EVSC 4050

So first of all, I took this class in j-term (I don't know why the site won't let me put that down). This class seems like it suffered hugely from COVID - all of the trips we were scheduled to go on were cancelled, so the class mostly consisted of guest speakers and brief lectures across a wide range of topics. Macko is a strange guy, but he's really nice and he's clearly got good intentions. He was very forgiving on assignments and due dates, and the class was really really easy even if you're not an EVSC major. I've heard that this class is different in the main semester, but the assignments were extremely predictable and easily graded. There was a nightly write-up about the day's class each night, a small group project, and two small personal assignments, and I don't think I lost a point all semester.

Hate. Don't take. This man's lectures are the most useless of any professor I have ever had. The exams are completely unrelated to the content and its really hard to know what will be on them. He is super inconsistent with deadlines, and there is a final paper for 4050 that is like 15 pages (but some of it is references and stuff). There are labs that take forever and are so confusing. Do not take this course. If you do, you will definitely be fine, I am def getting an A, but it is not worth. You must read the textbook.

I would like to start of by saying that Professor Macko has a great personality and a brilliant mind but with all that being said this was easily one of the most disorganized and disorienting classes I’ve ever taken in my educational career. The class is based of 4 unit tests along with a comprehensive final, multiple labs, and a final paper. The paper was originally posted in the syllabus to be 7-10 pages but a week before the due date the page count was changed to 15. The labs are not incredibly difficult but can be confusing as they are not necessarily covered in class. The lectures themselves are not helpful for note taking, you are better off reading the textbook and praying. The lecture slides themselves mostly consists of pictures, graphs, diagrams, and charts that Professor Macko does explain but it is incredibly difficult to take notes this way. The class has a strong curve which definitely makes up for the disorganization but it is still a troublesome class overall. I will not say I recommend or do not recommend this class, I would consider the information above and evaluate if you yourself would be willing to subjugate yourself to that.