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Long, Todd

Cumulative GPA: 2.74/4.00 with 34 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.97
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.59

Philosophy Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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PHIL 230 Junior Grade Earned: Credit General Ed 12:13 pm, Dec 5, 2012 Report Evaluation		The last review really surprises me. I always got the impression that he would go out of his way to be politically correct including not using he/she pronouns when talking about God, etc. Overall, I thought he was a cool guy. He assigns reading that we talk about in class that day and always clarifies what the correct interpretation is including clarifying notes to look back at. The homeworks were graded really easily...if you put forth effort you'll most likely get an A, and the pop quizzes were super easy, just one multiple choice question written on the board to see if you did the reading not really if you understood the content yet. He was very organized and clear about his expectations for the class and grading. I've heard a lot of bad things about the philosophy professors at poly from my friends and it's just REALLY not my area of interest since I am definitely a math and science person, so I was dreading taking this class but Long surprisingly made it not too bad at all. He understands it's an intro/GE class so he doesn't take it more seriously or demand more than is reasonable.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: C General Ed 2:57 pm, Nov 28, 2012 Report Evaluation		this man is the biggest azzhole. he stood at the front of the classroom for at least 10 or 15 minutes, explaining how physical bodies coincide with the soul. his example was burned people. he went on and on about how ugly and repulsive some burnt people look and "how can they expect people to think of them the same" and if a burned person interviewed for a job that a regular person also interviewed for, obviously the burned wont get the job. and he just wouldnt give up. WOULD NOT LET UP! i literally couldnt believe what he was saying, let alone that i had noticed a BURENED GIRL IN MY CLASS EVERY DAY, and obviously he had never paid attention. her boyfriend has to stand up and tell teacher to change his example and his response was quite an attitude charged "and why do i have to do that?" and he said to the teacher "do you not notice the girl next to me?" Todd Long was a chicken and excused the class for a break so he didnt have to deal with the situation he just caused. girl ran out crying. cannot believe what a jerk this man is.... a coward

PHIL 230 Freshman Grade Earned: Credit General Ed 11:17 pm, Jun 11, 2012 Report Evaluation		In my opinion, Dr. Long was a wonderful professor- especially considering some of the other philosophy professors at Cal Poly. Despite the fact that the class was larger, Dr. Long still made an effort to have a personal relationship with his students. He is EXTREMELY helpful during office hours, and can easily pinpoint concepts you are struggling on and can help you understand them. I took this course CR/NC and actually ended up with a C+ with minimal effort. Dr. Long is straightforward on his tests- go to class and your tests are cake! Do the readings, and websites like Sparknotes and other websites can aid in concepts you don't understand. I enjoyed this class and would recommend it to anyone looking to fulfill a C2 GE!

PHIL 230 Junior Grade Earned: No Credit General Ed 12:33 pm, Feb 28, 2012 Report Evaluation		What do you mean NC?

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: No Credit General Ed 2:08 pm, Dec 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		Long does not suit every student's learning styles very well. It seems almost as if he plays favorites in class. When participating in discussions he makes you feel as if your opinion is stupid just if it isn't exactly what he was looking for. But when it comes to the people he likes he seems to praise their opinions. He also encourages course participation which you get 10% of your grade from: talk at least 3 times in class and post on the discussion board twice. I did more than that and only got 4% for participation, so I have no clue where I went wrong in participation to have gotten less than half credit. Also, there are 4 homework assignments; he gives above 90% most of the time and implies that even if you did the work and got the content wrong you still will get good grades on it. This isn't helpful when it comes to exams because you have no clue if you got homework questions right or not. Finally, he has four pop quizzes in class; he drops your worst score though. However, the pop quizzes consist of 1 or 2 questions so if you get the question wrong you get a zero on it. Overall, I feel as if I put a lot into this class and didn't get the results that I had desired. When I retake the class I will definitely not be taking it with Long.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 8:12 pm, Dec 7, 2011 Report Evaluation		This class was badly taught and unorganized. It problems was a mix of subject matter and the style it was taught in. You can expect to do discussion board, 4 pop quizzes, and a midterm and final test. The notes that he writes on the board are messy, unclear, and not always related. Instead of giving you straight answers and definitions, he mixes in confusing examples and goes on tangents. The reading is very boring but that is more just philosophy as a subject matter. I expected fun discussions in class about the meaning of life but that never happened. There are probably teachers who could make this a more engaging and easier to understand class.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 4:59 pm, Nov 17, 2011 Report Evaluation		Professor Long was definitely one of my favorite professors i've taken so far. His lectures are easy to listen to because he doesnt just blandly stand infront of the class and lecture. He used to do acting and theater and it definitely shows in how he makes what could be a boring and mundane lecture a interesting, informative, conversation. If you just pay attention in class and do the very easy and minimal reading you will get a good grade. You dont even have to take notes because the material is interesting enough that it will stick with you if you pay attention during class. He has 4 pop quizes all are multi choice 2 of which you have a 50% chance on guessing the right answer. Awesome guy, Awesome class.



