossible to pass. The questions, in my opinion, are beyond what we're capable of understanding as students, so it's quite difficult. But as a person and professor, she's engaging and knowledgeable, though she can be quite strict if you don't pay attention.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/06/2021
Dr. Karake is the best professor I've had at the University of Maryland. She is an extremely hard working teacher that cares whether her students understand the material she is teaching. She constantly asks if the concepts are clear to the class and has no problem going over things multiple times. I highly recommend taking her class.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/21/2020
Genuinely the worst professor I’ve ever had, is incompetent teaching online and then blames students for issues. Is unresponsive to emails and when she does respond is unhelpful.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting a B+
benmurph
04/22/2020
Professor Karake is my favorite teacher I have had thus far at UMD! She keeps you very engaged in each class and has a personality that could make any topic enjoyable to learn. Good powerpoints and answers any question you have thouroughly.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/07/2020
Her grades are given out by ranking you on a curve compared to other students. While this may help out some students, the majority of people in my class were dragged down below A level despite having a 95% in the class
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/12/2019
Dr. Karake is enthusiastic and cares about students who care about the material. If you do the work, you will be fine. If you need help, the TAs are very insightful and will guide you to figuring it out or clarifying the questions being asked. Start the projects early so you can get help when you need it.
Zeinab Karake
BMGT301F

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2019
I loved taking Karake's class. The things we learned about were super interesting. I will admit there is a lot of reading-- read the book if you want to do well--but it's worth it if you are interested in information systems. Her exams and quizzes are super specific so watch out for that.