Professor
Samuel Cumming
1 of 3
Most Helpful Review
[NOTE: I know it says that I took him for Philo 1, but I actually took him through my GE cluster (Mind over Matter) this year. The GE cluster was not one of the classes available on the drop down menu.] Professor Cumming isn't that bad of a guy... When he's not teaching. He's an absolute horrible lecturer. Goes off on completely random tangents, repeats himself constantly, can't formulate sentences that make sense. On the first day I had him, he was literally in the middle of explaining the mind-body problem when he suddenly remembers something and goes "Oh, by the way..." and then starts talking about how he doesn't put words on his PowerPoint (He really doesn't, it's all pictures. It's the worst - what kind of philosophy professor doesn't put words on the slides? It's PHILOSOPHY.). Then he launched into an entirely different discussion which consisted of his habits and how he does certain things, blah blah blah. He never finished his thought about the mind-body problem... The whole class was so confused by the end of lecture. I doubt we learned anything at all. It was terrible. Avoid him if you can. Again, nice guy. Awful teacher.
[NOTE: I know it says that I took him for Philo 1, but I actually took him through my GE cluster (Mind over Matter) this year. The GE cluster was not one of the classes available on the drop down menu.] Professor Cumming isn't that bad of a guy... When he's not teaching. He's an absolute horrible lecturer. Goes off on completely random tangents, repeats himself constantly, can't formulate sentences that make sense. On the first day I had him, he was literally in the middle of explaining the mind-body problem when he suddenly remembers something and goes "Oh, by the way..." and then starts talking about how he doesn't put words on his PowerPoint (He really doesn't, it's all pictures. It's the worst - what kind of philosophy professor doesn't put words on the slides? It's PHILOSOPHY.). Then he launched into an entirely different discussion which consisted of his habits and how he does certain things, blah blah blah. He never finished his thought about the mind-body problem... The whole class was so confused by the end of lecture. I doubt we learned anything at all. It was terrible. Avoid him if you can. Again, nice guy. Awful teacher.
Most Helpful Review
The evaluation for Phil 7 below is true. This should have been a fun introductory class and instead, he ruined more than 1/2 of the class' GPAs. I worked so hard for this class, attended lectures, never missed a discussion section, saw the TA, etc., and I still didn't get an A. I'm now going to have to work my butt off like crazy to get my GPA back to where it was before this class (let me just say how STUPID it looks when all I have is A, A- and then this grade!) Cumming saw that we were all struggling immensely and that people practically failed the midterm. Although the final was "sort of" ok, the guy would NOT budge and would not allow for a curve. In reality, I probably have one of the higher grades in class but because he wouldn't allow the TAs to lower the grade scale, it was impossible to get an A. Bottom line, if you need this class see if you can find another teacher. It's a great subject but by the end of the course, I can't tell you how many people were turned off from philosophy and hated anything having to do with it.
The evaluation for Phil 7 below is true. This should have been a fun introductory class and instead, he ruined more than 1/2 of the class' GPAs. I worked so hard for this class, attended lectures, never missed a discussion section, saw the TA, etc., and I still didn't get an A. I'm now going to have to work my butt off like crazy to get my GPA back to where it was before this class (let me just say how STUPID it looks when all I have is A, A- and then this grade!) Cumming saw that we were all struggling immensely and that people practically failed the midterm. Although the final was "sort of" ok, the guy would NOT budge and would not allow for a curve. In reality, I probably have one of the higher grades in class but because he wouldn't allow the TAs to lower the grade scale, it was impossible to get an A. Bottom line, if you need this class see if you can find another teacher. It's a great subject but by the end of the course, I can't tell you how many people were turned off from philosophy and hated anything having to do with it.
AD
AD
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2016 - This was the worst professor I had at UCLA. If you can find out I wrote this about you I am sorry. You are a very smart person, but you are just not a good teacher. There is a big difference between knowledge, and knowledge of teaching. Smart man, just bad at teaching. Blabbers non-stop about and goes on gambits. That's not a cool thing (I guess most philosophy professors think it is or it shows how ingenious they are). Just structure your lecture have some structure to your class. Think it out beforehand and not just arrive and start talking nonsense. Sorry for the harsh criticism but as a transfer Philosophy major and this being my first class I think I was traumatized for a long time, not really but basically until my next class which was really well structured. Don't take him unless you plan on having him take pictures of you for attendance and talk in his Australian accent about nonsense that has almost nothing to do with your papers but he somehow expects you to know what he is thinking.
Fall 2016 - This was the worst professor I had at UCLA. If you can find out I wrote this about you I am sorry. You are a very smart person, but you are just not a good teacher. There is a big difference between knowledge, and knowledge of teaching. Smart man, just bad at teaching. Blabbers non-stop about and goes on gambits. That's not a cool thing (I guess most philosophy professors think it is or it shows how ingenious they are). Just structure your lecture have some structure to your class. Think it out beforehand and not just arrive and start talking nonsense. Sorry for the harsh criticism but as a transfer Philosophy major and this being my first class I think I was traumatized for a long time, not really but basically until my next class which was really well structured. Don't take him unless you plan on having him take pictures of you for attendance and talk in his Australian accent about nonsense that has almost nothing to do with your papers but he somehow expects you to know what he is thinking.
AD
1 of 3
