[Anaam]

I took this with Rodde in the 2008 academic year. It was his first time teaching this course. And he made a big mistake, he did not check how many total students were enrolled in the class the day before the midterm. He went by some previous numbers and therefore, the room did not have enough seats. Some students were unable to write the test, and everyone was sitting next to each other. Cheating was rampant and he was unable to stop it. People were literally discussing the test questions. This is why some students did not like this course or the professor.

But I think that he realized his error, owned up to his mistake and adjusted the test marks accordingly which is something I cannot say for every professor. A lot of professors make test errors but fail to acknowledge their mistakes.

This course is all about arguments, I found the material very interesting and it is useful for writing essays or just putting forward good arguments.

Rodde has excellent notes. If you go to class, you can copy/type his notes which are more detailed but he does post a 1 or 2 page summary of all of his notes. When class attendance dwindled, he did not post his summaries.

3 Tests (20% each)- All MC, about 20/25 questions
Exam (30%) - All MC about 30/32 questions


Tests are fair and doable if you study. For me, MC was a gamble even though I studied, I found that it was easy to misconstrue a question. I found that questions were ambiguous and that this is the nature of the course. Everyone has a different way of interpreting the question and even the TAs and the prof have different interpretations sometimes.

Fortunately, if you go to Rodde, and put forward a really good argument for why your interpretation is correct, he will actually accept the answer. So sometimes, there were multiple correct answers for a test.

Overall, I was freaking out during the course as I took it considering it to be bird but it wasn't going well for me. In the end, I did well but by a total fluke. I wouldn't say it is bird due to the ambiguous nature but the material itself is not difficult at all.

[maqboot]

has anyone taken this course with Dempsey?
(or any courses at all with him.. how is he as a prof?)