Reviews for Robin G. Sawyer
Average Rating:| whydidyoueatmyfries Course: HLTH377 Grade Expected: A December 17, 2011, 4:59 pm | Sawyer is incredibly funny. He is one of the few teachers who actually brings in GOOD guest speakers. I will say that his exams are kind of annoying and weirdly specific. But, as long as you go to class and take notes you'll be fine. If possible take the class with a friend so that you can compare notes! Oh, and don't bother buying the textbook because his exams are purely based on class lectures. |
| Anonymous Course: HLTH377 Grade Expected: B+ December 16, 2011, 6:03 pm | Agreeing with KFuller here. Learned nothing that I hadn't already learned from high school health and Scarleteen. Additionally, while Prof. Sawyer generally knows his stuff with regard to history and more clinical issues like anatomy, sexual functioning, STIs, and sexual dysfunction, he presented particularly bare sections on subjects like queer sexuality, trans issues, and fetishes/kink, where it felt like he was just reading from a textbook. He made lots of little mistakes that I'd think would be absurdly simple for a 30-year sex ed teacher to avoid, like continually confusing 'sex' and 'gender' and misspelling names of the researchers' work he tried to teach about. However, those are smaller issues compared to the manner in which the class was taught. Its main audience is the heterosexual college student who knows little about sex, doesn't talk much to anyone outside their gender, and doesn't communicate well in relationships. Prof. Sawyer often pokes fun of kids who say anything about enjoying sex outside the norm. If you're queer, trans, non-gender-conforming, kinky, or even just female, you're going to feel like an outsider at some point in the class. The tests are also problematic. Each is a 100 point scantron, asking incredibly specific (and often trivial) questions. For example, a test this term included a question asking (I paraphrase), 'Which vole is sluttier, the prairie vole or the montane vole?". You need to attend every lecture, as some of the questions are addressed by neither the posted Powerpoint notes nor the text. Homework is graded (it appears) on completion, and only makes up ~9% of the grade. |
| KFuller Course: HLTH377 Grade Expected: B March 28, 2011, 9:18 pm | This course and professor have both been overrated. This is a relatively useless class resembling high school health. It is only good to fulfill advanced core, but there are tons of other, better courses to take. You have to go to class and take notes in order to do well on the tests, and a lot of the questions aren't even presented in lecture. Tests ask very specific questions, so you have to study just about everything and it is very tedious |
| Solei Course: HLTH377 Grade Expected: A December 20, 2010, 1:03 pm | Professor Sawyer is my FAVORITE professor by far!! He is the funniest teacher I've ever had in my school career. THIS GUY SHOULD BE FAMOUS! He definitely knows his stuff, too. He's been teaching Sex Education for 30 years or more, and he wrote our book! As mentioned in the other review, it is a bit hard to get in the class but you ABSOLUTELY MUST take this class before you graduate!! The course material is plentiful, but nevertheless very interesting. The exams are easy (not tricky at all) if you take notes on what he lectures and study the slides. Overall, very amazing class and professor, and I would recommend this class to any student regardless of year standing.. I would take this class again if I could! |
| rbterp Course: HLTH377 Grade Expected: A December 14, 2009, 12:11 pm | Dr. Sawyer's class is the class you MUST take before you graduate from UMCP (if you can get in...)!!! He is hilarious and obviously, the subject matter is very interesting :) Just a note: I would recommend comparing notes w/a friend or looking on Bookholders for notes b/c he tends to test pretty detailed information that you might not know by looking at only your notes alone. You don't need the textbook, but I would definitely recommend "Sexpertise". |