Paolo Santorio

This professor has taught: PHIL170, PHIL308B, PHIL408K, PHIL408X, PHIL418B, PHIL418I, PHIL660, PHIL808K, PHIL808L

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Paolo Santorio PHIL418B Expecting an A Anonymous 05/31/2024	Paolo has been one of the best professors of my UMD career. He had very engaging lectures that directly followed the flow of the papers we were required to read. He was very inviting to discussion and even talking on adjacent topics in order to solidify our understanding. The course itself was very interesting, intertwining logic, logistics, and epistemology. The class was split into two sections, of which followed the same structure -- weekly quizzes (easy), a writing assignment, then a paper. I would take every class available with this professor if I could.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/17/2024	Really great professor tbh. Super helpful and approachable during office hours and after class. He made sure to emphasize that it was okay to ask questions and ask for help if you didn't understand something, so I never felt helpless when I was lost. He's also very generous when it came to our grades, dropping several of your lowest homework and quiz grades. Only reason I suspect the rating is so low is because of the class content, it's a very you get it and it's super easy OR it will simply never click for you kind of class. I personally found it quite simple as someone without mathematic or CS background, but maybe my brain is wired differently. Overall, this prof was super helpful and you shouldn't be afraid of this class despite all the other reviews!
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/14/2024	This is a really fun class. It is not too bad if you reach out to the professor and TAs.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/02/2024	Professor Santorio is a wonderful professor. The course is not too bad if you read the textbook and attend office hours. The course is very doable but may take more enough that you may think after the first midterm.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting an A ppeterp 12/16/2023	All of the reviews for him that are low, especially for PHIL170, is just because that is a hard subject, not anything he did wrong. It's a kind of you either get it or you don't class. I think he was a perfectly good professor, he was nice, always answered your questions, and helped you figure out the solution to problems. He also dropped your 3 worst homework, and 5 worst quizzes. And let it so that part of the final replaced your worst midterm grade. So don't choose to not take PHIL170 because of the professor, don't take it if you don't understand logic.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting a C bellawagnerr 12/06/2023	This course was tough for me. Professor Santorio is helpful and knowledgeable, but the course is one where you either really understand or really don't.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Anonymous 01/12/2023	Santorio was a fine instructor — he did a pretty good job for such a difficult subject. He held numerous office hour sessions before exams, released additional problem sets, and even curved all four exams (he curved the final exam greatly). I am not a major in math or computer science, so I had no prior knowledge of the material covered in this course. Professor Santorio and his TA’s office hours and review sessions are definitely the reason I succeeded. Further, the people who did poor in this class almost never went to class, discussion, and never even considered office hours. If you show up to class and occasionally go to office hours, you will have no problem passing the class.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting an A+ tybug 12/16/2021	So I did take this course, but I'm largely writing this review because I think Prof Santorio is being unfairly criticized here. First off, to anyone reading these reviews, understand that there are two types of people that take PHIL 170: people who are already familiar with abstract logic (math majors, computer science majors) and people who are not (philosophy majors). The former will think that the class moves too quickly (see reviewer directly below me) and the latter will think that the material is too difficult (see every other reviewer below). While I did already know the content of the class before taking it and so it's hard for me to judge Prof Santorio's lecturing, what I did observe was largely competent explanations. It doesn't help that while this course actually deals, relatively speaking, rather simple logic, logic in general is a very difficult subject to introduce for the first time. I'm not sure the reviewers below would have fared any better with any other professor. So yeah, I think Prof Santorio did just about as well as he could have given the difficulty of the subject matter. Any criticisms of the course going too slow should be disregarded, because the majority of people need the course to go slower, not faster. If you are part of the latter group, congratulations! Sit back and enjoy an easy class.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2021	Drawn out lectures. I reviewed his 50-minute lectures in <10 minutes apiece and got the same information. Only went to lectures to submit homework. Even then, he won't put out the box for homework until the end and will keep you hostage the whole lecture.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Anonymous 12/26/2020	Horrible. Cannot teach at all. Class was essentially logic, which has nothing to do with philosophy at all. Class is 3 midterms and a final. 2 asynchronous lectures a week, and a live session every 2 weeks. Does not help at all when it comes to learning the material. The open source textbook is also really bad at explaining the material. If you get a good TA, you actually might do well enough, but if not, discussion is almost not worth it. Class time itself was a disaster, midterms had to get pushed three times, and material had to be cut from the final, which would not have helped, as the class average on tests uncurved was either a D or a C. He does curve tests like 10-15 percent, but I consider myself lucky from scraping something adequate. There is no reason you should be picking this class unless you need this class for law school or you need to fulfil the quantitative skills requirements. Take STAT100 or something like that, which is less torture.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Anonymous 12/19/2020	Lectures are difficult to understand, he is not great at explaining material at all. TA’s were helpful but that’s just about it. Would rate lower if I could
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/02/2020	The material is abstract and he does not do a good job of explaining said material. Every class period was frustrating and the only reason I haven't failed is because I lucked up and got a really good TA. Needless to say, if you have the option, I would not recommend taking this class or having Paolo as a professor.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Anonymous 10/10/2020	I'm sure he is smart and capable of understanding the material himself, but he cannot teach it to others to save his life. Don't take this class with him unless you absolutely have to.
Paolo Santorio PHIL170 Anonymous 09/16/2020	Horrible at translating the material of the book and his materials into plain English. I had to to turn to YouTube and other third party sources in order to have any kind of chance of succeeding in this class.
Paolo Santorio PHIL418I Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2020	Paolo is great. He loves questions being asked in class and is very good at answering them in a clear manner. The course material can be a little abstract, but he has done an excellent job of giving it over well. He also grades very fairly. If you understand the material you will do well on the papers.