Jim Davis

Davis is an excellent teacher. i thought that not doing "enough" for his research paper would land me a B because i was getting A's in everything else. but when i got my grade i got an A for my overall grade. i was surprised. he is a really good teacher. the only problem i had is that the class was once a week and it was three hours long. i get very impatient so i didn't show up for a lot of classes that i thought were worth missing. basically i studied the terms in the back of the syllabus more than anything and planned out my essay for the test beforehand and memorized it. as for the 2 papers, they were easy. however, i only had 2 books for my research paper but i did get an overall good grade. so i'm not complaining. it's almost like high school with this teacher. i recommend him. just follow everyone else's instructions on their reviews, that's what i did and i got an A!!!

Jim Davis is a great teacher. His class were not hard. Here's a hint to all of you and you definitely need this. In his class, he'll probably ask you to do the read and following the syllabus on what you have to read before going to class. Instead of reading the entire chapter, read the back! I mean it.. read the definition on the back only for the thing he talked about in class. This would definitely help you. (especially if you are not a native English speaking person. His exams are not hard, but you must understand the thing he talks about. Again.. READ THE BACK OF THE READER. then you'll do fine.

Professor Davis is the most outstanding instructor I have ever met at SFSU. I find his lectures very brain stimulating and I highly recommend him. There are no textbooks to buy except for the cheap reader and it's very easy to follow. His exams are not that hard, almost all of the questions came from the lectures and the reader and he also do a review a week before the exam. I learned so much from his class. His lectures and his interesting slides are like discovery channel and history channel all in one.

Jim is a nice, funny, good teacher. Once you understand how his exams work, they are easy to study for granted that you prepare for them. There were two short art critiques and a 6-8 pages research paper. The only problem with this class is the claustrophobic room with too many students.

Jim is a professor that knows the material and shows it to the students. He even gets personable with the material. His tests are not that hard since he gives you the essay question (and you get to chose what you want to write on) a week before the actual test, and he attaches the terms you should know to his syllabus. As long as you take good notes and know those terms you'll do all right. And he literally gave us all the questions on the test in our review session. I didn't read the reader all the time and I passed with a B+. I did really bad on the first test but I did really well on my last test and my papers. For the papers, answer the questions he wants in your paper and you'll do fine.

Great class, good instructor. If you're looking for a class to fullfill Seg. III requirement, this is a great choice. It will not take much time, and you will learn a lot of really interesting things. There are 2 exams: 20 T/F, 20 multiple choice, 6 definitions of terms, and essay (YOU get to pick the topic (out of 6 or so) 1 week before the test -- pretty amazing! The course reader is "readable" :) there are a lot of slides films -- all to keep you awake :) The easiest way to get ready for the exam is to study the terms -- you get them the first day of classes; this will prepare you for all parts of the exam; technically, you don't even have to come to class every time for that; but class really is a lot of fun, so you might as well show up and let yourself be educated :) There are also 2 short papers and a longer one at the end of the course.

Firstly, let me say that I enjoyed practically all of the course materials. I'm glad that I took the class. Davis..how can I say this? Likes to be liked. As a result, his otherwise well-paced and incedibly information-dense lectures get dragged down by his trying to 'get down to our level.' (my words, not his) Approaching him at any time is seemingly to threaten his ego - he doesn't get defensive, but I think that he'd hand out lollipops if it made him feel more secure. His command of the subject is INCREDIBLE. He links disparate ideas in a way that illuminates their similarieties and differences, and he pays decent lip service to theories that contrast his own. The course is organized, the papers are difficult only in that you have to decide what you want to write on. The tests...hard. BUT he tells you more or less what has a good chance of being ON the test, and actually gives the essay questions (for the in-class exam) the week before the exam. You choose your essay, write legibly, follow a reasonable train of thought, and because he also tells you the grading criteria, it's entirely possible to do well with some work and intelligence. To be honest, I fell very far behind in the course reader, but I paid attention in class, and was absent only once. I spent the standard 3 hours outside of class for each hour in class, and I think that my grade reflects that work.