Hi,

I was really looking forward to taking critical thinking this fall, and I've heard some great things for Dr.Hitchcock but he will not be teaching it for this year - Dr.Rodde will.

Has anyone taken the course with Dr.Rodde? I've heard some very mixed reviews. I know it's not an easy elective, but if you put in the work, is this course worth it? I've heard the tests are very ambiguous... how did it turn out for you?

Hoping for some advice,

I'm taking this course right now so I'll be able to let you know this evening how the exam is.

As of right now the course was a 20% assignment, a 35% essay, 5% for submitting your hmwk each class and 5% for showing up and participating. The rest is the exam. I am not sure how it'll change in the fall.

About Dr. Rodde, very interesting prof, I quite like him. The TA I have now is nice too. I am a science student so I don't know how hard it is relative to other humanities courses, however it was one of my hardest courses I've had so far, not so much in terms of material, but it certainly wasn't easy to get an A on the essay and the assignment.

Oh wow! It seems like it's changed from the winter term. There were midterms and no essay with Hitchcock. I've heard great things for his course.

You're review excluding the exam so far sounds quite difficult. I'm a science student as well and I was just looking forwards to learning more about arguments and some alternate "thinking" skills.
What was the assignment on? I really didn't expect an essay from this having seen previous exam questions :S.

Hope your exam went well- let me know!

I thought this course didn't have any essay components. On learnlink, at least, it shows that it was mostly MCQ in 2009 with Dr. Rodde..
Did he change that completely?

I haven't taken this course but I had Dr. Rodde in first year for a Logic class and I've heard the two courses are quite similar. If the essays are the same, it's a dialectical essay...quite formulaic and easy enough to do well on. Dr. Rodde is a really nice guy, and while he/the material can be a little dry at times if you put in an effort and go to his office hours, you'll find you understand it a LOT better.

I am wondering the same thing as hyvaa. Did Rodde suddenly change up the format of the course and is using the new format for the summer session and on? Help would be really appreciated. I'm considering this course for the upcoming year!

The format of the course definately changed from previous course outlines I could find (I could not find any two the same when I was deciding if I should take the course).

Outlines of the assignment and essay are attached.

The course material isn't hard to understand. I think I did well on the exam, but as its still relatively subjective compared to science i'm not willing to make a prediction on what I got.

I received a B+ on the assignment. (A- on one commercial, B on the other). I definately could've gotten an A- if I had picked a second commercial with as much to analyze as the one on which I got an A-.

My essay earned a B, mainly because I had not thought of a few objections to my argument. My advice is to read your own essay critical and see what objections a TA could raise.

I wouldn't call it a hard course though.

Thanks so much for the info!