2.7
Quality3.6
Difficulty38%
Would Retake119
Reviews38%
Would Retake
119
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
21
4
21
3
22
2
27
1
28
What Students Say
“You probably shouldn't take 210 with Hallett unless you already have some experience with proofs, since he tends to read off of his powerpoints and not make eye-contact with the class”
P210P310P415 - 5.0 rating“Reading off slides is one thing, reading off them without stopping to explain what you wrote, and droning on for pages and pages without any real amount of organization or explanation of thought process is another”
PHIL210PHIL310 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
9%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.37 avg changeRatings by Course
PHILLANGU
5.0
(1)INTLOGIC
5.0
(1)PHIL510
5.0
(1)PHIL310415
5.0
(1)PHIL 210
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CS251
5.0
COMP251
4.6
PHIL416
4.0
LANGLOGIC
4.0
CS251CS56
4.0
Reviews (119)
very bright man, incredibly clear lectures, one of best phil profs
extremely tough and ungenerous grader;sarcastic and impatient
clear, altough boring, lectures. hard grader
this man has no interpersonal communication skills. students' questions would not get answered because he never looked at the class while lecturing
This is a good man. Weird sense of humour, but a good man.
Hallett is hilarious! I went to see him about a logic problem and he just showed me how to do the proof...
worst teacher ever ,don't know how to teach ,examine can be a nightmare/daydream
I agree - totally disorganized, unprepared and disinterested. He seems to hate his students and the fact that he is teaching. He is also demeaning in class to people who ask questions and doesn't explain things in depth - instead says 'It is trivial'.
hallett is the most deathly BORING man on the planet. he constantly breaks pieces of chalk, loses his train of thought, or has difficulty completing sentences. his lectures are basically a paraphrase of the contents of the textbook.
Unintentionally hilarious! Lectures are very straightforward and easy to follow. Gets flustered easily...has problems with chalk and microphones.
Worst prof I know, superficially covers topics you were supposed to read 3 weeks before; often inable to finish sentences - only good thing: if you have sleeping disorders they will be instantaneously resolved
He's awful. Like someone said before, he's constantly 3 weeks behind in lectures, you're not allowed to ask questions in class, he can't carry on an entire without looking at his notes to solve simple problems....the tests are hard.
i am unsure as to whether or not this man is actually a living person
Awful... hates teaching, is a condesending jerk... Take Devroye if you can, dont make my mistake.
He has the dryest humour ever!! He's hillarious!!
Takes his material straight from the textbook so buy it, use it and you can get 100% on the midterm. Totally straight forward and his awkwardness makes him unintentionally hilarious at times. Just don't take anything too seriously.
Wow. Just wow. He's so bad, that explaining why he's such a terrible teacher would just be trivial.
Let's see why hallett is so bad. He's condescending, won't respond to questions, ended up skipping about half our classes, and seemed like he really wanted to be somewhere (anywhere) else. Avoid at all costs.
Run. Run far far way.
The following sentence is true. The preceeding sentence is false. He will teach you how to think.
Worst professor ever. Okay for logic 210, cuz it's an easy class. But he can't seem to make any sense in 310. You need to follow his notes, if you can't. He doesn't care much for explaining things. Boring as hell. Hallet the mallet.
I learnt more from the TA and the book than I would have learnt from him in 5 semesters. Don't ask him a question during class, cause he'll make you feel like a total idiot. Just my opinion
avoid at all costs
Prof was so boring, was not a fun class. Expect to rely on your TA.
Hallett's a good man. Introductory logic is always a bummer, regardless of who teaches it, but he taught it fine and he's a good man.
nice topics. tough class. bad handouts and difficult assignments. could be more organized, but believes in open source.
Belive it or not, as an exchange student, he was my first prof to ever see at mcgill. he makes classes very hard given hes very weak teaching skills. doesn`t have a grasp of what he is trying to teach. And he enjoys seeing students suffer at his impossible exams, which for me is an indication of his failure. Drop His class before u drop your tears
Sort of absent-minded professor-ish. Really tough material, can be rude if you ask a stupid question in class, but very interesting and tends to be somewhat easy on the grading.
