2.2
Quality4.0
Difficulty100%
Would Retake111
Reviews100%
Would Retake
111
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
111 total ratings5
17
4
9
3
13
2
27
1
45
What Students Say
“Finefrock and Thelma V”
ENGL101 - 4.0 rating“Must smoke, has horrible coughs”
HST101 - 3.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
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101
5.0
(1)ISLAM
5.0
(1)HST2300S
5.0
(1)RUSSIA
5.0
(2)HIST227
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
HST103
5.0
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Reviews (110)
Took him for my first history. Sticks to the book, but it is a lot of reading and his test review sheets cover about 300 terms generally. Lengthy tests, essays at end, but he generally lets you know topics ahead of time. Must smoke, has horrible coughs
a good professor overall, and i don't think he smokes. he uses a lot of red ink when grading papers, but its never as bad as it looks. he will try his best to improve your writing.
No Comments
Had him for Mid. East history also: the guy means well, but his lectures go on forever and are more or less word-for-word from the text. He does hack up every day, and it is gross.
EEEK!!!
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I dropped his class... he has to be the most boring professor I've ever had. He rambles on and on and then stops to hack up a lung every once and a while. He is nice, but makes history very uninteresting. I think it's time for him to retire
No Comments
he's very unclear with his lectures, but he does give a lot of extra credit opportunities. his test sound harder than they really are.
can't get an a, but b's and c's are do-able, def lots of extra credit, tests aren't bad, just a lot to study
he means well, but his classes are incredibly boring. tests are pretty easy (5 identification and 1 essay). takes attendance everyday.
Get out as soon as possible!
His class is really boring, but is not that difficult. His tests are kind of hard, but quizzes are really easy. Offers a lot of extra credit.
This guy is absolutely awful!! His class is so boring, and he jumps around a lot and says things that dont have anything to do with what he is talking about. DO NOT GET THIS GUY!!!!
When hes not hacking up a lung he rambles forever with his lectures. his exams suck because they consist of who,what,where,when,why for 5 terms and an essay. good bit of extra credit...strongly against taking him...i wanted to shoot myself for not droppi
He is very unclear! He doesnt look at you when he talks, he is monotone!! His tests are horribly hard, and there is way to much to read that he doesnt go over in class
Can say quite unbiasedly that he is not an effective teacher - his lectures are unorganized, monotone, and boring. He jumps around the text too much, hard to keep up. Tests are SO hard. Definetly do not recommend him at all!
He was very hard to follow in class and did not like questions being asked. He offered no help outside of class.
He is kinda hard, but I like history, so I enjoy his class. I do think he might keel over and die in the middle of class, though. Lectures can be hard to follow, but read and come to class and you will do fine.
worst teacher i have had so far. don't take him.
You will laugh for the first few classes then realize your wasting your money, there are plenty more teachers, i dropped...
Basically easy.
seriously, the absolute worst teacher i have had. he's so mean and snaps at you if u have a question. his notes are not organized or clear and his tests are IMPOSSIBLE. if u have him DROP HIM ASAP.
his lectures are impossible to follow and boring. he might die at any second and he loves geography for some reason. but the tests are ok. generally it's 5 identification (out of a study sheet of about 100) and an essay on the tests. not that hard.
Does nothing but read from his notes, prohibits class discussion, rambles about unrelated topics, atrocious handwriting, SO ugly, only person I know with a combover mullet, grades for punctuation not content, has impossible tests, disgusting coughing fits
He isn't as bad as they say, you must work for your grade. Tests aren't easy, you have to learn the material. Lectures are read from his notes, more ground covered that way. Want an easy A, go elsewhere. Want to learn? Pay attention, and take good not
worst teacher i have had so far.
doc frock is only hard if you aren't a history major. otherwise, your opinion doesn't matter. this is the class i've learned the most in. you get more from reading the material. the essays are HARD, the tests aren't too easy either, but if you actually -try- you'll get an A.
avoid at all costs!(especially if you are not a history major) he is dull and mostly incoherent. he in no way engages his class. there have been no discussions in this class. he comes off as arrogant and promoted inappropriate one-sided political propoganda.
Seriously, Finefrock is horrible. We had history majors in our class that despised him. He is completely unapproachable. He's a very tight grader and doesn't leave anything up to interpretation. Even if u are a book smart kind of person, you'll still have trouble with this dickhead. RUN!!
He is the most boring teacher i've ever had. He lectures about meaningless tangents that never show up on tests. He gives impossible essay tests and expects you to know the who, what,where, when and significance of over 100 terms each test. And he has nasty coughing fits in the middle of class.
