Hurt, Shelley 
Cumulative GPA: 2.02/4.00 with 44 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 1.98
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.00
Political Science Department, Cal Poly, SLO
Full Statistical Analysis
Evaluate This Professor
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: Credit
General Ed
12:34 am, Apr 3, 2013
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  SELLING ALL BOOKS FOR POLS 333: WORLD FOOD SYSTEMS for cheaper than the bookstore (especially her handbook). There is some highlighting... but trust me, you will thank me for the highlighting considering all the quiz questions are based on small words/concepts and statistics hidden in the HUNDRED OF PAGES you will have to read for the weekly quizzes. Text ,call, or email me for details so I can get them to you ASAP: Katie, 916-524-0334 or kedmiston5@hotmail.com
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: B
General Ed
9:59 pm, Mar 26, 2013
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  Dr. Hurt has a dismissive personality and absolutely fails as a lecturer. She got better as the quarter went on but in the beginning she couldn't complete a sentence without going uh uh, or vis a vis. The class itself really is not all that hard, which is the only reason I'm sure she hasn't been fired. The essays are pretty much guaranteed A's or B's and the online quizzes aren't that hard either. An easy way to take the quizzes is to underline every date and statistic because she seems to love focusing on those for the quizzes. The thing about this class which I found odd was that the material is actually interesting. I actually tried to enjoy this class, but all the class consists of is about 40 minutes of watching videos and another 50 of her lecturing. Going to class and watching her read directly off the power point slides came off a bit lazy, and at times she couldn't answer student questions. I would say if you have to take an area F and this is what your stuck with you could do worse. She's definitely mediocre in every way, but hey mediocre is better than terrible.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: B
General Ed
8:16 pm, Mar 25, 2013
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  Cool class, just go to all the lectures. She takes a lot of the exam questions from the lecture presented current events.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: B
General Ed
11:40 am, Mar 21, 2013
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  The class is awesome. The information you learn, you will remember because it effects everything. The midterms were easy. Weekly Reading quizzes easy. Essays easy. She doesn't offer respect to students. If you ask a question confronting her about the contradictions of her answers on a questions she will come off brash but will say at the end, well I'll change it. However, you don't need to ask her questions very often because all you have to do is study the powerpoint slides she puts online and the main policies, dates, and people that were covered in lecture. My only complaint is that she jams through the lecture like it's Christmas Eve so we all can hurry and get home for dinner. You will rarely be able to write down all the information you want to but that's why the slides are online. Overall, insightful class one of my top 3 best at poly.
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: A
General Ed
6:39 pm, Mar 18, 2013
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  Shelley Hurt is one of the best political science professor's at Cal Poly. That being said, if you are not a POLS major, her classes might seem very content heavy and difficult. She is incredibly knowledgable about the subjects she teaches and expects her students to put a lot of effort into their work. I think many people find Hurt to be to demanding and a little out of touch with her students, but if you take initiative and talk with her during office hours or after class, she is always available and willing to help you. Her classes are nicely structured, tests cover exactly what she tells you they will (no surprises or trick questions), and she grades her essays toughly but fair. I would recommend Hurt to every Pols major who's willing to put in a little extra effort to learn a great deal.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: B
General Ed
12:47 pm, Mar 18, 2013
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  Be warned when taking this class. It is a 200 person lecture, so I thought she couldn't make it all that nit picky or miserable. I was wrong. If you get easily distracted by someone that uh can't uh make a uh complete uh sentence without saying um uh 250 times in 15 minutes (we counted), don't take this class. She preaches mutual respect, but shows utter disdain for her students. The quizzes are extremely difficult for reading comprehension quizzes. Open book, open note, online quizzes and yet people frequently fail them because she chooses the most minute details from 50 pages of reading, or she even chooses a question outside of the assigned reading. The tests are ridiculous, she tries to keep a multiple choice test from being to easy so she makes every question ambiguous and difficult to understand. I mean, you can easily pass this course if you need the GE credit, but you might see your neighbor has stabbed a pencil through his ear from her droning "vis a vis."
 
