Professor
Calvin Normore
2 of 5
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Selling both “Plato - The Republic” and “Basic Works of Aristotle” (required textbooks) for super cheap! Willing to negotiate the price because I’m moving away after I graduate in June and need to get rid of these books. (Will delete this post when books are sold so it’s still available) Text **********
Fall 2019 - Selling both “Plato - The Republic” and “Basic Works of Aristotle” (required textbooks) for super cheap! Willing to negotiate the price because I’m moving away after I graduate in June and need to get rid of these books. (Will delete this post when books are sold so it’s still available) Text **********
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2017 - Grading Scheme: Short assignment 10% Midterm 35% Quizzes 6% Participation 4% Final paper 45% ----- Professor Normore: He can be a bit disorganized in lecture, as any philosophy professor actually. He puts up an ill-formatted word document on the screen riddled with typos. It contains extensive notes and excerpts from important texts. They're very very long and he never gets to the end of them. He often goes on tangents and can be hard to follow at times. Lectures were two hours, so it was hard to remain focused throughout the whole duration. He is also very disorganized with assignments and whatnot. However, he is one of the nicest professors I've met. He's very sweet and he cares about his students a lot. He got us cookies and orange juice for our midterms. Lol it was adorable. He can be a bit confusing but he is really understanding and wants to help you as much as possible. He's audiocasted and he also records himself as a backup for BruinCast and posts it on CCLE. He posts all the relevant texts he wants you to read on CCLE too, but I never really read any unless it was for a paper. I stopped going to lecture halfway through the quarter and just relied on his notes without listening to the recording. ----- TA Zach Biondi: I think Zach was the best philosophy TA I've had so far at UCLA. He doesn't go on tangents and he's much more focused than what I've experienced. He goes slowly and really stresses participation in discussions about class topics. He was also a fair grader too and was more focused on whether you understood what was going in in class for grading. I would recommend him as a TA if you can get him. ----- Short assignment grade: 95% So the short assignment was a maximum of 750 words about one of the given prompts. It was simple enough. For my prompt I just basically had to interpret a text. Zach allowed people to send in drafts to give comments on, so that was really helpful in clarifying a couple points in my essay. Overall it wasn't too bad. ----- Midterm grade: 98% So the midterm was 12 multiple choice questions each worth 3% and 8 short answer questions each worth 8%. It was curved 6 points, so I originally got a 92%. Normore gives you an extensive study guide with questions for each philosopher. I suggest making a group study guide on Google or something FOR SURE. I joined one and I didn't really contribute too much, though I did help out a bit. It's great to pool resources too like if Normore gave an answer for a question in a review session, etcetera. If you know the study guide, then you'll do well on the midterm. I honestly had no clue what the fuck was going on until I read the study guide. And obviously I did well. The multiple choice questions were trying to be tricky. Just be careful with terminology and wording in the questions and answers. And the short answers were basically the same questions as the study guide. But some may have been tweaked a bit. Regardless, STUDY THE STUDY GUIDE. And then you'll do fine. ----- Quizzes grade: 6/6 So there were 4 "pop" quizzes throughout the quarter, and 3 scores were counted. But since my section was on Mondays, we missed a couple sections from holidays. Because of that, along with some delay from Zach with how to format quizzes, asking input from his classes, our 4 quizzes were in the last 4 weeks of the quarter. So they weren't really a surprise. Zach also emailed us before section about what topic the questions would be on. They were generally 2 questions each with very short answers. They were really easy if you read the lecture notes from what he's talking about. The last quiz was just questions about the final paper. So generally, these were easy points to nab. ----- Participation grade: unknown I didn't participate at all during discussion, so I dunno how I was graded or if Zach was very strict with that. ----- Final paper grade: 95% The final was roughly 2000-25000 words and was written about one of the given prompts. It was assigned like a week or so before it was due I believe. But I chose the prompt that covered the earliest topic so I wouldn't really need to pay attention to the material at the end of the course. However, if you're getting legit quizzed on it, then pay attention. I mostly used the lecture notes as a guide, but I also did a lot of my own digging in the text to make my case. Trying finishing before Finals Week just to get it over with. It can be a bit much if you're trying to get a good grade. But just start early. ----- Overall grade: A I'm honestly really proud of myself that I did so well amongst these hardcore philosophy majors. I held my own. I think in general following my method would be good if you want to get a good grade without necessarily delving too deep into understanding the content. Normore is a really sweet guy, but this subject didn't really interest me too much. Nevertheless, I needed it for my philosophy minor requirement. Normore is really fair and you can succeed if you go about the class the right way.