I am extremely interested in History, and the professor made it so boring and monotonous. He is always coughing in the middle of the class, talks incoherently so it is impossible to get the correct information. HORRIBLE TEACHER.
lectures are super boring and he goes off on tangents and is very unclear. 3 tests including the final, ridiculous study sheets 150 terms when only 5 are on the test! And his coughing fits are so gross. Do not take unless you have to
he is a horrible teacher that has notes so old that they are yellow. his comb over is more monumental that my eyes could not move from his part and the top of his ear. i should have dropped it and if you dont you are an crazy
3 tests, 3 essays-both are not easy, but you can rewrite your essays. So if you love history and are willing to work for your grade, you will get an A. He is very knowledgeable and you the most from his classes. Only serious history students take his classes.
run and hide
never take this teacher...worst i have ever had...i never studied harder for any class in my life and got a c he is very unfair and boring... STAY AWAY NO MATER WHAT
The worst history professor ever, no discernible order to his notes and lecture and the tests are a bit too hard for a 101 class. However, if the whole class does poorly he will ease up a bit on the grading.
Monotonous, boring, unhelpful. His notes are yellow with antiquity. Don't take this class if you enjoy history because he'll kill your passion. The tests consist of 5 random ID's from a three column list of terms and an essay to which he gives no clues throughout the course.
Worst teacher I have ever had in my entire life. Very strict about attendence and seems to hate girls. Complete waste of my time as I learned nothing and got a terrible grade.
No Comments
If you take this class you will HATE it, i know no one who likes it now or ever!
I can't believe he is still teaching here. He has no enthusiasm, completely unable to understand him b/c he hacks up a lung every 10 seconds or so. DO NOT TAKE HIM! Especially when there are other interesting teachers available who actually care!
Boring to listen to. Hard to follow. Gives easy quizzes and difficult tests.
lectures are very boring and hard to follow, and they don't prepare you at all for tests. He coughs so much I think he's going to keel over and die in the middle of class. Stay away!
HORRIBLE!!! this professor could not give a s**t about his students. tests are impossible, classes are boring as hell, and he is the most unhelpful professor i have ever had. you had better go to class and don't let others sign you in. he is decieving in the way that you think attedance doesn't matter to him. he will screw you over in the end.
Stay away at all costs.He is boring, muffled, sickly and horrible to look at. He has the farthest comb-over ever, long fingernails, and the black plague from his youth. Terminal illness and bad grades are all you will get from this class.
I actually like Finefrock. I guess he can come across as gruff but you have to warm up to him
senile. very senile. notes are yellow with age (I think I saw Vietnam written in the margin as a current event). He helps and you can tell he is trying to make class interesting, but it is just trying. I spent most the semester with a glazed look on the front row trying to figure out what the hell he was babbling about.
He's boring as all get out. If you've read Harry Potter think of Professor Binns (the man that taught history and when he died showed up for class the next morning a ghost and gave the same lecture he had given for 50 years)
Dear President Higdon, why is this professor still teaching here?
TERRIBLE!! Don't take his class. Spends half the class coughing up a lung. Don't sit in the front row unless you want to catch whatever he has.
he told me my paper was the worst he had seen a student write in years...kinda hurts your feelings
Make yourself pay attention and you'll do OK. Thank God for Wikipedia, otherwise I wouldn't know 3/4 of the terms for the tests, even after going back in notes. Not an easy A or B for that matter. Tends to simply read aloud lecture to the class.
Maybe the worst teacher I have ever had! His lectures are completely scatter brained and hard to actually get anything out of
Okay, so hist 101 is supposed to be hard. its a gpa breaker. finefrock made is so straightforward. his tests q's are way obvious and you only have to write one paper. he is straight fact and once you warm up to him hes an awesome guy! i really enjoyed his class and am taking him for 102.
This man is the devil himself. He gives you about 150 terms to learn and 5 of them are on each test. He reads aloud from the book without any coherent thoughts whatsoever. He is refuses to answer questions. He wears the same shirt every day and coughs up a lung each class. Worst prof. ever!! Do not take unless you wanna fail out freshman year!
No Comments
I think Finefrock is an awesome guy. His lectures may be boring, but at least you dont have have homework...at all. His tests are hard, if you dont study. I think he does not get the credit he deserves. I am def taking him next year.
his class is boring, but so is history. but he's really funny. he has a strange sense of humor, but its still funny. his tests are pretty easy, but the review sheet is very intimidating. the test is just 5 identifys and a choice of an essay, which is usually the thing he talked about most. I liked him, i'm even taking him for 102.
ha ha ha ok If you don;t have anything to loose take him, he is funny in his own way but you can either fail the class or make an A. since he doesn't make you do anything his tests seem hard but they shouldn't be. I should have read the book. This class can definately bring down your gpa.
