Professor
Siddarth Venkatesh
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Well I think Siddarth is a good professor overall. He is going to Berkeley next quarter so Bruinwalk doesn't really matter. But as I saw complains on finals, I still want to put this comment down. To start with, he knows what he is teaching and doesn't rely on slides except when he needs to check on his notes for examples. He shows steps for solving each type of problems and is clear on the methods, both algebraically and geometrically. His final is admittedly significantly harder than the homeworks (by the way, he gives a lot of homeworks and the last one consisted of 53 questions due the day before finals so remember this) but I personally think the test overall is well made. You can't solve those problems by simply plugging numbers into equations, this is, at least for me, how a test should look like. I missed something on the final also, but I still think it is well designed. On thing for me, however, the final is definitely longer than it should be, and I had to ask many clarifying questions regarding what the problems mean so spaces of improvements here. Like you shouldn't except students to think hard for a consecutive 3 hours cause many problems do explain some depth of thinking. Also, Siddarth should consider what topic to put on midterms and finals. Many things we learned between midterm 1 and 2 are not even asked in midterm 2 and what's asked in midterm 2 are mostly not in finals. Overall, in terms of the teaching, he is a decent professor, and good luck to him and his future students in Berkeley.
Fall 2019 - Well I think Siddarth is a good professor overall. He is going to Berkeley next quarter so Bruinwalk doesn't really matter. But as I saw complains on finals, I still want to put this comment down. To start with, he knows what he is teaching and doesn't rely on slides except when he needs to check on his notes for examples. He shows steps for solving each type of problems and is clear on the methods, both algebraically and geometrically. His final is admittedly significantly harder than the homeworks (by the way, he gives a lot of homeworks and the last one consisted of 53 questions due the day before finals so remember this) but I personally think the test overall is well made. You can't solve those problems by simply plugging numbers into equations, this is, at least for me, how a test should look like. I missed something on the final also, but I still think it is well designed. On thing for me, however, the final is definitely longer than it should be, and I had to ask many clarifying questions regarding what the problems mean so spaces of improvements here. Like you shouldn't except students to think hard for a consecutive 3 hours cause many problems do explain some depth of thinking. Also, Siddarth should consider what topic to put on midterms and finals. Many things we learned between midterm 1 and 2 are not even asked in midterm 2 and what's asked in midterm 2 are mostly not in finals. Overall, in terms of the teaching, he is a decent professor, and good luck to him and his future students in Berkeley.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - The reviews from his 32A class had students talk about how grateful they were that he would be leaving to teach at Berkeley. One year later, he's back and I understand why they expressed such relief. His lectures are lacking. I understand that the content is boring, but he consistently makes errors in his computations during his live lectures. This, combined with the general air of uncertainty about the direction of the lecture, leads me to believe that he begins each lecture entirely unprepared with only an idea of the content he intends to cover. Another red flag about this professor is that he either skipped or postponed lecture on 3 or 4 separate occasions. I understand if he has a valid reason, but he chose neither to provide that reason nor adjust the difficulty or structure of the course around these missed lectures. Instead, he decided to post lengthy recordings of lectures en masse around test times. In one case, he postponed a final review lecture and held it during finals week. In a similar vein, the organization of homework and test dates are horrid. Instead of spacing out the homework assignments like a reasonable professor would, he opted to not assign homework during the first three weeks, and then cram six assignments into the last seven, at a rate of about one per week. Moreover, he chose to have two midterms, which would normally be fine. However, the first midterm was at the end of week five, and the second one was in week nine. The grade for the second midterm was not released until partway through our 24-hour final. The tests are also very difficult, much more so than the course material. The lectures and homework are largely computational, but the exams are very conceptual, to the point where a student could not reasonably expect the content on said exams. This, combined with the failure to provide any actual direction on how to solve missed exam and quiz problems, led to a general unpreparedness for the final. All in all, Professor Venkatesh is disinterested in teaching the course and apparently intentionally makes succeeding in the class as tedious and difficult as possible. Do not recommend.
Fall 2020 - The reviews from his 32A class had students talk about how grateful they were that he would be leaving to teach at Berkeley. One year later, he's back and I understand why they expressed such relief. His lectures are lacking. I understand that the content is boring, but he consistently makes errors in his computations during his live lectures. This, combined with the general air of uncertainty about the direction of the lecture, leads me to believe that he begins each lecture entirely unprepared with only an idea of the content he intends to cover. Another red flag about this professor is that he either skipped or postponed lecture on 3 or 4 separate occasions. I understand if he has a valid reason, but he chose neither to provide that reason nor adjust the difficulty or structure of the course around these missed lectures. Instead, he decided to post lengthy recordings of lectures en masse around test times. In one case, he postponed a final review lecture and held it during finals week. In a similar vein, the organization of homework and test dates are horrid. Instead of spacing out the homework assignments like a reasonable professor would, he opted to not assign homework during the first three weeks, and then cram six assignments into the last seven, at a rate of about one per week. Moreover, he chose to have two midterms, which would normally be fine. However, the first midterm was at the end of week five, and the second one was in week nine. The grade for the second midterm was not released until partway through our 24-hour final. The tests are also very difficult, much more so than the course material. The lectures and homework are largely computational, but the exams are very conceptual, to the point where a student could not reasonably expect the content on said exams. This, combined with the failure to provide any actual direction on how to solve missed exam and quiz problems, led to a general unpreparedness for the final. All in all, Professor Venkatesh is disinterested in teaching the course and apparently intentionally makes succeeding in the class as tedious and difficult as possible. Do not recommend.
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - I believe the lecturer is capable as a teacher and can (emphasis on the can) help you with understanding the materials. HOWEVER, I would not recommend taking his courses during this specific period. We are at week 7 (all online) and we missed 7 lectures (basically he skips on 1/3 of the lectures). 1 due to a holiday, 1 because he had an interview, 2-3 because of slow wifi or technical problems and 2-3 because of soar throat. He only made a recording for the lost lectures I believe 2 times and almost all cancellations came with a 1-2 hour notice before the lecture. For the 7 weeks of instruction, he only gave out 2 homework and 1 midterm which was delayed 3 weeks. Also, the only notes he gives is what is written on zoom and are not premade or tidy as you would see in other math courses. My understanding is that although he seems like a good lecturer, maybe he is in a transition career-wise so it's a bad time for him to give the attention needed to teach a course.
Winter 2022 - I believe the lecturer is capable as a teacher and can (emphasis on the can) help you with understanding the materials. HOWEVER, I would not recommend taking his courses during this specific period. We are at week 7 (all online) and we missed 7 lectures (basically he skips on 1/3 of the lectures). 1 due to a holiday, 1 because he had an interview, 2-3 because of slow wifi or technical problems and 2-3 because of soar throat. He only made a recording for the lost lectures I believe 2 times and almost all cancellations came with a 1-2 hour notice before the lecture. For the 7 weeks of instruction, he only gave out 2 homework and 1 midterm which was delayed 3 weeks. Also, the only notes he gives is what is written on zoom and are not premade or tidy as you would see in other math courses. My understanding is that although he seems like a good lecturer, maybe he is in a transition career-wise so it's a bad time for him to give the attention needed to teach a course.
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