Historical instructor

THOMAS PURNELL

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.87/5 from 61 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

ENG214 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
Overall the class went well, but it took a lot of extra work; the lectures weren't very helpful because he often ended up on tangents and examples used in class weren't relevant to the exams or HW assignments. Discussion was where the majority of learning happened.
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ENG214 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Not good. Lecture attendance was mandatory but never really relevant to what our assignments and tests were on, forcing me have to teach practically everything to myself. Lectures were a big waste of time and almost always boring as a result. The TA, Joe Moran, was fantastic, though!
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ENG214 · course not matched
Quality 1/5Difficulty 4/5
Do not take this class. Lectures are mandatory, but are unhelpful and rarely relate to course material. Homework is confusing and graded harshly, even though key concepts are barely explained in lecture. Prof makes simple concepts sound complicated. Had to teach myself most of the content.
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ENG709LING510 · course not matched
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
Tom is great! He knows a lot and is excited to reach and learn. I wish I could take more courses with him!
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ENG319 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 3/5
The whole class was very dense and complicated at times. He would brush over certain things that are harder to grasp, but also hold onto concepts throughout the entire semester even when they didn't connect to new learnings (like assessments on old material that wasn't elaborated too specifically).
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ENG319 · course not matched
Quality 3/5Difficulty 4/5
Overall, not a bad course for a 3 week, 3 credit winter break class. All of the lectures are pre-recorded, but there is A LOT of material to cover. Some of the grading guidelines were a little fuzzy, but I enjoyed the material. If you're considering the class, try to find it outside of a condensed timeline!
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with THOMAS PURNELL

No teaching recorded in Fall 2026.

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Recorded teaching history

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

Instructor identity & provenance
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