Professor profile for Anthony Gillies
Student reviews of Anthony Gillies
Review from a student who took PHL 358
Gillies was one of the worst professors I've ever had at UT. Even though he's only around 25 years old, he is very arrogant with his students, who are not much older than him. He becomes extremely annoyed when answering student's confusion, as if he is above the common misunderstandings of something as complex as Modal logic. There were a lot of graduate students in this class. A lot of people thought that Gillies would be easy going and affable with his students. That assumption was totally false. He could not create any sort of rapport with his students, even though there were about 30 of us in the class. Many walked out of that class extremely confused. He often scrawls definitions from the textbook onto the board, giving little or no context as to the significant of the theories we study. I took his class, and came out knowing as much as I knew when I left 313k. I ended up taking Bonevac for another advanced logic class, and learned a lot more. Bonevac gives students not only a concise mathematical understanding of the logic he teaches, but a clear picture of the import of logical theories. In short, avoid Gillies. I can describe his style in 2 words: detached and pretentious.
Gillies was one of the worst professors I've ever had at UT. Even though he's only around 25 years old, he is very arrogant with his students, who are not much older than him. He becomes extremely annoyed when answering student's confusion, as if he is above the common misunderstandings of something as complex as Modal logic. There were a lot of graduate students in this class. A lot of people thought that Gillies would be easy going and affable with his students. That assumption was totally false. He could not create any sort of rapport with his students, even though there were about 30 of us in the class. Many walked out of that class extremely confused. He often scrawls definitions from the textbook onto the board, giving little or no context as to the significant of the theories we study. I took his class, and came out knowing as much as I knew when I left 313k. I ended up taking Bonevac for another advanced logic class, and learned a lot more. Bonevac gives students not only a concise mathematical understanding of the logic he teaches, but a clear picture of the import of logical theories. In short, avoid Gillies. I can describe his style in 2 words: detached and pretentious.
Review from a student who took PHL 301
Prof. Gillies was by far the worst teacher that I have had at UT. He shows little to no care for his students and can be absolutely rude during class. The class consists of a midterm (pick 6 of 9 quest.), a final (12 quest.) and discussion grade (based on attend.). He averages your final and your midterm, unless your final is better. If your final is better, he just takes the final and drops the midterm. The only thing that he did that made the class bearable was, for the final, that he gave us a list of about 45 questions from which he took the final questions. He allows you to use notes on the midterm/final, yet you still are rushed for time because of the length of the tests. The first couple weeks of class were difficult only because it is extremely hard to keep up with his notes. He goes very fast through them. I decided to type my notes so that I could get all of the notes. Yet, he regretted (until RIGHT before the midterm) to tell us that you can't have typed notes. The only chance you have of enjoying this class is if you like to learn from the book or you happen to get a great TA. If you can avoid Gillies, DO NOT TAKE HIM!
Prof. Gillies was by far the worst teacher that I have had at UT. He shows little to no care for his students and can be absolutely rude during class. The class consists of a midterm (pick 6 of 9 quest.), a final (12 quest.) and discussion grade (based on attend.). He averages your final and your midterm, unless your final is better. If your final is better, he just takes the final and drops the midterm. The only thing that he did that made the class bearable was, for the final, that he gave us a list of about 45 questions from which he took the final questions. He allows you to use notes on the midterm/final, yet you still are rushed for time because of the length of the tests. The first couple weeks of class were difficult only because it is extremely hard to keep up with his notes. He goes very fast through them. I decided to type my notes so that I could get all of the notes. Yet, he regretted (until RIGHT before the midterm) to tell us that you can't have typed notes. The only chance you have of enjoying this class is if you like to learn from the book or you happen to get a great TA. If you can avoid Gillies, DO NOT TAKE HIM!