2.0
Quality3.9
Difficulty16%
Would Retake109
Reviews16%
Would Retake
109
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
10
4
6
3
16
2
26
1
51
What Students Say
“Lecture does not correlate with the exams”
GEOG2910 - 1.0 rating“Classes are boring, all she does is read off of powerpoints”
GEOG2910 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
36%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.53 avg changeRatings by Course
HUMANGEOG
5.0
(1)HUMAN044
5.0
(1)GLOBAECON
5.0
(1)GEOG01
4.0
(1)GEOG30
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
HUGEO101
5.0
AAA44
5.0
GEO141
5.0
GEOG101
5.0
GEOG010
5.0
Reviews (109)
Easy class, but boy does it suck. This lady drives me crazy. She often doesn't have anything prepared for class, so she gives discussions over the internet and using card catalogs and dictionaries. Good class, but don't take it if it is taught by this lady.
boring class and boring professor
wow... can you say unorganized? and boring? and annoying?
She is very boring and very unclear about assignments. She takes all of her tests randomly from a cd that comes with the book and doesnt always cover what will be on the test.
SO BORING!
No Comments
It was brought to the attention of one of the classes that she uses a cd to not only create the tests, but also her powerpoints used in lecture. What does this lady do? Sure she explains the slides, but nearly anyone could do that when all of the information is up there for you. Not a good teaching style or presentation of material. Dont take w/her
Went straight from the CD for everything we did in the class, powerpoints, homework, tests.. If it is on the study guide or she talks about it in lecture, mark my words, it will NOT be on the test. You have to read the entire book and every single graph and caption to do well on the tests. DO NOT take a class from her
Going to lecture was so painful. My transition from high school to college was close to miserable when it came to studying for here exams. She is way too specific, and she never covers what is actually on the test. Thumbs down.
Terrible. Tests cover every single word of the book, impossible to do better than average unless you read every chapter. Discussion section required the most work I have ever had for a non-major course.
Awesome professor. Good clear points with neat presentation slides. Tends to wonder off into topics outside syllabus, but nevertheless makes it sound very interesting
terrible teacher. lectures dont cover test material. boring lectures. dont take this class
She is overall a good instructor!
A helpful teacher!
Terrible professor. Pulls tiny details out of the textbook makes that the entire exam. Almost impossible to get above average, unless you've had a class that previously covered the same material.
Took Mapping American Cities with her. She knows a lot but her lectures don't convey much. They're bland and nap time. Learned the most in lab. Easy class. Tests were hardest part because lots of writing and you never really knew what to write about because lectures were few and far between.
She is very passionate about the topics which she is teaching. Thoroughly enjoyed her lectures, but often goes off on tangents which is interesting at the same. Exams are moderately hard and doesn't really cover much from the lectures. Study the textbook and grading for papers is ridiculous. all in all a good professor but extremely harsh grader.
The tests in this class are absolutely ridiculous. You have no way of knowing what will be on them. You can study all you want but there will always be about 15 questions about the smallest details in the book. She is a very nice and passionate person, but I don't think this is a worthwhile class.
Seriously ridiculous. This entire class was a joke. nearly everyone fails every time and this is not even an upper level course.
I wanted to like Prof. Pavlik, but as others have said, tests were ridiculous. She takes minutia out of the textbook and tests on that; the lectures were not helpful. She required us to buy the book software for $70 and we only used it once, and would often promise to do things and not follow through. She's nice, but I don't recommend
This class is boring, do not recommend to take as a gen ed. Her lectures are really boring and useless for the test. Only way to pass tests is to read the book. She's a hard grader and really annoying.
This class was super easy. I went to lecture probally only a handful of times. All you have to do is ready the book which is in lamest terms. I got an A- and didn't do anything.
If you enjoy being treated like a middle-schooler, getting tested on obscure material, and being bored out of your mind, this is the class for you. If not, I would highly recommend someone else
Human Geography with her was a real pain. Her tests are about miniscule details of the book. Her assignments are graded by TAs on power trips. If you want an A in this class, read the book like its your job in small chunks. lecture attendance is not necessary, test averages will be in the low 60s so the curve does help in the end
She is a horrible professor, do not take her at all costs! You may think you know the materials well and do wonderful on the exams, but she is the harshest grader! She expects you to read her mind for the answer and doesn't specify on the exam what she expects from you. Nobody in my class passed her exams.
