MATH 31AX
Workshop in Differential Calculus
Description: Discussion, one hour. Corequisite: course 31A. Supplementary techniques and applications for solving problems in differential calculus. Limits of investigation set by individual instructor. P/NP grading.
Units: 1.0
Units: 1.0
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Most Helpful Review
This class was really rough. Antunovic's lectures seemed to go around in circles and he only went through proofs without explaining any of the problems that we would encounter on the homework. I taught myself all of the material with the help of the book and Khan Academy. His midterms and final were also incredibly difficult. I do have to say that he made himself very accessible. I really appreciated the amount of office hours that he had and he also held review sessions before the final. I've never worked harder in a class and ended up with a B-, which I was incredibly thankful for. Bottom line: If you're good at teaching yourself the material, this is a good class for you.
This class was really rough. Antunovic's lectures seemed to go around in circles and he only went through proofs without explaining any of the problems that we would encounter on the homework. I taught myself all of the material with the help of the book and Khan Academy. His midterms and final were also incredibly difficult. I do have to say that he made himself very accessible. I really appreciated the amount of office hours that he had and he also held review sessions before the final. I've never worked harder in a class and ended up with a B-, which I was incredibly thankful for. Bottom line: If you're good at teaching yourself the material, this is a good class for you.
Most Helpful Review
I had Professor Aschenbrenner for Math 31A. I had already taken Calculus AB in high school, and gotten a 4 on the AP exam (like most students in this class). Many kids never showed up, except to turn in their homework on Friday. I, personally, am the type who would rather spend the allotted time in class learning the material, rather then teach myself on my own time, but since everyone pretty much knew it already, it wasn't a huge deal. The homework was easy and short, but graded pretty harshly, so make sure you do them all right (although it is not a huge portion of your grade). The two midterms and final were pretty difficult and there was a spread of 11%-100% on all of them. I got a 76 and a 63 on the midterms, and an 85 on the final. My final grade was a B+ in the class. The curve definitely helps. Know your absolute value, he makes every easy problem harder by making it an absolute value problem. The discussions were not that helpful, as most of the students already knew the material, but they were used to get answers to more difficult homework problems. All in all, it was a pretty fair math class, and by taking it again, I understand it in much greater depth than I did in high school.
I had Professor Aschenbrenner for Math 31A. I had already taken Calculus AB in high school, and gotten a 4 on the AP exam (like most students in this class). Many kids never showed up, except to turn in their homework on Friday. I, personally, am the type who would rather spend the allotted time in class learning the material, rather then teach myself on my own time, but since everyone pretty much knew it already, it wasn't a huge deal. The homework was easy and short, but graded pretty harshly, so make sure you do them all right (although it is not a huge portion of your grade). The two midterms and final were pretty difficult and there was a spread of 11%-100% on all of them. I got a 76 and a 63 on the midterms, and an 85 on the final. My final grade was a B+ in the class. The curve definitely helps. Know your absolute value, he makes every easy problem harder by making it an absolute value problem. The discussions were not that helpful, as most of the students already knew the material, but they were used to get answers to more difficult homework problems. All in all, it was a pretty fair math class, and by taking it again, I understand it in much greater depth than I did in high school.
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Most Helpful Review
course: Math31A, Fall 2010 He's clear in class, neat, & polite when it comes to answering Q's in lecture. HW: will take up most of your week(going to TA OHs). NONE of the problems are from the textbook (textbook probs are too easy compared to Biskup's. even the TAs struggle with explaining them) MIDTERMS: failed the first one? DROP the class -- you need to brush up on precalc. aced it? You must've taken APCalc & passed well -- it'll hurt after the 2nd midterm. You've been warned so don't brag & slack like everyone else after the first one. FINAL: He takes a bunch of Q's from past HWs & switches up the numbers & small stuff. That shouldn't be a problem right?! NO!!!! You won't have time to finish if you did NOT memorize the annoyingly intricate math tricks for the problems; they're not about understanding the overall concepts. If you have a photographic memory, good for you. Curve: Do you know how many desperate freshmen in Math31A winter quarter are from Biskup's class? A LOT I thought he was a good prof even though he gave me my first F during freshman year, fall quarter (chem major). That MEANS something. I failed because the last time I took math was in junior year (precalc & college-level stats). Best way to judge that you're READY for this class? -- Don't just pass the math benchmark exam like I did. Ace it with 90% & brush up on trig before taking the class. -- You got a 3 on APCalc AB. Want to PASS it? -- Go to OHs. Do all the HW. -- Try to take 2-3 other easy classes with only this one math course. (good recommendations: GEs, a GE cluster with light reading, EngComp2, EngComp3). If you can handle it, just don't overboard by taking this along with Chem & Physics. Hope that helps.