Winter 2017 - Grading Scheme: Short assignment 10% Midterm 35% Quizzes 6% Participation 4% Final paper 45% ----- Professor Normore: He can be a bit disorganized in lecture, as any philosophy professor actually. He puts up an ill-formatted word document on the screen riddled with typos. It contains extensive notes and excerpts from important texts. They're very very long and he never gets to the end of them. He often goes on tangents and can be hard to follow at times. Lectures were two hours, so it was hard to remain focused throughout the whole duration. He is also very disorganized with assignments and whatnot. However, he is one of the nicest professors I've met. He's very sweet and he cares about his students a lot. He got us cookies and orange juice for our midterms. Lol it was adorable. He can be a bit confusing but he is really understanding and wants to help you as much as possible. He's audiocasted and he also records himself as a backup for BruinCast and posts it on CCLE. He posts all the relevant texts he wants you to read on CCLE too, but I never really read any unless it was for a paper. I stopped going to lecture halfway through the quarter and just relied on his notes without listening to the recording. ----- TA Zach Biondi: I think Zach was the best philosophy TA I've had so far at UCLA. He doesn't go on tangents and he's much more focused than what I've experienced. He goes slowly and really stresses participation in discussions about class topics. He was also a fair grader too and was more focused on whether you understood what was going in in class for grading. I would recommend him as a TA if you can get him. ----- Short assignment grade: 95% So the short assignment was a maximum of 750 words about one of the given prompts. It was simple enough. For my prompt I just basically had to interpret a text. Zach allowed people to send in drafts to give comments on, so that was really helpful in clarifying a couple points in my essay. Overall it wasn't too bad. ----- Midterm grade: 98% So the midterm was 12 multiple choice questions each worth 3% and 8 short answer questions each worth 8%. It was curved 6 points, so I originally got a 92%. Normore gives you an extensive study guide with questions for each philosopher. I suggest making a group study guide on Google or something FOR SURE. I joined one and I didn't really contribute too much, though I did help out a bit. It's great to pool resources too like if Normore gave an answer for a question in a review session, etcetera. If you know the study guide, then you'll do well on the midterm. I honestly had no clue what the fuck was going on until I read the study guide. And obviously I did well. The multiple choice questions were trying to be tricky. Just be careful with terminology and wording in the questions and answers. And the short answers were basically the same questions as the study guide. But some may have been tweaked a bit. Regardless, STUDY THE STUDY GUIDE. And then you'll do fine. ----- Quizzes grade: 6/6 So there were 4 "pop" quizzes throughout the quarter, and 3 scores were counted. But since my section was on Mondays, we missed a couple sections from holidays. Because of that, along with some delay from Zach with how to format quizzes, asking input from his classes, our 4 quizzes were in the last 4 weeks of the quarter. So they weren't really a surprise. Zach also emailed us before section about what topic the questions would be on. They were generally 2 questions each with very short answers. They were really easy if you read the lecture notes from what he's talking about. The last quiz was just questions about the final paper. So generally, these were easy points to nab. ----- Participation grade: unknown I didn't participate at all during discussion, so I dunno how I was graded or if Zach was very strict with that. ----- Final paper grade: 95% The final was roughly 2000-25000 words and was written about one of the given prompts. It was assigned like a week or so before it was due I believe. But I chose the prompt that covered the earliest topic so I wouldn't really need to pay attention to the material at the end of the course. However, if you're getting legit quizzed on it, then pay attention. I mostly used the lecture notes as a guide, but I also did a lot of my own digging in the text to make my case. Trying finishing before Finals Week just to get it over with. It can be a bit much if you're trying to get a good grade. But just start early. ----- Overall grade: A I'm honestly really proud of myself that I did so well amongst these hardcore philosophy majors. I held my own. I think in general following my method would be good if you want to get a good grade without necessarily delving too deep into understanding the content. Normore is a really sweet guy, but this subject didn't really interest me too much. Nevertheless, I needed it for my philosophy minor requirement. Normore is really fair and you can succeed if you go about the class the right way.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2022 - I like Normore, however he does tend to be disorganized. This class consists of: 5 150-word summaries (1 optional), midterm, and final. He did upload all recorded meetings and slides. The TA Sindhu wasn't the best. They were unhelpful, and graded unfairly. They also were hard to contact for inquiries and etc;. I would definitely recommend if there is another TA, Normore was helpful as much as he could be. You can join virtually as well. Class material was interesting!
