Reviews of professor Piers stephens

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
This guy loves British comedy, and has the laugh to match. The quizzes for the course cover some of the more obscure things from the lectures, so make sure you know EVERYTHING. His TA, Peter, isn't the most confident, but he's available at least for some advice. Stephens also doesn't full-screen his Powerpoints, so get ready to sit in the front.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
I am not going to lie, this class is tough. You are only graded by 6 things (3 "pop" quizzes and 3 LONG papers). Lectures are nearly impossible to understand with his accent and volume of voice. The material you are quizzed over is random details from the lectures. Papers are 2500 words and 3800 words. I do NOT recommend him.

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
One of the hardest college courses I've taken and unnecessarily tough for intro class. Lectures are boring and very fast paced, sit in the front! Requires two books, assigned readings, (LOTS of reading). No mandatory attendance but you will be clueless if you don't attend. Very kind professor, accessible and very helpful over email.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Awful lecturer. Only took attendance for the breakout sessions, which boosted my grade, but I skipped all the lectures and just read the textbooks. Graded on 3 essays and 4 quizzes. Essays are easy as long as you're a good writer but if not, go to the TA for help since he grades them. Quizzes are super specific but I didn't work that hard for an A

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
All grading is done by the TA and she is extremely unhelpful. Not a single grade has been entered and the semester ended a week ago, and the lectures are extremely difficult to follow. The professor is very helpful if you attend his office hours, but the whole grade is determined TA, who is extremely unresponsive and unhelpful. Take someone else.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
Piers is a nice guy. The only problem is that there is no structure to the class so discussions devolve quickly. On top of that, it's graded by 2 papers and a final research paper, both with no clear grading criteria and vague prompts. It was hard even as an experienced philosophy major. He's not bad, and you won't hate the class, but that's it.

Rating: 2.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
I personally found the lectures boring and hard to pay attention in. For the three papers that were majority of the grade, I ended up using only the mandatory textbook to understand the material, making attending the lecture somewhat pointless. The quizzes focused on memorization rather than analysis of philosophical concepts which seemed unhelpful

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
The professor is often hard to hear and mumbles slightly, you must sit in the front few rows. His slides are AWFUL, he will have paragraphs where the text is impossible to read, he will not hesitate to put 300 words on one slide. 3 pop quizzes in the semester. 85% of your grade is 3 essays graded by the TA. The quizzes are so specific and very hard