Clifford Backman - Boston University, Boston, MA

Professor: Clifford Backman

Department: History

College: Boston University, Boston, MA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: HI102200201204
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Prof Backman is the best! He makes lectures interesting with anecdotes, analogies, or reenactment of a historical event, etc. Asides from teaching, he is a very nice person and is willing to help you on virtually anything. His only drawback is that he sometimes forgets or confuses a fact. Took 3 classes with him and is taking one more this semester

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: H101
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Amazing! Took him for my first semester of my freshman year and I don't regret it at all. He was a great lecturer and the material is easy to understand. The tests are straightforward (just take notes in class and I read the textbook) and the essays were pretty easy to write.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: HI102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I love this guy! He makes what could be a boring class so interesting and engaging. He's hilarious, and a very nice man! Attendance isn't mandatory but I'm telling you, you're going to want to show up to class just to listen to him talk. Awesome guy!

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: HI101
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Prof Backman is definitely a great lecturer. He asks us to send him quiz questions and he picks the question from what we send to him. However, sometimes he doesn't follow his syllabus and some questions in the quiz are too specific to answer. If you have a good memory and want your history course to be interesting, take class with him.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: HI201
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Stop reading this and go sign up for Professor Backman's class Seriously go

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Backman is a very funny guy who makes lectures interesting and fun with his humorous banter. There are three tests and three essays during the semester. As long you attend class and take notes, you should be fine.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Cliff is wonderful. He genuinely cares about his students. Go see him during his office hours, he will be excited to see you and he has some pretty cool stories. Wants to get to know you. He's a good lecturer. Go to class and participate. Relatively easy grader but you still need to try. Hands out most Fs in the department so do your work. Love him

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CC112
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Made discussion interesting and fun. Provided great background information on the texts that weren't provided in lecture oftentimes. Easy A in the class, he just cared about how passionate you were in talking during discussion. Didn't even need to talk a lot, just needed to believe in what you said.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

take him for your history electives!! i took my 2 required history classes with him. one class had a TA grading the essays so it was harder to get a flat A (I got a B+) but the second Backman graded himself and he is a generous essay grader. Three tests each semester with a take home essay for each.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: HI204
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He is a great professor who is great at teaching history to both history majors and non-history majors. Overall, he is a really interesting guy and he knows a lot about history.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Backman is a great professor! He assigns a lot of reading but lets the class pick the test questions so reading isn't really necessary. He is a pretty easy grader and respects his students. Class ends 1/2 an hour early and is very interesting. Would recommend the class to anyone who needs to fulfill a history requirement.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: HI101
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I've now taken two classes with Backman and got a flat A in both. You don't even need to show up, or do the reading. The class consists of 3 quizzes accompanied by 3 essays that are really essay and always based off of a chapter in a book. I've never even done the reading for this class and the essay's are still super easy. He's super funny too.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I have had Professor Backman twice now, once for 214 Piracy and also for 204 the Crusades. Backman is honestly my favorite professor here at BU. He is funny, his lectures are amazing, and his classes are honestly super easy. Even without doing any of the readings (though you should because they are great) you can easily get an A in his classes.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: H101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Backman's lecture includes both historical events and thought-provoking comments and conclusions. No final, three quizzes and three papers instead. Better attend the lectures because almost all quiz problems are from them. Lectures are also fun.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: WD
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

NOT RECOMMENDED for ESL international students! Professor Backman is a great researcher but an inadequate undergraduate teacher by my standard. If you're really interested in the topic and have a very good understanding on the professional English terms used by the historians, otherwise don't take his class.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: HI214
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

My issue with Prof. Backman is that he does not really place much effort into his lectures--hence why they are short! I am not paying 60k+ a year for a professor that slacks off! I think that's very mediocre and unprofessional.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: HI202
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I had Prof. Backman for HI202 (Medival Philosophy) and 204 (Crusades) for my history minor. His lectures are amazing - the man has no notes, he sits on a desk and practically tricks you into learning. Go to his office hours, he'll be thrilled to see you. I think he's the single best prof. at BU.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: SEVERAL
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

CLIFFI ROCKS!!! Seriously if you need to get the history requirements out of the way he is the one to ask. Sweet, caring, and actually cares about his students passing. I'm not a big reader so I just didn't read and got a B+. BEST BU PROFESSOR AROUND!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: HI101
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I always go to his office hours, and he is really helpful. Nevertheless, this course is hard for me as an international student. I had devoted all of my arduous endeavors reading all the assigned readings and preparing for 3 exams and 3 papers thoroughly, but 5-6 questions out of 25 in the exam isn't taught in lectures and the grader was tough...

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: HI102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Prof B is a GREAT teacher and pretty funny guy...2 exams with paper...breeze; -no HW just read to understand. The bottom line is you cannot mess up taking both series of his classes unless you don't do the work