Historical instructor

Jim BERKELMAN

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.19/5 from 85 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

FW110 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
He does a great job at teaching the course. There is a lot of content, but he makes lectures as fun as he can. He mentioned many interesting facts about Wisconsin, which I found cool. Attendance isn't mandatory, but the slides are vague, so you won't learn much just by reading the slides. I would recommend the class to anyone looking for a gen ed
Rate My Professors ↗
FW110 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 2/5
pretty basic concepts of ecology, overall very easy to learn. test questions are multiple choice, but very specific questions, which makes it hard to prepare for. Kind of a boring lecturer, he gets on tangents once in a while, and has a monotone voice. But overall pretty easy class if you are looking for an easy natural science credit!
Rate My Professors ↗
FWE110 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Jim has been my favorite professor here so far. He seems genuinely passionate about what he is teaching and workload is completely manageable. There's one discussion post per week and two nature walk activities that can provide a good amount of extra credit. Tests do require a fair amount of memorization, but they aren't too bad.
Rate My Professors ↗
FWECOL110 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
Prof. Berkelman is a very nice guy. The lectures are a little boring content-wise but he is pretty funny and tries to make them more fun. Very easy content just kind of boring. Grading was super lax, all the assignments were essentially full points if you do them on time.
Rate My Professors ↗
FW110 · course not matched
Quality 4/5Difficulty 4/5
This class is low-key a little boring, but the professor is super nice and passionate. The material is not hard to grasp however the tests are actually pretty difficult compared to what you would except because most of the questions are super niche and nit picky so that is a little tough. DO THE NATURE WALSK EARLY it gives you extra credit
Rate My Professors ↗
FW318 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 2/5
Jim is a great professor, he made me excited to learn about the topics he was teaching and he is very passionate about his work and field.
Rate My Professors ↗

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

Classes with Jim BERKELMAN

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_2b4376dcf0f84a8ae6c5e1e0",
  "source": "legacy",
  "source_instructor_id": null,
  "identity_basis": "name_only",
  "identity_status": "unresolved",
  "name": "Jim BERKELMAN",
  "email": "JBERKELMAN@WISC.EDU",
  "first_observed_at": "2025-04-16 05:20:33.104844+00:00",
  "last_observed_at": "2025-07-06 01:49:47.203835+00:00",
  "ratings": {
    "review_count": 85,
    "quality": 4.19,
    "difficulty": 2.26,
    "quality_count": 85,
    "difficulty_count": 85,
    "profile_id": "rmp:759947",
    "source_url": "https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor/759947",
    "match_basis": "exact_name",
    "observed_at": "2026-09-07 16:32:22.305782+00:00",
    "courses": {},
    "bayesian_quality": 4.08898776829459,
    "prior_mean": 3.6596857835465957,
    "prior_weight": 20
  },
  "current": false,
  "courses": [],
  "revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "instructor_url": "/instructors/JIM_BERKELMAN--instructor_2b4376dcf0f84a8ae6c5e1e0"
}