Richman, Ronald  

This instructor sucks and so does the class.

Too much powerpoint, interesting info but way too much

This class wasn\'t exactly what I had expected. It was basically an advanced version of GEOL 201 however when looking back it makes total sense because the class is called INTRO to geological engineering. Keep in mind that this class involves no design aspects and mainly consists of memorization of terms and process (much like GEOL 201) With that said there are a few more advanced topics discussed throughout the quarter. The layout of the class includes weekly homework (25%), 1 midterm (35%), 1 10 minute power point presentation (%5), and final (35%). The workload is very manageable. Dr. Richman does a good job of portraying the material to his students and he is quite helpful during OHs. At the end of the day this class is pretty boring and although I enjoyed Dr. Richman\'s teaching style I would not recommend this class to anyone unless they are looking for ATEs to fill or they are seriously interested in geology.

Extreme amount of slides, notes, material to cover. If you're only taking this class, Its manageable. However, if you are a real student with other classes you will loath this class. 7-8 Powerpoints w/ 60-100+ slides each per exam ( 1 midterm, 1 final ). Do not waste your time, take a ATE which will not be so time consuming and you will actually enjoy. This was my worst mistake in college. period

Don't read any of the comments below. Richman is a passionate teacher who wants you to learn the material. The PowerPoints are long, but a majority of the slides are pictures to visually show concepts you just copied notes about. The class is totally reasonable and you learn a lot. If you're a geotech and want to not be clueless when rocks are thrown into the mix, this is definitely a good class to have under your belt.

This was a great class. It make what you learned in Geology 201 relevant to geotechnical engineering. Yes there is a lot of information, but what class doesn't. If you don't have an interest in geotechnical engineering, you are going to have a bad time.

Love Richman's passion and enthusiasm for this stuff. It's always an 8am class and it gets really detailed. The tests aren't easy since there's so much to memorize, but they're pretty fair. Only someone with an excellent memory could remember everything. This class if probably only worth it if you're really into geology.

Overall the class was fairly straightforward but very boring. He uses a lot of powerpoint and transparencies which made it very hard for me to pay attention in class. I very rarely had to take notes because everything is on blackboard. There were two tests (one midterm and one final) but each test had a take home portion in addition to the in class portion. The take homes are super long and take like 5-6 hours to do so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to finish them.