Not only extremely competent, but actually very approachable. But, if his logic puts you to sleep, don't blame Hallett, blame yo'self! If you're into logic/phil of math, you'll like his classes! Seems to be of a delicate constitution--sick for a month of classes.
Hallett is an excellent teacher, and his exams are easy! Don't believe what the other reviewers say. In all logic classes, no matter who's teaching, the grade distribution will be half As/half very low grades. Clearly the people posting here are in the low-grades group. If you suck at logic, you won't do well, and it's not the prof's fault.
This guy seems very nice, maybe the class is not elective material, but it SCREWED me and it will screw you if you're not interested in it! I guess philosophy isnt as jokes as I thought.
Flee this guy like the plague.
He was always behind the schedules , but he wasn't that bad. If you read the book, you'll find what he talked was exactly the essence of it and what you need to know for his exams. Practice more and you should be fine.
Im taking this course for the second time; I failed because of me, NOT because of him. I fell behind in the last couple weeks, which is what the exam was on. If you dont do well, its because you fell behind. This stuff is cumulative. Really stay on top of it and you'll ace the course; wish I had done so until the end, but its definitely doable.
Some people say this is the worst class ever, others (like me) didn't mind it so much. I think it just depends on whether you have the brain for it and if you're willing to read and practice a lot. The prof himself isn't fabulous but it's not too hard to succeed and it's very satisfying once you actually get that truth-tree to come out right.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
AVOID AVOID AVOID...... unless you absolutely need this class for your major don't cause yourself the grief.........
His lectures may confuse some people, so DO READ THE TEXTBOOK and DO THE EXERCISES if you want to do well. You will not get away with not practicing. He's not strikingly interesting, but if you pay attention to his lectures, you will catch his subtle humor and you'll get to like him.
I actually really enjoyed listening to him speak. The lectures can be pretty dry, but I think its more so the nature of the material. I liked logic and plan to continue with it, but its definitely not for everyone.
DO. NOT. TAKE. THIS. COURSE. We only had 50 minutes to write the midterm which counted for 30% so no one finished. On top of that, this course was dry and was excessively/pointlessly difficult. Do not take this unless you absolutely need it for a major. The TA was awesome though. Really difficult course.
He tends to talk in circles all class. Material is difficult and dry at times. You need to keep up with all of the exercises or you can really easily fall behind. The TA's are all really amazing and helpful, so GO TO CONFERENCES! Also, be sure to buy the textbook new because the software is used for the majority of the exercises
Often confusing; the textbook is much clearer and more straightforward. The burden to learn is on the student, but once you figure it out, you're set. I got by reading the textbook and doing practice exercises with the included software instead of going to class. Only take this course if you need it for your program or find it easy.
You will find paying attention in lectures nearly impossible. I still liked the class though, my TA was amazing and the course material, once everything clicked and I understood it, is very interesting. It ended up being one of my favorite classes. (based on course material, not the lectures themselves). Fair exams. Just study.
Dull lecturer, reads off the slides. I went to lectures most of the time but always felt like I shouldn't bother. He's got an interesting bone-dry sense of humor though. Not a terribly hard class--if you cram for all the assignments, you'll at least pass. I liked my TA; conferences definitely helped.
I don't understand why the ratings are so bad for this professor. Granted this course is not easy, but if you just keep up with the course material by doing the exercises in the book you'll be fine. The midterm and two assignments are both very easy to score over 90% in, and then it's a matter of studying well for the final to get an A. Great cours
First-years are gonna hate Deduc Logic, irrespective of who teaches it. Hallet is a calm and clear, but also slow and pedantic lecturer; as with many older profs, you have to focus for some time before grasping his line of thought with enough clarity to write it down. Phil of Lang has few but difficult readings, and Hallet grades ungenerously.
Best class ever! Prof Hallett is hawt!
