Reviews for W Donald Knight
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: December 20, 2012, 1:48 pm | Knight is a fairly good professor. Like some of the other ratings on here, he never returns any grades so you're kind of in the dark on that. However, it doesn't really matter since Knight grades everything relatively for each student. The grades you don't get back don't really matter since everyone basically does the same (or so he says) so they don't impact your final grade. The big things that impact your grade are the midterm, final, participation, and final project. The midterm and final are pretty tricky and the average is usually in the high 70s. Participation is very important to Knight so make sure you participate in class. The final project is a case study which takes a little bit of time but is fairly easy since you can split it up between your group mates. Knight is a good person and definitely means the best. Once or twice during the semester he'll go off on his beliefs but it's nothing like Pfeiffer. Even though I didn't agree with him, it was pretty well tempered and he doesn't mean any harm. |
| Dherrer2 Course: FMSC341 Grade Expected: May 20, 2012, 7:11 pm | Smith does not know how great of a teacher William Knight is. Below comment is simply not true. The class and teaching style was excellent. The best teacher I've had in my college career. Grading is fair. Yes, the questions can be tricky but if you take the time to understand his lectures you can do fine. He is also very entertaining and funny. This class was the best investment I have made for my education, and I will take what I have learned for the rest of my life. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: B May 15, 2012, 7:28 pm | They recently changed this class to not include capsim. it still sucks. he is very nice, but lecture is 100% worthless. however, participation is 25% percent of your grade. that's right. 25%. each exam is only 10%. as for Knight, he's a very nice guy who cares a lot about his students. however, he does not post ANY grades ever. The only grade I have is my midterm grade, and none of the other 5 assignments, even though they were due months ago. Literally months ago. I am taking my final tomorrow, and I have no clue what my grades are. He needs to learn to post grades, as it kind of part of the job they're paying him to do. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: February 16, 2012, 11:37 am | this person below me must've sucked him off or something. he's the worst teacher ever, incompetent, doesn't answer emails, doesn't even grade objectively. the smith school needs to fire this guy, he alone dropped the smith school down on the rankings list. he grades subjectively, i got my final grade before he even graded assignments. fire this dude. |
| whydidyoueatmyfries Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: A- December 17, 2011, 4:56 pm | No matter who you get for BMGT495 it's not going to be an easy A. The simulation is time consuming and relatively difficult, and that is a big portion of your grade (and the final is the simulation). Personally, I appreciated having a teacher that was as kind and understanding as Dr. Knight. It is true that he doesn't post grades, but to be fair all the 495 teachers curve the grades after everything has been turned in. So, even if he did post grades, they wouldn't be representative of what you actually have in the class. Your grade is made up of individual components (55%) and team components (45%). The breakdown of the individual components is the following: Class Contribution (20%), Research Assignments (5%), Mid-term (10%), Final (15%), Dean's Assessment Exam (5%). The breakdown of the team components is the following: Team Performance in Simulation (15%), Team Presentation to Stockholders (10%), Annual Report (10%), Team Case Studies (5%), Team Homework Assignments (5%). Even though there are clearly some people who would disagree, I would recommend Knight. I really enjoyed having him as a teacher! |
| iknowthis Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: December 8, 2011, 10:51 am | Worst professor in the business school. Has no clue about capsim. Doesn't teach, completely incompetent and bases big chunk of grade on midterm even though it's only 10 percent. Doesn't provide any help and actually takes down who talks. This is not kindergarten. Do not take him ever. You won't learn anything at all. And he doesn't grade anything. You won't know your grade until after the finals. |
| Anonymous Course: FMSC341 Grade Expected: A- November 15, 2011, 4:29 pm | Dr. Knight is highly entertaining and very funny. The class was very helpful in terms of learning about financing your life (cars, budgets, home, retirement, savings, investing). It was like home ec. If you have a background in economics you will be at an advantage but you will be bored! The grades were 4 tests: 60% attendance: 5% quizzes: 20% projects: 15% The material is very easy and watered down yet the tests were sometimes quite challenging and questions out of the blue, so be warned about that. |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: May 24, 2011, 3:45 pm | He did make class interesting but in my opinion that didn't make up for him not posting any grades at all during the semester. He sent multiple emails out saying they would be posted and of course nothing happened. Pretty sure he just based the grade on the midterm (the only thing that was posted). |
| Anonymous Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: ? May 4, 2011, 8:22 am | Knight is an awesome, laid back guy. He knows a lot and is super interesting. He tells a lot of stories during class, which makes the class go by really fast. The simulation in this class takes A LOT of time, but I learned a lot from it. My only problem with Knight is I have no idea what my grade is in the class. I could have an A or a C, all the grades are curved at the end and he only has my midterm grade up on elms, which is only 10% of my grade. |
| Anonymous Course: FMSC341 Grade Expected: February 6, 2011, 10:59 am | I took this class as an easy online class over winter term. First of all, his organization was the worst that I have seen with an online teacher, and I've taken several online courses before. The term was only three weeks, but it felt like the material was squished down into one week. The first week we had one quiz and in the remaining two weeks, we have four quizzes, three projects, and a final exam. Additionally, even with background knowledge on personal finance, I felt like I was searching for the answers to the quizzes throughout the textbooks, his supplemental notes, AND Google (which he told us to use because some of the answers were not in his notes or the book). So while the material was not difficult, I had to put a lot of time into completing assignments that I felt should have been easier. With regards to the teacher, I also felt that his responses to students on the discussion board were not helpful and sometimes rude. |
| Anonymous Course: FMSC341 Grade Expected: D November 18, 2010, 9:54 am | I took this class based on the review of the FMSC adviser and I specifically said how bad at math I was. She insisted that this class was easy so I took it as a free elective as a FMSC major. I was SORELY mistaken. There is not busy work which was nice but yet the exams were not simple. Not that they should be but the questions were worded awkwardly and it was extremely frustrating when most of the class is not doing well; he has no intention of curving. He gave out only a few assignments assigning at least 6 points, which doesn't really bump up your grade at all. It is also frustrating that the business and economic majors have such ease with the course. This allows the distribution of grades to become so disproportionate. |
| natashkamd Course: FMSC341 Grade Expected: P January 6, 2010, 11:39 pm | Took it online P/F over the summer. All the work was open book but even for a finance major i had to google quite a few questions. But did half the work, got my 60% and enjoyed summer. Never had to take the final. |
| Treviewski Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: A December 20, 2009, 7:18 pm | Extremely nice guy, and all around a very fair class. Only complaint is that he didn't put any grades on blackboard the entire semester despite saying he would numerous times. |
| tschwob Course: BMGT495 Grade Expected: A November 1, 2008, 1:52 pm | Dr. Knight is probably my favorite professor at UMD. He is super-nice and approachable and is very knowledgable about his field of study. Business policies with him was a very enjoyable class. The assignments are reasonable and the tests are fair. I highly recommend this teacher as I have heard horrible things about the other professors who teach business policies. |