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Patrick Flynn
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Based on 18 Users
Everything in this class could have been fine. The weekly quizzles consisted of homework questions from the previous week with different constants. The midterm exams were very fair and rather simple if you reviewed the homework problems beforehand. Then there was the final. Oh boy. To put it simply, this was a very, very misleading statement:
"if you have been on top of the homework, and felt that the midterms and quizzes were do-able, there shouldn't be any big surprises on the exam!" -Professor Flynn, 2023
I honestly feel like the questions on the final were reasonable for this kind of class, it's just that the material taught and assigned did not accurately reflect what was on the exam. I'm just glad Patrick ended up curving at the end.
The lectures were not recorded. Everything he said from the lectures was word for word from the textbook, which was not very helpful and majority of my learning was self-taught or from the TA's. He would copy proofs straight from the textbook, without any explanation of how to use it or where it came from. Although he didn't teach very well, the structure of the class was great! Weekly quizzes were a reflection of how well you understood the homework and it helped me personally know that I was on the right track. The midterms were just like the homework problems he gave which made it easy to do relatively well on them. However, the final was nothing like the rest of the course material. For someone who studied and worked extra hard on trying to learn the material, I was very lost on the final. I think that the rest of the material was relatively easy, so students were not prepared for something so difficult. The average on our final was a C which is pretty typical of a college class, but Patrick Flynn, was nice enough to curve the final by 20 points because it didn't reflect the other course work averages. With this, I think that it was very thoughtful of him for him to do that considering that a C average is pretty normal. Not sure how he is going to change his tests in the future, but if you read the textbook yourself, rather then going to lecture, and go to office hours every week you should be fine with the class.
When it comes to quizzes and midterms this class was very manageable especially if you took AP Calculus in high school. The questions on the weekly quizzes fairly represented the content from the homework and lecture. However, you will be spending a lot of time teaching yourself in this class. The lectures pretty much replicate the textbook and the professor spits out a lot of formulas at you at a very fast pace without explaining them. The final exam in this class was ridiculous it was ten times harder than any problem from homework or lecture and was not a fair representation of the course. The professor had to curve it so hard just so that everyone could get a passing grade on it which was nice, but it shouldn't have been that difficult in the first place.
He is just perfect! One of the best professors Ive ever met: Easy exams, super generous curve, low-workload, and well-organized lectures. Also super helpful during office hours! Take Math135 with professor Flynn and that's absolutely an easy free A.
This class was definitely difficult, there is no doubt about that. However, as long as you pay attention in class and make sure to do the optional homework so that you do not fall behind, it is manageable and doable. There are weekly quizzes in discussion section and the midterm and final, these make up your grade. I thought that the final was much harder than I was expecting it to be but the professor gave us a friendly curve which was appreciated.
Great Professer, but i didn't do anything all quarter so I kind of deserved that B. I got an 88 and a 87 in the midterms (got one question wrong on both) and since the exam was really easy that kind of killed any chance I had to get an A especially since I got a 68 in the final- curved up to an 88.
I never leave reviews - but everyone else leaving a review listed an A as their grade and I thought I'd round out the responses.
For context, I'm a 2nd year at UCLA and this is the second class I have not received an A or A+ in. That being said, I was on track to receive an A in the course until the final exam.
Proceed at your own risk with prof Flynn - clearly it can go well given the other responses, but the structure of his grading scheme means that you are completely relying on exam grades (as opposed to having homework / participation credit as is typical in an intro class). There are homework quizzes that you take in your discussion, but (at least for me) it was super unlikely that you'd be able to receive a 100% for homework.
Anyways, I agree that if you took BC Calc in high school you're probably fine with Flynn. If you didn't, though, I'd just wait another quarter and take it with a more experienced professor (and grading structure).