PHIL 411 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 4:27 pm, Mar 15, 2011 Report Evaluation		Prof. Long is an awesome metaphysician. The metaphysics lab was slightly difficult due to the "beyond this world" nature. For the most part though things made sense. The best thing about Prof. Long is that he extended the final due date of the term paper 17 hours due to recognizing student difficulties!

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 6:57 pm, Dec 2, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Long was an average professor, I didn\'t hate him but he wasn\'t one of my favorites. Honestly, it may be more of the subject material that I didn\'t like. The class itself isn\'t terrible, there is one midterm and a final (the final is like a second midterm because it isn\'t cumulative). There are 5 homework assignments which he grades fairly easily, as long as he can tell you did the reading and put effort in to the answers then he\'ll give you an A. There are 5 pop quizzes that consist of one question, multiple choice. He drops the lowest quiz score and I found that as long as I had kept up with the reading, the quizzes were fine. Classes are pretty boring but he\'s very straightforward. If you do the reading and go to class, you should be fine.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: Credit General Ed 3:05 pm, May 27, 2009 Report Evaluation		This class is pretty retarded. Take it credit/no credit, and just go when you think there might be a pop quiz and you'll be fine. You don't have to buy the books, you'll get more out of the class if you just sparknote everything.

PHIL 230 Junior Grade Earned: A General Ed 6:15 pm, May 13, 2009 Report Evaluation		Eh... he was alright. Consistently late though, kind of a smart ass, and self-absorbed. It's an easy class. Make sure you show up to lecture because he basically gives you the answer to everything on the midterms/final... simply doing the homework and reading will only get you so far, as it is HIS interpretation of the material that you need to know for the midterms. We showed up, talked about what we read, what we interpreted it as, and then he told us the "CORRECT" interpretation. Write that down, and study that. Make sure to write on the discussion board online - it's easy to forget.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 2:06 pm, May 1, 2009 Report Evaluation		Dr. Long was awesome. As long as you do the reading (which isn't all that bad) you should be fine on his 5 quizzes (which are only one question, multiple choice). The way he teaches is that if you do the reading and DON'T fall asleep in class then you are bound to do well. He makes sure that you know everything that will be on the test. He puts up practice exams which are EXTREMELY useful as he uses some of the multiple choice questions on his real exams and the essay questions on the exam are on the practice exam as well. The homework is also pretty easy. Don't let the word "essay" scare you because his "essays" are really only a paragraph or two. Also, don't forget to write on the discussion board on BB and talk a bit in class so you get all the participation points. Overall, I'd say definitely try to get Dr. Long if you can.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 2:46 pm, Jan 8, 2009 Report Evaluation		In this class, you'll have 5 homework assignments, each worth 2% of your grade. They consist of 3 or 4 questions on the readings, which you answer in one or two paragraphs each. They're very easy and Long is not a stickler for essay form; just make sure you get the ideas down from the literature. You'll also have 5 pop quizzes, each worth 2% of your grade. Some people complained about these, but if you did the reading and you SHOW UP to lecture, you are guaranteed to get them right. They consist of one question, answered by one of 3 options he gives you. Then you have a midterm (worth 30%) and a final (not cumulative and worth 40% of your grade). The tests are worth a ton, but I also found them to be no big deal with a bit of studying. He will adjust grades up if necessary. The last 10% of your grade is based on participation, which basically means you have to post on the blackboard discussion board 10 or so times. Some people complained that the class was boring, and it was. But its philosophy, so its a bummer regardless of the teacher. Do the readings (once is fine), go to class, and study your notes for the exam, and you'll be fine. He even posts sample questions to give you a feel for his style. All in all, he is not a great teacher, but he is an easy A and I learned a few things.



