Professor
Amir Alexander
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2025 - The content for this class is fine; I was not personally too interested in the history of mathematics, but it was a change of pace from other history courses, which is nice. However, Professor Alexander usually just read off his slides the entire lecture, leading to most of the class being pretty boring. At the same time, attendance was mandatory for lectures. The biggest issue for me, however, lied in the grading. We had weekly reading responses, which in my opinion were quite easy. However, no matter how well they were written and how much textual evidence was used, the entire class seemed to get a 94. These grades for the reading responses left far less leeway in regards to the tests (one midterm and one final) for those who wanted to keep an A. I got lucky and managed to keep an A in the class, but after most people averaged around a 90 on the tests, the 94 on the participation assignments most likely kept them all at A- grades. If you are fine with being in that position, while also enjoying just copying the slides down that Professor Alexander shares, then this class is fine. However, if you are looking for an A in an upper division history class, I would consider other options before taking this class.
Spring 2025 - The content for this class is fine; I was not personally too interested in the history of mathematics, but it was a change of pace from other history courses, which is nice. However, Professor Alexander usually just read off his slides the entire lecture, leading to most of the class being pretty boring. At the same time, attendance was mandatory for lectures. The biggest issue for me, however, lied in the grading. We had weekly reading responses, which in my opinion were quite easy. However, no matter how well they were written and how much textual evidence was used, the entire class seemed to get a 94. These grades for the reading responses left far less leeway in regards to the tests (one midterm and one final) for those who wanted to keep an A. I got lucky and managed to keep an A in the class, but after most people averaged around a 90 on the tests, the 94 on the participation assignments most likely kept them all at A- grades. If you are fine with being in that position, while also enjoying just copying the slides down that Professor Alexander shares, then this class is fine. However, if you are looking for an A in an upper division history class, I would consider other options before taking this class.
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