Unfit to teach.

He seems like well-meaning guy, and maybe he was only like this this quarter because he was sick and had to stop teaching the quarter early, but the way he handled the class was still unacceptable.

Here goes:
-Never gave us a syllabus/uploaded a syllabus
-Never assigned homework
-Frequently left lectures early, to the point where we were behind the other professors by more than a week's worth of material
-Kept the TAs and students in the dark about the content and the date of the midterm, and postponed it
-LITERALLY SLEPT ON THE FLOOR DURING THE MIDTERM
-Never graded the midterm (we had to wait for the replacement professor to start grading them and assigning homework)
-Has no interpersonal speaking skills, let alone the ability to lecture

I want to expand on that last point, about the speaking skills.

You don't know what Mess is like until you've been in one of his lectures. The way he lectures is simply indescribable. He lectures extremely slowly. He physically moves extremely slowly. It seems he is unable to rotate his head and instead rotates his entire body slowly if he wants to look in a certain direction. You may think you know what Mess is like just by reading this description, but you don't. Trust me. This man has no social skills, no speaking skills, and no lecturing skills. Whatever he says does not sink in...and I don't know why. It has something to do with the way he lectures. Like I said, indescribable. Being in his lecture is a surreal experience, in a bad way.

If Mess hasn't been fired yet, avoid him. If you do get him, rely on your textbook because you sure as hell aren't gonna learn anything from him.

His midterm was easy. Some common problems that you see a bunch of times in the book.

btw, he wore the same dirty, stained shirt for half the quarter and a different dirty stained shirt for the rest of his time there. My friend thought he was a hobo when she first saw him.

HORRID. If you can get out, get out! He is the worst professor I've ever had. You literally just have to memorize proofs. The entire class has no idea what he's talking about half the time, and he is a very poor communicator. Only take if you enjoy hearing "uh" or "um" every ten seconds. Seriously. First day of class I counted. I hit 100 "uh" or "um"s in 12 minutes.

Biggest problem is that he assumes the students can see what he sees. He'll do complex math in his head and not show that step. very few people seemed to be able to follow his work very well. My TA was very frustrated with the questions he gave for midterms. Just run. Run.

what the fuck. i look at the professor and im like what the fuck. i look at the board and im like what the fuck. i listen to lecture and im like what the fuck. i take the midterm and im like what the fuck. i memorize the proofs and im like what the fuck. i take the final and im like what the fuck. i got my grade and im like what the fuck (i passed btw b-). and DO NOT believe the fucker who says mess is the jesus of math. dont take this class if you can avoid it. if you can't, youre fucked.

A horrible professor! There's no syllabus, he doesn't respond to emails (not even to the TAs), and he's completely disorganized. He shows up to class wearing the same dirty clothes every day. He wouldn't tell us when our midterm was until the week before, then postponed it, and never told the TAs about it. It's been 2 weeks and we still haven't gotten our midterms back. I would say something about the homework, but we haven't gotten any! If someone tries to ask him a question after class, he tells them he's going to leave. He's so slow when lecturing because he writes out entire paragraphs on the board, so we've gotten through 1 and a half chapters in 6 weeks. Don't take his class!!!

WORST PROFESSOR I HAVE EVER HAD!!!! they should fire him. he never gave us a syllabus. I never learned from him.

I would like to reiterate that Professor Mess is a "mess". The photo posted does not do him justice. He has the worst hygiene I have ever seen and rotates between 2 outfits. He actually looks like the caveman from the Gieco commercials. Not joking here. His lectures are very boring and based off of proofs. The homework is very easy and counts as 20% of the grade so do it! There were 2 midterms each worth 10%. The midterms are based off of proofs so basically if you memorize proofs you can get an A on anything. You really don't even need to know what is going on/how to do problems if you memorize proofs in the book. The same goes for the final which is 60% of your grade. He also repeated proofs from both the midterms on the finals so make sure you go over it again. He is a really really REALLY bad professor but his class is due able and the grades do work out in the end as there is a massive curve. But I advise you to only take him if there are no other professors available!

I ended up dropping this class, so i can't comment on his tests. One thing is for sure: his lectures are a "mess". He was really intimidating when I took his class, with a huge beard that made me feel like I was watching Jesus teach math... except I think Jesus would be way better. Mess never made eye contact with the class-- he faced the board for the entire lecture, mumbling really badly so that you had to get to class early to get a seat in the front just to understand anything he said. I had to teach myself the material until I became so frustrated that I decided to take it another quarter, and thank (the real) Jesus I did :)

This guy is flat out a bad professor and has a really hard time teaching; his looks like a bum and people are afraid to ask him questions in class and when they do, he gives them a reason that makes no sense to everybody and leaves us just as confused as before. That being said, HE IS EXTREMELY PREDICTABLE!!! I didn't know what to expect on the first midterm (I might have had I gone to class), but after that I knew exactly what was gonna be on the next midterm and final, and ended up raping his final. The homework is extremely doable, takes around an hour or so and one of the harder questions might end up on the exams. OK so this is what to expect from Mess, he loves proofs and derivations; the first midterm was just four proofs which aren't that bad now that I think about it. He loves giving problems that are straight-forward and merely ask you to employ the techniques learned from that section. One last thing his midterms combine for 20% of your grade so don't fret too much if you do poorly on one of them, his final is worth a lot. Don't worry too much about this guy if you get him, just go to section and learn everything from the book, have a friend tell you which proofs to learn and you should do well. This math material isn't very hard stuff either, just a little confusing at first conceptually since its new and three dimensional!

This a review not of the professor (There's no way in hell I'd take him), but a review of the picture that accompanies his profile on this website. It's scary. Very scary. I'm pretty sure I've seen his mugshot while watching America's Most Wanted Mathematicians. I can't say much about the class, though if his picture says anything, I'd stay away!!

For 32A: Terrible. Don't take him. I am currently very high up in Radko's class (top 10%) but was bottom 25% in his class. Totally arbitrary grading, he lies about everything, and doesn't have his stuff together. Looks don't matter, but his grading style does. No lie, if you are stuck into taking his class, just take 33A, then come back to it when he's not teaching.