POLS 426
Senior
Grade Earned: A
Elective
12:39 pm, Feb 28, 2013
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  Dr. Hurt is incredibly smart and knowledgeable and puts 110% into her class. Does she expect you to be on time? Yes. Does she hold you accountable for your work and expect you to put your full effort into the class? Yes. If you can't be on time and want an easy A, don't take Hurt. If you want to be challenged and learn a ton in a super interesting subject, take Hurt. She is tough but she explains concepts in detail, encourages discussion, and honestly, is everything you'd want in a college professor. To be frank, many younger students don't like her because she doesn't tolerate bullshit that many lazy, tired professors put up with. Towards the end of the quarter she assigns a massive research project but gives you tons of time to complete it, has plenty of available office hours, and will tell you exactly how she wants you to format it and set it up. If you can't follow directions, taking her class may be a challenge for you. When everyone presents their research project to the class, she throws a little potluck where everyone brings in snacks and we eat and discuss our research findings. Hurt is great! Work hard and put a lot into the class and you are practically guaranteed an A.
 
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: B
Required (Major)
11:15 pm, Jan 6, 2013
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  Thank god I am done with this class, let me tell you. Don't get me wrong, Professor Hurt is a nice lady with good intentions, however this class takes an enormous amount of work when it is definitely not needed. The class is honestly like taking a foreign language if your not mr.guiness when it comes to politics. Best of luck, and have fun busting your ass.
 
POLS 225
Junior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
10:40 pm, Jan 6, 2013
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  Hurt's class wasn't bad. She makes the lectures interesting by adding current events and videos from the New York Times and other media outlets. The discussions can get pretty intense. She offers a lot of assistance for the class research project and it isn't too difficult. Her quizzes are not easy but not hard either. The trick to getting an A in this class is to come to her office hours several times per quarter, participate at least once a lecture, and do all the readings.
 
POLS 461
5th Year Senior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
1:00 am, Dec 12, 2012
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  461/462 is senior project. For Hurt, the format and instructions for writing your senior project are just an expanded version of the requirements for a research paper in one of her 400 level classes. So if you have taken a 400 level class with Hurt, it is very easy to expand the research paper for that class into a senior project. Doing this helps make the project much easier and more manageable. From what I've heard of other instructors' senior project requirements, Hurt seems to require a shorter paper, a somewhat more lax literature review, and just generally grades a little easier. I know that a lot of people have a hard time dealing with Hurt, but if you can just deal with it and "play the game", then she is actually a pretty good senior project adviser. Her writing requirements packet is extremely detailed and clear about what is required and she as a new guide for writing literature reviews, which to me was by far the hardest part of the project. Basically if you've taken Hurt at the 400 level before, consider taking her for senior project as you'll already understand the format and requirements and have a good chunk of the project already done if you just expand a previous paper.
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: B
General Ed
10:00 pm, Nov 30, 2012
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  Shelley Hurt should stay in research where she does not have to communicate with anyone. She is rude, ineffective, and a terrible public speaker. She consistently points out students' weaknesses yet never points out anyone's strong points. She is a negative, bitter, angry woman who is in the wrong profession.
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
8:39 am, Aug 8, 2012
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  I dreaded going to this class for the first two weeks because I wasn't doing well but after having a conversation with Professor Hurt she helped me understand what I need to improve on and how I could do so. The most important thing to do in this class is be very respectful the two hours you are there. Have zero side conversation and when you speak make sure it sounds smart. Also the people who always were speaking weren't necessarily the people who received A's. And you will probably not get a decent grade if you don't attend any of her office hours.
 
POLS 426
5th Year Senior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
11:43 pm, Jun 12, 2012
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  436 is International Law and Organizations (which is only sort of what the class is actually about). Almost all of the advice here is based on 300 level and below classes. I never took that level class with her, so I can't speak for those, but her 400 level classes are very good in a certain way. She is very enthusiastic and intense, but knows what she is talking about and incorporates a mind-boggling amount of current events into class, which I think is much more useful than teaching abstract theories and the like. Like all of her 400 level classes, this one consists of 3 discussion leaders, 1pg (single spaced) reflection papers, and a 15-20pg research paper. The paper is broken down into an ungraded topic proposal, and ungraded outline, a graded draft (the first 3 sections or about 3-4pgs) and the final draft. She holds your hand the entire way and makes the paper insanely easy as long as you follow basic instructions. Her writing requirements and tips packet in the course reader is more helpful than anything you'll ever get from another professor. It is completely your fault if you do poorly on the paper; that's how explicit and clear she makes the process and requirements. Show up to class, talk once in a while, do the busy-work short assignments (only 6), and follow the instructions on the paper and you will be just fine. Also, her 400 level papers are very easy to convert into senior projects if you take her as your adviser, which makes that whole process much less stressful and generally much easier (i mean half your senior project can be done if you base it on an earlier paper from one of her classes).
 
