Current instructor

Kara Bresnahan

/5Adjusted rating
/5RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 1.29/5 from 7 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

NUTRSCI 379
Quality 2/5Difficulty 4/5
Bresnahan is uniquely gifted at writing unclear quiz and exam questions. Near impossible to understand what she means sometimes and does not admit when she got it wrong. Shuts down students asking questions, and once ghosted me on an email.
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NUTRSCI 379
Quality 1/5Difficulty 5/5
This is the worst professor ever. Her exams have many grammar errors, and sometimes she doesn't even know the answer to the own question. Her "lectures" are videos in which there is no closed captioning or transcripts which make it very difficult because she goes so fast and you can barely hear her.
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NUTRSCI 379
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
I was looking forward to taking this class, but I was unfortunately very disappointed. This class is hybrid, and the in class portion is often Excel based assignments. She gets annoyed when students ask questions. Exams are online and honor locked, and way harder than they need to be. She does not prepare students well for exams.
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NUTRSCI 379
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
She's one of those young profs who makes everything harder than it needs to be just to be respected, but it doesn't work. The exams are harder than they should be. She is rude and disrespectful to students time. Weekly content doesn't get posted until like Wednesday night. I wish she cared less about difficulty because it could be a great class.
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NUTRSCI 379
Quality 1/5Difficulty 3/5
The slides are pre-recorded lectures that she reads through way too fast, so you have to pause constantly, which takes twice as long as the “estimated time.” She posts necessary materials late, won't give extensions, and complains about being overwhelmed—as if we don't have five other classes, work, and extracurriculars.
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NUTRSCI 379
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
It is a hybrid class so basically you're teaching yourself. The textbook is more helpful than the slides are. She's not very accommodating with questions and doesn't explain things the best. Problem sets focus heavily on Excel with minimal guidance. The class is interesting but content is presented in a way that makes it harder than it needs to be.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with Kara Bresnahan

GLOBAL HEALTH FIELD EXPERIENCE provides specialized educational experiences addressing global health topics through interdisciplinary approaches and applied public health service learning projects.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=19 letter grades); Fall 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Spring 2026: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades).

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

Introduction to epidemiology as the detectives of public health, covering study design, causality, and population health monitoring.

Offering recorded · Fall 2026

Kara Bresnahan receives uniformly low praise for poor communication, including ignoring questions and posting materials late. Reviewers criticize her for unclear exams, fast-paced uncaptioned videos, and a lack of student support during Excel-heavy problem sets.

historical GPA · grades

Spring 2022–Spring 2026

Recorded teaching history

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Fall 2026INTER-AG/NUTRSCI 421Global Health Field Experience
Fall 2026NUTRSCI 379Introduction to Epidemiology

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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