Professor

Derek Levinson

AD
3.6
Overall Ratings
Based on 10 Users
Easiness 2.6 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Workload 3.5 / 5 How light the workload is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Clarity 3.6 / 5 How clear the professor is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Helpfulness 3.8 / 5 How helpful the professor is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

Reviews (10)

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June 13, 2024
Quarter: Spring 2024
Grade: A

As an applied math major, this class felt like a breath of fresh air. All straight forward computation and formula application. Levinson was a really good professor who gave very detailed, clear, interesting lectures! He didn’t assign any homework to actually turn in, but posted assignments every week to help prepare for quizzes. The TA, HK, would create super amazingly detailed discussion supplements every week that went through how to solve the assignments and had all the formulas/definitions that were taught that week. I actually only studied the discussion supplements for the exams- they were that comprehensive. The grading was 4 quizzes (lowest dropped), one midterm, and one final. All the math itself was very straight forward, pretty much all arithmetic, the only difficulty was memorizing formulas (for the final we got a cheat sheet tho) and remembering definitions to correctly turn the word problems into calculations. If you’re a math major and want a break from classes that are super theory-heavy/seem to have no numbers, I’d highly recommend!

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April 1, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A-

Way harder than other professors. He distributes the grades so that about 1/3 of the class gets 'A's, 1/3 gets 'B's, and 1/3 gets 'C's. His tests are harder than other professors and he covers a lot more material. He makes a lot of mistakes on the board and his lectures are very hard to follow. He assigns homework due Friday and he finishes teaching the relevant material on Wednesday (so you only have two days to do that HW and it takes a lot of time).

I would try to take this class with someone else.

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March 27, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A

This class is tough for sure, but not unmanageable. Levinson is a solid professor with potential to be really good. Lectures were good, and while he does upload notes, he doesn’t record so attendance is pretty important because his notes can be unclear at times. There seemed to be a disconnect between the TAs though because they were pretty unhelpful. Their discussions went over the same topics but they taught it completely differently at times from the professor. The textbook was for the most part fine.

Homework was reasonable, although he made them due on Fridays when he released the problem set on Sunday which was kind of annoying. Sometimes the homework problems wouldn’t make any sense given what we learned which was a little annoying.

Midterm was pretty difficult given the time crunch of 50 minutes, but the final was very fair. He doesn’t curve heavily but he does curve.

I would definitely take this class with Levinson again, 8/10.

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March 25, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A

This class is relatively tough, but overall I would say Levinson did a great job. The class is taught in a typical math fashion, with him writing out the lecture notes on a whiteboard (no slides). Unfortunately, he does not upload lecture recordings but instead uploads his handwritten notes so I would say attendance is important. He is still getting his footing as a professor in terms of making the exams doable in the time period and a reasonable difficulty, but I would say that his final exam was very fair (midterm was a tad long). He is highly competent, approachable, knowledgeable, and clearly enjoys teaching. He’s also a funny guy with a great sense of humor, and you’ll take away some interesting anecdotes from the class about sports statistics and various types of gambling (roulette, horses, etc). The difficulty of the content is unavoidable, so I would 10/10 recommend Levinson.

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March 12, 2024
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A

I went to almost every lecture because they were taught at a good pace, but there was so much content in this course that it was hard to absorb. The midterm was relatively difficult because of the time limit, and I anticipate the final to be similarly, if not more, difficult. The textbook had a lot of challenging homework problems and this was an overall challenging course.

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Jan. 6, 2024
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: B+

I found Levinson’s style of teaching very helpful. He responded to any emailed questions of mine insanely quickly and is kind and approachable. Gave fair homework and midterm similar to the practice exam; the final was very tough but Levinson curved final grades generously to compensate. Had an A- going into the final and honestly believe I deserved a C because of my poor performance on the final, so I was very happy with my final grade. Osman was not a helpful TA, did not provide answers to discussion exercises that are not covered in class (why not??) and graded harshly.