Spring 2022 - I like Normore, however he does tend to be disorganized. This class consists of: 5 150-word summaries (1 optional), midterm, and final. He did upload all recorded meetings and slides. The TA Sindhu wasn't the best. They were unhelpful, and graded unfairly. They also were hard to contact for inquiries and etc;. I would definitely recommend if there is another TA, Normore was helpful as much as he could be. You can join virtually as well. Class material was interesting!
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Not a good professor, while the class is not very difficult, as a student it is very stressful because he is wildly disorganized. It appears that he has no idea what he will talk about in class and the syllabus changes weekly. None of the assignments are on a set schedule so it is impossible to plan on when to work for this class. His lectures are basically just him restating the readings and grading of assignments, if it happens, is done at a snails pace. I came into the class expecting a great professor who engaged the students, this is not what I got. Although he seems intelligent, intelligence is not the only factor when it comes to teaching. I don't know why he is rated so highly by most students because the truth is he is one of the worst professors I have had.
Not a good professor, while the class is not very difficult, as a student it is very stressful because he is wildly disorganized. It appears that he has no idea what he will talk about in class and the syllabus changes weekly. None of the assignments are on a set schedule so it is impossible to plan on when to work for this class. His lectures are basically just him restating the readings and grading of assignments, if it happens, is done at a snails pace. I came into the class expecting a great professor who engaged the students, this is not what I got. Although he seems intelligent, intelligence is not the only factor when it comes to teaching. I don't know why he is rated so highly by most students because the truth is he is one of the worst professors I have had.
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2024 - Calvin Normore is one of the gems in the UCLA philosophy department. Although he might not be as structured as Tyler Burge (the absolute GOAT), he is full of knowledge and is very ready and willing to share it with you. This course structure that was proposed in the beginning of the quarter was very loosely followed, with Normore just feeling it out as he went, but it makes sense if you attend his lectures. He doesn't require attendance, but if you go, you will understand why his course structure is so loose. Normore is ready to engage in all sorts of conversations with students, prompting them to think in different ways, and really bringing nuance to questions that seem so commonsensical. If you don't actively participate in lecture, then you probably won't like the class, but if you are engaged, it is one of the best courses offered in the Philosophy department. In terms of grading, it really just depends on your TA. Normore personally graded my papers, and if you talk to him about what you want to write about during office hours so he can check for any errors in your thinking, you can basically guarantee the A.
Winter 2024 - Calvin Normore is one of the gems in the UCLA philosophy department. Although he might not be as structured as Tyler Burge (the absolute GOAT), he is full of knowledge and is very ready and willing to share it with you. This course structure that was proposed in the beginning of the quarter was very loosely followed, with Normore just feeling it out as he went, but it makes sense if you attend his lectures. He doesn't require attendance, but if you go, you will understand why his course structure is so loose. Normore is ready to engage in all sorts of conversations with students, prompting them to think in different ways, and really bringing nuance to questions that seem so commonsensical. If you don't actively participate in lecture, then you probably won't like the class, but if you are engaged, it is one of the best courses offered in the Philosophy department. In terms of grading, it really just depends on your TA. Normore personally graded my papers, and if you talk to him about what you want to write about during office hours so he can check for any errors in your thinking, you can basically guarantee the A.
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