2 weeks before the final he expects his students to study and list 60 places on a map, write a 5+ page essay on something that does not make since, study for new material and remember material from the old test....and I have 4 other finals. HISTORY SUCKS
Worst teacher I have ever had.and I have transfered schools twice. He has his own grading system that is CRAZY.If you do not update your Cougar Trail=F.You dont bring blue books in advance (3 weeks)for the exam=F.Dont sign your name on attendance correctly=F. THe guy is weird as hell and can barely talk he coughs up so much mucus. HE IS THE WORST.
I think he's senile, I know he needs to see a doctor about that cough. If you can make sense of the jibberish he puts out there your the first I've heard of. I think his lecture notes have the Vietnam War written in the margins as a current event.
horrible
Probably one of the worst teachers I've had in my illustrious college career. I've attended over 8 different universities and colleges due to moving around while in the military before leaving the military and settling here. His cough is very distracting, his monotone puts you to sleep, and he's extremely boring. Needs to find other work!
He was the worst teacher I've ever encountered. He has notes that look like they are about to dissolve. he coughs constantly and sounds like he is going to die any moment.
Dr. Finefrock is a great teacher- knows his stuff and appreciates his students. He really does want you to do well
Ok here is the deal. This teacher is so horribly bad I don't know how he is still teaching. His medical conditions alone should make him unable to teach. His class is 50 minutes of him reading his notes which are probably 20 years old. He is NOT a teacher, he reads the info. No way should anyone be put through his class.
Dr. Finefrock is a great teacher who knows his stuff. He is very helpful and a fair grader.
all i got out of this class was an F and a very strong sense of worry that my grandparents might die from whatever causes him those coughing fits
Dr. Finefrock is a great teacher- I REALLY enjoyed his class. Don't believe what other people wrote- he very nice and has a great sense of humor!
Get out now!!!!!!!!!!! He uses 20 year old notes and reads off of them. Then you think he is going to die in class.
Borrrrring... Begins the class with writing 192,837 terms on the board.. then lectures on the terms but it's always out of order, making it hard to take good notes. he is not clear at all and really doesn't pay attention to the class for anyone to even ask a question. he has these ridiculous coughing fits that last like 5 or 6 minutes at a time too
Run away from his class and never look back. You will regret it. Is he speaking english? not really sure, don't stay to find out.
Nice man with good intentions, has a good sense of humor...BUT ...not worth it. his lecture is very scattered and this is probably one of the hardest classes i have ever taken. i would NOT recommend this class at all.
the HARDEST class ive ever taken!!! hes a nice guy but the class is an hour of him reading from his notes that dont even really make sense, his test are insane and his review sheet consist of 200 terms when he'll only use about 6 on the test, DO NOT TAKE HIM!
TERRIBLE! He reads straight from his notes, but they are so scatter brained. He will be talking about one topic, then go to a topic 300 years later and then say you don't need to know any of that. His study guides consist of about 150 words when there are only 8 to choose from on the test. Do not take him!
Everyones comments on this are 100 percent true. For your own good, dont take him!! He should not be a teacher at the college. He coughs and hacks all the time and reads his notes he typed on a typewriter many many years ago. He is smart but pretends he is teaching a masters course, not 101.
Doc Frock has a great, quirky sense of humor and if you are intersted in the subject material, his class is very intersting. I liked it.
Worst professor ever. I withdrew a quarter into the semester because he just does not make any sense. He seems like a nice enough guy just is not built to teach. Stay away. Stay far FAR away. trust me on this one. If you think oh this guy's just bitter I'm not, he's just a bad prof and you won't be able to understand him either so stay AWAY!
Excellent teacher- would take him again in a heartbeat!!!
Cmon guys i like mr. finefrock. if you just take notes you wont even have to read the first page of the textbook.i didnt study at all and made A's on my testss
This class made my college experience.
His class is miserable, his review sheets look endless, but getting an A is oh so easy if you just study. I didn't pay attention, I didn't read the text or the novels - Studied the review sheets and take advantage of extra credit. You must start studying once you get the review sheet. If You do, there is no reason not to get an A on the tests.
Just don't take it. He just lectures all class and doesn't even go in order so its impossible to take notes. He gives random quiz's and gives extra credit for going to study skills seminars but he didn't give me full credit for everything I went too and try to blame on me! Just don't do it.
