Taskey, Ronald  

horrible. horrible. i repeat...horrible. this man's ability to present information was absolutley scatter brained with 0 organization. his powerpoints were just photos of random soil sties and from there the midterms were DEEPLY difficult, with him expecting you to know a bunch of random shit he either once mentioned in class or didn't mention at all. he's like deathly afraid of the internet so he doesn't post any of the slides online either(not that they're helpful anyway) and his study guides for the tests are VERY vague and unhelpful. the class average for both tests was a D...and just i studied really hard and I ended up getting a B in the class but i legit had to GUESS the kind of questions he would ask and get inside his brain because he is so unclear with his teaching and just expects you to have phD level knowledge about soil science which is why the class average is so fucking low on these tests. he freaking goes on these crazy tangents in class and it's so aggravating because he CANNOT GET TO THE POINT and his class feels like a waste of time. overall he's just so inconsiderate, cannot organize or teach clearly for his life, and it's just a very very difficult experience. please please avoid.

I had high expectations for this course as I was supposed to have it with Chris Appel. Right before the start of the quarter, a different professor in the department was not able to teach due to a personal situation, Appel had to take on other responsibilities and therefore Ronald Taskey had to fill in. Ron failed to inform us prior to the first day of class and he would be our instructor, which threw all of us off from the very start. I kept an open mind and was still excited for the course, however, Ronald is by far the worst professor I have ever had during my three years at Cal Poly. I would strongly advise you to think carefully before enrolling in his course, (assuming he’ll inform you that he will be your instructor). First of all, Ronald refused to put our grades online for the entirety of the quarter. I kindly emailed him and asked him to tell me what my grade was and he sent me back one of the snarkiest emails I have ever received in my entire college career telling me to calculate it myself (which I could not do because our tests had kindly been curved and we did not know what our new grade was). I even attended office hours to ask for my grade and he had no idea in the slightest and guess that it might be a C. Instead of telling me that he had never recorded any of our scores, he danced around the topic for 10 minutes, throwing a C out there before getting up and leaving without actually answering my question. Needless to say, the lowest score I had received all quarter was a C+ in class and my lab grade was a B+, yet my final grade miraculously came out to a C. I’m no expert, but I assume simple math wouldn’t have been so hard if he had been keeping track of our grades. After all, he told me in his email that calculating a grade wasn’t that hard since it's just a combination of all the scores you had received in class, so I am still confused about why he was unable to do just that? Ron is extremely smart, so to this day I am still deeply confused about why he decided not to do some simple math to give us the grades that we had earned. At the end of the quarter, I emailed him and kindly, but firmly asking that he send me a report of my grades just so he could explain to me exactly how A’s, B’s, and two C+’s add up to a whopping C. But, as expected, he didn’t even bother to respond or address my pressing question. Better yet, we had an online final due to COVID-19, and I used a shared Google Doc with my peers as a resource to study prior; this is how I studied all quarter and it was an extremely useful tool for me. I suppose some of our notes on the Doc were incorrect which I and the other students who had collaborated on this resource all got wrong on the final since that was where we had been studying from. Ronald proceeded to send me an entire email accusing me of cheating, having horrible ethics, terrible morals, ruining the end of his career, and he even reported me and lowered my grade (which was already completely subjective), to a D! Funny how I was productive, studied for this exam, and out of all of my classes that quarter, I put the majority of my time into this class to get not only a C that I didn't earn but to get a D because of a mistake that my partners and I made on a STUDY GUIDE that I had only used to study prior to the online exam. That being said, the homework is fair, the tests weren’t too bad even though they ended up being cumulative when we were not informed prior (which brought our scores down for the second exam). Ron is incredibly educated in this field and knows just about everything there is to know about soil, and he does care about whether or not students understand concepts. However, it is possible that he will have little respect for you and you will be treated like a middle schooler. For example, in class one day I felt sick and had to step out and he made once again, another snarky, rude, and unnecessary comment in front of the entire class about how I should’ve “taken care of myself before coming to class”, so thank you for trying to embarrass me in front of the entire class, next time I’ll be sure to vomit on my feet instead because that’ll surely be less distracting then quietly stepping out for five minutes. Ron is also very old fashioned in the way that he runs his classes, so don’t even think about eating a snack, or looking at your phone because you’ll be disciplined in front of the entire class and likely have to stay after to “have a talk” with him. That being said, if you would like to be treated like the college student that you are, if you would like to see your grades, if you would like to receive a grade that is actually based off of a calculation, not have to deal with his condescending and snarky demeanor, or have your entire moral compass questioned by this man because you studied for an exam, I suggest you wait to take this class with a professor who will treat you with some respect and not tear you down as a person.

Taskey is the worst lab teacher possible. Do whatever you can to avoid taking Taskey!!!!

I had Taskey for Soils 121 lab. he did not have a lecture this quarter (he is only part time now at Cal Poly). He was horrible!!! Since he did not have a lecture, he lectured for atleast an hour and fifteen (most of the times more) minutes every lab, and on material that was not even going to be covered in lab. His lectures were on what he had done in the field...blah blah. He was soo boring!!! He never lets you out any time before the 3 hour lab is up. And his grading scale!!! HAH- he rips you at every minscule detail possible. He grades all his own stuff. Plus, on weekly quizzes he will intentionally take off points on problems that were never covered in lab (try to get his old quizzes he never changes), and his grading policy is if you want one problem corrected, he corrects the whole thing, and takes off even more points because you are "wasting his time." Totally, horrible!! i mean it...bad bad bad... he caused me from getting an A in soils because he took off every possibly 1/2 point here and there.

