Polyratings.com: Johnston, Scott

Home Professor Search Professor List Evaluate a Professor About Us Contact Us

Johnston, Scott

Cumulative GPA: 2.69/4.00 with 26 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.73
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.38

Physics Department, Cal Poly, SLO
Full Statistical Analysis
Evaluate This Professor

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: C General Ed 2:34 am, Mar 28, 2013 Report Evaluation		Professor Johnston appears at first to be an energetic teacher who is excited to teach you all you need to know about rocks so you can promptly move on with the rest of your academic life. Unfortunately this wears off after about the first midterm when he continues to treat you like a child when explaining concepts in front of a large lecture hall that ends up getting a handful of awkward laughs. His extra credit opportunities at first seem easy and straightforward, but that is of course before you end up driving to whatever location he tells you to do a self guided tour that ends up taking three hours to take two pictures of yourself. This class is a chore to work through due to the sheer amount of busy work he has you do that quickly becomes irrelevant when the discussion quizzes are over with. The class could end up being better in the hands of a more capable instructor. Avoid Prof Johnston unless you're willing to deal with the quarter long headache that comes with his teaching.

GEOL 102 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 5:51 pm, Mar 25, 2013 Report Evaluation		I regret this class so much. It is not easy by any means and it was the biggest stressor this quarter. Required the most time and patience. I don't think the information was presented clearly or in a way that was easy to understand. Unless you are in a science-related major, it doesn't come straightforwardly. Exams were nearly impossible and weighted so heavily. I am just glad I'm done with it. I don't agree that this class or teacher were the best here at Poly.

GEOL 102 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 10:33 pm, Mar 24, 2013 Report Evaluation		I thought he was a great teacher and presented the material very well. The only problem is the amount of material you cover every lecture and having to apply it to everything in past lectures. I found the material interesting but found it difficult to keep track of so much. Not a hard class if you're willing to study and actually understand the concepts as he goes over them. I would recommend the class. The dude loves geology and really tries to help you understand the concepts.

GEOL 102 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 5:17 pm, Mar 8, 2013 Report Evaluation		A really good class. All you have to do is pay attention and you'll do fine. Great professor, maybe one of the best here.

GEOL 201 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 10:10 pm, Jan 18, 2013 Report Evaluation		I enjoyed Scott as a professor. His tests are quirky...he does sometime of weird curve and it's hard to tell how you stand in his class. His tests are a bit difficult, and they contain lecture material that he doesn't write on the board or show in his power point. He goes kinda fast so it may help you to record his class. He's really entertaining and he's a good lecturer. I honestly think his poly rating should be higher as everybody I know who had him really enjoyed his class. He's awesome during office hours as well.

GEOL 201 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:19 pm, Dec 6, 2012 Report Evaluation		Scott in my opinion was a very good teacher. first of all he was incredibly knowledgeable about the subject and is helpful if you have any questions. I took his class at 8am so everyone was extremely tired but Scott was always very energetic and kept me involved in the lectures. There are 2 midterms and a final, all of which i got A's on with minimal studying. Pay attention in class and you will be fine.

GEOL 201 Junior Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 11:07 pm, Dec 3, 2012 Report Evaluation		His tests were way to hard. The material he threw at us was to in depth for a three unit class. He never paused during class to ask for questions. He was scatter brained in office hours. He was funny in class but if you are looking for an easy quarter and to take a three unit class.... dont take his class. The way he does his lecture is spotted and confusing, not to mention the homework you spend hours doing and reading you have to take a quiz for after every week and its impossible to get an A on it even if you did do the homework. Class isn't terrible, I just would take it with a differnt teacher who isn't so scatter brained.



GEOL 241 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 10:23 am, Jun 15, 2012 Report Evaluation		Scott was a great lab teacher. He knows a ton about geology and really teaches the information well. The lab itself is full of busy work and kinda boring, but not too hard.

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 4:40 pm, Apr 30, 2012 Report Evaluation		It is possible that all GE B3's are extremely boring, hard, and present useless information but i would not recommend this class. The excitement of this class peaks during week 1 and spirals downward after that. johnston is a funny guy who loves geology but his class was extremely difficult. lots of memorization of useless facts. it seems he has to pack a lot of info into the 10 week class and is too rushed to help students understand when they are confused. he didnt put our grades on polylearn for the entire quarter and if you ask him what you have in the class he says he doesnt know, so your grade will be a mystery until it shows up on your transcript.

GEOL 121 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 11:51 pm, Mar 28, 2012 Report Evaluation		I don't really understand why scott doesn't have better poly ratings. Yeah, he lectures using layman's terms, but he gets the point across. He is obviously passionate about geology and knows what he is talking about. You can tell he actually cares about his students and grades on a curve. I never went to office hours but a few of my friends did and said he was super nice. Overall, good GE to take to boost your gpa and also pretty interesting. 3 easy midterms, 1 final (without any surprises), weekly homework that is graded on completion, and in class activities. Show up to lecture, take good notes and your fine.

