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

I decided to take this class since some people had said that Gibson's class was the easiest in all Philo 101. I would say that it is moderately difficult if you 1) have a difficult TA, 2) didn't pay full attention at all times in lecture, and 3) have difficulty reading the board. The reading doesn't always feel necessary

I'm a Philosophy major and this was the last class I took as a part of the degree requirement. It's disappointing that my college career had to end on such a low note. Lectures and readings were dry and often incomprehensible. The take-home exams had unclear instructions, and I spent countless hours on them only to receive low Cs without reason.

Go to class and you get all the answers to the exams. Not what I thought the class would be, but bad overall

Posting this b4 the class is over as a warning for students next semester. Martha consistently fails half the class for assignments bc none of us can figure out what she wants. Her take-home exam Qs and grading are extremely unclear. She says one thing and grades another way. The lectures are dry and mostly involve re-reading stuff from the book.

PROS Transparent about expectations Explains things clearly in lecture Very open in office hours Sets you up to do well on the tests: take-home, open note Interesting content CONS Hard catching up if you miss a lecture Lectures not a slog but somewhat dry Bad handwriting Readings a *little* intensive sometimes You need to actually like philosophy

Prof. Gibson is a very fair and very knowledgeable professor. Her lectures are packed with content and she gives away at least one exam question per lecture. If you miss any lectures, though, you will have a very tough time. The exams are graded quite precisely, but if you just show up to class and take thorough notes you should have no problems

She is an overall amazing professor, but her lectures do tend to be boring, but what can you say it is philosophy. The quizzes were easy if you read the material and the exams can be difficult at times if you did not attend lectures. Overall I would recommend Professor Gibson!

Not sure how she really has a 3.6 rating. Her lectures are extremely boring, her assignments are unclear, and she has quizzes that open at 6 pm on a friday and close at 10 am on a Saturday. She can't seem to use canvas because she just puts things under files. Everyone was always really confused what to read. Martha overall just wasn't fun!

One of my favorite classes, professor Gibson really wants her students to succeed, just make sure to attend every lecture as she basically gives away the an exam question answer per class. Overall if you attend lecture, participate in discussion, and do the readings, you will succeed in this class.

She is fantastic. Her handwriting sucks but she reads as she writes so as long as you can write as fast as she can, you're fine. Show up to lecture and take good notes. Test questions are give before tests and, if you show up to lecture, she will answer them explicitly. Fun to listen to. Made me enjoy philosophy. Highly recommend.

My class was based off of 6 take home exams. I based my exam only off of lecture notes and I didn't do a single reading all semester. If you don't go to lecture it will be impossible to get full points on the exams. I found the class to be challenging, but attending office hours and taking strong lecture notes helped me do well.

Martha made the power lectures feel short, and struck off the first exam score IF it was the worst of the semester (which for many students it is because of her testing style). She explained the material well, and she gave out exam questions before the exams. Her handwriting is terrible, but she rereads everything after she's done writing it.

Love her so much and love the class. Going to lecture is very important because we get the exam questions beforehand and she literally answers the questions in class and tells you what she wants. Only thing is watch out for her handwriting because its pretty awful so just pay attention so you dont have to read much of it. Love her!

Really great philosophy instructor! Her lectures can be a bit everywhere but provides great insight for a 100 level class. If you miss a class you will be lost, but the exams are simple and the workload is acceptable.

Really nice professor. Her handwriting sucks so you have to keep up with her talking. Don't miss a lecture or you'll be lost.

The lectures are very boring and she has hard handwriting to read, but she's very clear on all the exams. You get the questions ahead of time, so you can prepare accordingly.

Overall a good professor. The lectures can be dry and boring but she's very clear with what is on the exams, practically gives you the answers.

Let me start off by saying that I hate hate hate philosophy. Worst subject matter ever; the only reason I got through this class was because Gibson was so fantastic. She was always so understanding. The material was super hard to read and would take me hours, but her lectures were straight forward.

the content is super basic, so it wasn't hard. lectures are long and can drag on. explains all the stuff thats going to be on the test and gives test questions before hand. go to office hours if you need any help and you should pass just fine

Lectures are boring af, and you really need to pay attention, because everything she explains are on the exams. She is pretty good at explaining things, but her handwriting is awful and trying to just follow along with what she writes on the board is super confusing. Be attentive and you should do fine.