Patrick has super clear lectures and cares about content. The first half is pretty straightforward mathematical applications and the second half is a lot more theoretical and its somewhat not as connected, but if you go to office hours and ask questions Patrick is happy to delve deeper. Exams aren't tedious but do test your knowledge of the course! Definitely take 135 with him if you can
If you took AP Calc BC in HS, you are totally fine. Even though Flynn's teaching may have been a little unclear and based off the book (with some random proofs you end up not needing during lecture), it is his first time teaching I think and so I'm sure he'll get better as time goes on. After week two I stopped going to lecture completely and I was totally fine. With that being said, I loved the structure of his class. Your grade basically consists of quizzes, 2 midterms, and the final. The quizzes are just the homework problems he assigns (which aren't for a grade but definitely the foundation of his quizzes and tests SO DO IT OVER AND OVER) with constants changed. The midterms were easy too if you went over the homework problems. The final was a lot harder for some reason but he curved it by twenty points at the end so I ended up getting a 100 on it which is crazy. He also curved the quizzes for some reason even though I'm pretty sure people did good on them. He is just really lenient with grading and I honestly still felt like I learned the calc I wanted to learn from this class. Would def take again. Review the organic chemistry tutor if you forget some integral or series stuff. He also reminds me of John Green (big plus).
Although the lectures were extremely similar to the textbook and weren't super clear, his office hours and the overall structure of the class was nice. The quizzes and both midterms felt fair and were exactly what you would expect. If you did the homework, you should be able to ace them since he wouldn't put any material you didn't learn on them and the depth of the questions were similar. One exception to that would be the final. I redid a lot of the homework questions and studied days in advance but that final had almost the entire class in there at the end of the three hours because of how difficult it was. I think a lot of the questions could've been reasoned through with the concepts we learned in class, but many were more in depth than we've seen on the midterms and quizzes which was why the final was so difficult. Fortunately, he did curve the final as a result of this even though a C average in a final is standard. Also, as someone who didn't take Calculus BC, it was hard to understand the concepts being taught but going to office hours (TA and prof's) and watching videos online helped a lot.
Everything in this class could have been fine. The weekly quizzles consisted of homework questions from the previous week with different constants. The midterm exams were very fair and rather simple if you reviewed the homework problems beforehand. Then there was the final. Oh boy. To put it simply, this was a very, very misleading statement:
"if you have been on top of the homework, and felt that the midterms and quizzes were do-able, there shouldn't be any big surprises on the exam!" -Professor Flynn, 2023
I honestly feel like the questions on the final were reasonable for this kind of class, it's just that the material taught and assigned did not accurately reflect what was on the exam. I'm just glad Patrick ended up curving at the end.
The lectures were not recorded. Everything he said from the lectures was word for word from the textbook, which was not very helpful and majority of my learning was self-taught or from the TA's. He would copy proofs straight from the textbook, without any explanation of how to use it or where it came from. Although he didn't teach very well, the structure of the class was great! Weekly quizzes were a reflection of how well you understood the homework and it helped me personally know that I was on the right track. The midterms were just like the homework problems he gave which made it easy to do relatively well on them. However, the final was nothing like the rest of the course material. For someone who studied and worked extra hard on trying to learn the material, I was very lost on the final. I think that the rest of the material was relatively easy, so students were not prepared for something so difficult. The average on our final was a C which is pretty typical of a college class, but Patrick Flynn, was nice enough to curve the final by 20 points because it didn't reflect the other course work averages. With this, I think that it was very thoughtful of him for him to do that considering that a C average is pretty normal. Not sure how he is going to change his tests in the future, but if you read the textbook yourself, rather then going to lecture, and go to office hours every week you should be fine with the class.
When it comes to quizzes and midterms this class was very manageable especially if you took AP Calculus in high school. The questions on the weekly quizzes fairly represented the content from the homework and lecture. However, you will be spending a lot of time teaching yourself in this class. The lectures pretty much replicate the textbook and the professor spits out a lot of formulas at you at a very fast pace without explaining them. The final exam in this class was ridiculous it was ten times harder than any problem from homework or lecture and was not a fair representation of the course. The professor had to curve it so hard just so that everyone could get a passing grade on it which was nice, but it shouldn't have been that difficult in the first place.
