Brian Bunk - University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Professor: Brian Bunk

Department: TBD

College: University of Massachusetts - Amherst

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: HISTORY110
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Did not hold one single lecture throughout this entire pandemic semester. I essentially had to read the textbook and do weekly quizzes/assignments based on that reading. No guidance, however did allow extra time on assignments. Seems like a good guy , my big issue is that we had no class and it's like what am i paying for? to teach myself?

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: HIST386
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Sweet guy who knows a lot about subject material, encourages in-class discussion. 3 books required for a series of papers you'll need to write but all other texts provided online for free. 5 papers, weekly discussion posts for online annotated texts, and participation make up final grade. Overall solid course and professor.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: HIS110
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Hist110 is a team based learning class, so how it goes for you depends on who you get put with, and you don't get to pick. The readings were difficult, so if you're the only one who does it in your group, you'll be carrying the team on all the on class work. Bunk's a good dude and he just kinda facilitated, the grad students did all the grading.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: HIS110
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

The class seems like it will be fine, especially if you have a good group because this class is based exclusivley on group work. There are no lectures, quizzes, or tests all you do is in class work with your groups and a final group project. The TAs are the ones who grade your work and mine are ridiculously nit picky and do not easily hand out A's.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: HIST111
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

The only things that are graded for this class are the exams. Participation in discussions matters a LOT, it counts for 30% of the final grade (more than any of the exams do), so make sure to do the readings. Definitely makes it easy to not show up to class though, I only went to three non-exam lectures in total.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: HIS110
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

The class is super easy(unless you get put in a terrible group). What is expected from the groups is very obvious and the grading for the reading notes and team reports are pretty lenient. Definitely put scavenger hunt, life experiments, and peer assessments for the highest % of your grade because they're super easy.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Its a team-based learning class, so hopefully you get a good team because basically all of your assignments are with them. You get to pick your own grading scheme. Definitely put peer assignment, scavenger hunt, and life experiments as high percentages! Class is really easy you don't have to buy the books they're online.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Extremely easy for a gen ed. Would recommend for anyone who is looking for an easy A. Only thing that sucks is this is a team based learning class and some groups are better than others.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: B-
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Uninspiring and painfully monotonous. The 1 - 2 combo of bland lecture with a sub- blah professor killed my spirit, I'll never get all those hours back.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: HIST111
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This class was very interesting if you like history. You MUST go to discussion, if you miss more than 3 discussion sections you fail the entire class. You get assigned weekly reading with questions and that what you do in discussion. Theres 3 tests and thats it. You need to actually talk in discussion or your grade is bad. Seems bad, but good GenEd

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor Bunk is a very knowledgeable and passionate professor, but can occasionally be confusing on what he is looking for with assignments. Also, this has nothing to do with Bunk, but the class was a "TBL- Team based learning" class, which is absolutely awful. If you are put with lazy classmates (or those who do not speak English) then good luck

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: HISTORY111
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

The class structure is very straight forward. There is a short paper due every discussion that is based on the readings/ class notes. There are 2 primary source in-class essays based on class notes. For the tests he would give you 3 essay prompts a few classes before and then 1 of those prompts was the test so it was very easy to prepare for.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: SPTHIST397GS
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Good professor. No tests, just papers in this class. He sometimes takes too long to illustrate his point and becomes redundant at times. He is usually clear though. He is very wise and interesting to listen to. Many books to read in short spans of time, but you can get through lectures without reading them entirely.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: HIST111
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Lecture slides are posted online they are only pictures and not helpful if you do not attend class.. The hardest part of this class was the discussion which is worth 40% of your grade overall. Every week there are assignments for discussion that are tedious and long, you have to do the readings as the assignments require citations.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: HISTORY111
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

I really felt the class was disorganized. He goes on these long ramblings for lectures, and then during the exams, you can basically get a decent grade just by remembering things from the reading he assigns! Hope you learn by hearing, too, because his power points don't have any real notes on them.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

As a non-english speaker, this class was the most difficult class for me, especially the readings. Readings are long, and literally I spent huge amount of time before every class in order to finish online quizzes in the limited time. The quizzes are hard too. Some of them are based on the details of readings. So you have to read first.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: HISTORY110
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Professor Bunk is a nice guy and his lectures are okay to listen to. His class is so disorganized. The readings are so long some weeks with hard, specific quizzes. Discussion sections are pointless. A hard 100-level gen-ed class.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

The primary source assignment was way to large a percentage of the grade. The readings were rather long. The online quizzes were horrible, much too specific w/ time limits that made them irritating. The Final exam prompts also encompassed too much material. He takes this class too seriously for a 100 level. Say goodbye to Thursday nights.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: HIST386
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Prof Bunk is a nice guy, and he keeps the class interesting enough. There are 500 word papers every week, and a large annotated bibliography at the end of the class but it isn't too bad. I liked the class well enough.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: HIST110
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Seems like a nice enough guy, yet I do not recommend this class if it is in the Team Based Learning format. It is the first time he taught this class in this way, yet it was a disaster. I doubt it will be a TBL class in the future, but if it is be prepared for confusion.