| Information | Review |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting an A mlm2015 05/10/2015 |
Take this class. Leathers makes it impossible not to do well- yes the lectures are a bit boring and dry, but he posts slides online with voice recordings that are extremely helpful in case you miss stuff from lecture. There are exams every 3rd friday on the material covered for the previous 3 weeks, so it's pretty tough to fall behind. Exams are 3 questions each, with two prompts per question; you get to choose which prompt to answer for each question (e.g. question 1. answer prompt A or B, not both). and by the time the final comes around (which is all multiple choice), all you need to do is review your notes a few times. There are weekly quizzes online that you can retake as many times as you want (so you are pretty much guaranteed to get a 100% each week). I thought this class was interesting and was the best structured of any course I've taken at UMD, you would have to try not to do well |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/14/2013 |
Unless you understand econ, don't take it. He lectures from a book he wrote himself and reads off of slides with -2 font. Going to class is worthless because you can teach yourself more by reading the book. TAs were extremely not helpful. The 250 point final consisted of 82 multiple multiple-choice questions (REALLY DIFFICULT) and it was somewhat cumulative with most emphasis on the last section of the class. The only grades from the class come from six 125 point exams (every other week). No curve and no weight. I took this class for the global poverty minor and an upper level elective. Seriously save yourself and your gpa. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/30/2012 |
Leathers is a horrible professor. He reads from his book that seems to have been written by a third grader. You don't have to go to class to do well. Leathers will also make his tests much harder than they have to be. You'll have to answer questions like: in which article did you learn this piece of info? that is ridiculous. how on earth does it matter where we learned any of this information. leathers should be fired since he has nothing to offer the class- any insights can be grasped from his book. (but that would never happen bc of tenure) btw, he is also completely inattentive of student needs... |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/10/2012 |
Very good professor. I made mistakes in the beginning of the semester and messed up the first few tests but here's how to get an A in this class.. -go to every single class -take notes on what he talks about (not just whats on the power points) -review notes day before exam -read the assigned articles on blackboard night before the test -the textbook isn't important to read but it can't hurt |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/06/2012 |
I really wish that I could professor Leathers a 5 but unfortunately the class was designed to be way too easy, which was not his fault. I'm not going to complain about an easy A but I wish that this class at least had Econ100 as a pre-req so he didn't have to give his lectures as though we didn't know any econ. With that in mind, I did learn a lot from this class (this is the only class I've taken where I actually will bring up what I've learned in casual conversation.) So while Leathers obviously knows what he's teaching the lectures are way too informal and the university should have some pre-reqs for this class. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2011 |
Professor Leathers is a nice guy. He makes the class engaging by showing small clips and using slides with pictures. Besides the book, there are some extra readings, but most questions in the exam are not very specific. Final is cumulative, but not hard at all if you go over the most important points made on the semester. Also your grade is based only on exams and he drops the lowest grade. I would highly recommend this class to people who want to learn about world hunger. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting a B agaybaby 05/20/2011 |
Lecture is worthless, just read the book/readings. Slides he puts up help sometimes, but they too are mostly worthless. Lots of graphics and barren slides. Exams were easy, ~15 multiple choice questions and a few short answers. There are 6 of them (one every two weeks). He will drop one of them, average your other 5 exams, and use that average in place of the 6th. Final was 81 questions long, 50% stuff after exam 6, 50% stuff before. It sounds daunting but I was done in ~25 minutes. There were no short answers, instead replaced by a short answer style question using ~5 different answers, using A and B for true or false basically. It's not the easy A it apparently was in the past, but it still doesn't require much effort. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/19/2011 |
I took this class because I heard it was easy and a lot of the work tests/quizzes were online but he changed the structure this semester. Your grade comes down to 6 exams and a final so if you are not a good test taker I would encourage you to stay away from this class. Overall though, Leathers is a pretty nice, easy-going guy. His tests aren't really that hard as long as you read the chapters and attend lectures regularly to see what he is focusing on. He also gives out extra credit when the average grade for tests is low so it is VERY important to go to class after he posts the test scores. If you need to fulfill a diversity requirement, this isn't a bad class to do it |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting an A CB 03/24/2011 |
Professor Leathers changed his teaching style for the class this semester...for the better. There is an exam every two weeks. In order to prepare for these exams, you must do the assigned reading...but the reading is manageable. There are no quizzes and class attendance is not mandatory. However, he sometimes gives an online quiz and if you go to class he gives you the answers. The exams are not hard if you do the reading for them, so far i have finished every exam in 25 minutes. Overall, this is not a difficult class and it is a good fulfillment of my diversity core. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC433 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2011 |
Test are every other week. He has changed his whole class because people are saying his class is too easy. Now in order to get an A you MUST attend all the lectures or at least get all the notes because his exams are mostly based on them. His final was tough too, but if you keep up with the daily articles/reading you'll do fine for the final. He also does not curve , alot of people were upset , so if you get a 89.9% you'll get a B. Over all good class. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC433 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2009 |
The class isn't very engaging because the lectures consist of him only lecturing with no types of in-class discussions or small group discussions to break things up. That said, he gives a lot of A's and B's if you put in the effort. He can be a bit strict at time, but he is a nice guy who will help you if you need it. If you're an AREC major looking to fulfill your major requirements, this is a good course to take. |
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Howard Leathers
AREC365 Expecting an A tschwob 11/01/2008 |
I am a business major who took this class as an upper-level humanities elective. The class was very boring, although Howard Leathers did seem like a nice enough guy. He assigns weekly homework assignments and online "quizzes" so it is imperative that you check the website daily. You also will be required to write up a paper. This was kind of a hassle. The tests were somewhat challenging, though if you go to class and fill in the blanks on his slides, you should be fine. I went to class probably 10% of the time and managed to pull an A. |