Reviews for MATH140H
Information | Review |
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Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/04/2024 |
To be honest, my experience taking Math 140H with Professor Berhanu was not as I hoped, however, I am going to give a true and well-rounded review. If you take this class here's what to expect, Professor Berhanu certainly knows what he's talking about. He is passionate about the material but can move through the material at a quick pace. He teaches via a blackboard and multiple sticks of chalk, he will not post lecture notes, however, he will assign additional optional practice problems at the end of each class, and then go over them at the beginning of the following. He does take the assumption that you fully understand what he teaches, and after finishing a topic will state "is that clear" and move on promptly. I found asking questions to be difficult, as if he deems the question to be too far behind, he typically will give a short and judgmental response. If you are going to ask a question you just have to seem like you know something for a useful response, and if you're going to answer a question you better know it. When it comes to HW, he assigns two generic Web Assigns a week, which can be helpful additional practice in understanding a topic. Each Wednesday he will assign a "HW" (10 point Quiz) relative to the work between that and the last quiz. I found the quizzes to be fair and the TA (whom you will not meet) to be a lenient grader, and fairly simple. When it comes to tests, his are certainly based about understanding the topic, not necessarily mastery. Overall they are not awful but he will occasionally throw a challenge question in the mix. His grading system is fair where he will drop two of the lowest quizzes and the worst exam is worth 50 points, not 100. Overall he is a funny guy simply because he can be extremely socially awkward. All and all you might be asking what was the downside of taking his class. He is fair to most students, but if you're one of the unlucky few that he has it out for, your in for a long ride. He teaches with extreme favoritism and grades with it too. After taking Exam 1 I reached out to meet with him prior to the next class to discuss the grade. I was immediately met with my paper slammed down and informed he wanted to take more points from the exam (had no clue that was possible). He asked for me to explain my process and each time I was met with the same remark "you know because you saw the answer key I posted after the exam", to be honest, I didn't either way it wouldn't have made a difference as he insisted it and did not allow me to answer any question he asked without scrutiny. He then repetitively told me "your going to fail" for the next 10 minutes of our meeting and finished it off with "I don't know how your allowed to take this class". All of this was a shocker and the treatment continued throughout the semester. I tried countless times to seek aid, and every time I asked him he directed me to the department while others were given additional explanations, practice, help, etc. So if you're going to take this class here's what to consider: If you're a slow learner I'd recommend standard Math 140. If you have already taken AB, or BC and are confident, this is the class for you and the exams and coursework are fairly simple. Most of all just hope he doesn't decide that your one of the few he dosen't like. I am not the only one who I have heard had this experience, and it's truly a shame because I did enjoy the class and its material. I hope no one has this experience, and if you don't Professor Berhanu is overall a good professor and teaches well. |
Clarke Safsten
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 01/26/2024 |
Safsten is a pretty good professor. He wants his students to succeed and will put time into talking out a problem with you during office hours. He may seem a little hard at first but is pretty nice when grading and almost never takes full points off unless the approach for the question was completely off. |
Clarke Safsten
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2023 |
I highly recommend taking Prof. Safsten for any math course. He was generous, kind, funny, and always smiled throughout the semester. He is very understanding when it comes to missing the online homework assignments; he will grant extensions simply asking him. Additionally, Prof. Safsten explained the fundamental contents of Calculus I thoroughly. He teaches the class following the assigned chapters in the textbook. You can find the schedule of chapters in the syllabus he provides. Since this was an H-course, there were some topics that the course skipped over, however, these topics were not covered in the Final, so no need to fret. All four midterms consisted of topics covered in class using the required textbook. He was a gracious grader; you can expect little points to be taken off if there were any algebraic errors leading to your final answer. In addition, you can challenge any grade you believe is unfair or miscalculated. The quizzes that Prof. Safsten would hand out were completely fair. They usually consist of two questions that require no more than 10 minutes. The quizzes usually cover the topics covered for that week. He automatically drops the lowest grade on one of these quizzes for your calculated grade. One thing that I was not a fan of throughout the course was the graded discussion sheets. Prof. Safsten does not grade these discussion sheets as he hands them off to a TA to be graded. I was not aware of who the TA was, but there were instances where the TA would remove up to 1 or 2 points out of a 10-point worksheet. You can probably ask him to regrade the worksheets. Excellent teacher. I highly recommend Prof. Safsten for students seeking out a generous teacher in the math department. |
Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/23/2023 |
After reading other reviews, I do agree that Professor Berhanu is a bit of a harsh grader with not much partial credit, but compared to every other Math140 teacher, his tests are the easiest. I looked at friends' tests and they were much trickier, if you understand the concepts then you will get a decent grade in Berhanu's class. If you participate in class Berhanu will boost your grade at the end of the semester, sit in the front and answer the many basic questions he asks during class. But make sure you are right because he is a bit passive aggressive if you get the answer wrong. The Webassign homeworks were only worth 3% which was very nice because they are the same for every section, they take a long time to do and usually do not have content that will even be on the test. If you do the practice exams, and can follow most of the lecture, you will do fine. Math140H vs Math140 is a hard choice because H is only 3 times a week, but the quizzes we have are more difficult, but I think it is best to take H unless math is a major sore spot. With H you get more time with the professor (smaller class) and the professors are usually better. Although with normal 140 there are discussions where you work problems out and do easy quizzes, you also get a TA which can be helpful. |
Alex Safsten
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023 |
He's a really great professor and makes this hard class durable. His exams are never crazy hard, and while some of the classwork and homework may challenge us, he made it clear that the exams are not meant to stretch the material but test us no the concepts we should already know. He made the exams medium level so not crazy easy but never types of problems that we hadn't seen and worked with before. No curveballs on the exams. His lectures move fast, but because we only meet 3 times a week, we do have a lot of material to cover. I took advantage of office hours and he is very flexible with availability. Overall, he is a really understanding and caring professor. If you need extensions on the homework, he is flexible and understanding and will grant them with no points off. While calc 1 may not be the easiest class, this is most definitely the professor you want if you have to take this course. |
Alex Safsten
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023 |
He's a really great professor and makes this hard class durable. His exams are never crazy hard, and while some of the classwork and homework may challenge us, he made it clear that the exams are not meant to stretch the material but test us on the concepts we should already know. He made the exams medium level so not crazy easy but never types of problems that we hadn't seen and worked with before. No curveballs on the exams. His lectures move fast, but because we only meet 3 times a week, we do have a lot of material to cover. I took advantage of office hours and he is very flexible with availability. Overall, he is a really understanding and caring professor. If you need extensions on the homework, he is flexible and understanding and will grant them will no points off. While calc 1 may not be the easiest class, this is most definitely the professor you want if you have to take this course. |
Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2023 |
Professor Berhanu is a very good teacher, he just teaches through proofs and some simple examples. I was prepared for this kind of teaching as I had a similar teacher in high school. However, many people struggle with this kind of teaching. His exams are very easy and just a test on how well you know the concepts. I would recommend him to anyone who is a quick and deliberate learner. |
Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Expecting a C- Anonymous 11/04/2023 |
Be prepared to get everything perfect if you want a good grade in this class. Berhanu loves math but he’s not very understanding if you don’t pick up quickly. He hardly gives partial credit and won’t hesitate to take off full points if your answer doesn’t match his preferred method, even if it’s technically right. Only take this if you’re really good at math and can put a lot of time into studying his methods. |
Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Anonymous 01/25/2023 |
Professor Berhanu would talk poorly about students to other students in the same class behind their backs. He did seem enthusiastic about math, but was not understanding in many cases when it came to his students. Graded harshly, only accepted the exact right format and wording for tests and classwork. He didn't know how to use Gradescope so our final grades remained a mystery. Had closed note classwork on the topic you just learned up to twice a week. He went in depth in writing out proofs, for which we never used in actual classwork or exams. I don't recommend taking this class. I came in several times to his office hours but continued to struggle through the semester. |
Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2022 |