Prof Finefrock is awesome. He is very helpful and really nice. Great guy!!
He manages to make a very interesting subject extremely boaring. Highly recomend NOT taking his class. Its not hard to make a decent grade but plan on doing it all yourself because he is not an effective teacher.
He's very unhelpfull, everytime I asked him a question I always got an unclear answer. Be prepared to get a study guide with 100 terms only a few days before the test, then spend hours (BETTER YET DAYS) on it only to find things on the test that were not on the study guide. GOOD LUCK if you take this Professor...YOU'LL NEED IT!
He is a nice guy, but... His lectures go very fast and it's hard to know what is important. He gives random quizzes. For the tests he gives a study guide with 100+ terms. If you know the terms you might do well on the test. I ended up getting a D in the class because I gave up studying half way through the semester I was so pissed.
You'll be graded on is tests and random quizzes. Tests are all essay with a review sheet of about 100-200 terms you'll see eight of them on there. All he does is lecture with an occasional song. He gets into these coughing fits every day. He'll finish talking about a subject one class move on then say later on that he forgot some little detail.
Nice guy I guess, but wow what a terrible professor. Impossible to take logical notes (in a history class this is very bad), NEVER encourages questions, just sits and reads from his notes. Both boring and difficult, which is a brutal combination. I wouldn't recommend this class.
dont take him...runnn
awful. awful. awful. You will not understand ANYTHING. And he also is allergic to basically everything that moves so he'll start literally hackling during class. It's disgusting. I strongly advise you DO NOT take him. awful.
Those who rate him poorly probably do not put in the amount of work necessary for the field of study in general. He separates the wheat from the chaff no doubt. Listen closely and take notes - you must synthesize the material yourself. So, if you?re easily frightened by history do not take, but if you like a challenge -he comes highly recommended.
It is easy to become overwhelmed in this class you don't put in much effort and expect any easy grade. I have to admit I was frustrated before I realized this teacher actually expects us to read and understand the material. If you are just looking for an easy A, this is not the class to take but if you actually want to learn, he's pretty cool.
Finefrock is a charming and funny guy but is quite difficult to follow in a lecture. He does not encourage questions. He does not stay in any real order, which is very important in History. Everything you for this class is on you. He is not a lot of help. Read and come to class. Take notes! Take him if you are up for the challenge. I learned tons
Run, run fast.
this man is a great person, but his teaching structure is out of tune. . . he stays in no order and often coughs extremely hard, interrupting lectures. . . One time he coughed so hard he farted
In my opinion this professor is the human equivalent of ambien. Whereas a black hole sucks light from the Universe, Dr. Finefrock sucks interest and aspiration. He is a detriment to the College of Charleston. If you are thinking of taking a course from him... DON"T.
Do NOT TAKE FINEFROCK. impossible to follow, impossible to get a good grade unless you teach yourself. Spending this much money to go here and having to teach yoursef is pointless. AVOID AVOID
A pretty nice guy, likes to joke around with the class, but his lectures are all over the place and he's extremely hard to follow. His tests are identification/essay and only cover a fraction of the material. It's impossible to know what to study. Don't take this class.
Dr. Finefrock has many serious health issues which prevent him from being an effective teacher. He loves the subject, but his lectures are from notes written in 1965, and you basically have to teach the material to yourself. Tests are impossible.
Dr. Finefrock Passed away this weekend. We will all miss him and we are glad that he is resting peacefully. The only reason why we believe he still taught is to keep himself alive. he would crack corny jokes before class..made us all giggle..We will miss him so dearly and we will never forget him. R.I.P... we love u
Health doesn't seem to be the best-put the time in and you will succeed. Not an easy A-very bright, knowledgeable. I enjoyed the lectures. Seems tobe preparing us for hard work and the rewards will come. Cool guy!
Michael M. Finefrock (12-31-39 to 12-6-09) born in Arkansas City, KS, son of Meryl K. Finefrock and Thelma V. Jacobson. Served as a Navy Lt. in the Middle East 1961-1965 as a translator of Turkish. Earned his A.B. from Brown University & in 1976 his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Was a specialist in Russian & Middle & Near Eastern History. RIP
He passed away now, but he was a good professor.
Once read us an obit when his cat passed away. Sweet sensitive man, unforgettable lectures
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.57 avg changeRatings by Course
101
5.0
(1)ISLAM
5.0
(1)HST2300S
5.0
(1)RUSSIA
5.0
(2)HIST227
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
HST103
5.0
HIST202
5.0
HIS340
5.0
HIS102
5.0
ENGL101
5.0