He is just perfect! One of the best professors Ive ever met: Easy exams, super generous curve, low-workload, and well-organized lectures. Also super helpful during office hours! Take Math135 with professor Flynn and that's absolutely an easy free A.
This class was definitely difficult, there is no doubt about that. However, as long as you pay attention in class and make sure to do the optional homework so that you do not fall behind, it is manageable and doable. There are weekly quizzes in discussion section and the midterm and final, these make up your grade. I thought that the final was much harder than I was expecting it to be but the professor gave us a friendly curve which was appreciated.
Great Professer, but i didn't do anything all quarter so I kind of deserved that B. I got an 88 and a 87 in the midterms (got one question wrong on both) and since the exam was really easy that kind of killed any chance I had to get an A especially since I got a 68 in the final- curved up to an 88.
I never leave reviews - but everyone else leaving a review listed an A as their grade and I thought I'd round out the responses.
For context, I'm a 2nd year at UCLA and this is the second class I have not received an A or A+ in. That being said, I was on track to receive an A in the course until the final exam.
Proceed at your own risk with prof Flynn - clearly it can go well given the other responses, but the structure of his grading scheme means that you are completely relying on exam grades (as opposed to having homework / participation credit as is typical in an intro class). There are homework quizzes that you take in your discussion, but (at least for me) it was super unlikely that you'd be able to receive a 100% for homework.
Anyways, I agree that if you took BC Calc in high school you're probably fine with Flynn. If you didn't, though, I'd just wait another quarter and take it with a more experienced professor (and grading structure).
Patrick has super clear lectures and cares about content. The first half is pretty straightforward mathematical applications and the second half is a lot more theoretical and its somewhat not as connected, but if you go to office hours and ask questions Patrick is happy to delve deeper. Exams aren't tedious but do test your knowledge of the course! Definitely take 135 with him if you can
If you took AP Calc BC in HS, you are totally fine. Even though Flynn's teaching may have been a little unclear and based off the book (with some random proofs you end up not needing during lecture), it is his first time teaching I think and so I'm sure he'll get better as time goes on. After week two I stopped going to lecture completely and I was totally fine. With that being said, I loved the structure of his class. Your grade basically consists of quizzes, 2 midterms, and the final. The quizzes are just the homework problems he assigns (which aren't for a grade but definitely the foundation of his quizzes and tests SO DO IT OVER AND OVER) with constants changed. The midterms were easy too if you went over the homework problems. The final was a lot harder for some reason but he curved it by twenty points at the end so I ended up getting a 100 on it which is crazy. He also curved the quizzes for some reason even though I'm pretty sure people did good on them. He is just really lenient with grading and I honestly still felt like I learned the calc I wanted to learn from this class. Would def take again. Review the organic chemistry tutor if you forget some integral or series stuff. He also reminds me of John Green (big plus).
Although the lectures were extremely similar to the textbook and weren't super clear, his office hours and the overall structure of the class was nice. The quizzes and both midterms felt fair and were exactly what you would expect. If you did the homework, you should be able to ace them since he wouldn't put any material you didn't learn on them and the depth of the questions were similar. One exception to that would be the final. I redid a lot of the homework questions and studied days in advance but that final had almost the entire class in there at the end of the three hours because of how difficult it was. I think a lot of the questions could've been reasoned through with the concepts we learned in class, but many were more in depth than we've seen on the midterms and quizzes which was why the final was so difficult. Fortunately, he did curve the final as a result of this even though a C average in a final is standard. Also, as someone who didn't take Calculus BC, it was hard to understand the concepts being taught but going to office hours (TA and prof's) and watching videos online helped a lot.