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: C
General Ed
4:11 am, Apr 20, 2012
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  Material was really interesting, but Hurt was terrible and ruined the class for me.
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: B
Required (Support)
11:42 pm, Apr 19, 2012
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  Heed the advice of the dozens of students below me, Shelley Hurt, although extremely smart and enthusiastic about her field of study, is without question one of the most ineffective and frustrating teachers at Cal Poly. It is a true crime that she is a college professor, she is disorganized, condescending, unwilling to help students, and a Terrible public speaker. She wastes entire class periods reading articles word for word off a screen that we could read faster and better than she can. No joke, she literally read Orgasm instead of Organism out loud during her lecture. I am a returning college student who changes majors late into my college career so I have taken my fair share of college classes and I can safely say she is the single worst teacher I have EVER had. Find another class if at all possible. Vis a Vie
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: A
General Ed
10:41 pm, Apr 1, 2012
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  If she uses the term "vis-a-vis" once every 5 minutes and she's awake for 16 hours a day that means she says it approximately 70,080 times per year. If it takes about 1 second to say "vis-a-vis" then she spends 1,168 minutes/19.46 hours/0.81 days saying it each year. That's what I learned during class time. Worst class ever- avoid it like the plague.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: C
General Ed
2:32 am, Mar 31, 2012
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  She was the worst professor I've ever had at Cal Poly. The grade was based on 9 quizzes from weekly readings—15 mins for 15 questions—a midterm, 2 reflection papers and a final. Her lectures were practically useless. She would pick current event articles, project them onto the screen, and spend about the first hour of lecture reading the articles word for word to us. She understands the material well, but she does not know how to teach the material. During class, in attempt to keep students awake, she projects photographs irrelevant to the lecture topic that tend to be distracting while she's lecturing. I don't understand why she didn't just make powerpoint slides that highlight the main points of what she was lecturing—probably would've made the class a lot easier to understand. Her lectures also involves a lot of "um"s and "vis-a-vis"—again, distracting, and makes what she's saying a lot harder to understand.
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: Credit
General Ed
3:54 pm, Mar 26, 2012
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  Talks extremely fast. Does not do power points, just reads out articles, and doesn't like to repeat or write down anything she says. Her sentences do not make sense. Extremely boring.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: A
General Ed
3:02 pm, Mar 26, 2012
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  Look at the outline before class. Mark down what she went over, take decent notes. No way you can fail this class. Her quizzes are extremely easy and so are the two essays.If you want an easy GE to pass and get an A, this is not a class for you. But if you want to actually learn something and challenge yourself, go a head and take this class.
 
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: B
General Ed
5:45 pm, Mar 22, 2012
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  She is so unorganized that you will leave every class wondering why you just wasted 2 hours of your life. This was definitely one of the worst GE's I've taken. Do not take this class.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: N/A
General Ed
4:36 am, Mar 15, 2012
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  Please avoid this professor at all costs if you are considering taking pols 333. She does not know how to teach at all. All she does is read articles. Anybody can read off an article. THe worst part is that she treats all of the students as if they were political science majors. The class is so disorganized. You have no idea what to take notes on. You have no idea how to follow her so-called outlines. Come finals week, she expects you to write two 4 page papers in a blue book. Granted, she provides the prompts for you in advance, but she expects factual quotes word for word, and wants you to reference authors to prove that you "learned" something, which is complete and utter crap. And here i thought area GE: F's were supposed to be somewhat easy.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: A
General Ed
6:54 pm, Mar 14, 2012
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  Professor Hurt is extremely smart and knows the subject to its fullest extent. BUT she cannot teach the material at all... she goes off on tangents, says things without clarification and just expects everyone to know what she is talking about. Its a GE for most people but she treats everyone in there like 4th year political science students which is unfair. the quizzes arent too bad if you do the reading, but she they have no relation to the midterms which is dumb. theres 2 papers both of which arent too bad, but studying for the midterm and final is stupid. She hardly gives any direction on what to study, and the outlines she provides are very hard to follow and make little or no sense. She bases everything off what she says in class and refuses to make powerpoints which doesnt make sense. If i could choose again i would NOT take this class... find a better class
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: N/A
General Ed
11:05 pm, Mar 13, 2012
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  Hurt is absolutely AWFUL. Vis a vis her circular reasoning, vis a vis her tangents, vis a vis her made up ridiculously long words, and vis a vis her inability to be helpful at all, I have hated this course. She took such an interesting subject and tore it to shreds. She claims she wants us to succeed, which is probably hard to do because we have no clue what she's talking about all class long. Her outlines don't help very much either; they give just general concepts. In addition, she gets into her bitchy moods and scolds us for "not knowing the right answers, like come on". It would be a lot easier if she wasn't speaking her own language. Don't. Take. It.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: Credit
Elective
8:40 pm, Mar 8, 2012
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  So... POLS 333 is a very interesting class and if anyone other than professor Hurt is teaching it it would be a great way to fulfill your area F requirement. That said, professor Hurt had no clue how to teach a large lecture class like this. While she did choose interesting articles for us to read her lectures were painful. She would read aloud up to 10 articles each class and then say "we need to hurry up now." She speaks so quickly most people can't even understand what she is saying and you have to put up with a lot of umm...uhhhh...vis a vis.... (we counted 250 um's in one hour- no joke!). My advice is avoid professor Hurt like the plague.
 
