EVSC 2800

No out of class work like most EVSC classes, but the tests are really challenging. Herman might be the only person in the department who can make this course interesting. Awesome class- made her my advisor after taking the class.

I absolutely LOVED taking this geology course with Professor Herman! It was one of my highest grades last semester, and I genuinely looked forward to going to each class with her. This isn't to say it's an easy-A; paying attention and taking good notes in class are important, and a lot of the exam questions are out of the textbook. It's suggested you take at least CHEM 1410 before this, but I didn't. There were some parts I didn't have a full understanding of due to my lack of a chemistry background, but it isn't vital to take gen chem before this. Can be a tough grader, but always open for regrading and talking through answers.

Like the review below says, Herman is probably the only professor in the department that can make this class fun. She's such a sweetheart, and I'm pretty sure she learned most people's names in our 80 person class. The class was pretty tough, but manageable. Do yourself a favor, take this class with Herman.

Professor Herman is a nice lady and I see why geology can be a very interesting subject, but even before the online transition I found Herman's lectures boring, the textbook was boring, and the exams had an unnecessarily low average and were unnecessarily difficult.

I feel like Professor Herman REALLY tried to overcompensate for what she thought would be a lack of learning in the online transition by adding many homework assignments that were just busy work and ended up damaging my grade because needless points were taken off. These homework assignments were supposed to be alternatives to in class assignments, but in class assignments would take 5 minutes and be graded for completion, not accuracy, whereas these homework assignments could take 3 or 4 hours and she would take needless points off. Other than that I think she was over exaggerating with how bad the online transition would be and she did a good job at handling it and hasn't given herself enough credit. The voiced over powerpoints taught the material, though were more lengthy than they needed to be though at times she did try to reduce it, and were very much like an in class lecture.

I would NOT recommend this course with Prof Herman. Her goal was to have a final class average of a C+/B-. So if you were thinking this would be an easy A, that is not the case. The class is a lot of work due to in class group activities and homework assignments. Before classes moved online the syllabus stated that there would be 5 total homework assignments for the entire semester. After classes moved online she changed it to 2 homework assignments each week, as if we didn't have enough to stress about already, because we weren't doing in-class activities. The exams are extremely difficult because they ask very specific questions on things that were either not clearly laid out or that we never went over but we were supposed to use what we did know to predict. Don't get me wrong a few people did manage to get 90+ on the exams, I have no clue how. The range for our first exam, before the coronavirus disturbance, was literally 29-99.5 with multiple people in the 30s and 40s range so the 29 person wasn't just a lone outlier (absurd). There were 3 exams that were part multiple choice, part essay questions and sometimes fill-in-the blank and matching. I like her as a person, but her teaching style doesn't match the way she asks exam questions so I would not recommend. I could also be biased, I have no interest in the topic of geology so the class could've been more dreadful for me than others because I HAD to take it for a requirement.