Reviews of professor Maaike Helmus

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
This class was offender risk assessment and contained a term quiz, presentation, quizzes from those presentations, a critical review, term paper, participation. Very disorganized with broad guidelines on the presentations and critical review paper. Class heavily relies on statistics and requires a lot of reading and complex topics. Don't recommend.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
There is a textbook but I never read it and got a good mark anyways. Tutorial discussion is pretty easy and is basically just participation marks but still do it. Heavily reliant on lectures but they are pre-recorded so that's nice. 2 exams that are a bit hard to prepare for. Paper was pretty easy but make sure to choose a good topic and theory.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Her lectures were very clear and informative. However our exam made no sense. Lots of questions where we had to know specific names and dates rather than testing our knowledge of the different concepts and theories

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Maaike is a great professor who cares about what she does and her students. She is very accommodating and understanding of students' situations, and she provides help and support when it's needed. She teaches straight to the point which means the lectures are easy to understand. weekly assignments are a bit time consuming, but not hard!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Professor Maaike is a wonderful professor that really cares for the students. This course is very hard so you really need to put in the work. Some tips: watch the online tutorial videos + read the textbook for each assignment, it will really help. Cheat sheets are allowed for exams. Professor Maaike does a lot to ensure that students pass!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 2.0/5
Dr. Helmus is one of the best teachers I've had at SFU! I wasn't expecting a stats class to go over well, but she taught in a clear, engaging manner. There were two textbooks but you didn't need to use one at all (which she tells you upfront). Lots of opportunities for extra credit and she is very accommodating!

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
I have taken CRIM 320 by Garth before but I did not do well as I hoped for, and so I retook it under Maaike as my instructor. Maaike is a REAL GEM! The class was well structured, with lectures that are engaging, easy to follow, and hilarious at times. The assignments are EASY if you follow the instructions well that was also recorded by the TAs.

Rating: 5.0/5, difficulty: 3.0/5
Amazing class, Dr. Helmus teaches this class in a clear manner and is very helpful. The SPSS assignments were confusing at times but make sure to review the TA's videos as it provides step-by-step instructions. The midterm and final were very reasonable and Helmus asks fair questions. Make sure to read the text before the quizzes. Ask questions!!