POLS 333
Senior
Grade Earned: N/A
Required (Support)
10:50 pm, Mar 5, 2012
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  The entire time you are sitting in this god awful class you just want to stand up and yell "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!!!" She talks in circles the entire time using huge words and never completes a thought. She says "Vis a vi" in EVERY sentence to the point where you begin to cringe when you hear it. Granted she is very knowledgeable, but she turns very interesteing topics into unbearble ones to sit through.
 
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: N/A
Elective
8:05 pm, Feb 15, 2012
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  Here's the deal. I've had Hurt before this class. VERY smart, and VERY knowledgeable. BUT she is not good at answering questions (she takes a lot of tangents..starts digressing to other subjects and will ask you at the end whether her long-winded explanation made sense, to which you're forced to say "yes") and she's bad at clarifying things. Which is not good, because her material is difficult to grasp. POINT BLANK: She expects us to all be "political scientists", as she says. TRUTH: We're not.
 
POLS 333
Junior
Grade Earned: N/A
General Ed
11:54 pm, Feb 1, 2012
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  This is the worst teacher I've ever taken. She literally doesn't answer anyone's questions. She talks in circles and is completely unorganized, even though she thinks she's clear to everyone because she has an outline. This is a 200 person class and I'm pretty sure no one knows what's going on. She says "um" 100+ times in 15 minutes (yes, I counted). She teaches the class as if we were a research paper and is citing information but doesn't clarify any of it to us. She will literally read passages from text directly to us, but not relate it back to the class. Don't take her class! She's terrible and you'll learn absolutely nothing.
 
POLS 420
Senior
Grade Earned: C
Required (Major)
11:36 am, Jan 11, 2012
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  Very disappointed in her ability to effectively teach this course. Her syllabus was unclear and unorganized, and her lectures never pertained to the schedule, let alone the content of the syllabus. She constantly changed her mind about course work, assignments, etc. Thus, making it terribly difficult to complete any piece of work. She repeatedly shut down questions that she didn't like or were different to her reviews. I agree that she is very knowledgeable and intelligent, but it makes it difficult to approach her with help, etc.
 
POLS 420
5th Year Senior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
12:22 am, Dec 21, 2011
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  Hurt is extremely knowledgeable and informed. The seminar style of the class (which often includes Masters of Public Policy students) is great and the class is very focused on news and current events, which I loved. You have to do 3 easy reflection papers on the readings, 3 easy sets of questions for different readings from the reflections, and a 15-20 page (super structured, very specifically composed) research paper which is broken down into a proposal, and outline, a 3-5 page first draft, the final product, and an oral presentation. The instructions and help she offers are so specific that it's your fault if you do poorly on the paper or in the class. That being said she is intense. She talks extremely fast (note taking is not at all necessary) and can come off as intimidating, and at times kind of self-indulgent. But she is a great instructor and willing to offer all the (actually useful) help you need. Like I said, it's your fault if you do poorly in this class because it is structured in a way that helps you succeed (and I didn't do the vast majority of the reading).
 
POLS 461
Senior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
11:44 pm, May 19, 2011
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  I chose Professor Hurt for my senior project faculty advisor and I am SOOOOO glad that I did. Her writing guidelines packet made the structure for my paper very clear. I went from being very intimidated from having to write a 35-50 page research paper, to thinking it was very manageable because she helped me divide it into workable sections. Unlike some professors who care enough as required for their job, professor Hurt puts them all to shame. She goes ABOVE AND BEYOND to help out her students. She bought my books, always emailed me articles and URLs that dealt with my topic. Without a doubt, I would not have been as successful in my senior project if it was not for Professor Hurt. She is seriously the best professor ever!!!!!
 