Intro to Human Geography with Pavlik was a disaster. All the tests were completely based on minuscule details from the textbook. The tests are really difficult and unless you have a vested interest in Human Geography, the content will seem really boring and repetitive as well.
Easiest Class ever just read the book.
Worst professor ever. Expects graduate level work for gen ed class. She has a condescending tone that makes you look like an idiot even if you say the right answer. Exams are an absolute joke. Study hard or not at all, it won't affect your grade. I dropped this class. She made an interesting topic unbearable.
Classes are boring, all she does is read off of powerpoints. On tests, you will have no idea what the questions are going to be on because she only uses obscure questions from the textbook. She seems interested in the subject but is not helpful you ask her questions because she expects you to figure it out yourself.
Went to lecture twice and have aced all the exams by just reading the book and working on the mapping sections. She just reads off the ppt slides.
Be ready to read the book and take a ton of notes in lecture. There's a lot of information you need to know for every test, including a lot of specific things and map knowledge. If you can devote the time to it and study your butt off for her tests then you'll do fine, but this definitely is not a class you can breeze through.
Treats the class like they're 6. Goes on long random rants. Classes are painfully dull because only 20 minutes of her blabbing is worth listening to. Requires a ridiculous amount of work and detail for a gen ed. Avoid her.
its required for my major, but it just kills all my interest. the test is hard. Doesn't talk about map that much in class, but 13 is about map and it is hard. Lecture is boring. TAs are not very nice and they are rude. Requires a lot of time to read, if its not required, better avoid this class. won't suggest people take it.
Unless you would like to take a gen-ed that requires the work of a graduate student I wouldn't suggest this class. Assignments are made extremely complicated then she gets frustrated when people don't do exactly what she wanted. Lectures are mostly rants based on opinion.
Don't ever take Globalization and Geographic Diversity with her, it is a living hell.
She talks to fast for anyone to keep up. She assigns to many LONG papers. Tests are some of the hardest I have ever took. Prepare to study.
Cares about what she teaches and is there if you need help. Makes it clear whats expected.
Had a map quiz today, and she just treated the class like they are all cheaters. Expect 3 5-page long papers. The class is so boring that everybody is just playing their phones. Do not take this class unless you are crazy.
DO NO TAKE THIS CLASS AS A GEN ED! NOT WORTH! WAY TOO MUCH WORK!
Very, very strict. Emotionless. Not a good professor if you're looking for sympathy or leniency of any kind.
this class was absolutely awful. do not take this class as a gen ed - it is so much work.
Lecture does not correlate with the exams. She treats you like you are a five year old. If you have a phone or a water bottle out she will not hesitate to take points off, even if you are not using them.
I frankly don't know why she's still employed as a professor here. Her insecurity shows and she makes rude remarks to general questions asked by students who are willing to learn. No interest in taking another course from her, and if you can help it, stay away from her. It'll make you hate college.
Do not take globalization and geographic diversity! Awful class and she just reads off the powerpoints that don't make sense anyways. She's so dull and goes on rants. Exams are the worst. Papers are 6 pages long. TA's have no clue whats going on. The only thing that was good about this class was the extra credit opportunities. DO NOT TAKE THIS
Dr. Pavlik is a good instructor and she expects students to put in work. Four papers around 5-pages each, three exams, one presentation and one final. Quite a bit of time dedicated to this class for a gen ed. Would not recommend as a gen ed, but an overall interesting class and I learned a lot. An A is attainable with time commitment.
Do not take this class as a gen ed. You'll regret it. Find something else if you can because this class requires a lot of work that is hard to to get yourself to do it.
She is an absolutely awful professor. I took the global economy with her as a freshman, and all of the upperclassmen would openly talk about how challenging it was for them. Lecture notes have nothing to do with exams, which revolve around statistics/facts from stuff done outside of class. Goes on rants over topics that only she finds interesting.
Gives student way much homework and tight due dates. She is the type of professor that thinks students only take her course without any other stuff to do. Lecture notes have nothing to do with exams. Talks about simple things over and over and becomes concise for important concepts. Impatient to questions and doesn't respect students.
This lady is the worst professor/teacher I have ever had. She addresses everything with a lot of sarcasm which for me gets very old, but she is also just not a good teacher. Her exams have nothing to do with lectures. The other day she got mad at me for drinking from my water bottle like excuse my human nature.