He is a good professor although he sometimes seems to get lost in his thoughts and ramble on a bit. It is hard to teach such a big class (210) but he teaches really well in smaller groups (415). They are both interesting courses, that I would recommend.
Hallett is infuriating, dry subject matter taught by a dry man result in an unbearable class. Prof Hallett is obviously very intelligent, but is pretty much teaching THE ALPHABET to uninterested kids. HIs level of indifference is astounding. Avoid this course unless absolutely necessary.
Absolutely a hard course, requires a lot of work after class. This prof paid no attention to the crowd. He just went through the slides during lectures, and a lot of the lines are from the textbook. The final exam is from hell. Don't take it if you can. It will leave an ugly letter on your transcript.
Prof Hallett seems dull at first, but he actually makes hilarious subtle jokes. He is very entertaining to listen to if you pay close attention. The subject matter is also interesting if you actually think about it. Very difficult assignments/exam.
He is a nice guy who means well, however, he is an extremely monotonous lecturer. The course material for PHIL 210 is awful... if you have any intuitions at the beginning of the semester that you will not succeed, drop this class!!!
Clear and focuses on interesting material. Great courses. Also he tends to cancel and shorten classes which is nice. Fair grading.
Dr. Hallett is one of these profs that are secretly brilliant and hilarious, secretly being the keyword here as you need to get used to his extremely subtle sense of humor. As for the class, keep up with the material. REALLY keep up, do exercises weekly and make sure you understand everything. If you get lazy you WILL fail. Loved the course though.
Prof. Hallett seems nice but reads his powerpoints... a lot... Very hard in the morning... The assignments were not quite relevent since it relied too much on the computer programs from the book. I barely ever showed up to class the whole semester, barely read the chapters, never installed the programs from the book and passed anyway, so...
This prof definitely seemed to be bored by what he was teaching. His lectures were rambly and circuitous, which made the course material even harder. To be fair, if you do the book work, then the lectures aren't even necessary to do well. I didn't do as well as I could have because I didn't do the book work. Don't take the class unless you have to
I don't care what other ppl say; Hallett is the best. He's actually really helpful and nice. He wants students to be interested and learn. 210 is a sucky class. But a seminar with him is great (in the sense that he's nice). He has great notes, so attendance not necessary. Not big on participation; just show slight interest. Easy grader.
You probably shouldn't take 210 with Hallett unless you already have some experience with proofs, since he tends to read off of his powerpoints and not make eye-contact with the class. He's a much better prof in classes with less students, extremely helpful and with a subtle yet incisive sense of humour.
Interesting material. He is very precise in his lectures, with detailed slides. Not a great orator, but clarity makes up for that.
He reads directly off his slides and doesn't show any interest in the material he is teaching. It was not motivating to come to class at all. Everyone I know who took his class barely passed it, and everyone I know who took the same class with another teacher loved it and had no trouble at all. If you need to take this class, wait for another prof.
lectures were very boring and difficult to follow. They consisted of the prof reading form a document that was just ask confusing in written form as it was in spoken form
Reads off slides, has no interest in the course material. You really are better off not going to his classes at all and teaching yourself from the textbook.
Would not recommend taking phil 210 with hallett unless you need it for your program. He's hilarious with an incredibly dry sense of humor, but so uninspiring. He pretty much just reads off the slides, which are way more confusing than the textbook. Do practice exercises, and a decent grade is manageable.
He reads the slides but he can be fun. You don't have to attend if you read your textbook. It's a pretty easy class if you do some exercises every week (1-2hrs/week).
The most endearing professor which I have at McGill. Professor Hallett is so egalitarian, non-pretentious, humble, and very very funny...... He knows a lot of stuff but doesn't care about formality, he wants his students to learn.
Great professor teaching really interesting classes. Funny, down-to-earth, super approachable. 310 can seem like a really hard class, but the assignments and final are marked higher than you would expect to make up for that.