POLS 451
Senior
Grade Earned: A
Elective
11:40 pm, May 19, 2011
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  Technology and Public Policy is an eye-opening class. I could not believe all of the stuff we were learning. This is my second class with professor Hurt and I am so happy I took her class again. There are no tests of any sort. Just a paper due at the end of the quarter, like most people have already said, it is very manageable because she explicitly spells out what she expects in her writing requirements. I do not really ever want to read my assigned reading, but the topics were so interesting, that I do not even want to sell back my books. If you show up to class and do the work, this class will be an easy A for you.
 
 
POLS 421
Junior
Grade Earned: A
Elective
11:35 pm, May 19, 2011
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  Dr. Hurt is the BEST professor! She is ridiculously knowledgeable about her field of expertise. In this class, it seems very intimidating, but it is actually very simple to get an A. She does not give out any quizzes, midterms or finals. She only has a 15-20 page research paper, which she walks you through like a baby so there is no reason why you should not get an A unless you completely slacked off and did not do what she said. She literally spells EVERYTHING out for you... if you do it, you get a great grade. If you don't, then you don't. It is really as simple as that. Plus, her class is VERY interesting! I DEFINITELY recommend it to anyone from any major!
 
POLS 420
Junior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
2:36 pm, May 13, 2011
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  Professor Hurt is my favorite professor here at Cal Poly. She can be intimidating because she is extremely intelligent and talks really fast but she cares more about her students than any professor I know. If you go into her office hours she will totally help you with your paper and she is really good at sending you relevant information for your research. You will learn alot in this class and she prepares you really well for the real world. She also knows more about current events than anyone I know!
 
POLS 325
Sophomore
Grade Earned: A
General Ed
6:06 pm, Mar 21, 2011
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  Prof. Hurt is REALLY knowledgeable when it comes to political science, especially foreign policy but she has some difficulty presenting the information to her students. If you haven't taken a pols class before and don't know a lot about politics, i don't recommend taking this class because she uses a lot of political science terminology that if you don't know can be really confusing. Overall this class was SUPER ridiculously easy-weekly online quizzes over short readings, a midterm (average was a 94), two papers over issues we discuss in class and a final that was only slightly harder than the midterm. If you want an easy A, this is it, but if you want to learn A LOT about global politics in a clear, organized manner, this is not the class for you.
 
POLS 325
Junior
Grade Earned: A
General Ed
4:28 pm, Mar 18, 2011
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  Professor Hurt gave two non-cumulative exams for this class (one midterm, one final) and required two short essays. The class was easy enough to pass, but sitting through lectures was hell. She is disorganized and and her lectures do not have any sort of structure. She is also a horrible speaker, paces back and forth in front of the class, speaks as if she were out of breath, stumbles over her words, occasionally mumbles, and says "ummm" or "uhh" every few seconds. I was able to pass the class because I took the time to read the book and look up definitions to "key terms" that she expects us to know but does not explain. Overall, could've been a cool class, and material was interesting enough, but Dr. Hurt is not a good teacher (intelligent, yes, but was not able to convey material in a clear or structured way).
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
2:07 pm, Mar 7, 2011
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  Hurt teaches her class vis a vis ummm ummm umm... (yeah, that's what listening to her talk sounds like.)
 
POLS 451
Junior
Grade Earned: A
Required (Support)
9:01 pm, Mar 1, 2011
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  Honestly, I dont think Cal Poly pay Dr. Hurt enough to teach here! I agree that she talks fast and sometime seem to be a little bit intimidating, but she is a very fair instructor. If you go to her office hours, she will hold your hands and walk you the whole way on your assignment. This is a brilliant woman and by the end of the day, when you walk out of her class, you know you learned something valuable.
 
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: B
Required (Major)
12:09 am, Feb 25, 2011
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  POLS 225 is an Intro to International Relations course, so I expected it would be a survey course on the basics/fundamentals of International Relations with a lot of class participation/discussion. I was mistaken; Hurt's class was a pretty heavy work load. We read between 50 and 120 pages nightly from various textbooks and online texts. The material was a little more complex than where I had expected a survey course to go into. This was in no way a bad thing, however. I thought the class was inspiring and insightful. I learned so much about the state of world affairs and the reason for them being so. I admire Shelley Hurt's passion for IR, and for every bit of passion she has for the subject, she has 10x it in knowledge. She is also extremely accommodating in her office hours and cares to get to know students on a personal level. I highly recommend taking her class; It is worth the rigor.
 