What she expects from you is very unclear a lot of times. If you ask her for any clarification, she just talks in circles and doesn't come near to answering your intitial question, you just leaved even more confused. The lectures are completely pointless , and have nothing to do with the exams. Don't take this class. Not worth it for a gen ed.
Dr. Pavlik's slides during lecture have so much information on them that you can't write it down - all the while she talks non-stop and you can't comprehend anything she says. You have to thoroughly read each chapter in the book if you want to do well and that's on top of papers, quizzes, and tests.
Only take this class if you're taking one class. Not only was her class lecture heavy, you had to beg her to upload the lectures because she goes too fast in class. Beware of 3 exams, 3 papers, and 3 map quizzes in which you need to know every country, capital, mountain, body of water, and more. I read the entire textbook and it didn't help at all
I did not miss one lecture or discussion and can say Claire Pavlik is the worst professor I have ever had. She has no problem assigning large assignments frequently but takes forever to grade. Will single out students in front of the class for being late yet has no problem frequently keeping the class after the scheduled time. Do not take her class
One of 3 worst teachers I've ever had. I went to most lectures and taking notes is not an option unless you have text to speech. She goes through things too quickly and the slides do not help. She also goes on tangents and never answers a question completely. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.
As others have noted The Global Economy is demanding, but I found it very rewarding. Professor Pavlik is brilliant, but not very personable. If you don't care about global stratification, I would definitely not recomend this, and probably not a great gen ed, but, if it interests you it's worth the work
I would highly discourage anyone from taking Globalization and Geographic Diversity as a gen ed. Dr. Pavlik's lectures are hard to follow and not worth attending. If you want to be prepared for the tests in this class you're best off studying straight out of the textbook. The only good thing about this class is the extra credit opportunities.
I took this class thinking it would be an easy gen ed, well I thought wrong. Map "quizzes" that are basically exams on top of lengthy essays that are harshly graded and then midterms and finals over every chapter of the book. It is impossible to remember all of this information and do all the work on top of other classes.
Lectures were boring, and her slides are confusing. The materials were so heavy that it's almost impossible to study for them and to read like 50 pages per chapter. There are 3 map quizzes, around 45 questions each. 3 total exams; final is not comprehensive. You have to write 3 6+ page papers. I don't recommend this class as a Gen Ed.
Pavlik wants you to learn, but sometimes goes about it in poor/ nonsensical ways. If you are looking for a class to get a relatively easy A/B in, I would avoid this professor.
You will have two midterms and a final that has absolutely nothing to do with lecture notes. If you want to do good on the midterms or final, be ready to read the whole book a couple of times. You also take three map quizzes which are also like tests with about 45 to 60 questions. Three papers due, but she will not grade them for about a month.
Dr. Pavlik is the worst teacher I've had in my lifetime. She is a terrible teacher, over explains things that don't matter (such as why we need to but bookbags against the wall), very confusing slides with too much info on them, takes forever to grade. The list goes on and on. There is so much work that has to be put into this class. DO NOT TAKE
It is a GenEd class which she treated as a major class. Test heavy, and map quizzes are dreadful. After things moving online, she even made students have quizzes and map quizzes every single class meetings. Straightly horrible, definitely not recommended for GenEd!!!
Avoid this class. It fulfills a gen ed so there are a variety of students in this course. Issue is, she uses a law school grading structure in which only a certain amount of students can get A's, B's, and so on. It is a high level competition for a low level class. You don't have to show up to lectures, everything comes from the book.
Rambles a lot during lectures, and quiz questions sometimes feel like they've never been discussed before. Didn't provide a list of course topics and honestly seemed to just make up what she wanted to talk about. Expects a lot of work for assignments that can be done with much less work. Not a great class, didn't learn much, but asked to do a lot.
She makes this class more difficult than it needs to be, especially for a Gen ed. She rambles on during lectures making it impossible to take notes and anytime someone asks a question she just chooses to highlight aspects that don't matter instead of just answering it. Quizzes have nothing to do with lectures and confusing even if you do readings.
You have to work your butt off in this class! To make matters worse, her lectures are extremely boring and just her rambling. Quizzes and exams are all that matter and they are timed and so hard, you need the textbook and her lecture notes to get at least a B. In her syllabus she says only like 20% of her students get an A. Do the extra credit!!!!
Exam questions are nothing like the reviews, Basically look at the quizzes and research whatever is not on them for the exam.
Professor Pavlik is a very considerate professor and wants the best for her students, and she shows her true passion for the geography for the world and what it is now!