PHYS 102 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 11:12 pm, Feb 19, 2012 Report Evaluation		I am in Scotts class right now and he is a super nice guy and tries to keep the class interesting by cracking jokes every now and again but I don't think he's a great teacher. He definitely knows his stuff and is really passionate about geology but doesnt quite know how to teach it. We are given homework every other week or so but he refuses to answers any questions people have about it in class. He just says to come to office hours. I dont think he really explains concepts to us in depth during lecture either unless someone asks for clarification and even then he will say to come to office hours. Now I understand that going to a teachers office hours is important but he cant expect all of us to be coming to them. He uses his office hours as an excuse to not go over certain material or answer questions. Its also tough too because he doesnt tell us to buy a specific book, just an entry level geology book and sometimes what he teaches us isnt in the book so its hard to fully understand some of the concepts. His tests are pretty hard but if you just study the charts and maps he goes over in class and make flashcards for all of the concepts they are do-able.

GEOL 102 Senior Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 3:27 pm, Feb 19, 2012 Report Evaluation		I haven't finished the course but I felt compelled to write a polyrating before registration begins. Also he has another polyratings page so check that one out too. The first thing that really bugs me about Professor Johnston is that he patronizes us constantly. He treats us like we are ten years old. I'm a senior and I understand that there are a lot of freshman in the class but its really annoying. We've had 3 homework assignments so far which have been vague at best. He refuses to help you unless you go to his office hours which I have no intention of doing because I just generally don't like him because last time I checked I'm an adult and would prefer to be treated as such. He doesn't give you a grade on the homeworks or ever go over the answers because he says if you don't understand something you should come into office hours. We have class time for a reason I don't understand why he can't use to it make sure the class understands the material. The multiple choice on the test wasn't too bad but good luck with the short answer. It's vague like his homework questions. We have an activity book which no one understands how to do until he explains it. However before he does he let's us try it on our own. The whole thing is a huge waste of time. He's a really nice guy and really interested in the material but needs to try a little harder to understand the needs of his students. I would recommend taking someone else. I've heard the material in the other classes is a lot easier. On the upside you don't need to buy a book because everything is covered in class (if you understand what he's talking about-- good luck with that one). That's about the only upside though.

GEOL 201 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:56 am, Dec 18, 2011 Report Evaluation		Scott is hilarious, his personality and jokes seriously make the class. He's very cool and laid back, but his tests can be hard. Usually about 30 multiple choice and 5 short answer/essay questions. Make sure you pay attention to diagrams and charts/graphs/cross sections drawn or shown in class, you will most likely have to draw them in the short answer test questions. Bottom line, even if his lectures seem pretty basic and straight forward, his tests are NOT and you need to know details. But he's hilarious, you'll laugh a lot, really nice guy, flexible too about rearranging things ahead of time. Offers extra credit after each test too. PS, on his tests, if he gives you a multiple choice questions like, a, b, c, a&b, or all of the above, it's never all of the above and usually a single answer, not a&b or anything like that.



GEOL 201 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:17 pm, Dec 15, 2011 Report Evaluation		Scott is one badass mofo... chillest professor ever. His tightness makes his lectures on rocks as interesting as they can possibly be, and the fact that he incorporates lecture activities and questions into his slides gives you a chance to apply the knowledge directly in class. That being said however, despite how easy-going class time is and how simple you think the material is in class, somehow the midterms/finals tend to have some qs that are alot more detailed than anticipated. Make sure to take good notes.. he posts his powerpoints on blackboard, but theyre pretty vague. Jot down more than just what he writes on the board, too. At times he can speak a little quickly and doesn't really stop to pause, but still try to get that info. Study the damn diagrams.. there are kind of a lot so it is tedious, but they definitely comprise an important part of the tests. He'll occasionally collect the lecture books randomly, so showing up is a good idea. Do the homework, easy points. Extra credit adds 2% to your midterm grades. Overall, super cool prof, but I guess bc he's so chill, you do have to put in a little bit more effort to keep up.

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: A General Ed 10:21 pm, Oct 11, 2011 Report Evaluation		Scott is such a badass. Of course it gets boring listening to someone talk about rocks for 2 hours, but he always seemed to have my attention. I really enjoyed the subject and found that I actually remember the information he presented. He always had pictures, videos, diagrams, etc. to go along with the lectures which I found helped me a lot and kept it interesting. He's a pretty funny guy and is definitely very passionate about geology. The study guides before the tests basically gave everything you needed to know about the test and as long as you paid attention and took notes in class they were generally easy. Plus there are plenty of extra credit opportunities which pointed out a lot of interesting features in slo county that I would not have known otherwise.

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Elective 8:57 am, Aug 2, 2011 Report Evaluation		Scott was great! He was pretty entertaining in lecture and really nice to talk to in office hours. The lecture was 2 hours so it got kind of boring towards the end of class. We had 2 midterms, a homework assignment every week and an activity book that we did during class. He would break up the lectures with pages from the activity book so we could get up and stretch if we needed to. The homeworks were easy if you paid attention in class, and he was very helpful in office hours when i had questions. The midterms were MC and short answer questions and also kind of hard. Some of the questions were more specific than i was prepared for, but if you take good notes you should be able to at least get a B. He offered an extra credit assignment after each midterm that could boost your grade up to 4%, and they were fun so definietly do those. Ours were going to Avila Beach and Montana de Oro and looking at the rocks there and answering questions. One thing i didn't like was that he didn't give you your test back to study from for the final. You had to go into his office to look at them. Overall he was a good teacher and i would recommend him.