POLS 225
Sophomore
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
2:19 pm, Feb 24, 2011
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  Professor Hurt is an extremely intelligent woman and is eager to help her students. My only criticisms with Hurt are that she has a hard time conveying information to her students, she really likes to go off on tangents in class (they actually are very interesting) and her lectures are generally very unstructured. However having said this professor Hurt is probably one of the most helpful and caring professors I have had, I have gone into speak with her countless times after I took her course and she always answered my questions and offered to help in anyway. As for 225 her class was quite manageable, we had 3 quizzes, and a final research paper. Everyone also has to be a discussion leader twice, but all it really consists of is writing 3 questions that you ask the class and more often than not she will answer your question. All in all I would suggest anyone to take professor Hurt as long as they are aware that lectures can be a bit misleading and unstructured.
 
POLS 426
Senior
Grade Earned: C
Required (Major)
4:16 pm, Feb 18, 2011
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  I was very disappointed in "Professor" Hurt's ability to actually teach. Her rambling on about unimportant information, total lack of structure in her lectures and syllabus, and her lack of clarity on important projects (that ultimately resulted in a poor grade) are what prevail me to give her an F as a teacher. If you want to do well, impress her with your discussions and get on her good side, otherwise it's downhill for you!
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: A
Required (Major)
12:41 pm, Feb 15, 2011
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  Professor Hurt can be intimidating but she is not impossible. I tried to do the reading in the beginning but then I gave up on it. All you need to do is write down everything she writes down on the board and study that for the quizzes, which are actually easy in my opinion. The paper is tough but if you go to her once in office hours, she will lay everything out you need to do then grade pretty fairly.
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: B
Required (Major)
8:43 am, Feb 13, 2011
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  This class was WAY more difficult than it needed to be. I dont think Shelley understood the concept of an introductory class and that it didnt need to have 6 hours of reading a week. She talks so damn fast and adds in an "uh" or "um" every two words it will drive you insane for the first couple of classes. Not to mention that she sounds like she just ran a marathon...first day of class I thought she was just winded from trying to get to class on time, 40 minutes into the period I realized it wasnt going away. Granted shes a nice person, but shes way too enthusiastic about whatever shes lecturing on that it doesnt translate well. I felt like I was overloaded with so much information that none of it stuck. About three times a week she'll claim a new thing as "the most important thing about international realtions"..I would consider keeping a list on all those just for shits and gigs. Shes definitely really knowledgeable but cant convey her information, she writes down things on the board that usually have no value to the discussion. The tests are super easy, she gives you a study guide weekly that has all the terms for that week but you have to define the terms in the EXACT same way as she does or she'll dock you points. I would avoid another class with Shelley if I could just to save myself from dry readings and scattered lecture notes, but shes an easy grader and probably not the worst teacher cal poly has to offer.
 
POLS 225
Freshman
Grade Earned: B
Required (Major)
12:19 am, Jan 29, 2011
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  I took Professor Hurt's class my very first quarter at college, and it was quite intimidating. On the very first day, Hurt assigned a ton of reading and expected you to participate in class discussions for the participation points. I honestly thought, I would never be able to pass this class since many upperclassmen told me about how they failed Hurt's class. Listen to her talk, and youll do fine on the quizzes. I dont think anything matters in this class besides the 10 page paper due at the very end of the course. Thats the only thing you even need to care about
 
 
POLS 225
Sophomore
Grade Earned: B
Required (Major)
1:38 pm, Jan 2, 2010
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  The course may be 200 level but don\'t be surprised to find your jaw dropping the first day. Professor hurt may be knowledgeable on what she lectures, but it is impossible for her to translate this to her students. She speaks 1000 miles an hour and does not have breaks in her sentences. Itsliketryingtoreadthissentencebutovera2hourclassperiod. It only ends up confusing the students even more. She has the habit of starting a thought on the board and then jumping to the next point even before she has finished the first. If you\'re a student that thrives in a chaotic, completely unstructured lecture environment, you would probably understand her. I did not. The course requirements were way too extreme for this level course. Expect to read lots of very very dense and dry material for each class and then have her belittle your whole class for failing to grasp the concepts. To top this off she has a 10 page research paper due at the end of the quarter. I normally wouldn\'t mind this work but I found it completely inappropriate to write a very specific paper in a course that was supposed to be introductory. Oh, and don\'t forget, she holds grudges, so suck up. In all honestly I find it very hard to find anything beneficial about her methods, let alone describe her without falling into a tirade.
 

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