Historical instructor
Original student reviews · all captured dates
Dr. Abbott was a fair professor and did his best to give students the materials they need to succeed. The lectures got a little long, but I thought his concept maps were super helpful. The exam was challenging but the grading was reasonable. Would take one of his classes again!Rate My Professors ↗
Dr Abbott was nice, but he crammed in SO much information, and most of it had to do with what he was interested in vs what we really needed to learn from Bio151. The exams and quizzes were so hard and all the questions were in paragraph form which made it difficult to comprehend. Felt more like advanced biology vs beginner biology.Rate My Professors ↗
HE IS A NICE MAN BUT DONT LET THAT FOOL YOU. HE THINKS THIS IS THE ONLY CLASS WE HAVE AND PROBABLY THINKS THAT WE HAVE TO DISSECT THE ENTIRE HUMAN BODY TO BECOME A MEDICAL DOCTOR. INSTEAD OF CUTTING THE LECTURE CONTENT, EACH LECTURE WAS SOMETIMES 130 MINUTES. SARS-COVID-2 IS PROBABLY MADE FOR HIM SO THAT HE CAN TALK ABOUT WHATEVER HE WANTSRate My Professors ↗
Lectures are long + dense, but quality lecture notes are provided. Tons of content covered very quickly, and it can be hard to keep up especially asynchronously. His "concept maps" are good to remember/visualize the info. Activities and quizzes are tough but doable. Felt like I memorized stuff, but didn't really learn. Good sense of humor.
Great person, but beware of what you are getting yourself into. His lectures are dense and with online class have been around twice normal lecture time. Takes FOREVER to get through the material and there is so much of it. But very interestingRate My Professors ↗
Dr. Abbott has a lot to cram in just a few weeks, so his lectures are really fast-paced. Because of this, he does not have a whole lot of time to elaborate on a lot of the mechanisms. But, he is very passionate about what he teaches, and makes the lectures go by quick. He has a great sense of humor too!Rate My Professors ↗
Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.
No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.
No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.
| Term | Course | Title |
|---|
Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.
{
"instructor_uid": "instructor_d5ae3d690cbefc4c301fd2fc",
"source": "legacy",
"source_instructor_id": null,
"identity_basis": "name_only",
"identity_status": "unresolved",
"name": "David Abbott",
"email": "DHABBOTT@WISC.EDU",
"first_observed_at": "2025-07-13 04:59:22.367394+00:00",
"last_observed_at": "2025-11-16 05:32:31.273726+00:00",
"ratings": {
"review_count": 66,
"quality": 4.3,
"difficulty": 3.08,
"quality_count": 66,
"difficulty_count": 66,
"profile_id": "rmp:573200",
"source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/573200",
"match_basis": "exact_name",
"observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:45:26.887313+00:00",
"courses": {
"course_b61b3a2720bc1995e3b37da8": {
"review_count": 1,
"quality": 5,
"difficulty": 1,
"quality_count": 1,
"difficulty_count": 1
}
},
"bayesian_quality": 4.15108971710386,
"prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
"prior_weight": 20
},
"current": false,
"courses": [],
"revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
"instructor_url": "/instructors/DAVID_ABBOTT--instructor_d5ae3d690cbefc4c301fd2fc"
}