course: Math31A, Fall 2010 He's clear in class, neat, & polite when it comes to answering Q's in lecture. HW: will take up most of your week(going to TA OHs). NONE of the problems are from the textbook (textbook probs are too easy compared to Biskup's. even the TAs struggle with explaining them) MIDTERMS: failed the first one? DROP the class -- you need to brush up on precalc. aced it? You must've taken APCalc & passed well -- it'll hurt after the 2nd midterm. You've been warned so don't brag & slack like everyone else after the first one. FINAL: He takes a bunch of Q's from past HWs & switches up the numbers & small stuff. That shouldn't be a problem right?! NO!!!! You won't have time to finish if you did NOT memorize the annoyingly intricate math tricks for the problems; they're not about understanding the overall concepts. If you have a photographic memory, good for you. Curve: Do you know how many desperate freshmen in Math31A winter quarter are from Biskup's class? A LOT I thought he was a good prof even though he gave me my first F during freshman year, fall quarter (chem major). That MEANS something. I failed because the last time I took math was in junior year (precalc & college-level stats). Best way to judge that you're READY for this class? -- Don't just pass the math benchmark exam like I did. Ace it with 90% & brush up on trig before taking the class. -- You got a 3 on APCalc AB. Want to PASS it? -- Go to OHs. Do all the HW. -- Try to take 2-3 other easy classes with only this one math course. (good recommendations: GEs, a GE cluster with light reading, EngComp2, EngComp3). If you can handle it, just don't overboard by taking this along with Chem & Physics. Hope that helps.
Most Helpful Review
His notes and lectures are clear and very in depth! You don't need to read the textbook at all because his lectures teach the concepts very well. Do the homework because the weekly quizzes are almost identical to the homework problems. He definitely cares for his students because before every exam he has a review session and it lasts for as long as students need. We would ask a bunch of questions and he didn't even mind that the review session went to three hours. Calculus will never be completely easy, but his exams were fair and really tested your understanding of the material. If I could have him as a professor every quarter, I would! Definitely one of the best professors here on campus!
His notes and lectures are clear and very in depth! You don't need to read the textbook at all because his lectures teach the concepts very well. Do the homework because the weekly quizzes are almost identical to the homework problems. He definitely cares for his students because before every exam he has a review session and it lasts for as long as students need. We would ask a bunch of questions and he didn't even mind that the review session went to three hours. Calculus will never be completely easy, but his exams were fair and really tested your understanding of the material. If I could have him as a professor every quarter, I would! Definitely one of the best professors here on campus!
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Most Helpful Review
Professor Greene was a very unique professor, to say the least. I came in having never taken Calculus before, and suffice to say, it was very challenging. He's not the traditional teacher where he explains concepts and gives examples, he dives straight into proofs, and like what everyone else said, he does expect you to know alot of basic Calculus. Most of my class was composed of students who had already taken Calculus before, so it was probably a cinch for them. He doesn't teach in the same order as his colleagues does, some of the stuff he taught I learned again in 31B. His class is broken down into 10% quizzes, which is one problem taken straight from the last week's homework, 20% each for the two midterms and a 50% final. The homework, and therefore the quizzes, were fairly easy. They were challenging problems, most of them proofs, but he gives you the solutions beforehand, so if worse comes to worse you can always memorize the solutions. First midterm was alright, again it was mostly proofs, and he gives you sample midterm problems. Only problem is that the sample problems were composed of ~30 problems/proofs, and he picked some of the hardest ones. The average was a 74%. Second midterm was a bit harder, again he gave sample problems but this time he switched up the numbers a bit. Average was a 68%. The final was composed of 10 problems, plus an extra credit problem. Each problem was multiple parts and contained a proof of some sort. This time he gave us a list of topics to study, and some of those were on the final word for word. The average was a 57% if I remember correctly. Overall, his lectures were pretty boring, he tries to do the proofs in class but sometimes he goes on tangents trying to explain them. I recommend getting a calculus book of some sort (probably the one used by the school) and just watching the MIT lectures. You'll probably get more out of it. Conclusion: If you've taken Calculus before, this class should be a piece of cake. Even if you haven't, as long as you have decent memorization skills, you should scrape at least a B. However, if you're trying to learn the material (for people who haven't taken Calculus), I recommend taking another professor.