Nice prof; sets you up to succeed and is good at explaining things, but the slides often have mistakes on them. Challenging course but fun if you put in the work. The textbook is a necessity and doing practice practice problems is a must. Try to read ahead and stay ahead of the schedule. It helps a lot. The exams are marked higher than expected.
Nice guy with a decent sense of humor, but he reads off of very text-heavy slides that often contain several errors. Your best bet at success in the class is to just do practice problems from the book on your own.
Hallett seems like a very nice, easy-going guy. Class attendance is not mandatory as long as you have the textbook- which is a MUST, as they make very clear at the beginning of the course. The grading criteria is very fair. Two take-home assignments and a take-home midterm. The final exam was much easier than expected. Great course!
Prof. Hallett definitely reads off the slides word for word but whenever asked a question he always explains with a great amount of clarity. He's really easy-going, he catches and fixes his own mistakes in his slides during class. Overall great prof, a little unorganized but makes everything clear. Final exam had proofs from handouts. PRACTICE!
Logic isn't my thing, so I got more or less what I was expecting. Hallett is a nice guy and was really helpful when I met with him out of class. The only annoyance was that the final was mostly simplifying logic 'sentences', even though the practice assignments had lots of other stuff. Had A- on the assignments, got C in class because of the final.
Ok most people commenting here are from the viewpoint of those who don't like logic or have problems with Prof Hallett reading off slides (I don't know what else people expect him to do). But us interested in logic like Prof Hallett, he's really good in explaining you'll know this if you get to phil 310 where things are way abstract!
absolutely not. Reading off slides is one thing, reading off them without stopping to explain what you wrote, and droning on for pages and pages without any real amount of organization or explanation of thought process is another. Found sitting through this so really frustrating, and ended up teaching myself with a book that is equally disorganized
Honestly he was pretty funny (albeit quite boring). I stopped going to class after the third week (except for the Halloween class; highly recommend). His slides are good to know what chapters of the textbook to study, but besides that, they are long and wordy and confusing. Study the textbook, practice a bit, and you can get an A.
The class itself was incredibly boring, even for somebody who enjoys math/logic. If you don't read the textbook before class, you'll be totally lost during lecture. If you do, you'll be bored out of your mind. There is extra credit on all the assignments and exams, and the conferences are really helpful. Read the book and go to conferences.
final is hard, but very generously marked.
did not attend a single class, got an A by just reading textbook. final makes you to doubt life but generously marked.
PHIL 210 with Hallett is solid. It's hard for most people because it's unusual territory for most social sciences/humanities folks. The class material builds on itself and it's super important to keep up. The assignments + take-home midterm are stressful but graded very nicely, and the final is quite hard but curved. Class avg B+ Good lectures
Lectures were extremely dull and unhelpful, the only grading criteria were the two assignments, midterm (done outside of class), and final. The final was ridiculously hard compared to the difficulty of the assignments, but they're generous in grading it and will give lots of partial credit. Don't take it unless you have to / are really interested
hes very nice, just not in phil 210,
I took 210 last semester and im taking 310 in winter. They are both easy A- courses although 310 requires much more understanding and time. For 210, I suggest go to the conferences instead of lectures (just read through the slides). Approx 2h/week is enough. It is quite hard to focus on lectures... But professor is passionate about teaching.
Prof. Hallett's lectures are dry, but his grading scheme was very fair. I found that attending the TA sessions and doing the practice problems covered in the slides and review booklets were really helpful in preparing for the assignments and exams.
Hallett is a nice guy though his lectures are dry. The course slides are really useful. Logic is interesting. I never go to the lecture and conference, and not even read the textbook and do the exercises on it. But got A by taking the slides, assignments and handouts seriously.
I was skeptical to take another course with this prof as I did not enjoy PHIL 210. However, I was pleasantly surprised with 415, and found Hallett to be quite funny and kind, and very well versed in the content. Highly highly recommend attending office hours to talk over essays/class content, as this largely changed by perception of him.
