Maybe he read these reviews. But his tests were NOT entirely memorization. It is ridiculous. All the TAs said the same exact thing, but I guess in 2010 he decided to change it up. He has a lot of material to "memorize." Lots of names of people, places, methods, locations origin etc. But NONE of those ended up being on the test. It was 80% conceptual.
However for Johnson, it was plain and simple. She said there will be no memorization and all concept which was exactly what the exam was. However Simpson's test was very misinformed.

And the grading scale on the right is all funky. It was not that generous.

Simpson is interested but he wonders off into his own world. Avoid the class. There is a reason why this class always has room to register.