Best professor I ever had. People gripe about her being boring, but if you care about philosophy you will love her upper levels. Incredibly knowledgeable, and cares more about students then most profs in the Philosophy department. Takes absolutely no sh*t, but that's what makes her great.

I didn't read the material once all semester. She gives you all questions that will be on the exam and answers them all in lecture. So if you take good notes and go to lecture you will get the easiest A of your academic career. Note, her writing is not that good so sit close.

Knowledgable and caring--there for students and a great source to learn from. enjoyed this class.

Martha is an amazing analytic philosopher and teacher. I got a D on the first assignment, and improved on each assignment because of her feedback and going to her office hours literally every week, and ended up getting an AB. She's funny, and pretty flexible with attendance and deadlines, esp. if you're having a rough semester. But don't abuse it.

I loved this class! Yes lectures are long and can sometimes be a little boring, but I felt the exams were very fair and if you take good notes you will have all the answers. The final is not cumulative either which is a big weight off your shoulders during finals week. Would recommend if you are in need of a humanities credit!

Not overly hard but prof is extremely boring and dull. Hated going to lecture but she doesn't use Learn@UW and has a very vague syllabus that we had to request so you have to go to lecture to find anything out. Only take this if you are truly interested or need credits but dont care about the class.

Gibson has a very standard format, which includes very lengthy papers/exams. Her lectures are reading from notes or a book, limiting discussion. The course becomes a regurgitation of theory rather than critically engaging with texts. The department has a wealth of brilliant instructors, select carefully. Grad seminars are easier & more engaging.

Dr. Gibson was available to help when I needed it. She explained difficult materials very well.

She is a pretty good professor, but yes, the lectures are boring. The tests are pretty fair; my TA went through each individual question on the test and explained them to us so that we could study. Overall, a fair class. The readings were not overly important if you pay attention to what she says in lecture.

Lectures were SO boring. If you managed to stay awake, they were somewhat helpful because test answers were always given. However, you could also get a more concise answer from the TA during section for each test answer as well.

most boring class ever but its quite easy. gives all questions and answers to test and you just have to memorize them. DO NOT PURCHASE THE BOOK OR READINGS. totally unnecessary to success in the class. hopefully you get a friend in the class so you can trade off initialling each other for "mandatory" lectures. good luck not falling asleep

Good class, easy tests with questions given a week prior to prepare. Quite boring in lecture though, struggle to keep paying attention and not dose off.

wonderful! those who thought material was dry don't like/appreciate philosophy. she was sarcastic -- hilarious. class was easy and she didn't assign papers like other 101 profs. favorite class ive taken at UW.

pretty easy class if you just buy her class packet and read it-dont mind reading the textbook b/c the packet says it all and is way clearer. she gives you the exact exam questions before every test--final is not cumulative. great notes on studyblue. overall id say take the class for a pretty easy A or B if you prepare the test questions before

I dreaded going to this class every week. Not only did could I not keep my eyes open during class, but she could have condensed the material and still gotten her point across. Do not buy the book. It will not help. Also, she is a hard grader. I didn't learn one thing from her all semester. Hard 101 class.

Terrible handwriting, and can make things much more complicated than they actually are, but overall a very decent professor. Don't buy the book, just the packet. She reads straight out of it.

She's always willing to help if you go to her office hours.

Although most of the time the material is kind of dry, I didnt mind this class. If you attend lecture, you are basically guaranteed an A or B. Exams are straight from notes. Readings are complicated so she explains them with detail in lecture. Dont waste your money on buying the textbook. Its completely pointless. I opened mine once.

A very easy class. Lectures are mandatory because all of the questions on the exams come straight from lecture. Don't really need the books or have to do the readings since she goes over what you need to know for them in class. Exams are easy if you go to lecture.

Prior to reading the comments posted before this, I never would have guessed there could be alternate interpretations of the quality of her teaching. In my opinion she was incredibly boring and honestly didn't seem too bright--the worst lecturer I've had here at Madison. I'm really glad I knew I liked philo going into this class. Easy though.

