Reviews for Barry P. Smith
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: CCJS498Z Grade Expected: October 26, 2011, 4:44 pm | I AM TAKING THIS CLASS NOW AND HE IS THE MOST BORING TEACHER EVER. HE KEEPS YOU THE ENTIRE TIME FROM6-845, THE QUIZZES ARE EASY BECAUSE THEIR OPEN NOTES BUT THE EXAMS ARE THE WORSE. HE IS SOOO BORING IDK HOW MUCH I CAN STRESS THIS TO YOU, IF YOU DONT LIKE THE INTELLIGENCE AGENCY OR POLITICAL ASPECTS, SEEK ANOTHER CRIM ELECTIVE, HOWEVER I JUST DO THE WORK AND IM EASILY AT A B..HE GOES ON AND ON ABOUT IRRELEVANT STUFF TO THE CLASS, GREAT GUY,BORING PROFESSOR |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: A October 13, 2011, 8:42 am | What a terrible teacher. Where to even start. First, you have to buy his stupid ebook for 127 bucks which he wrote and helped get published. Might as well give him 6 20's and hand it to him in lecture. You are buying your grade with the ebook. He is a terrible, monotonous, armadillo-like, teacher. The tests are on the reading so don't even both coming to lecture. The TA's are incompetent, the only reason I go is for attendance. What a awful teacher/class. Best advice...take MURNANE. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: A February 10, 2011, 1:09 pm | Professor Smith is not the most interesting of teachers BUT if you do the readings (I'll admit they are pretty time consuming) you'll be fine. I failed the first exam because I didn't think I needed to read but I read for the next exam and study my notes from class and reading and I got a B on the second exam. Then for the third exam I did the same thing reading, studying my notes and I got an A. So i took the optional final to get rid of my F from the first exam and I got an A on the final. If you go to discussion, go to lecture, and do the readings with minimal studying( I would study the day before the exam) it's not hard to get an A in the class, which is what I ended up with. However I am a psyc major so I find the material interesting. I skipped a few classes but try not to do that because of the clicker quizzes and there are online assignments that are really easy (you get 10 trys and after you take it the first time you can click on review and it gives you the right answers). All this being said the class is on the boring side but it's not hard to get an A if you just put in a little effort. |
| Anonymous Course: CCJS498Z Grade Expected: A January 19, 2011, 5:29 pm | I think there are two different professors being evaluated here... The CCJS professor Barry Smith is easily the best teacher I have ever had, and is FAR from boring. Great man, great professor, lectures are interesting and get you into the material. I couldn't stop talking about the things I learned in class to people. I really recommend this class with Professor Smith. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: B January 4, 2011, 9:20 pm | I'm a student who actually found psych interesting. But Smith almost made the class intolerable. If you sit in the middle-back rows of the lecture hall, it will be extremely hard to pay attention. Smith mumbles and he rambles on about material not even on the exam. His voice is monotonous and lulls you to sleep. He is a great person and brilliant in regards to his knowledge of psychology, but he is not meant to teach. To do well in the class, I would recommend going over the textbook chapters and skimming over the important terms and concepts. Hope you have a good TA as well. You have a tendency to slack in his class, but don't! It will bite you in the end. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: C December 8, 2010, 6:55 pm | Smith is very boring. It is hard to pay attention in the lecture. The exam count for most of your grade and are hard. The questions focus on the smallest detail of the book and even if you read, you may not be able to do well. The test are on 6 chapters at a time and it is hard to read 6 chapters thoroughly. The final exam was optional and will replace your lowest grade, but if you take the final and get a lower grade, it will still be replace. It's a really risky choice. The grades were curved, but it still makes it hard to get a good grade. I do NOT recommend this professor at all. |
| studyhardpartyharder Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: C May 8, 2010, 5:27 pm | I agree with a lot of people here. DO NOT TAKE HIM for Psyc100. He's a genuinely nice guy, really knows what he's talking about. But his lectures are so boring- I found myself playing on my iPod more than paying any attention what so ever. Plus, you can't just skip lecture because he gives clicker questions. The online book is hella expensive for barely using it. Three tests are 89% of your grade. And they are hard. I'm a really good student and couldn't get anything above a C+ on exams. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: C February 18, 2010, 2:48 am | DO NOT TAKE SMITH!!!!! So im sure that u get from all these other reviews not to take him. He is in no way humorous! So boring and always giving examples of things that are common sense. He gives hour long explanations of things that aren't on the test. He mumbles and i always found myself zoning out accidentally. He wrote the book so what u read ends up being just as detailed as what he says. He is very insulting sometimes (he once said 'you wouldnt wanna date someone with this disease' OMG what if someone with that disease had been in there). If you end up in his class.... my advice: go to class so you dont miss his random clicker quizzes, do the online hw (check every week for it), and read the BORING book before each test, take the optional final because it contained only questions put on previous test, AND BRING YOUR MP3 PLAYER even though he bands ALL electronics from his class. |
| gumgum Course: CCJS498Z Grade Expected: B January 22, 2010, 7:06 am | Well I guess Smith isnt a good Psych prof according to everyone else, but in CCJS498 he was a really good teacher. Pratically the whole class got an A or a B, cause he would show a handout of how the students were during after each quiz. Very easy and interesting class. Easy A! If you show up to class and show that you are trying, then he will work with you when it comes to grading. It also look over resumes and gave extra credit. great prof! |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: B December 16, 2009, 11:00 am | DON'T TAKE PSYC WITH SMITH. The way his class is run is RIDICULOUS. He uses clickers to give random in-class quizzes at the end of lecture, and even if you provide him with a note that excuses you (i.e. you were sick), he doesn't excuse you from the quizzes that add into part of your grade. Unless you have already taken a PSYC100 class, the only way to pass his impossible exams is to literally read the textbook, that he wrote. His lectures are so boring, and unless you have taken the class before or are a serious overachiever, this class is VERY difficult to get an A in. He also provides his students with the option at the end of the year to take an "Optional Final" which, regardless of whether or not you do better or worse, substitutes in for your lowest test grade. Unfortunately, he doesn't tell you what your grade is until the day before the final so it's impossible to judge whether or not it will be beneficial to take. If you have to take this class, be prepared to attend pointless lectures and take incredibly hard and unfair exams about the most miniscule notes in the textbook's margins. |
