Joel Simmons

2 reviews
Average rating: 3.00

This professor has taught: GVPT459D, GVPT459L, GVPT887, GVPT888C

Grades

During the Spring 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters, students could choose to take some of their courses pass-fail mid-semester which skews grade data aggregated across multiple semesters.

Average GPA of 2.76 between 375 students*

Grade Distribution+-051015202530354045% of studentsABCDFWother
A-: 14.93%
A: 9.87%
B-: 15.47%
B: 16%
B+: 11.47%
C-: 5.6%
C: 6.4%
C+: 10.93%
D-: 0.27%
D: 1.07%
D+: 1.33%
F: 1.07%
W: 4.53%
other: 1.07%
* "W"s are considered to be 0.0 quality points. "Other" grades are not factored into GPA calculation. Grade data not guaranteed to be correct.
Review this professor
InformationReview
Joel Simmons
GVPT459D

Anonymous
05/14/2013 This review was automatically imported from OurUMD. It was not manually verified and may not follow our review standards.		I try to be objective with my evaluations of classes but I hated this class. I'm not an econ person, it's been like 2 years since I've taken macro or micro, this class is basically econ all over again with a little political science thrown in. BE WARE. The class description said NOTHING about this and by the time I figured this out, there was nothing I could do to change my schedule. It's 3 hours long which can be excruciating because the room they used for this class was unbearably hot and 3 hours for an econ class is too long. He does let the class out like 20-30 min early most days, which is nice because my body is usually numb from those stupid desks by then and so is my mind from all the econ. Joel is kind of erratic in his manner of speaking and it takes time to get used to his bouncing around and talking way too fast. Not saying it's impossible, it's just frustrating when you're trying to follow what the fresh hell is going on. There's 2-4 LONG readings for each class period and 4 surprise reading quizzes which are graded not for effort or showing up but for content, so if you did you reading early in the week, you better refresh your memory or do all the reading on the weekend before the class. If you're REALLY into conflict resolution and international development, I guess you could handle this class, I thought I was interested in this subject too, but this perspective on it just wasn't what I expected.
Joel Simmons
GVPT459D

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/08/2013 This review was automatically imported from OurUMD. It was not manually verified and may not follow our review standards.		Prof Simmons keeps things interesting even in a class that goes for almost 3 hours. He's very engaging and goes out of his way to make the material more accessible. The class itself is more focused on economic theory than it would initially seem though.