90% of the time I had no idea what she was talking about or what to expect on the tests bc she is all over the place. she just talks about whatever she wants to while projecting the novel she wrote in a powerpoint slide. Im not sure she knows what shes talking about either. ( & she will not respond to emails. ever. no chance.)
If you're not interested in economic geography I wouldn't recommend it. It's a hard class but I enjoyed it. She's very knowledgeable - I had some great office hour discussions and she took time to talk about economic topics not related to the class. Some lectures are hard to follow, but she's knowledgeable and passionate. Great for econ majors.
Textbook readings are way too long, boring, and the online textbook is horrendous to read. Teacher drones on and on during lecture and does breathtakingly bad Friday "interactive" activities. Expects you to do way too much. It would be an accomplishment to get through all the material without falling asleep at least 25 times
Dr. Pavlik's lectures are boring. Slides have lots of text on them so you don't need to go. Be prepared to learn the name of almost every country in the world for the map quizzes. Exams are not hard. If you read the slides and skim the textbook you'll be fine. The exam grades are heavily curved and all questions are multiple choice.
Claire Pavlik's lectures are so tremendously boring and they were so not crucial for this class. Not mean or a hard grader, just incredibly boring.
Lots of rambling lectures. you will never know what's on tests. Overall very difficult.
Dr. Pavlik teaches a subject which is inherently difficult and uninteresting for many people; however, her class was interesting and gives a very cool understanding about the world and allows you to gain a new understanding of how our world has developed.
The class is very confusing and appears to go in no clear direction. Opens up the first day of class noting it is a geography course and not an economics course, and then continues to make every lecture not about geography. Lectures consist of rambling and busy work. She is very set in her past and treats students like high schoolers.
For a gen ed, this class requires a lot of studying. Each test covers about 120 pages of the textbook(5), on top of map quizzes and reports. Quizzes and reports aren't difficult and the tests typically have a heavy curve. But it is still a lot of work to get an A in this class. So don't recommend if you have more important time consuming classes.
Lots of lectures that can be very boring. Exams are very hard and you never really know what to study, but they curve a lot. Map quizzes are frequent but easy to prepare for. Reports are long and tiring but make up a large portion of the grade so they are worth putting in effort.
This class is extremely boring. You never know what information will be on exams. Extremely difficult.
The lectures are incredibly boring and you never know what's going to be on the exam so you basically have to read the entire textbook. You are going to learn where basically every country is and what its capital is for the map quizzes. There are also reports that are annoying and long. This class is entirely too much work to be my gen ed.
this class was one of my worst gen eds. it took more time and effort than most of my core classes (and I'm a stem major). if you need a gen ed id highly recommend avoiding this one.
This class was one of the hardest gen eds I have taken and for it being a 1000, it's unreasonably hard. I would not recommend it unless you love not knowing what will be on your exam and having to read the whole book so you have a slight clue what is happening. You have to put in a lot of time and effort to succeed in this course.
DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. This gen ed is not worth your time and effort. It is very demanding. Her lectures are long and pointless they won't get you anywhere for the exam, you have to learn on your own. You also have 3 mandatory news research papers that are at 7-page lengths. As well as map quizzes over the whole world. Save yourself the trouble.
Old teacher who does not actually teach. I signed up for this class thinking it would be about the global economy (the course title), but its just a history class. The exams are extremely difficult for no reason. The content on the exam is not what you learn in class. The only reason I have a good grade is because of the easy grading of reports.
just terrible
Not an exaggeration, but nothing she even says in class will be shown on quizzes or exams. She is very old school and it felt like a middle school class. It is terrible just save the effort and pick a different gen-ed
If I could time travel back to one moment in my life, I would time travel back to when I registered for this class and take anything else.
Genuinely the worst professor I have had at UIowa so far (Junior). This class is so unnecessarily hard, considering it is a gen ed. You have to memorize tedious amounts of information that are not actually important, and the tests are nothing like lecture material. Terrible professor, terrible class, definitely skip this one if you can.
She's just very boring. The class was pretty easy for me but the lectures were always a chore to sit through. Again, the course didn't seem hard to me but I think my peers struggled. She's not terrible just pretty boring.
