Reviews of professor Michael von Spakovsky

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
He clearly cares more about his research than teaching. He struggles to explain topics in a way that students can understand and he spends a lot of class time calling on students to answer questions. Averages on his quizzes are typically around a 50 and he refuses to give a curve. He is probably the worst option for this class.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
I'm just trying to figure out how, if this guy has all of these academic achievements, he continually screws up examples in class surrounding basic thermodynamics. In the same vein, why does he mark down assessments heavily for mistakes similar to the ones he continually makes in class?

Rating: 3.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
I think Dr. von Spakovsky gets a bad rep, but I thought he was a decent professor. If you take the time to do the homework and go to office hours, you actually learn the material pretty well. However, he is pretty snobby so if that bothers you, take someone else. Lastly, make sure to study hard for the exams because they are 85% of your grade.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Run. If you have him drop it. If he is on your schedule you'd be better off resigning from Virginia Tech. Quiz had a 30% average and instead of curving he yelled at the class to try harder.

Rating: 4.0/5, difficulty: 4.0/5
He actually cares about students understanding the material, which is really nice. Lectures are a bit confusing (particularly since they're just from slides) but he's happy to explain stuff in office hours. He grades reasonably and curved the 2 tests about 10 points each. Shouldn't have too much trouble if you put in enough work (which is a lot).

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
The grade in this class depends on 9 quizzes, 2 tests, and a final. He does not explain concepts in lecture, expecting you to read the textbook and figure it out for your homework. The occasional example problems shown in class are already worked out on his slides and he often pauses and seems confused as to what is written down. Grades tough.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
It's absurd that I pay 17k a semester to listen to this guy talk about working for Lockheed and show me excerpts from the textbook for a lecture and not work through any examples just show me prewritten slides. The class is 4 credits, you have 4 hours of my time a week. Do something useful with it. Do an energy balance on the 17k I torched.

Rating: 1.0/5, difficulty: 5.0/5
Dr. Spakovsky was not a good professor at all, his class was a nightmare. He remembers everybody's name which comes back to bite you. He grades people he dislikes harsher and will try his best to make an example out of you. He makes personal attacks on students he dislikes. He's super out of touch with his students and technology as a whole.