Professor Berhanu (Shif) was awesome for Calc I. As far as basic course details go, he doesn't give too much work, the midterms were pretty easy, and there were very few times that we faced a problem that we were getting graded for and not have seen it/practiced for it before. Beyond that, He's very good at breaking down and explaining concepts and is clearly excited to be teaching. I don't think it would be that crazy to call his level of excitement "cute". He does have a non-american accent for speaking English, but once you hear him talk long enough you get used to it. If you can take him for MATH140H, or any math class that he teaches, I highly recommend choosing him. |
Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH140H Expecting a W Anonymous 12/05/2022 |
Professor Berhanu made this course impossible to pass. Every Wednesday he would teach content and then immediately make you put away all of you notes and do a worksheet on content you had barely learned, unaided. He couldn't figure out how to put grades on canvas, so the Canvas grade only reflected your WebAssign scores, meaning you wouldn't know how much the "worksheets" (which were basically pop quizzes) and exams (that most people didn't pass but still weren't curved) affected your grade until midterm grades were released and you have 2 days to see if you need to withdraw from the course. I strongly recommend to not take the honors version of this course because if you have an unhelpful professor like I did then you have no TA to help where you are struggling. He seems like a nice man who really enjoys math but he was not a good teacher |
Nathan Manning
MATH140H Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/26/2022 |
Super good professor in a small class setting. Very personable and easy to talk to before class and during discussion, and is able to flip the switch for lecture very quickly. His lectures are engaging and really well planned, only downside is exams are very challenging. If you are looking for an easier A, don't take him, but if you are looking to learn and be challenged, I would highly recommend him |
Steven Chadwick
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 04/12/2022 |
Also took 141H with Chadwick as well, and in my opinion he is the best calculus 1 and 2 professor here. Lectures are straightforward with both theory and examples of concepts. He occasionally gives hints to difficult questions on webassign and will basically give you the answers to worksheets in office hours. His exams are always straight forward and will always give out practice exams before each one. A very nice person as well and understanding of student's needs if they need a deadline extension. |
Jacob Bedrossian
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 01/28/2021 |
Professor Bedrossian is an incredibly intelligent man, and a pretty good lecturer. His exams could be difficult sometimes, but were fair. His weekly homeworks had some real crazy stuff attached to them, but doable with fair bit of thinking. Very nice, sorta awkward. |
Xiumin Du
MATH140H Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/23/2018 |
I felt she did a solid job for my MATH140H class. She graded very fairly and was helpful whenever I needed something clarified, but I recommend you go in with at least a little bit of Calc experience under your belt. |
McBlaine Boyle
MATH140H Anonymous 12/17/2010 |
Dr. Boyle is an extremely intelligent and nice guy. However, like they say, "those who can, CANT teach". Most of his teaching was by spending the whole class writing proofs on the board, with no one in the class having any idea what was going on. He did not take much time to simply explain the basic underlying idea of most concepts. Tests were sometimes challenging but reasonable, and he drops your lowest exam, and some quizzes/hw. I do not recommend taking this class with Boyle unless you've had calculus before and did well. Even with that, you may still struggle. |
McBlaine Boyle
MATH140H Anonymous 12/01/2010 |
Mike Boyle knows a lot about calculus . Mike Boyle knows nothing about how to teach calculus. Many times I would find myself confused in his lectures when he went off into tangents of yet ANOTHER proof , and then while doing the impossible homework problems find that he never actually taught us how to do the problem , only the theory behind the math. Many a times it was hard for everyone to stay awake, as his lectures can get very very boring very very fast. I often never understood his answers when I asked him a question and found his tests to be extraordinarily unfair. Out of our entire class there were only two A's. Good news is however he curves the class at the end. On another good note , he is very willing to help you out and is easily contactable. And every now and then he will crack a corny joke to keep you awake. |
Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH140H Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2008 |
Justin is my favorite teacher this semester by far. He's funny and explains everything really well. I never have fallen asleep in this class because he makes class interesting. Before the tests, he gives out sample exams which are really good to study from. He's really good at clarifying everything that anyone might have a problem with. I never figured a calculus class would be my favorite class, but Justin is awesome and I was pleasantly surprised. |
Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH140H Anonymous 12/05/2008 |
explains everything really well. tests are hard - but fair granted he teaches really well. |
Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH140H Anonymous 12/18/2007 |
Horrible teacher. Over-elaborates things that should come as common sense to people. Tests are a ridiculous waste of time. Nice guy, but horrible as a teacher. And if you're going to be in his class, I suggest bringing yourself a scented candle or something. Massive BO. |