I thought Dr. Hallett was a very clear, articulate prof, despite what others here say. Also, he's very transparent about the fact that you have to put in a lot of effort to understand the course material after about 6 weeks of class - I suspect that anyone who fails this course just didn't do the suggested assignments or attend lectures.
He's a sweet man, not the greatest lecturer. No recordings. There were times when he would just stop for a good 5 minutes, then start over. Whenever I emailed him, his responses weren't the nicest nor did they give me the information I needed. I love logic and was really looking forward to this class but he turned me off from logic forever.
A lot of people don't like him but I think that's because they just didn't find the course that interesting. Personally, I loved PHIl 210 as an intro to formal logic. Sometimes the lectures could get a bit slow but overall I greatly enjoyed the class and what I learned. It's obvious that Hallett knows what he's talking about.
This was by far the hardest class I've taken this year, he looks like a sweet guy but he's not great at explaining what he's trying to teach us. You just have to get ready to do a lot of practice because it's the only way to learn.
Prof Hallett is super accommodating (he gives part marks & takes student's suggestions into consideration when structuring assignments). He is also really passionate about logic and tries his best to explain things slowly and clearly. He genuinely cares about the course and his students. Just because the class is hard doesn't mean he's a bad prof!
He's clearly extremely knowledgeable about the material, which makes his classes quite interesting. Because there is no textbook, and the class sizes are so tiny, be prepared to attend all his lectures. Theres also quite a bit of reading in the course, but nothing too insane. One of my favorite courses at McGill.
I had the best online class experience with Professor Hallett of all my courses this semester; his course adjustments as a response to the pandemic were well thought-out and fair. The content is tricky, but if you give it some practice you'll do just fine.
He's a really nice and funny prof but a terrible and vague lecturer. Only take this class if you are invested in philosophy or deductive logic. The class changed my argumentative skills and was great in that regards but not because of his teaching.
I barely watched any of his lectures and I didn't read the McGill textbook. The Calgary textbook carried me through this course, I highly recommend. It is a bird course if you're into maths, most of the people commenting are philosophy majors with no aptitude for this kind of thing. The prof is super caring and will go out of his way to help.
professor hallett is very kind and accommodating if you need help/an extension. his lectures are alright, but the textbook that was used was being written by the TA throughout the semester and its best to just use the actual calgary one. assignments were demanding and were basically 4 hour exams every other week online.
Prof. Hallett was helpful and sweet. However, the course had some problems. The textbook was being written as we went. Incomplete chapters would be uploaded, then updated after we had already read them. Conferences were optional and not productive. Like others said, you teach yourself the material. Very high class average: you can easily do well!
snooze fest of a class despite the pontetial of it being interesting. Your going to be completely on your own to learn everything as lectures are impossible to follow. Little to no practice
Don't take his class. Prof has undiagnosed Alzheimer: he literally just reads off ppts, that are just filled with his gibberish, while adding more gibberish to it, and loosing his train of thought 20 times mid sentence every lecture. You are in for teaching yourself
one of the worst professors i've had at mcgill. it's so hard to follow him during lectures because he talks so slow and always loses his train of thought. he seems annoyed to answer questions, so it doesn't make you want to learn. you basically have to teach yourself the class content from the textbook. absolutely terrible.
Lectures were not engaging at all - the kind of course you teach yourself from the textbook. If taking it as a requirement for Philosophy, it's manageable, but I wouldn't recommend if it's just an elective. The logic gets complicated and understanding / practicing the concepts is time-consuming.
A boring prof teaching a difficult, required course.
Hallett gets a lot of sh*t just because the class he teaches is really hard for most to grasp, which isn't rlly his fault. Regardless, the lectures consist of him just reading off slides, and the final is unnecessarily strict (no curve, on paper when all the assignments were online, you need to pass it in order to pass the class, worth 40%, etc.)
If you care about philosophy, specifically the philosophy of mathematics, you will love PHIL411. Hallett is such a knowledgable professor, his paper on Cantor is revolutionary in the field. This class was one of the most intellectually stimulating classes I've taken. Added bonus that the grades are more than fair!
