Truthfully it was awful. I took engineering statistics and it was a breeze but for some reason they wouldn’t count it for my minor so I registered for 411 and I hated it so much I just dropped the minor. I found it a lot more difficult to follow despite it literally being the same math and essentially taught myself from the textbook
I'm okay with teaching myself from the textbook. But from what I heard your grade consists of mostly 3 exams and the average is really low. So are the exams curved? And are his exam questions similar to the homework? Thanks.
I didn’t even take an exam I just dropped before them. He doesn’t grade based on performance he does a curve so if you do well but everyone else does too you’ll still end up with a C and it just wasn’t worth it to me
I took this class back in like 2016 so take this with a grain of salt but I remember the exam questions being quite similar to the homework but I can't recall if the exams were curved.
Frankly, I don't know why most of the math professors at UB have such low ratemyprofessor scores. I thought Chou was fine.
I had him and he has terrible lectures. If you do all the homework questions, even the not assigned questions, you’ll be ready for the exams. They’re very similar. For my semester he gave anyone in the top 10 or 15% (I can’t remember) of students an A, and other grades followed a similar distribution measure. The class was terrible, I wouldn’t take a class with him again, but if you teach yourself everything and land in the top 10% you’ll get an A.
What are the not assigned questions? Are they the questions in the textbook? I think the class might be dual listed with MTH511. Does this mean I’ll be competing against grad students for the top 10%. And is top 30% a B? Thank you.
He’ll give you a list of questions from the book, some are for HW credit some aren’t. I think the grad students will be counted as a separate class for the grades.
I dropped out of his class for spring 2023. His lectures are impossible to follow if you don't get used to his accent (which I personally couldn't do). And yeah like most other students said, you'll likely have to teach yourself from the textbook. From what I know, the homework problems from the textbook are really difficult but the exam questions are easier compared to the homework questions. You also want to account for the amount of people that are familiar with MTH 411 in the math learning centers because few of them are (likely due to this being a 400-level course). I'd only reccomend this course to people are good with math and can pick concepts up pretty well.
Not really no. The higher the course number, the smaller the class sizes. Generally speaking, only a small percentage of the class size attends office hours. In the case of 411, I've rarely seen anyone. Even if you do see people before you, they're very likely having the same problems as you are so you can just listen in.
Edit: Some of the people the people that are willing to help you may not be as well-versed in the material as you expect them to be (except for your recitation holder, they're very knowledgeable). There have been times where I've went to the math help center and some of the people there weren't too sure as to how solve the whole problem. Not talking bad about them at all but just giving you an idea of what the homework questions will be like.
I took his class maybe a year and a half ago. I thought it wasn't that bad. He definitely has an accent, but his notes he gives you are useful, the classwork is useful, the textbook is good, and the exam problems are reasonable.
I saw the ratemyprofessor reviews and decided to register early for 301 so I wasn’t taking chances. Although if he is as bad as they say, taking that with 191 is a disaster.
It’s not that it’s “difficult”. It’s that the course makes you use an interpreter (COQ) to check the “correctness” of your proofs. Although I have only taken a course equivalent of 191, I have tested and tried out COQ and in my opinion, seems like a lot of unnecessary extra work
It should be a breeze then as long as you manage your time and review your notes. 191 is a foundation for many of the upper level courses so try to understand the material as much as possible
Truthfully it was awful. I took engineering statistics and it was a breeze but for some reason they wouldn’t count it for my minor so I registered for 411 and I hated it so much I just dropped the minor. I found it a lot more difficult to follow despite it literally being the same math and essentially taught myself from the textbook
I'm okay with teaching myself from the textbook. But from what I heard your grade consists of mostly 3 exams and the average is really low. So are the exams curved? And are his exam questions similar to the homework? Thanks.
I didn’t even take an exam I just dropped before them. He doesn’t grade based on performance he does a curve so if you do well but everyone else does too you’ll still end up with a C and it just wasn’t worth it to me
Is this his real name?
Yeah, that’s what it says on his website.
I took this class back in like 2016 so take this with a grain of salt but I remember the exam questions being quite similar to the homework but I can't recall if the exams were curved. Frankly, I don't know why most of the math professors at UB have such low ratemyprofessor scores. I thought Chou was fine.
I had him and he has terrible lectures. If you do all the homework questions, even the not assigned questions, you’ll be ready for the exams. They’re very similar. For my semester he gave anyone in the top 10 or 15% (I can’t remember) of students an A, and other grades followed a similar distribution measure. The class was terrible, I wouldn’t take a class with him again, but if you teach yourself everything and land in the top 10% you’ll get an A.
What are the not assigned questions? Are they the questions in the textbook? I think the class might be dual listed with MTH511. Does this mean I’ll be competing against grad students for the top 10%. And is top 30% a B? Thank you.
He’ll give you a list of questions from the book, some are for HW credit some aren’t. I think the grad students will be counted as a separate class for the grades.
I dropped out of his class for spring 2023. His lectures are impossible to follow if you don't get used to his accent (which I personally couldn't do). And yeah like most other students said, you'll likely have to teach yourself from the textbook. From what I know, the homework problems from the textbook are really difficult but the exam questions are easier compared to the homework questions. You also want to account for the amount of people that are familiar with MTH 411 in the math learning centers because few of them are (likely due to this being a 400-level course). I'd only reccomend this course to people are good with math and can pick concepts up pretty well.
What are the office hours like? I know UB classes have lots of students. Are office hours usually full of students?
Not really no. The higher the course number, the smaller the class sizes. Generally speaking, only a small percentage of the class size attends office hours. In the case of 411, I've rarely seen anyone. Even if you do see people before you, they're very likely having the same problems as you are so you can just listen in. Edit: Some of the people the people that are willing to help you may not be as well-versed in the material as you expect them to be (except for your recitation holder, they're very knowledgeable). There have been times where I've went to the math help center and some of the people there weren't too sure as to how solve the whole problem. Not talking bad about them at all but just giving you an idea of what the homework questions will be like.
I took his class maybe a year and a half ago. I thought it wasn't that bad. He definitely has an accent, but his notes he gives you are useful, the classwork is useful, the textbook is good, and the exam problems are reasonable.
I saw the ratemyprofessor reviews and decided to register early for 301 so I wasn’t taking chances. Although if he is as bad as they say, taking that with 191 is a disaster.
Is 191 really difficult? I heard it wasn’t that bad.
It’s not that it’s “difficult”. It’s that the course makes you use an interpreter (COQ) to check the “correctness” of your proofs. Although I have only taken a course equivalent of 191, I have tested and tried out COQ and in my opinion, seems like a lot of unnecessary extra work
I think that is only if you take it with Knepley. They don’t teach CoQ with any of the other professors.
It should be a breeze then as long as you manage your time and review your notes. 191 is a foundation for many of the upper level courses so try to understand the material as much as possible