PHIL 350 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 11:36 pm, Jan 1, 2009 Report Evaluation		This class was Aesthetics with Todd Long. It was a difficult class in that there was a lot of reading assignments. These assignments weren't always that long page wise, but they took up a lot of time. He wanted us to be prepared everyday for lecture and would always expect you to have read the reading for that class. It is easy to get behind, so try to keep up by reading before class. There was a term paper in the class, which was pretty challenging to complete in the allotted time. He originally was going to give us more time, but he only allowed us a month to complete it. The class was pretty difficult due to its subject matter and lots of times the material is very dry and boring. Not to mention it is pretty easy to get bored listening to Long's lectures too. The way that Long lectures didn't appeal to me and it was difficult to always pay the utmost amount of attention. He writes on the chalkboard often, but the way that he lectured, for me, was very un-engaging. He didn't grab my attention with his teaching style. There are also two tests, a midterm and a final. The midterm was pretty difficult with matching, true-false, multiple choice, and essay sections. The essay wasn't too difficult but the rest of the questions count for a lot and are a little bit confusing. The final was pretty much like the midterm but a bit longer. The main thing that I didn't enjoy or like about this class was the course participation portion of your grade. This required you to write 9 substantial blackboard posts, which require a lot of time and effort outside of class and interaction with other students' ideas on blackboard. It took up so much time and wasn't worth the effort. Long also expects you to have read the readings prior to every class, which is hard to always do, and answer questions and promote discussion during class. For the most part, this just made those who would normally speak up in class speak up more, and it was distracting. It promoted discussion but it also just seemed like everyone was clamoring to get their participation points. Overall the class was pretty difficult and required a lot of time. The material was pretty dry at times and Long was hard to pay complete attention to. However, he is very helpful if you go and see him in his office hours and he will help students that are putting effort into the class. He also gives out sample tests and examples to help you, but be prepared to put a lot of effort and work in and to spend a lot of time on blackboard.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: C General Ed 10:06 am, Aug 21, 2008 Report Evaluation		Long is a tough teacher to figure out. He says one thing in lecture and then grades on another set of information on the test. For example, on one of the study guides that he gave (before both the midterm and final) there was a question that he went over in class. I basically memorized the answer. The question appeared on the test, I recited the answer that I copied from the lecture VERBATIM and I got a C on the test. I couldnt figure out why. He definitely favors some student and really rambles in class. Long is an ok teacher, and would suggest another teacher.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 9:09 pm, Jan 10, 2008 Report Evaluation		Good straightforward teacher. The material can get dry at times but professor Long does a good job of keeping it engaging. The homework and quizzes are really easy, and its not that difficult to do well in the class with a little effort.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 3:34 pm, Jul 30, 2007 Report Evaluation		Dr. Long is a pretty nice guy. He really loves the subject that he teaches and is very enthusiastic about it, but this class is not very fun. It gets really far fetched and unless philosophy really interests you or you have a philosophical mindset, this class can become frustrating. You start to talk about things that go against what you have always been taught, such as whether or not you exist, and then you study a bunch of arguments that attempt to solve the issue and then never really prove their point. Overall the tests are not too bad. Take really good notes and don't miss lecture, because everything he talks about is on the test or homeworks. You have two exams, 5 homeworks, and 5 pop quizzes. Participate in class and on the class discussion board, because it's worth 10% of your grade. This class was an o.k. GE and Dr. Long is a good professor. (p.s. You have to buy the books!)

PHIL 230 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 8:55 am, Apr 5, 2007 Report Evaluation		Prof. Long is a very smart and dedicated teacher. I felt that he chose very precise wording while teaching to convey the most meaning to students. I don't know how anyone did not enjoy watching The Matrix after studying the theories behind it, but I thought it was very interesting. His grading was always fair in my class and he made his tests a lot easier with practice tests and sample essay questions. All you have to do is go to class, take notes and do the readings, which are normally quite short. Also, Long is a very nice, funny guy who will always help someone understand confusing material until you get it. I would recommend this class.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: C General Ed 6:10 pm, Dec 30, 2006 Report Evaluation		He is a good professor. Attend his classes. Take good notes. His class is composed of a midterm, a final, five quizzes (1 question multiple choince), five HW assignments (very easy). Pretty straightforward class. I never bought any of the required text and I pulled off a C. Its a subject that you either love or HATE.



