Shuhai Xiao

School: Virginia Tech
Department: Biological Sciences
Location:Blacksburg, VA
Overall Rating
rated by 20 students
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
Rating Comment
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 Pros: class is boring
Cons: all his tests never change and all but the final are on koofers so just study those and you'll do great on the tests
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 Pros: Generous curve, and lots of extra credit questions on the final exam. There are pop quizzes but they're pretty easy and he drops one. The accent is really not as bad as other people are saying. Overall I really enjoyed the class.
Cons: The lab is tedious.
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 Pros: Very understanding
extremely smart professor
Cons: difficult to follow and can become boring because he can become monotone
study! look over koofers notes and their test and i got a B in the class
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 Pros: No homework. But, there are pop quizzes. He drops the lowest one. If you go to his office hours he can sometimes be lenient on giving you some extra credit on a test. If you do well on the lab (which is pretty easy anyways) it can boost your grade up a whole letter grade. Xiao's grading scale allows you to have an A if you have above a 90.
Cons: His accent can sometimes be difficult to understand, and because of that, people find the class boring. The tests are kind of hard and require you to memorize every slide on the powerpoint.
Some test questions come straight off of old tests on Koofers, and you don't really have to go to class to get a B. But, he elaborates on some important points in class (like diagrams and such) that are important for the test if you want an A.
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 Good professor but you need to come to class ready to learn or you can fall behind quickly.
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 hard to understand..tests are easy
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 other than the language barrier you will get from his lectures the class is a cake walk. you dont even need to go to his lectures except for the 3 pop quizs he will give throughout the semester, which is a big deal because its 15% of your grade. the lab is the easiest i have done, really no outside studying needed. the first exam is on koofers and its pretty much exactly the same. the 2nd exam is also on koofers but there are only like 32 questions out of 50, so u may need to study a little more for it. final was actually hard, but he curved final grades so much that i only needed a 14 on the final to get a C. Take this class if you want an easy A. oh yeah, and dont buy the book, its expensive and you do not even need it because he tests from his powerpoints, and for the first two exams, just use koofers
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 He was easy and his powerpoints are very useful...reading the book helps but most the questions on the test come from his powerpoints and lectures.
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 Easy exams.
He did not curve in the fall of '07, so be wary about these comments saying he did before.
You don't need to buy the book, he doesn't test on anything outside of the lecture, and he puts all of his slide shows online, and they're pretty thorough.
He's a cool guy, but the language barrier is obvious.
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 Easy exams.
He did not curve in the fall of '07, so be wary about these comments saying he did before.
You don't need to buy the book, he doesn't test on anything outside of the lecture, and he puts all of his slide shows online, and they're pretty thorough.
He's a cool guy, but the language barrier is obvious.
Overall
Helpfulness
Clarity
Easiness
 This class is science, so it boring. But I just gave up notes and actually listened to the lectures. He repeats over and over the little things that are important so you know what's is on the test. Koofers helped a lot with the first two tests but the final you are on your on. It took a while to figure out the "Weber" is actually a "river," but you get used to his accent. Great class, great teacher, and easy lab.
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 Dr. Xiao has made great contributions to the geology community and is incredibly knowledgable about the subject. However, he speaks in a very bad broken English accent and although he is enthusiastic about the subject, it does not transcend out to the students. The class is incredibly boring and your better off not going and just taking the notes yourself from the power points on blackboard.
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 the course overall is as boring as watching a canadian film. He no speaka english very well, His voice makes me want to take a nap like i was really high. I would not reccomend taking this course go with biology or chem.
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 Not really my thing, but not a bad class.
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 he is a cool knowledgeable professor who isn't boring
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 Good instructor who applied a good curve at the end of the semester.
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 You don't need to show up for class except for three pop quizes throughout the semester. His powerpoints which he posts online are all that needs to be studied to make a B/A. He curves every test between 6-15 points.
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 This class seemed like a joke, but really was one of my harder classes. The lab was almost impossible because I had never had physical or resource geology. The lecture was pretty easy and Xiao was actually really funny if you listened to him. Be there for the quizzes, but after your quizzes are over, you really don't have to worry about going. All the slides are on blackboard and that's all you really need to know.
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 I think the hardest thing about the class was listening to him talk. He has one of the worst accents ever which means you have to focus on what he says just to understand him, instead of paying attention to the slides.
He has a really low grading scale (like an 87 or something is an A). Which is the only reason you have a chance of doing well in the class.
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 Xiao is incredibly smart, but its really hard to understand him. His tests are very tedious, so study and memorize everything (seriously). I remember the first test being easy, but all that followed were hard

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