Professor profile for Joshua Dever
Student reviews of Joshua Dever
Review from a student who took PHL 313Q
I took the Plan II logic class offered by him. Not a lot of work, except for the nights before the homeworks are due. Hard to make an A in, but he curved the grades at the end. He does make the subjects interesting, and can be really funny, but a dry subject, monotonous voice, and a dim room made me fall asleep a lot. You don't have to go to class a lot to do alright either. The tests weren't a surprise, and there is no final (a project instead).
I took the Plan II logic class offered by him. Not a lot of work, except for the nights before the homeworks are due. Hard to make an A in, but he curved the grades at the end. He does make the subjects interesting, and can be really funny, but a dry subject, monotonous voice, and a dim room made me fall asleep a lot. You don't have to go to class a lot to do alright either. The tests weren't a surprise, and there is no final (a project instead).
Review from a student who took PHL 313Q
The Plan 2 Logic class is great. At first I had no idea where we were going or what we were supposed to be learning--everything seemed a bit abstract. However, after the first couple of weeks the class took off. Although you'll do fine if you skip occassionally, I rarely missed because (a) his lectures were hilarious, provocative, and [sometimes very] fascinating, and (b) teaching yourself from the book, while effective, sucks. The best thing above Dever is his enthusiasm for logic and his want for the students to gain from the subject--he's very open to interjections during lectures, and will sacrifice some of the scheduled lesson if it means debating an interesting question or classic logical anomaly. This guy is great. Fantasically witty.
The Plan 2 Logic class is great. At first I had no idea where we were going or what we were supposed to be learning--everything seemed a bit abstract. However, after the first couple of weeks the class took off. Although you'll do fine if you skip occassionally, I rarely missed because (a) his lectures were hilarious, provocative, and [sometimes very] fascinating, and (b) teaching yourself from the book, while effective, sucks. The best thing above Dever is his enthusiasm for logic and his want for the students to gain from the subject--he's very open to interjections during lectures, and will sacrifice some of the scheduled lesson if it means debating an interesting question or classic logical anomaly. This guy is great. Fantasically witty.
Review from a student who took PHL 313K
If you see him teaching this class the semester you want to take PHL 313K, sign up ASAP. He is a very good prof for this class. From what I've been hearing from the other profs, Dever is the man. He also used the Bonevac book when I took him, which is excellent since it covers the topics you will see in future comp sci courses very well. Great book + great prof = must take course for comp sci majors. The only thing you have to remember is that you have to work together with your classmates on the homeworks (because the homeworks are worth a lot) and make sure you take this class with a light schedule (because the class is naturally difficult), since getting an A is a challenge but also very important in factoring the chances of getting into comp sci. Dever's tests will not surprise you, since they correlate to the homeworks, text book, and lectures. Dever's lectures are also very clever and fun. He likes to bring up a lot of interesting info related to the course and makes even boring topics interesting. If you put a lot of work into the class, you will get your A. Dever only teaches PHL 313K every now and then, so don't hesitate taking his class if he's teaching that semester and hasn't had a closed section yet.
If you see him teaching this class the semester you want to take PHL 313K, sign up ASAP. He is a very good prof for this class. From what I've been hearing from the other profs, Dever is the man. He also used the Bonevac book when I took him, which is excellent since it covers the topics you will see in future comp sci courses very well. Great book + great prof = must take course for comp sci majors. The only thing you have to remember is that you have to work together with your classmates on the homeworks (because the homeworks are worth a lot) and make sure you take this class with a light schedule (because the class is naturally difficult), since getting an A is a challenge but also very important in factoring the chances of getting into comp sci. Dever's tests will not surprise you, since they correlate to the homeworks, text book, and lectures. Dever's lectures are also very clever and fun. He likes to bring up a lot of interesting info related to the course and makes even boring topics interesting. If you put a lot of work into the class, you will get your A. Dever only teaches PHL 313K every now and then, so don't hesitate taking his class if he's teaching that semester and hasn't had a closed section yet.
Review from a student who took PHL 313K
I really can't understand why Dever has gotten such good reviews on here. I can honestly say that Dever taught me just about nothing. I'm not sure if it was his teaching style was too off from my learning style, but I pretty much learned everything in the course from the book, friends, and the TA sessions. The workload isn't horrible; however, there aren't regular homework assignments, only problem sets and tests, which makes it harder to keep up. I emailed Dever about posting some answers to more of the practice problems and never even got a response. The exams weren't horrible, but I found the final to be pretty terrible; it covered a lot of material very in-depth. Dever also has a tendency to put problems on the problems set that make no sense or don't yeild the answer he wants and has no quams about changing the problems unannounced up until the day before its due. Exciting lectures were definitely the exception, not the rule. I wouldn't take this class unless you have to (i.e. you're a CS major). I've heard horror stories about the other 313K teachers and maybe Dever isn't as bad as them, but he's far from a great professor. Work with other people to finish the problem sets, but make sure you understand all the material for the tests.
I really can't understand why Dever has gotten such good reviews on here. I can honestly say that Dever taught me just about nothing. I'm not sure if it was his teaching style was too off from my learning style, but I pretty much learned everything in the course from the book, friends, and the TA sessions. The workload isn't horrible; however, there aren't regular homework assignments, only problem sets and tests, which makes it harder to keep up. I emailed Dever about posting some answers to more of the practice problems and never even got a response. The exams weren't horrible, but I found the final to be pretty terrible; it covered a lot of material very in-depth. Dever also has a tendency to put problems on the problems set that make no sense or don't yeild the answer he wants and has no quams about changing the problems unannounced up until the day before its due. Exciting lectures were definitely the exception, not the rule. I wouldn't take this class unless you have to (i.e. you're a CS major). I've heard horror stories about the other 313K teachers and maybe Dever isn't as bad as them, but he's far from a great professor. Work with other people to finish the problem sets, but make sure you understand all the material for the tests.
Review from a student who took QUonVmWLJUJwuatV
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