Taskey is too interested in his own past experiences and cannot relate to an intro. soils student who is required to take this course. I had him for lab and what a disaster! he rambles on and on and on... talks about himself and can't get to the main points of the lab. He kept us there the whole 3 hours, just to listen to him drone on about boring crap!!! take another soils prof for lab or you'll be sorry.

SO unhelpful. One of the worst labs I've ever had. He's an ass too, you can't have a bottle of water to drink....IN SOIL SCIENCE for crying out loud. ohmygod, I think I spilled water on the ROCK table. He doesn't teach shit, avoid this pompous asshole at all costs.

Everyone that is bashing on this professor probably failed because they did not show up to class or take any notes. Taskey is definitely not an easy professor but what he expects is very clear and his tests are very fair (no tricks, 100% things he said in lecture or asked in the HW). I did not need to purchase the textbook or read every chapter, but as long as you complete the homework assignments and actually attend/pay attention in lecture you will learn a lot! There is a short hw assignment every class that you can do using the textbook or internet sources. He is kind of old school, so you can't get away with texting in class or not showing up because he will mark you absent and does not post slides online. His teaching style was really awesome, with lots of pictures and real life examples of how things work, so you will definitely remember the information. He was very passionate about this subject and genuinely cares about educating his students and involving them. It was not an easy A but if this course is required for your major I would suggest it because you will gain a good amount of knowledge on this topic.

I would avoid this professor. His lectures are very hard to follow. He is constantly going off on tangents that do not have to do with the material we are learning. His lectures are all verbally given and he does not write anything down. If you miss something that is said in class there is not a way to find out what you have missed. You basically have to teach yourself everything that was supposed to be taught in lecture from the textbook. His midterms are incredibly challenging the second midterm the class average was a 64%. He gives a checklist of what you need to know for his tests and the checklists are very broad and have multiple that will not be on the tests. For the final he posted his checklist two days before the final, providing an insufficient amount of time to study.

This guy is okay as a person, but as a teacher he sucks the d. He just puts pictures of rocks he has taken up on the screen and talks about it. He barley talks about the material; and when he does, it's easy shit that we can read from the book. His quizzes are bullshit at times because it's on his lecture and not a lot about the material you read in the book. You basically learn from the book; he doesn't teach you shit.

Dr. Ron is a nice guy who is way too enthusiastic about rocks and soil, which is honestly something you want in a professor. He isn't very helpful and doesn't really go over what is going to be on tests and quizzes, you just have to guess and hope for the best. Read the book and pay attention to the homework because this is the material that you need to know to pass. His lectures are interesting but not very helpful and he honestly just likes to chat about the rocks he has encountered on his journeys. He cares about students and takes the time to learn everyone's name. It's not the most fun subject material, but if you have to take Geology, this course isn't the worst.

Dr. Ron is the man! Yeah he might go off tangents about pictures he's taken but he's a genuinely cool (kinda goofy) guy. If you're attentive and ask a lot of questions, Dr. Ron goes over all the material you need for his tests and quizzes. Make sure to do the homework because those are the study guides you will use for the midterms and finals.

The rest of these comments are somewhat ridiculous. I learned more from the first 2 weeks of 321 than I did through all of 121. Comparing the beginning of the quarter the lab reports at the end, I learned an amazing amount. No, he is not the best professor I have ever had, but he makes sure you understand the material. I appreciate the feedback he gives everyone for homeworks and lab reports, it's helpful, never critical. He is much better in lab than lecture.

Look, Taskey is a freaking genius who just doesn't understand we of the smaller brain. Like I literally think he doesn't understand the concept of someone not understanding what he's talking about. He is absurdly excited about what he is teaching, which is cool. The dude has forgotten more about soil than I will probably ever know. I learned a lot in this class and consistently recommend it as one of the most informative and influential classes I've taken at Cal Poly. In any case, you kind of just have to assume that you are going to be confused for the first half of the quarter and spend the second half thinking that maybe you kind of understand and then trying really hard to remember everything and piece it all together. He expects you to figure things out and problem solve, not just regurgitate information (though, there's plenty of that as well). I liked him, I would take the class again if I could because this guy isn't going to be teaching for much longer and he's one of those old school professors that they just don't have around anymore.

Dr. Taskey is awsome. He makes stats understandable. He's reasonable but by no means easy. You know exactly what to study for for tests, but it's still tough. Good luck

If you are doing a thesis, take SS 501. If you're going to have to write it, you may as well get extra units, and have someone coaching you along the way. He could condense the whole quarter into about two weeks, but the important thing is he makes you turn assignments in which forces you to work on the project. It's good to spend time with other grad students as well.

Ron Taskey is an arrogant prick who thinks that his S501 class is the be all and end all of a graduate degree. He preaches about the importance of getting journal articles published, and lectures you on the perfect way to get your articles published, as if he spends everyday doing it. But do your research folks... he hasn't had an article published since the 70's. And you want me to belive what he says is correct?? The recommendations are dated, just like him. No wonder all of my professors roll their eyes and suggest alternative classes when I mention his terrible class. But make sure you pay attention to his brilliant observations and "invention" of his intellectual slider. Talk about a bunch of crap. Maybe his gay lover thinks he's a prize, but not me.