| deoaro Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: A September 6, 2009, 9:49 pm | DO NOT TAKE SMITH!!!!..holy crap if there was a way we could him zero stars or even negative stars i would. There are a number of things wrong with him and his class the first of which is kind of obvious...he is extremely boring. apart from that his lectures are useless he doesnt even cover some chapters and when he does cover chapters he teaches the big ideas and themes of the chapter and yet tests you on the littlest most specific things...he does not answer questions in class and my TA didnt seem to know what was going on in the class.i had to pull three all nighter in a row for the final to get an A..i could go on and on but bottom line is dont take smith..wait for murnane or just dont take psyc 100.. |
| matt11 Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: B June 6, 2009, 8:57 am | Don't ever take Smith for PSYC100. I signed up for this class thinking that it was going to help my GPA since it's an introductory level course. But, I was wrong. Smith goes extremely into depth, is very boring, and asks ridiculously detailed questions on his exams. The only way I got a B was from reading and re-reading the textbook, which he wrote. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: B January 22, 2009, 7:14 pm | Very boring. I ended up not going to the lectures most of the time, missing most of the pop quizzes. I studied from the textbook and got a B for the semester. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: December 29, 2008, 9:06 am | I just wanted to make sure that people got the point to not take this class. If you do get stuck in this course like I was, try not to fail the first test, the material after that is a little bit easier and more interesting. I would advise going to lecture but not listening to lecture, instead read the text or get ahead in another class so that you can read the textbook at another time. I really hated that this class is set up so people do poorly. Some of the questions on my exam were exactly from my TA's worksheets but some were completely random. Very unfair |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: C December 18, 2008, 5:39 pm | I highly recommend that NO ONE takes this class with SMITH....He is a horrible teacher and has no purpose in his lecture...He basically just mumbles every single lecture ....although the info he talks about in his lectures pertains to his book, this does not prepare you for the tests!!!.....Plus the head TA does the tests and shes not even at the lectures!!...this class is so pointless...you might as well just read the book yourself!!! |
| MarylandS11 Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: C December 13, 2008, 6:15 pm | I would tell you the same as everyone else. He is very boring and does not talk about anything during the lecture that is relevant to help you pass, no wonder so many people don't show up for lecture! But what I found out at the end of the semester is read all his key concepts in his book because that is how he constructs his exams!!! |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: B November 10, 2008, 12:20 pm | I would highly, highly recommend taking this class with someone other than Smith. His lectures don't even begin to cover all the material on the exams, and any minute detail from his textbook could be on the exams. Even memorizing every single bolded word and every single highlighted theory and fact might get you a C on the exam. The only positive I can think of is that the exams are curved quite a lot. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: April 12, 2008, 8:20 pm | Unless you have taken psych before, this class is difficult. Lectures are boring and you go through the entire textbook (which he wrote). If you do take this course, I strongly advise you do all the extra credit possible. It helps tremendously at the end of the course. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: December 19, 2007, 8:41 pm | Don't take psyc100 with Smith... take one look at his grade distribution and you'll understand why. With only 16% A, unless you're a freshman overachiever with no other courses to study for there's no way to get an A. The tests are completely random, and consist entirely of random details from the book. If you are unfortunate enough to actually take the class, do all the extra credit. It helps a lot at the end. And the optional final is even more random than the normal exams. His class wasn't terrible, but unless you don't care about your GPA don't take this class. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: November 15, 2007, 4:12 pm | I thought Smith was pretty boring in lecture and since he sometimes gives pop quizzes you have to go. The only good thing is he basically gives you the answers to the quiz while your taking it. His grading system is kind of strange too. |
| Anonymous Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: November 15, 2007, 11:13 am | i really did not like this class. the tests are difficult even if you study and lectures are sitting through him taking things straight out of the book, but you still have to read because he doesnt get to everything and you have to go to lecture because of pop quizzes. there is nothing to keep the students interested in whats going on at all. |
| kbe12478 Course: PSYC100 Grade Expected: A November 2, 2007, 11:34 am | I thought that Barry Smith's course was very enlightening; however, I think that the general concensus of the rest of the class is that he is somewhat boring. He occasionally mumbles and is hard to understand, and sometimes he does go slightly off topic. He tries feebly to engage the students. I enjoyed this class. There were only three tests and an optional final to replace the lowest grade. Also, if you understood Dr. Smith's casual references to off-topic things, he was actually pretty funny. It is important to go to lecture, becuase he does give pop quizzes. |