You might as well not buy the $100 textbook for this class. Not only do we barely use it, but gibson goes over the readings in their entirety with a detailed analysis which is basically the same thing you with have to say on the test. The tests, btw, are take home, so if you out the time into it, you should do OK. one tip- lectures are neccessary

Demanding? Yes. Interesting? Yes! Assuming you're a philo lover, and a hard worker, this is perfect. You learn something in each lecture, but do go, cause notes are crucial to doing well on papers and tests. She breaks down everything amazingly in office hours. Discussions are thought provoking and fun. Take this class, and put in the effort.

Very good at explaining complicated concepts, though lectures can get a little long. exam questions come directly from lecture, but she writes on the board about everything you need in your notes. Extremely helpful in office hours before the exam, basically tells you the answers and what she's looking for.

She has a course packet that has everything she says in it and first couple of tests are take home. The next 4 are blue book and she has you choose 2 questions, 1 from 2 sets of 4

Best class I ever took at the UW-Madison and the most personally significant. Her lectures are like watching a really good movie. Slackers: it's a demanding class so take good notes and you'll be alright. Fascinating stuff presented in a sophisticated manner!

i loved profesor gibson. her notes are a littele hard to read but she says everything she writes down so just pay attention. she makes the material extrelemly easy to understand and gives a lot of help. her exams have more difficult questions but she goes over all the tests before she gives them and tells you exactly what she wants.shes awesome!

Her handwriting is impossible to read. Not that many out of class readings; however the readings are hard to understand and boring. My TA for this class was awesome, however. Given the test questions ahead of time, which makes everything much easier.

All exams are take home. She gives you one week to do them and is more than willing to meet with you outside of class to go over them with you. The questions are a little hard but if you ask for her help she will let you know what she is looking for.

i liked her. philosophy is a tough one to keep non-majors interested in but hey, now i'm a major.

Rambled and wrote illegible notes and scribbles on the board. Spent more time getting chalk all over herself than teaching. The class was frustrating because it was almost word-for-word my high school philosophy class. Even though I have negative things to say about her, she isn't that bad of a teacher.

Hard to stay awake through entire power lecture. 10 minute cat naps during lecture are helpful. Won't miss much. Is clear but disorganized in each topic. Teaches part of one topic then something else then goes back a week later. Test questions are given in advance but TA was very nitpicky on details in answers.

I had a hard time staying awake for this class. Seemed to think that Wittgenstein-ians weren't good philosophers but appeared to consider the man a genius herself. The grading was pretty fair but tests were hard and most of the material you needed to get on your own.

She confusese the material by taking most of it straight out of the book, reading you large passages. IF it wern't suck an interesting topic i would have stoped coming to class long ago

this class was horrible. she's horrible. keyword: RAMBLER. she would talk about the same thing for days. also, on the exams, she looks for you to make points that she doesn't bring up. not fairly graded at all. overall, she sucks.

I found the lectures to be boring, rambling, and conveying no substantive content or insight on the readings. I recommend taking Intro to Philosophy with someone else. Although, she does give out test questions in advance, which is helpful.

She is very clear and an excellent teacher. Gives test question well in advance. If you want to take philosophy, take it with her!

awesome professor, very knowledgeable, goes over material for test very well, can be boring at times but what do you expect?

Extremely boring lecture, she tends to ramble the majority of the time.

Extremely intelligent. Sometimes, her writing is illegible, but most a good deal of her lecture material is typed in the course packet, so between that and listening, it's not too difficult. She sometimes is a little unclear, but often will clarify things through discussion or the following lecture.

RARELY, if ever, makes eye contact. Quizes are hard b/c covers material we read but not necessarily covered in class yet. All the questions from the exams is covered well in lectures. Can be boring at times though.

Explains material very well. Falling asleep is inevitable if you take her morning power lecture.

Doesn't make eye contact, rambles, unorganized, boring, boring class! Do NOT take this class if you don't have to!

Very Clear and to the point

She is very clear and knows how to teach Philosophy. Class is worth going to every day because it is extremely helpful and she covers everything on the exams so no need to do the reading too often :). And class does not seem too long and boring either.

rambles in class. writing is illegible on the board. extremely boring!

can sometimes put things in harder terms than needed; doesn't make eye contact.

knows her stuff.

One of the best teachers I've had. High standards, but helps you meet them.