Professor
Jose Ramon Madrid Padilla
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I thought he was okay. I could feel that he tries to explain things, but a lot of the time unsuccessfully. He always posts hw late which makes it difficult to plan ahead. Apparently he never responds to emails as well. And if it hadn't been for recorded lectures, my ESL skills wouldn't have been able to understand his accent (which is my fault, but look out for that). Personally I didn't find his test to be that difficult, but he does shove in one question (or two in the final) where you can't solve it straightforwardly and need to do some shit to it first. The grading was also quite annoying, you could clearly show that you understand the materials (and have the correct answer) but still get a B or lower because you failed to clarify your steps. I figured that out after the first midterm so just adapt to that and it'd be good. I think personally I understood the materials well enough that none of these things were really deal breaker for me. But I thought the final was much more difficult than the midterms unlike the majority, so there's that.
Winter 2021 - I thought he was okay. I could feel that he tries to explain things, but a lot of the time unsuccessfully. He always posts hw late which makes it difficult to plan ahead. Apparently he never responds to emails as well. And if it hadn't been for recorded lectures, my ESL skills wouldn't have been able to understand his accent (which is my fault, but look out for that). Personally I didn't find his test to be that difficult, but he does shove in one question (or two in the final) where you can't solve it straightforwardly and need to do some shit to it first. The grading was also quite annoying, you could clearly show that you understand the materials (and have the correct answer) but still get a B or lower because you failed to clarify your steps. I figured that out after the first midterm so just adapt to that and it'd be good. I think personally I understood the materials well enough that none of these things were really deal breaker for me. But I thought the final was much more difficult than the midterms unlike the majority, so there's that.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I started with the class during the COVID epidemic, so perhaps the lectures are different in real life. However he zoomed through classes, speed-running through his own notes leaving the students in the dust. While an accent shouldn't affect one's judgement of a professor, he does have a heavy accent and by the time I could figure out what he said he was 3 pages ahead in his notes. This class is one that will be useful for a long time and I would rather not take it for an entire quarter than to take it with a professor wherein my concepts would remain broken. He takes doubts happily and maintains a cheery mood, but asking for reiteration of a topic would remain to be useless since he would end up skimming through it again. He is a great person with a passion for math however his teaching as a professor could have some major improvement! Despite knowing the starting of the class decently well, his explanation counterintuitively shattered them!
Spring 2020 - I started with the class during the COVID epidemic, so perhaps the lectures are different in real life. However he zoomed through classes, speed-running through his own notes leaving the students in the dust. While an accent shouldn't affect one's judgement of a professor, he does have a heavy accent and by the time I could figure out what he said he was 3 pages ahead in his notes. This class is one that will be useful for a long time and I would rather not take it for an entire quarter than to take it with a professor wherein my concepts would remain broken. He takes doubts happily and maintains a cheery mood, but asking for reiteration of a topic would remain to be useless since he would end up skimming through it again. He is a great person with a passion for math however his teaching as a professor could have some major improvement! Despite knowing the starting of the class decently well, his explanation counterintuitively shattered them!
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2022 - Dr. Madrid is very friendly, helpful, and generous with the office hours! The class is very hard, but if we attend the discussion and office hours regularly it helps a lot! Our TA Steven Truong is awesome as well. I suggest everyone who take 131B to go to Steven's website and review 131B materials since test-related concepts are on there. Tests are all online, hard, and require some creativity. There are 2 midterms (24h) and 1 Final (48h). Overall, Dr. Madrid makes this class a lot more tolerable!!
Winter 2022 - Dr. Madrid is very friendly, helpful, and generous with the office hours! The class is very hard, but if we attend the discussion and office hours regularly it helps a lot! Our TA Steven Truong is awesome as well. I suggest everyone who take 131B to go to Steven's website and review 131B materials since test-related concepts are on there. Tests are all online, hard, and require some creativity. There are 2 midterms (24h) and 1 Final (48h). Overall, Dr. Madrid makes this class a lot more tolerable!!
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