Laurel Schirr

School: Radford University
Department: Marketing
Location: Radford, VA
Overall Rating
rated by 13 students
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Rating Comment
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Pros: If you are a kiss ass you'll do better than most. . . if you go to every class you get extra credit . . .
Cons: She is very flighty. . . most of the stuff she teaches is simply common sense or super easy to comprehend. I only reviewed some of the irregular vocabulary for exams and got A's. Her syllabus is tricky to follow because of the way she grades class attendance so pay attention. I missed a few (2) classes and got a 60% for attendance. . . crazy
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Pros: none
Cons: worst teacher ever
DONT TAKE HER!!!!! my whole class left in tears. first exam avg. was a 40%. she said the whole class clearly didnt study. what an asshole. the school got on her tail to make her classes harder b/c she was too easy in the past. WORST TEACHER AT VT THUS FAR!!!!
hope she is fired. evil spirited, bad person. doesnt care about students
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Pros: generally friendly overall
Cons: everything else about this woman.
I'll start by saying I got a B+ in this class (painfully close to an A-), so do not let me review scare you away from Schirr.
However, she is a TERRIBLE professor and I have no idea how she has a job (and I would not be surprised if she isn't kept long).
First- she RARELY taught the class. She did the first few lectures (which included her using the powerpoint presentation FROM THE BOOK and just walking through all the slides) beyond those first few lectures though she just assigned the rest of the chapters as group projects. Her syllabus seemed to imply that these would be supplementary to her teaching (it said they should be roughly 20 minutes long) but after the first presentation she informed the class that they should be at least 40 minutes. So for the majority of these classes you are being taught by your peers (who have to drag out their presentation to be almost the full length of class). For the classes in which groups present the only thing she will do is take attendance (which is part of your grade) for the chapters that are assigned for group presentations she will not teach at all. On top of that she expected groups to make their own powerpoints, which irked me because she is getting paid to do this job and she didn't even put the effort into making custom powerpoints the few times she tried to teach.
Second- she tried to get us to buy a book that was $150 from bookholders. RIDICULOUS for so many reasons. Believe me when I say you can easily get by without the book in this class (she posts all the books chapter powerpoints online). I used the book extremely sparingly (just to study for the last test), I bought a very old and used version of the book she wanted us to get and probably spent less than 20 on it, I still felt as if I didn't get my moneys worth. I'm quite sure she didn't consider her students at all when picking a book, she just picked the one that was the least work for her (full powerpoints and a detailed group project)
Third- she found real world clients for our group projects (probably the most work she did all semester) I was excited to work with real clients at first but it was overall just embarrassing to work with them because the project she assigned was straight out of the book and was not meant to be used with real clients so it was awkward arranging it within the parameters. The assignment basically ended with groups coming up with dozens of unresearched, undetailed ideas and throwing them at a company, rather than something more helpful like using all the time to develop one quality, realistic suggestion.
A few final points- she was an absolute frustrating mess. She frequently would be confronted with inconsistencies between her class and the syllabus and wouldn't be able to answer for them, it was clear she hadn't planned it out and was just winging it. I still to this day am appalled at the lack of teaching she did. If you take her be prepared to listen to boring group presentations every day and LEARN NOTHING. Literally none of the information was new (and thank god for that because if it was her students would be in trouble).
Not a hard class, but don't expect to learn anything because she doesn't teach.
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Pros: Easy class and an easy A!
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Pros: She is a really laid-back professor and tries to start fun conversations with the class that also are educational. Her tests are somewhat easy as long as you put in the study time
Cons: You have to give a lot of presentations
Overall I good class. She doesn't take the class seriously so neither do any of the students, but she tries to make it fun. She takes attendance every night and she never cancels class, but she never holds class the full hour and fifteen minutes. I would recommend her.
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Pros: Available online in the summer, which is when I took it.
Cons: Fast-paced.
Lots of work!
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Pros: Fairly easy class
Cons: Boring
lots of detail that you have to remember
Shirr is really nice but she's a little weird. She definitely knows the material though and she's willing to help you if you're struggling
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Pros: She is very nice and very helpful. Her class can be interesting at some points, and you get attendance points for showing up. Also, the tests were extremely easy, basically the terms from the chapters that it covers. Without much work i got an A. If you're going to take this class, definately take Schirr
Cons: Class can be boring at some points, she takes attendance.
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Pros: She's very enthusiastic even at 8 in the morning. She really wants to see everyone do well and actually learn the material. She gives the opportunity for extra credit. She's very easy to talk to and really knows her material.
Cons: Not an easy A, but is very possible if you make an effort to study and do extra credit.
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Pros: Extra Credit opportunities
Cons: Group Project and the tests can be a little difficult
The lectures are pretty interesting and normally not too boring. There is also a group project that requires a lot of out of class work time. She is also pretty fair with grading.
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Pros: shes very nice, a little spacey, attendance policy is not too strict.
Cons: Tests are application so they are kinda tricky
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Pros: Information is not that difficult.
Cons: This was the worst class ever to go to at 8am. She is a very nice lady, but takes attendance and then lectures straight from the powerpoint which is straight from the book, that she posts online. Very annoying.
There are 3 tests, a project, and homework assignments on Connect (although I think she is not doing that next semester). The project isn't difficult, andthe tests aren't either. You have to read the book for tests, it is all straight from it. I never took notes in class, and class was a complete waste of time if it wasn't for the attendance grade.
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The class itself is not that bad, however if you need anything from her she will become a horrible person. My father passed away towards the end of the semester and mourning his death apparently is not a good reason to miss this professors class. My A went down to a B-. She is an uncaring b****.

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