I'm actually embarrassed to write a review for this man because no length of words of praise and adoration is enough to express just how brilliant, and phenomenal this man is. He is incredibly enthusiastic about his work, prioritizes student learning and engagement, and is absolutely the greatest professor that I have ever had the honor of learning under. There is no question about why his reviews and ratings on BruinWalk are so high: All of the comments made thus far by his students are TRUE, and I will not even bother rephrasing what most people have already stated (but I probably will).

Yes, professor Garfinkel is unavailable most of the time, but NO worries. He has chosen excellent teaching assistants to help you ANYTIME that you need help! Seriously, up to this point, I had been thinking of transferring to a private college because most of the teaching assistants that I have had so far were HORRIBLE (chemistry 14A, LS2, physics 6A, DESMA10) and the class sizes were HUGE (like, I literally had to sit on the stairs for Lavelle and LS2). Something is different about this class though. I don't know if this class has amazing teaching assistants because the class is relatively new, or if the professor is so charismatic that the teaching assistants themselves find themselves in a position where they want to give it their 110% to impress him, but in either case, they were AWESOME. His lecture wasn't HUGE either. It was just the right size, to allow for small class time discussions when people asked questions.

Yes, his lectures are fantastic. I never got bored listening to his lectures, and to be quite honest, his late lectures were a huge concern for me in the beginning. His amazing lectures have made me disregard the bad timing of the lectures, and made me WANT to go to classes every day. There was once a poll going around in my freshman year, that stated that "if you were to have one last lecture, who would it be from?", and it's a shame that I didn't have professor Garfinkel sooner because I would have definitely chosen him.

As for grading, don't worry too much. He even told us the first day that he doesn't believe in the bell curve and a percentage scale, and that if you demonstrate understanding of the material, you will get the grade that you deserve. l was worried a LOT before taking this class, because l hadn't taken AP Calculus BC since my sophomore year, and I didn't do any math review since then. Oh man, professor Garfinkel goes through EVERYTHING, as if we're learning math from the ground-up. Now, this doesn't mean that he goes easy on us. It means that he brings up different facets of the same subject that reinforces your previous knowledge. I know of no math professors that do this (which is awesome). He also has fantastic REVIEW sessions for the midterm and final, where he covers EVERYTHING that you need to know. How awesome, right?

As for the charisma and brilliance of professor Garfinkel, I'll leave that up to you to witness.