Professor Greene was a very unique professor, to say the least. I came in having never taken Calculus before, and suffice to say, it was very challenging. He's not the traditional teacher where he explains concepts and gives examples, he dives straight into proofs, and like what everyone else said, he does expect you to know alot of basic Calculus. Most of my class was composed of students who had already taken Calculus before, so it was probably a cinch for them. He doesn't teach in the same order as his colleagues does, some of the stuff he taught I learned again in 31B. His class is broken down into 10% quizzes, which is one problem taken straight from the last week's homework, 20% each for the two midterms and a 50% final. The homework, and therefore the quizzes, were fairly easy. They were challenging problems, most of them proofs, but he gives you the solutions beforehand, so if worse comes to worse you can always memorize the solutions. First midterm was alright, again it was mostly proofs, and he gives you sample midterm problems. Only problem is that the sample problems were composed of ~30 problems/proofs, and he picked some of the hardest ones. The average was a 74%. Second midterm was a bit harder, again he gave sample problems but this time he switched up the numbers a bit. Average was a 68%. The final was composed of 10 problems, plus an extra credit problem. Each problem was multiple parts and contained a proof of some sort. This time he gave us a list of topics to study, and some of those were on the final word for word. The average was a 57% if I remember correctly. Overall, his lectures were pretty boring, he tries to do the proofs in class but sometimes he goes on tangents trying to explain them. I recommend getting a calculus book of some sort (probably the one used by the school) and just watching the MIT lectures. You'll probably get more out of it. Conclusion: If you've taken Calculus before, this class should be a piece of cake. Even if you haven't, as long as you have decent memorization skills, you should scrape at least a B. However, if you're trying to learn the material (for people who haven't taken Calculus), I recommend taking another professor.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Kim's class is very organized and clear. Even though he is not the best and most interesting math professor out there, his classes are easy to follow and he does a lot of practices and recaps. He writes all his explanations on the board (in a way that I think is even better than the textbook), so you actually only need the textbook for his homework problems. His homework problems can be a little challenging, but they are still reasonable. The two midterms were very easy for me, while the final is a lot more challenging, but overall, if you do all his practices and review your homework and what he normally goes through in class (and keep a cool head during the exams), the class is not hard at all. He has a bit of an accent, but he can answer questions very well. I also went for office hours two days before the final and it was super helpful. I will recommend this professor to anybody.
Professor Kim's class is very organized and clear. Even though he is not the best and most interesting math professor out there, his classes are easy to follow and he does a lot of practices and recaps. He writes all his explanations on the board (in a way that I think is even better than the textbook), so you actually only need the textbook for his homework problems. His homework problems can be a little challenging, but they are still reasonable. The two midterms were very easy for me, while the final is a lot more challenging, but overall, if you do all his practices and review your homework and what he normally goes through in class (and keep a cool head during the exams), the class is not hard at all. He has a bit of an accent, but he can answer questions very well. I also went for office hours two days before the final and it was super helpful. I will recommend this professor to anybody.
Most Helpful Review
Math 31A I took Calc BC in high school, so i thought this was gonna be my chill class... it's not!!! Professor Kim tries to teach, but unfortunately her accent gets in the way. She often makes mistakes on the board. Not the best teacher. She knows how to write really hard exams though... If possible, do NOT sign up for this class
Math 31A I took Calc BC in high school, so i thought this was gonna be my chill class... it's not!!! Professor Kim tries to teach, but unfortunately her accent gets in the way. She often makes mistakes on the board. Not the best teacher. She knows how to write really hard exams though... If possible, do NOT sign up for this class
Most Helpful Review
His lectures are disgustingly boring, there's no point in going to them. His exams are unnecessarily difficult since he makes an effort to keep average test scores at around 60%. After the class got an average of 76% on the first midterm, he told us that normally they're about 60%, so the next midterm and final were. I don't think he's a good professor at all, he doesn't provide any knowledge that you can't obtain yourself from a book. If I were you, I'd avoid him.
His lectures are disgustingly boring, there's no point in going to them. His exams are unnecessarily difficult since he makes an effort to keep average test scores at around 60%. After the class got an average of 76% on the first midterm, he told us that normally they're about 60%, so the next midterm and final were. I don't think he's a good professor at all, he doesn't provide any knowledge that you can't obtain yourself from a book. If I were you, I'd avoid him.
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