PHIL 230 Junior Grade Earned: B General Ed 11:12 pm, Dec 20, 2006 Report Evaluation		Todd Long is an arrogant man. He is under the pretense that the ways of the world pass from God to Long to Student. I personally heard him lecture ridiculous unsupported theories, specifically on the topic of survivability after death. Assistant Professor Long (That is right, he does not have tenure and let us hope it stays that way.) likes to ask questions that have two valid answers, and expects the students to read is mind as to what is on the grading key. He actually is a very nice man personality wise; it is just his teaching methods that are terrible. Homework is easy as long as he grades it on a good day. On a good day, everyone that wrote anything gets 100%, on a bad day he will suddenly look for one specific random detail that no one could predict he was looking for. If Cal Poly

PHIL 230 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 12:07 am, Dec 20, 2006 Report Evaluation		Prof. Long is honestly one of the better professors i have had. he is really passionate about philosophy and you can really tell because it carries over into his teaching. it is clear that he loves teaching the class and he is incredibly fair to all of the students, and really wants all of them to succeed. his lectures can be boring, but take good notes and as long as you do the readings every time they are assigned, you will be fine. homework isn't bad at all, just read and then make it look like you tried and you will be fine. the midterm and final aren't too bad either.. do the study guide he gives you because mostly all the questions are on there, and he chooses one or two essay questions off the guide for the actual final, so make sure you know your stuff. all around good class, messes with your head but if you have to take this class, be SURE to get dr. long!!

PHIL 230 Senior Grade Earned: A Elective 8:54 am, Mar 27, 2006 Report Evaluation		Wow... I really don't understand what caused the person who wrote before me to be so angry. Personally, I enjoyed the class and this teacher. I was afraid to take this class because I thought philosophy teachers just asked you questions and put you on the spot to make up some random answer. Not in this class. To get a good grade in this class: 1) Participate at least once every other day (which really isn't hard), 2) talk on discussion board a lot (which is super easy, just spill your own thoughts and opinions), 3) memorize your notes. Yes, the memorization part isn't that fun.. but I found the class really interesting. Long is a funny guy who is challenging -- just the right combination in a teacher if you ask me. He isn't going to hand you an A... but hey, this is college, right?

PHIL 230 Senior Grade Earned: B General Ed 4:03 pm, Mar 15, 2006 Report Evaluation		this guy was pretty lope...he knows his shit... just make sure you take good notes and dont miss class... his tests are all memorization of the stuff in class... homeworks are pretty easy just make it look like you tried and he will give you full credit... the writing assignment is kind of hard but if you take your time and write it well, you will be fine... he grades on participation and attendence... he is cool during office hours.. talk sports with him and he will like you

PHIL 350 Junior Grade Earned: C General Ed 4:49 pm, Dec 14, 2005 Report Evaluation		It's obvious professor Long knows Philosophy well and is passionate. I very much enjoyed his discussions and I came out of class really thinking differently about a variety of things. Readings help you to keep focused and not bored during some lectures, but they're not completely necessary for understanding most of the material as Long goes over the readings thoroughly. Tests are pretty easy if you know the philosophers and what their beliefs are. One thing you must know is that he grades EXTREMELY hard on class participation which includes coming to class, making comments in class and posting up your thoughts and questions on blackboard's discussion board. The class average percentage for participation was a 54%!! It's worth 10% of your grade so make sure you understand how much "participating" you need to be doing because it can lower your grade!

PHIL 230 Junior Grade Earned: A General Ed 5:19 pm, Oct 24, 2005 Report Evaluation		Professor Long was a great professor. He truly cared about how we did and felt about the material and did his absolute best to make sure we understood it fully. The readings could be difficult, but the lectures in class always seemed to clear up the reading. All in all, there is no reason not to take this class from professor Long.



PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 6:48 pm, Jun 13, 2005 Report Evaluation		Professor Long is very underrated. I really enjoyed this class and he kept our interest for a majority of the time at least. His grading was fair and he made sure we had a good understanding of the material. The homework load isn't too bad, just 10 written assignments and a bunch of reading, which is doable. He grades pretty tough on participation grading so make sure to use the discussion board and come to class.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 4:11 pm, Apr 3, 2005 Report Evaluation		From True Rater: lets see, todd long is an intersting fellow. He is short and has an southern accent, but who cares what he looks/talks like, right? He is a pretty good teacher, he gives h.w. called ordinary assignments, and special assignments. Dont spend too much time on the ordinary assignments cause he only looks to see if you did it, you can easily copy them from a friend and trade off doing them. Spend time on the special assignments though. The exams make up most of your grade, and they are VERY similar the practice tests he gives, I studyed hard for the exams and always left thinking I didnt need to stdy nearly that hard. Be sure to do the online discussion borad cause its easy points. Besides that its not difficult to get an A or B, and remember, reading is optional, he goes over the readings in more detail than anyone could pick up by reading it, just go to calss and take nores and your all good. truerater.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 9:49 pm, Mar 29, 2005 Report Evaluation		I found Prof. Long extremely difficult and hard to understand. In the class he lectures on different philosophical issues that are hard to grasp. He does not present material in a clear matter. He grades on participation, weekly class papers that are written on philosophy questions he gives you from the reading and then the 2 midterms (one which counts as the final). The midterms are 3 essay questions that you pick out of 2 different choices for each question. You have to basically recite back what he taught in class, which is really difficult to remember everything word for word. I think he is an extremely difficult teacher and even countless hours of studying will not guarentee you a good grade. I never recommend this teacher to any of my friends, i actually warn them against him for their GE requirements.

PHIL 230 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 9:12 pm, Mar 27, 2005 Report Evaluation		Lets be real here, this guy was a complete bore. I dreaded arriving to this class every tuesday and thursday. We need to recall this class to a hist elective. All you do is learn the "philosophizing" some old guys did like 400 years ago, but you hardly get to think for your self. And when you try to interpret anything, you get a half hearted " no your wrong, heres why" answer. If you like reading about why god exists and these little baby philosophers whine about stuff, then take this class, but my advice is to take the other class.

PHIL 230 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 8:00 pm, Mar 27, 2005 Report Evaluation		Professor Long really seems to know his stuff. The class was pretty difficult, but Long does a good job explaining everything. The guy is really friendly and helpful, so it really helps to ask him questions. I think you should definitely take this guy if you can.

PHIL 231 Junior Grade Earned: A General Ed 7:49 pm, Mar 27, 2005 Report Evaluation		Professor Long was a great teacher. He is really interested in what he's teaching and the students, and is able to break down confusing philosophical problems into very understandable terms. I'd take any class I could with Long.



PHIL 411 5th Year Senior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 11:17 am, Mar 26, 2005 Report Evaluation		Its hard to evalute Prof Long in this class because the nature of the material is itself, pretty difficult. It is not a course I would recommend for an elective. The second half of the class was much more engaging than the first half which I felt wasted alot of time discussing and arguing over the way we use our language. This is covered in so many other Phil courses, I wish we could have discussed more interesting metaphyscial issues. The arguments he gives are put in a form that should be kept mostly in a logic class. I did not like the premise premise, conclusion structure that was always used. I think he has the potential to be a good teacher, given more time to get his curriculum right. He definitely goes by the book, which I think is rare for a philosophy teacher, but it could be because he is new. The paper at the end is a difficult due to the strucutre he requires. There isnt really much freedom to write on a subject that i believe requires freedom. He also requires discussion on blackboard and in class. If you do not like to share your thoughts with the class, I do not recommend taking this class, beucase you will lose ALOT of points if you do not participate on both in class and blackboard discussions. The midterms are pretty difficult if you dont just memorize the material given in class. He does not give questions that are going to be on the test ahead of time, like many other professors do. He gives you sample questions that will most likely not appear on the test, just to give you an idea of the type of questions he might ask. He usually give one question ahead of time. This class has could have been so much more interesting and enjoyable if taught differently.

PHIL 230 Freshman Grade Earned: C General Ed 11:48 am, Mar 23, 2005 Report Evaluation		Professor Long was a good teacher. He made philosophy interesting, but his workload seemed a bit heavy for a GE class. I would recommend him as a teacher, but prepare to do work.

PHIL 230 Junior Grade Earned: A General Ed 9:44 pm, Dec 18, 2004 Report Evaluation		The first day of this class, I was convinced that Professor Long was a used car salesman. I'm not sure what it was, but somehow I got a bad first impression about this guy, and I seriously considered dropping this class. Suffice it to say that I was wrong. Professor Long is one of the best teachers I've had at Poly and this was by far the most interesting GE I've taken. The homework assignments took me about an hour each, and with ten of them, this class wasn't terribly time consuming. All the tests questions came straight from the lecture, so showing up to class is a big plus. I highly recommend this teacher to anyone looking to take PHIL 230 or 231 and I'm kind of disappointed that I won't be able to take any more classes with Professor Long.

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