DON"T TAKE THIS PROFESSOR.

You might think that this page is full of reviews by a bunch of whiners, but LISTEN TO THEM. Professor Mess doesn't make sense at all. He doesn't answer your questions. His tests don't pull all the important concepts that you've learned in the homework and focused on. I am an engineer and I had a 3.50 GPA before taking this teacher.

DON"T TAKE THIS PROFESSOR.

Worst prof at UCLA of my freshman year. He fits to his name, he is a MESS. The first class, I seriously thought he was a homeless man in off the street. He hasn't showered in eons, nor washed his dirty, mangy, wrinkled, blood stained clothes in ages.
Normally I wouldn't mind that if he was a good prof, but HE'S AWFUL. His lectures are overly theoretical, he can't communicate to help you learn, and puts you to sleep. The only reason I went to class was because I was a notetaker.
I ended up bombing the midterms (8/40 on the first, where avg was 12), but studied terribly hard for the final, which I did well on to get a B+ in the class.

AHHHMM, Let's see... First off, that picture is a LIE. Here is what he really looks like

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs035.snc3/12310_**********52_784543652_4691835_4651252_n.jpg

I have had the utter misfortune of having Professor Geoffrey Mess for 32A and B.

First of all, I would like to talk about his appearance. You'd think a guy with the last name Mess would make extra sure he did not look like a mess every single day of his life. His hygiene is extremely poor. He has a graying lions mane of hair and beard. He often wears dirty, obviously previously worn shirts to class. He has been known to scratch his buttocks and pubic area right in front of the class. He smells. You know, a lot of people might say, why critique his appearance? Because it matters. Two quarters of having to see and smell a man who came to class looking like a homeless man really gets to you.

To compliment his poor attempt at having an appearance, Professor Mess also happens to struggle in the social aspect of life. He has trouble speaking and conveying ideas to the class. He does not understand basic small talk and I'm not thoroughly convinced he has ever had a friend or a significant other to practice any sort of simple human conversation. Mess has been vocal about his hatred for computers, the internet, or any gagdets. He feels so strongly about this, that he likes to simply ignore that the internet is the way students find out about their grades and keep them waiting four weeks after fall quarter has ended to finally reveal whether they have passed his rigorous class or not. He does not respond to his email, not even if its the TA. Therefore the TAs are totally out of the loop and must ask the students if there is homework, what they have learned in class, etc. Also Mess does not often remember to give students the homework on the day that he is supposed to.

Mess is a genius (although somehow he mucks up simple algebra sometimes). He obviously thinks about mathematics every minute and fails to realize that 99.99 percent of humans do not do this. Thus he teaches in a way that is extremely difficult for the average college student to grasp. His lectures usually go over everyones head, and he seems stumped when he asks the class a question and there are seconds of silence. Then he has the audacity to ask "Everybody get that?" after he has explained something extremely complicated in an extremely poor way. The fact is that almost everybody did not "get that." The poor midterm grades should be a hint of that.

His midterms sometimes contain trivial proofs and memorization rather than honing math skills. As expected the curve is pretty low and he guarantees 23 percent A- or better and 58 percent B- or better. Which is nice since most of the class fails the tests anyway.

Mess is just an awful, disgusting human being. No, I'm not bitter, I'm passing his classes just fine. I just feel bad for anyone who must experience this horrible man. He is simply an awful professor in every way and does not respect his students at all. I have checked and it looks like UCLA has had enough complaints to remove him from teaching, at least for spring quarter.