Marc Landy

School: Boston College
Department: Political Science
Location: Chestnut Hill, MA
Overall Rating
rated by 2 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
I initially had high hopes for this professor, but in the end my experience with his course was awful. To be fair, I did receive an A in his course. But I only accomplished this by pushing through Landy's complete lack of organization and his sheer incompetence. Firstly, his syllabus and exams contain multiple formatting errors that create confusion and inefficiency. For example: the midterm was designed to have only 5 short essay questions. But he "accidentally" included a sixth question by mistake. When he was notified of this in the middle of the exam, he forced the class to complete the erroneous sixth question - forcing students to rush through the five questions we were actually supposed to complete. Secondly, Landy often does not show up to his own office hours - and he never notifies the class when this occurs. On multiple occasions I visited his office during the scheduled time on the syllabus, only to find that he wasn't there. When I emailed him to set up an appointment, he didn't respond. Thirdly, his lectures have nothing to do with the exams or written assignments. Since there is no attendance or participation grade, showing up to class is pointless. Landy is infamous for giving vague, unclear instructions for exams and assignments that provide nothing further than basic information about formatting. For example, all he said about the final paper was that it should have "good sentence structure." Very helpful. But by far the worst aspect of Landy's course was the exams. The two exams, which together were worth 60% of the final grade, exclusively tested our knowledge of the course readings. Each exam touched upon roughly 26 readings, five of which would randomly be chosen as the basis for short essay questions, and the only way to do well was to memorize all 26 readings. These readings were long, dense texts which were almost never seriously covered in class. And you had to re-read all 26 before the exam because if there was even one you didn't know well enough, and it showed up on the exam, then you were doomed. Overall, Landy's class has no basic structure. The relationships between the various readings, topics, and key concepts were rarely explained and the class seemed to have no clear direction. Most students outside of my major did poorly in his course, which requires a high level of skill and interest in political science that few people have. Even as a political science major I found Landy's course almost unbearable. If you can, please try to avoid taking one of his classes. It's certainly an experience I'd never want to repeat.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
I initially had high hopes for this professor, but in the end my experience with his course was awful. To be fair, I did receive an A in his course. But I only accomplished this by pushing through Landy's complete lack of organization and his sheer incompetence. Firstly, his syllabus and exams contain multiple formatting errors that create confusion and inefficiency. For example: the midterm was designed to have only 5 short essay questions. But he "accidentally" included a sixth question by mistake. When he was notified of this in the middle of the exam, he forced the class to complete the erroneous sixth question - forcing students to rush through the five questions we were actually supposed to complete. Secondly, Landy often does not show up to his own office hours - and he never notifies the class when this occurs. On multiple occasions I visited his office during the scheduled time on the syllabus, only to find that he wasn't there. When I emailed him to set up an appointment, he didn't respond. Thirdly, his lectures have nothing to do with the exams or written assignments. Since there is no attendance or participation grade, showing up to class is pointless. Landy is infamous for giving vague, unclear instructions for exams and assignments that provide nothing further than basic information about formatting. For example, all he said about the final paper was that it should have "good sentence structure." Very helpful. But by far the worst aspect of Landy's course was the exams. The two exams, which together were worth 60% of the final grade, exclusively tested our knowledge of the course readings. Each exam touched upon roughly 26 readings, five of which would randomly be chosen as the basis for short essay questions, and the only way to do well was to memorize all 26 readings. These readings were long, dense texts which were almost never seriously covered in class. And you had to re-read all 26 before the exam because if there was even one you didn't know well enough, and it showed up on the exam, then you were doomed. Overall, Landy's class has no basic structure. The relationships between the various readings, topics, and key concepts were rarely explained and the class seemed to have no clear direction. Most students outside of my major did poorly in his course, which requires a high level of skill and interest in political science that few people have. Even as a political science major I found Landy's course almost unbearable. If you can, please try to avoid taking one of his classes. It's certainly an experience I'd never want to repeat.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Cons: an airhead

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