David Yamanishi

School: Cornell College
Department: Political Science
Location: Mount Vernon, IA
Overall Rating
rated by 12 students
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He was very funny and made the best of the worst material ever. He is a hard grader, but he makes lectures not so boring.
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Very smart and very funny. Class was enjoyable but his grading is extremely difficult. The class average on assignments were usually pretty low. I probably would not take another class with him simply because of the harsh grading even though I got a 3.0.
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I will agree with all of the other posts that this man is very nice and very insightful. But don't look for him to lead discussions. He is a hard grader, but at the same time if you ask very specific questions you will find him to be very knowledgeable.
The reason I gave him a 2.0 and not a 3.0 is he was looking for jobs outside of MSU, which is fine, but he let it come at the expense of his performance.
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Hard grader. He's a good guy though and makes some pretty helarious comments during discussions. In the beginning of the semester, the discussions weren't really focused and I didn't get much out of them. Later on, the material became more interesting and Yamanishi actually started to give us his input.
Oh, and he has horrible handwriting, so don't expect to find out what you did wrong on any the essays or exams. I also went into his office hours a handful of times and he was playing World of Warcraft. Kinda weird.
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He is a great professor who definitely made this class wonderful. I highly recommend him.
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Funny. I like the small jokes he says. Also funny is that he has a Japanese surname but is Scottish. It was so weird to walk into class and there's Yaminishi. Guess that shows you can't judge someone by their name. He cares about you improving your learning. He was the hardest grader in 202 though. So take what you want from this class. He'll give a lot of comments on your essays/exams but he'll give you a harsher grade than the other profs.
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First of all don't be deceived, he doesn't look Japanese--he's actually a short balding scottish man. Professor Yaminishi is really intelligent, and knows a lot of miscellaneous stuff. He is great to talk to, down to earth, and doesn't treat you like you're stupid. He is a sci-fi and Warcraft fanatic, and loves to talk at office hours about his children. Professor Yaminishi is however kind of a tough grader compared to other sections of MC 202. Instead of reading summaries, which other sections do for each reading, we have quizzes--which I though sucked at first---but he gives you guideline questions to look at while reading, and most of the questions have come from that--however there were some crazy question thrown in there, but he agreed to curve the quiz grades overall. If you attentively read you'll be fine--but if you're like me you might have to learn to read more attentively. I have learned a lot from his lectures--he also breaks down concepts into real-life situations so you can understand them. He also cares about his students, he actually took the time to read every essay and grade them, and he's always at office hours--if you call him you're sure to get a hold of him. If you want to learn something take Yamanishi, you won't be sorry.
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Yamanishi is a great teacher. However, the material sucks. It's a hard class if you aren't good at analyzing data and graphs and interpretting what they might mean in the world of politics. He does the best he can to explain the material, and if you have specific questions he usually does a pretty good job of clarifying for you. He grades as leinently as he can and is ALWAYS available for help. He's really funny and laid back. One day he told our class the easiest way to understand this material was to smoke pot. For our class he is going to set the average at a 3.5 boosting my grade up higher than I expected. Just do the work and attempt to study ask lots of questions, you can do it!
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First of all I have to say that the material of the class is boring as hell. I was going to drop this class because I hated all the statitics and the labs, etc, but I talked to Yamanishi about it, and he has helped me a lot. It's true that he is absolutely always available for help. He is willing to help out in any way that he can and he won't make you feel stupid for asking so many questions either. The class also got much better/easier as the semester went on. He's also a pretty funny guy, and is laid back.
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I don't think I've ever had a prof make him- or herself as available for questions as Yamanishi. Like the previous poster, you can reach him on AIM, email, or at his neverending office hours.
It's his first year, so I'll cut him some slack. I think that the class was poorly organized, but he was flexible with the due dates when the whole thing was falling apart. As you can see, it's April 19, and I'm not sure what my grade is. I'm getting around a 92%, but that could mean anything because there's no grading scale. Once again, it's his first year, so I'll cut him some slack for wanting to grade fairly. I think that he'll improve this summer and fall.
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First, it's important to consider that this is his first year at Madison. The semester started off a little bit all over the place-recitations were a mess for the first couple of weeks. It didn't seem like he had much control, but things improved as we went along. I was one of the top students in the class, and I still felt his grading was a little on the low side. When other classes had averages up around the 2.9 area, his was down around a 2.5. Participation is a must-it'll end up counting for almost 15% of your grade. He just tally marks if you talked or not, so just speak, whether it pertains to the conversation or not. Doesn't play obvious favorites, and pretty conservative with his own opinion. ALWAYS available, whether by email, AIM, or in his office. Over all, a pretty decent teacher. Probably not cut out to become a Madison legend, but he isn't one of those professors you love to hate, either.
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Very nice guy. Gave us reading questions to serve as a guide with our books. Gives fair grades. Has always been accessible to his students. His lectures are fairly entertaining as well. Discussion in our class was pretty structured--unlike some profs, David kept us on topic.
One beef I have is that he hasn't pushed class participation. I don't really feel pressured to participate, but my grade suffers.

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