Prof Hallett tries his best to teach a very hard-to-explain course. A lot of this course is just whether or not you understand the concepts, but the lectures & provided textbook are useful tools in doing so. With no former experience in logic, I found the similarities to math to be fun. 3 "tests", a midterm (both online) and a in-person final exam.
michael hallet is probably a very good professor when he actually cares about the course he is teaching, but PHIL 210 is an introductory course so a subject he knows a lot about, meaning he is a boring and tough lecturer. conferences are ESSENTIAL and TA's will give you absurd amounts of partial marks, especially on the final.
prof hallet is genuinely nice, however phil210 is not so nice. courage to anyone who HAS to take it (for degree purposes), and god bless anyone who CHOOSES to take this (for masochist purposes).
He explains in great details the theoretical concepts while never clearly explaining how to solve practical problems, which is what we are actually graded on.
The professor doesnt explain lecture material in a clear manner, and there is lots of unecessary info that makes the class hard to follow
This professor has extinguished any interest I could've had in the field of logic, and possibly academia in general. Please do not take this class unless you absolutely have to. Assignments probably wouldn't be very difficult if I paid attention, but I still rated it 5/5 because focusing on his long, droning lectures is a genuine personal struggle.
While his lectures are interesting from a curiosity standpoint, they do not help with solving the actual problems on the tests and assignments. TA's were also useless when it came down to the actual methods and understanding needed. Don't take as an elective and if you must take it for your major, be ready to hire a tutor and an A is possible.
Awful. Reads off slides as if he is slowed down to 0.1x. Lectures completely unclear and rarely show what you are actually tested on. Doesn't respond to emails. Don't take this.
This class is awful. Please run away from this class and literally take ANY OTHER CLASS for your degree. This class destroyed me and my will to live. I switched majors after finishing this class, so at least I won't have to retake it if I fail it.
Believe him/TAs when they say you have to practice. The textbook, slides, conferences, and online practice are enough to earn you an A in the class. Don't check out after the first assignment (it gets much harder). Lectures are boring but he clearly cares about the topic. Seems annoyed with questions though lol. Studied a lot and got an A!
the thing is that micheal hallet is a cute old man and has sometimes funny things to say. however, this man cannot teach any deductive logic for the life of him. im sure he's better in smaller setings, but have a class of over 300 people is clearly not for him, and most of the people i know barely passed or failed the final. watch out for this one
Review is more about PHIL 210 than it is Hallett - avoid the class if you can because the content is so difficult. He definitely doesn't make the course any easier and lectures are kinda useless, just read the textbook and practice. Despite this, he's nice if you talk to him and accommodating
Prof Hallett seems nice enough, but his lectures for PHIL 210 are torturous. He says about 1 useful word per minute and goes into way too much detail about irrelevant topics. If you have to take this course, though, do not give up hope. I failed the MT like crazy but finished the class with an A because I'm pretty sure he curves the final hard.
Genius. I love Hallett and his british accent.
Hallett tries his best to explain the course material, but loses his train of thought at least 25 times per lecture. Lectures cure insomnia. Watch his tutorials on 2.5x speed, read the textbook, go to conferences. Expect to teach yourself. Lectures are confusing. The final is reasonable, and extra credit is available for a number of assignments.
The most difficult class I've taken and I took it first year. Please please if you don't have to don't take this class. The content was so difficult and he is probably the most boring person ever in the whole world. He always started halfway through a slide set and never finished it any class, even the last day. Everyone had NYTimes games up.
PHIL201 was challenging but super interesting - recommend for mathematically-inclined students looking for an intellectually stimulating introduction to logic. Definitely possible to do really well in this course if you apply yourself!
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
9%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.37 avg changeRatings by Course
PHILLANGU
5.0
(1)INTLOGIC
5.0
(1)PHIL510
5.0
(1)PHIL310415
5.0
(1)PHIL 210
5.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
CS251
5.0
COMP251
4.6
PHIL416
4.0
LANGLOGIC
4.0
CS251CS56
4.0