Spring 2027

Elementary Logic

Elementary Logic covers the formal characteristics of logical truth and inference.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Michael Titelbaum4.3/5Peter Vranas4.0/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Peter Vranas

In-class material was easier than the problem sets and exams, which required hours of work and still resulted in low grades for some students.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Ability to think critically about arguments.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing and satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A

    • Sophomore standing
    • satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A
    take all
PHILOS 211 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • All of
    • Sophomore standing
    • satisfied Quantitative Reasoning (QR) A

Professors

Spring 2027

Michael Titelbaum

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.63/5 from 38 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.34 GPA, 64.6% A/AB (n=65 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.01 GPA, 56.9% A/AB (n=58 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.37 GPA, 67.2% A/AB (n=61 letter grades).

Peter Vranas

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.19/5 from 52 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

For this course: 4.0/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 2 reviews

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Past student reviews · Peter Vranas

Peter Vranas was described as the most concise professor, answering questions explicitly and providing well-defined information. Conversely, one student found the class boring and noted that in-class material was much easier than problem sets and exams, which required hours of work to pass.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2024: 3.37 GPA, 75.4% A/AB (n=61 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.49 GPA, 72.2% A/AB (n=36 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.37 GPA, 61.0% A/AB (n=41 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Bruno Whittle

Historical student feedback for Bruno Whittle describes the course as manageable with weekly homework and fair exams. He provided practice sets similar to exams and made course content simple and intuitive. Students found the material engaging, noting that attending lectures and completing assignments typically secured a passing grade.

BRUNO WHITTLE is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MICHAEL TITELBAUM is recorded teaching in Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

PETER VRANAS is recorded teaching in Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 690
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 690
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 321Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 322Classroom Instruction0 / 230
DIS 323Classroom Instruction0 / 230

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Peter Vranas

Peter Vranas taught this as a concise, elementary math-style course that explicitly defined information without going deep into philosophical aspects.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.12 GPA, 50.3% A/AB (n=165 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.39 GPA, 69.9% A/AB (n=163 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.27 GPA, 62.3% A/AB (n=122 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Peter Vranas

In-class material was easier than the problem sets and exams, which required hours of work and still resulted in low grades for some students.

Past student reviews · Peter Vranas

Students found Vranas to be the most concise professor they had encountered, noting that he answered questions explicitly and was unintentionally funny.

Topics

  • Formal characteristics of logical truth and inference

Skills

  • Think critically about arguments

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.14 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PHILOS 211 · Spring 2027

Elementary Logic

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:736:014684",
    "course_id": "PHILOS 211",
    "course_uid": "course_a7a4860ab8041db509bbd299",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "014684",
    "source_subject_id": "736",
    "title": "Elementary Logic",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1Download part 2
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "a46636d9417662303bdd67af88722a66739fea756bb7ff547b37c485f3d9a6b2",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}