All the exams are over the textbooks. Each exam is around 30 questions over literally so much material it's really dumb and too hard to be considered a gen ed. Lectures were useless and she needs to get "and it is that" out of her vocabulary it's hard not to roll your eyes when she says it. Would never take again 0/10
She's very passionate but inefficient with class time and leaves lots of info to be found in the textbook. This is normal for social studies and history classes, but I found it to be exceptionally bad in 1090 to the point to where I didn't have to attend lecture if I took reading notes and skimmed her PowerPoints before exams.
DONT TAKE THIS CLASS!!! this is the worst class i've ever taken. exam questions are so specific over non important details like verbage of an article we never even talked about. the research projects are so tedious you have to cite almost every sentence or you will get a 0. each project took me almost 10 hours every time. way to picky
I'm a senior and I think if I could go back in time I would rather drop out and become homeless that take this class and have to listen to this woman try to teach her Agenda for another minute
please have some self-respect for yourself and stay away from this woman, and whatever you do don't take this class
Taking this as a requirement for my major, but I feel bad for those that are taking it for a GenEd. A lot of work for such a smallExams every 3 weeks that ask irrelevant questions that are hyper-specific to the textbook. Map quizzes are the week after exams. She loves to highlight, bold, underline everything. Do the extra credit!
The map quizzes and exams are unnecessarily difficult. Papers were not too bad.
I'll tell you now: Take any other class for this gen-ed. Most of the class lectures are pointless; Professor Pavlik rambles about random topics that don't show up on exams. Everything you need is in the ~400-page textbook. Quizzes make you learn almost every country, capital, and water body on Earth. Essays are 3 copy/paste boring slugfests. Bad.
You don't need to go to lecture to be able to grasp the concepts. Discuission is mandatory and can be boring sometimes but there are interesting and important things to learn in class and can be applied to anything in the world. I had an situation come up and Professor Pavlik worked with me to resolve to issue. she's a nice professor.
If all of the "awful" ratings weren't enough, use this one to warn you. Do not take this class. The projects suck and take forever to complete. The exams seem almost entirely made up and do not make sense, and on top of that she is not a very pleasant person.
This is one of the worst professors I have ever had. I was sitting at an A+ for nearly the whole semester, and towards the end she made sure that I was not able to receive that grade. The tests are nothing like the reading or lectures, and they seem to be made up from random topics not related to the course. Please, do not take this course.
Lectures were a bit dry, but Unstuck AI helped me stay on top of the material. Exams cover a ton of textbook content, so be prepared to really dive into the readings. Overall, a challenging but manageable gen-ed if you put in the work.
I usually don't go online and rant about my professors, but looking at so many bad reviews on her class confused me, Just because she makes her students learn the map and take quizzes on it, does not make the class a bad class, you get a lot of time to prepare, as well as practicing in discussion sections. curved exams, easy grading on papers
She is a great and very understanding person who will help you if you ask. She is very helpful and kind, the class is some work, but it is super valuable knowledge and teaches you a lot.
she just rambled on and on in lectures and did not take time to actually explain what's on the tests. she makes you take map quizzes which take lots of studying and will learn all of the countries, oceans, and rivers in the world. she only reads off the slides which do not relate to the tests.
Straight up. DO NOT take this class unless you either A) enjoy geography and all the knowledge that is paired with each country or B) you are required to take this course. Overall, she is a nice lady, but her lecture was so boring and so content heavy, I just could not get myself to truly take this course seriously. Tests are super hard too.
Professor is a very nice lady but lectures and very boring and monotone. Lecture material isn't even relevant to the exams, exams are made directly off of the information from the textbook (but even the textbook wasnt very helpful). "and it is that..." will be spoken millions of times throughout the semester.
Lectures are interesting but not content specific to exams. She is persistent about not providing study guides for exams because she says textbook is enough, i dont think if this is true. The exams are two parts part one is just map exam easy to do well if you study everything she outlines. part two is a lot harder imo + hard to study for.
Tests were pretty difficult and didn't fully reflect what we learned in lecture while textbook chapters were very large. Grading took a long time to receive, but was useful to talk to during office hours for help on reports.
I took Population Dynamics with Pavlik and she was great. Lectures were upbeat and she's very passionate. As long as you skim the readings and go to lecture/TILE you'll be good.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
36%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.53 avg changeRatings by Course
HUMANGEOG
5.0
(1)HUMAN044
5.0
(1)GLOBAECON
5.0
(1)GEOG01
4.0
(1)GEOG30
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
HUGEO101
5.0
AAA44
5.0
GEO141
5.0
GEOG101
5.0
GEOG010
5.0