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 2:12 pm, May 9, 2011 Report Evaluation		I am sitting in this class right now, and I have no idea what's going on. He is a nice guy and really into this stuff, but not really a good teacher at all. Granted, science is not my strong point, but I still feel like I should not be having this much trouble. And even though he tries to make the material interesting, it's just so hard for me to pay attention because I find it incredibly boring. Just a warning- The class is harder than most people probably expect it to be.

GEOL 102 Senior Grade Earned: D General Ed 10:55 pm, Mar 30, 2011 Report Evaluation		His tests are ridiculous. The study guide for the final was 4 1/2 pages long for a GE! He doesn't show up for his office hours. While he is generally a nice guy, he fails to realize that the material is extremely difficult for a 100 level GE class. The syllabus should be changed, because this is by far the hardest GE I have ever taken, including all my upper division GEs. I studied and got as much help as possible, and still received the lowest grade I have ever received in my entire life.

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: C General Ed 12:47 pm, Mar 26, 2011 Report Evaluation		Scott definitely knows a ton about geology and he is very passionate about it. With that said, he is a pretty awful teacher. I think hes way too young and inexperienced and doesnt really have any idea how to present material to his students. Its a pretty tough class and there is definitely a lot to know and memorize. 2 midterms and a final, each of which is half scantron and half multiple choice. and each of which is really hard. Pay attention in class, take really good notes, READ. The book helps way more than the lectures. He also gives out study guides but they're not that helpful. I do not recommend taking Johnston for anything.



GEOL 102 Senior Grade Earned: B General Ed 9:20 pm, Apr 1, 2010 Report Evaluation		Amazing teacher. Tests are hard, but he knows how to teach. He\'s pretty funny too. If you study and take notes you should easily be able to do better than me.

GEOL 102 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 10:01 pm, Mar 30, 2010 Report Evaluation		Scott was a great teacher. He really broke down the information for the class. I just took notes in class and studied from them. The book was only supplementary. His extra credits also helped a lot. He teaches well and his good attitude shows. I am really glad I got Johnston because he made this class worth attending. If you take his class, focus on his study guides because he doesn\'t waiver far from them on the tests.

GEOL 150 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 11:32 pm, Mar 29, 2010 Report Evaluation		Scott is a new professor at Cal Poly and is extremely inexperienced when it comes to teaching. Although he is young and passionate about Geology, his teaching skills severely hindered everyone\'s grade in the class. Yes, the workload was fairly easy and the concepts weren\'t difficult to grasp, however, i honestly think i would have learned better by reading the book rather than hearing him ramble for 2 hours on material that he himself did not even understand.

GEOL 102 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 3:33 pm, Mar 21, 2010 Report Evaluation		I took a really heavy course load this quarter thinking that this 100 level GE class wouldn\'t be a problem. I did more work for this class than for any of my other classes combined. It\'s a ridiculous amount of information to memorize for the finals and midterms. He rushes through information in class and you receive absolutely no feedback on your homework, the in class worksheets, and you only get to look over the midterms for ten minutes in class and cannot take them with you to study. DON\'T take this class unless you want to work extremely hard for a mediocre grade in a class that doesn\'t exactly matter to your major.

GEOL 241 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 6:23 pm, Feb 26, 2010 Report Evaluation		Dr. Johnston. What a beast. If anyone knows anything about geology, it\'s this guy. This lab class was pretty strait forward. Each lab is spent completing a handout. No labs to take home and waste your weekend working on. However, you\'re definitely going to want to study them for the test in week 5 that is actually really hard. Field trips are, of course, awesome. Sometimes this guy\'s clarity is a bit lacking, and some of the learning is by struggling with the information, which sucks. But other than that I highly recommend this guy.

GEOL 201 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 10:13 am, Feb 10, 2010 Report Evaluation		Johnston is great! interesting in lecture, consistent, fair, and quirky too- he always slips in these funny little comments. Geology was something i knew nothing about, but found myself really enjoying the class because of the way he taught it! He seriously loves rocks, and his passion translates into his teaching. I did a fair amount of studying to get an A, but it wasn\'t too bad, he gives you study guides and also has extra credit trips to montana de oro and avila. Theres only one homework a week at most and its just like 5 or so questions. Overall, i\'d much rather take this class than some of the others in the B3 category!



GEOL 201 Junior Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 12:59 pm, Mar 20, 2009 Report Evaluation		I had Johnston for GEOL201, and I thought he was great. His tests are pretty hard though. It's not just a lot of memorizing, you also have to know how all the cross-sections work and how to interpret the map symbols. His lectures were always interesting, and if you do bad on the tests, it's ok because there's two extra credit assignments where you visit Avila and Montana de Oro. I highly recommend him for geology.

	Home Go Back Professor List Professor Search