Avent Beck - James Madison University

Professor: Avent Beck

Department: TBD

College: James Madison University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Beck is a nice guy, but really confusing. Assignments were ridiculous (we wrote an essay about kindergarteners on Mars), grading criteria and expectations were not well communicated, and he can be judgmental sometimes if a student isn't understanding something. He's pretty reasonable, but he's difficult to understand a lot of the time.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: GWRIT103
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Beck has the most confusing lectures and is never clear with what he is saying. I lived at the writing center for this class and still received 3/6 for most of the short assignments. Only thing good is he bases your grade off of how many points you get not the percentage. just dont take him there are so many other professors.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Professor Beck was okay, but I wouldn't take him again. He is a great guy and cares for his students, but he takes a long time to give feedback on assignments, and isn't clear on what he is looking for. The books are required for homework assignments, which are usually one or two short assignment per week. Lectures can be boring.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Professor Beck is a nice guy and definitely cares about his students and wants you to do well, but honestly, he just doesn't make sense most of the time. The majority of the class is spent just looking over the homework due that day, and he questions everything you say. It's an easy A, but I didn't learn anything.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor Beck is a very interesting and funny guy. He always makes us laugh in class with his weird quirks. There is homework every due every Wednesday and Friday but it does not take too long to complete. The material can be confusing but I would recommend taking him.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Hes honestly not a bad professor, if you just keep up with the readings then you should be fine. There are three main papers that will be done with a group and are rather difficult and carry your grade. He isn't the most clear with what he wants but just ask a lot of questions. He kinda speaks in riddles but the class isn't hard just tedious

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

As someone who used to love writing, that professor killed my will to write. I did all of the readings, emailed him, talked to him before and after class, and asked a lot of questions and I was still constantly confused throughout the entire class. His weekly quizzes are supposed to be on the readings but never are and he's a really specific grader

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

he graded easy until the final issue essays which he asks for 3 at once. prompts are confusing and pointless. the final is one essay written to yourself about if you understand a controversial issue, one is an essay to your audience about if they understand your topic, and then a final written to a committee about a controversial topic in ur major

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Prof. Beck is a hit or miss with some people but i personally really enjoyed his class. He made an effort to relate to the students and provided great feedback on papers and discussions. He cares about the growth of students as writers and makes it not difficult to get good grades.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

The weirdest grader ever. His classes and lectures make absolutely no sense and your text book is a self-help book with completely random quizzes that have no correlation to the reading while he is somewhat helpful when you speak with him one-on-one, you really have to ask many questions to try to understand half of what he is talking about.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Weirdest grading scale ever. takes forever to grade many things. his lectures in class make no sense, and attendance is mandatory. best way to pass the class is to go to office hours and make sure he knows who you are specifically.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Beck comes across as a tough grader but gives so many opportunities to redo work. Go to his office hours, it is SO helpful. Every time Ive had him help me with an essay or assignment, Id get an A on it. If you consistently go to class and dont skip (like 3/4 of the class does) he will take notice and be more lenient when grading you.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: GWRIT101
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

The way he ran his class this semester was making groups of 4 and assigning a paper due every single Friday. He graded them ridiculously hard, and has his own bizarre grading scale that makes no sense. His assignments are difficult and very specific, and it is essentially impossible to get an 4/4 unless he is writing the paper.. Avoid at all costs!

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Beck is an interesting guy to say the least. The majority of the class was spent writing in groups and it really didn't make any sense. He is a harsh grader and it took a while to even understand what he was looking for in each assignment. I would avoid taking this class because he made it much harder then it had to be.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: GWRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He started doing his classes differently this semester where in-class is working on our exercise due at the end of the week. Every exercise is a group project and same group every time, so it sometimes sucks. His directions are somewhat confusing on his exercises and term projects, but if you ask him for an explanation he is very helpful.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

This class really sucks. Don't take it.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Beck is a really interesting teacher, but I use the word "interesting" loosely. His lectures are very boring and class attendance seemed trivial. He assigns either a rough draft or final draft of a paper nearly every class so expect to do a lot of writing. He's genuinely a nice guy but I would only suggest him if you're okay with writing a lot.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He is a very nice man, but extremely boring. Sitting through class was painful. Listening in class had no effect on how well you did on writing assignments because his lectures were irrelevant. But he is very helpful in office hours, gives you opportunities to rewrite assignments, and very lenient about late work.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I don't know where all of these bad reviews are coming from. I personally enjoy the class. It is a writing class however, so expect many papers. Professor Beck is critical on how the papers should look but once I learned his method, my writing got so much better. 10/10 would take again.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: WRTC103
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He's a tough grader, and half the time you're not exactly sure what he's asking for in his prompts for papers. But he will let you rewrite and rewrite until you have a good grade. If you go to his office hours it makes a big difference. Just be prepared for a lot of writing, and a lot of not knowing what's going on.