Historical instructor

Gale Oakes

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.38/5 from 8 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.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

BIO102 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
She is a great professor! Very personable and willing to help you understand. You can tell she cares about biology and helping her students understand. Tests are difficult though.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIO102 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
She puts a lot of effort into the course and is very clear about the requirements/expectations for each day. Also a very lovely person who makes an effort to get to know you.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIO102 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
gale oakes is a very lovely woman. she cares a lot about this course while adding fun a whimsy at the same time. if you pay attention and show up very little is needed outside of class time.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIO102 · course not matched
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
You're lucky if you saw Gale twice throughout the semester, course is completely TA led. Almost all of grade is based in “quizzes” but I argue their difficulty are like an exam. Averages are always low, grading is tough, no curve and no rounding. Take 151/152 sequence.
Rate My Professors ↗
BIO102 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 3/5
All depends on your TA, Peter Conowall was great. If you actually study and learn the learning goals you will be fine
Rate My Professors ↗
BIO102 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Bio 102, managed by Gale Oakes, was a waste of my tuition. The quizzes were 90% of your grade, never returned, were fill in the blank, and took ages for them to grade. Average was a C. Gloves are $$. My TA was also unprepared and never explained topics well. No practice tests/quizzes, makeups, or joy to be found in this course. Steer away.
Rate My Professors ↗

Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Gale Oakes

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

No courses match this selection. Try the full catalog or another term.

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
{
  "instructor_uid": "instructor_57a139c2b6cfee7360fcb043",
  "source": "legacy",
  "source_instructor_id": null,
  "identity_basis": "name_only",
  "identity_status": "unresolved",
  "name": "Gale Oakes",
  "email": "GOAKES@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": 8,
    "quality": 3.38,
    "difficulty": 3.12,
    "quality_count": 8,
    "difficulty_count": 8,
    "profile_id": "rmp:2692538",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/2692538",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:38:44.113672+00:00",
    "courses": {},
    "bayesian_quality": 3.5797755596761394,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": false,
  "courses": [],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/GALE_OAKES--instructor_57a139c2b6cfee7360fcb043"
}