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Nov. 28, 2023
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: N/A

the class is quite hard but the professor is really nice. He is always willing to help. The workload in the class is not that bad, quite manageable. The only thing I struggled with was the concept of this class since probability is quite challenging if you don't get the materials but it gets easier with more practice.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 174E
Quarter: Spring 2024
Grade: A
June 13, 2024

As an applied math major, this class felt like a breath of fresh air. All straight forward computation and formula application. Levinson was a really good professor who gave very detailed, clear, interesting lectures! He didn’t assign any homework to actually turn in, but posted assignments every week to help prepare for quizzes. The TA, HK, would create super amazingly detailed discussion supplements every week that went through how to solve the assignments and had all the formulas/definitions that were taught that week. I actually only studied the discussion supplements for the exams- they were that comprehensive. The grading was 4 quizzes (lowest dropped), one midterm, and one final. All the math itself was very straight forward, pretty much all arithmetic, the only difficulty was memorizing formulas (for the final we got a cheat sheet tho) and remembering definitions to correctly turn the word problems into calculations. If you’re a math major and want a break from classes that are super theory-heavy/seem to have no numbers, I’d highly recommend!

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 170E
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: A-
April 1, 2024

Way harder than other professors. He distributes the grades so that about 1/3 of the class gets 'A's, 1/3 gets 'B's, and 1/3 gets 'C's. His tests are harder than other professors and he covers a lot more material. He makes a lot of mistakes on the board and his lectures are very hard to follow. He assigns homework due Friday and he finishes teaching the relevant material on Wednesday (so you only have two days to do that HW and it takes a lot of time).

I would try to take this class with someone else.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 170E
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
March 27, 2024

This class is tough for sure, but not unmanageable. Levinson is a solid professor with potential to be really good. Lectures were good, and while he does upload notes, he doesn’t record so attendance is pretty important because his notes can be unclear at times. There seemed to be a disconnect between the TAs though because they were pretty unhelpful. Their discussions went over the same topics but they taught it completely differently at times from the professor. The textbook was for the most part fine.

Homework was reasonable, although he made them due on Fridays when he released the problem set on Sunday which was kind of annoying. Sometimes the homework problems wouldn’t make any sense given what we learned which was a little annoying.

Midterm was pretty difficult given the time crunch of 50 minutes, but the final was very fair. He doesn’t curve heavily but he does curve.

I would definitely take this class with Levinson again, 8/10.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 170E
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
March 25, 2024

This class is relatively tough, but overall I would say Levinson did a great job. The class is taught in a typical math fashion, with him writing out the lecture notes on a whiteboard (no slides). Unfortunately, he does not upload lecture recordings but instead uploads his handwritten notes so I would say attendance is important. He is still getting his footing as a professor in terms of making the exams doable in the time period and a reasonable difficulty, but I would say that his final exam was very fair (midterm was a tad long). He is highly competent, approachable, knowledgeable, and clearly enjoys teaching. He’s also a funny guy with a great sense of humor, and you’ll take away some interesting anecdotes from the class about sports statistics and various types of gambling (roulette, horses, etc). The difficulty of the content is unavoidable, so I would 10/10 recommend Levinson.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 170E
Quarter: Winter 2024
Grade: N/A
March 12, 2024

I went to almost every lecture because they were taught at a good pace, but there was so much content in this course that it was hard to absorb. The midterm was relatively difficult because of the time limit, and I anticipate the final to be similarly, if not more, difficult. The textbook had a lot of challenging homework problems and this was an overall challenging course.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 170E
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: B+
Jan. 6, 2024

I found Levinson’s style of teaching very helpful. He responded to any emailed questions of mine insanely quickly and is kind and approachable. Gave fair homework and midterm similar to the practice exam; the final was very tough but Levinson curved final grades generously to compensate. Had an A- going into the final and honestly believe I deserved a C because of my poor performance on the final, so I was very happy with my final grade. Osman was not a helpful TA, did not provide answers to discussion exercises that are not covered in class (why not??) and graded harshly.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
MATH 170E
Quarter: Fall 2023
Grade: N/A
Nov. 28, 2023

the class is quite hard but the professor is really nice. He is always willing to help. The workload in the class is not that bad, quite manageable. The only thing I struggled with was the concept of this class since probability is quite challenging if you don't get the materials but it gets easier with more practice.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
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