MARTHA GIBSON

very tough grader and exams are quite difficult. Lecture attendance is mandatory as all the content is delivered there and no recordings are available. Her handwriting is quite bad, so make sure to follow along closely. She does however really care about her studnets and is eager to help you succeed.

Martha is an amazing upper-level philosophy professor. She can be a little hard to get used to (her teaching, grading, and communication style), but she really respects her students, treats us as people, is very flexible, understanding, and genuinely wants us to succeed. Once you are used to her exam style, you will easily be able to succeed.

Martha is kind, but her handwriting makes lectures very difficult to follow if you do not hang onto every word. Most of what you will discuss is regurgitated from readings. Lectures are very redundant, but take-home tests require extensive comprehension that sometimes goes beyond the level of class conversation.

Modern History with Gibson was hard. You can't BS the exams, she wants premise-conclusion arguments in paragraph form and will ding points both for logical mistakes and bad writing. But an A is doable if you attend most/all the lectures and do the readings. Also there's like zero discussion, but you learn more than in lower level debate-y classes.

Martha and her TA do not have a clear standard of grading. They say the standard answer is composed of 7-8 sentences, but the sample they offered is 1.5 page long.

Martha is very sweet and caring. Difficult course, but you learn a lot and improve your writing. Not an easy A, but a good class if you invest in the course and the material. Exams are asynchronous and you have 1-2 weeks to complete them. Allows you to build better comprehension of the mateiral without the stress of in class exams