University of Nevada at Las Vegas / A / Marianne Austin

Austin's Philosophy 101 class was a freshman's worst nightmare. Although I entered her class having already read half the authors and being a lover of philosophy, I soon realized that knowledge of the subject would not be good enough for this professor. Your grade is composed of a paper and essay-style exam questions. The major problem was the exams, which were phrased ridiculously obscure. I felt like she was more interested in trying to impress me with her range of vocabulary than to evaluate my knowledge on the subject, particularly because this is a 101 class. The essay questions also ask about what was discussed in the lectures, which was her main focus. She demanded responses based on her lecture, not the actual reading materials. This is what made me the maddest, because she was more interested in the students knowing HER interpretation of the philosophers than them knowing the philophers ideas. Also in the questions, she listed a few things she was looking for, but even responses to this were not sufficient in her eyes. No matter how I answered it was never specific enough for her. Overall, I think the worst parts of this class were: (1) wasting my time and money, (2) the grade I recieved and had to replace by retaking PHI 101 again (in which I received an A and was top of my class!), and finally (3) the fact that I didn't really learn anything.