Polyratings.com: Altermann, Susanne

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Altermann, Susanne

Cumulative GPA: 4.00/4.00 with 10 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 3.90
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 3.70

Biological Sciences Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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BOT 121 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 11:41 pm, Jun 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		This was lab/lecture. I think this was Susi's last quarter here, but she was great! Learn the terms, do the Polylearn readings, and you'll do fine. I barely read the textbooks, but I swear by using the Trees Among Us book and reading the lab manual. My stellar lab grade pulled up my average lecture grade (tests=STUDY HARD) so that I ended up with a B. Lab was half your grade and lecture was the other half. However, if you failed one half then you failed the whole thing.

BOT 121 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:58 pm, May 8, 2012 Report Evaluation		Dr. Altermann is by far the most intelligent professor I've had at Cal Poly. She is knowledgeable in all aspects of science and is an extremely effective communicator. I learned a lot from lab and not quite as much during lecture. Tests were extremely difficult (I got a D- on the first midterm) but fortunately don't effect your grade very much. The class is split 50% lecture 50% lab. Highly recommended

BIO 121 Junior Grade Earned: C Elective 12:48 pm, Mar 21, 2012 Report Evaluation		Susanne is amazing. Her teaching style really works. I did this class just to fulfill my science elective, but I'm glad I picked it. She grades very fairly and as long as you go to all the lectures, you should be able to understand the course by the time finals role around. Just a heads up though, there will be times where you need to know the Latin names of plants. And when I mean sometimes, I mean most of the time. -IF66

BOT 121 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 4:39 pm, Mar 18, 2012 Report Evaluation		Susi is fantastic. As an engineer, I didn't expect to get a whole lot out of this class, but I actually ended up really enjoying it, and it's pretty cool to be able to look around you and speak intelligently about plants. This class isn't incredibly easy; it has an average workload, and the tests are involved, but not unfair. The main homework initially seems kind of cheesy--you "adopt" a tree and write about it every week--but it's not a big time commitment, it can be nice to sit outside a bit, and the big project it leads up to really isn't that bad (you compile pictures and information about your tree into a PowerPoint slide). Susi is one of the best lecturers I've had. She's extremely clear and gets her point across really well. This class gave me the best explanation of photosynthesis I've ever had. Make sure you go to lecture because there are mini-assignments and quizzes. You should go anyway because if you do, and if you take good notes, you're likely to get at least a B in the class. I didn't have Susi in lab, but I'm sure she would've been good in that too. Check out the lab professor Fritz Light for more info on that.

BIO 160 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 2:04 pm, Feb 16, 2012 Report Evaluation		First off this is a tough lab. it is two days a week and covers a lot of material. the main grade for the lab is your lab notebook. she grades it all at the end of the quarter and gives you strict guidelines and how to get a good grade one it. although the class did have a lot of material, susi taught the material well and it was easy to understand. she goes out of her way as a teacher to make sure the students know what is going on and understand the concepts, not just definitions and memorization. im pretty sure this is a bio major specific class and it might discourage you to switch majors (i know at least three in my lab who switched because of this class) so it seems to me like this is a weeding class for bio majors. my suggestion is to stick with it and if you are having trouble in the lab, do better in the lecture. the grading is 50% lecture 50% lab so its easy to get a decent grade in the overall course.

BIO 160 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 4:59 pm, Feb 14, 2012 Report Evaluation		Susi is a wonderful teacher who is always eager to share her love for biology and plants with all her students. She presents the material in a clear organized manner and if you still dont understand, she rocks with her office hours.If you go she breaks the material down to the simplest version until you can get it then she explains how others things fit in with that. There is hardely any homework, in her lab you go in, do the lab then leave. Her tests are a little challenging, but as long as you actually did the lab and not just copied then you should be fine. overall Susi is a great professor and my favorite one at Cal Poly. I would definately recommend taking one of her classes.

BOT 121 Sophomore Grade Earned: B General Ed 1:31 pm, Jan 3, 2012 Report Evaluation		I've been waiting for Susi to get her own page on Polyratings! I took botany with her as a freshman last year and absolutely loved it. It is such an interesting class and you can tell that Susi genuinely loves botany. She presented the material clearly, was always open to questions, and made sure that everyone understood the material. She's such a nice person in general. She posts the lecture slides online, and it's really helpful if you print them out before class. I wish I had figured that out earlier in the quarter... I also had her as my lab teacher. She made it interesting and fun but it was kind of annoying how she used the full 3 hours and rarely let us out early. Overall, I really enjoyed this class and highly recommend taking Susi if you can!



BIO 160 Freshman Grade Earned: Credit Required (Major) 8:40 am, Dec 5, 2011 Report Evaluation		Susi is a great lab instructor. Her grading is fair. Once in a while in labs, she'll test students on material they should know to make sure they're on top of things. The quizzes are worth a couple points only and there's only like 4 or 5 of them during the quarter. She does a good job explaining the lab and material so her students can understand it. She is also very helpful during her office hours.

BOT 121 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 2:13 pm, Sep 12, 2011 Report Evaluation		I really enjoyed this class. Susi can be tough, but if you study her lectures and read the book a bit you can do well. The lab is really important to do well in! She is excellent in her office hours and is an awesome person!

BOT 121 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 12:59 pm, Mar 17, 2011 Report Evaluation		Even though this is her first year teaching here, Susi is a great professor. She presents the lectures clearly via power points. There's a lot of info for the class but if you are even remotely interested in plants its a fun and interesting class. The tests are completely fair, even on the easy side. She's super helpful if you go to her office hours. She's patient too even though there was this jerk freshman in our class who was outright rude to the prof and everyone in our class noticed (don't be that person). I barely used the book, i would recommend buying the old version, its way cheaper and pretty much exactly the same. The new one is outrageously expensive!! Overall she's a good professor, I would definitely recommend taking her!

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