Jose Ramon Madrid Padilla
Department of Mathematics
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3.0
Overall Rating
Based on 17 Users
Easiness 3.0 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.2 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.1 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
  • Needs Textbook
  • Useful Textbooks
  • Appropriately Priced Materials
  • Tolerates Tardiness
GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS
46.2%
38.5%
30.8%
23.1%
15.4%
7.7%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

13.6%
11.4%
9.1%
6.8%
4.5%
2.3%
0.0%
A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grade distributions are collected using data from the UCLA Registrar’s Office.

ENROLLMENT DISTRIBUTIONS
Clear marks

Sorry, no enrollment data is available.

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Reviews (14)

1 of 2
1 of 2
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Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: N/A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
April 2, 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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2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2019
Grade: B
June 26, 2019

Professor Padilla isn' t a strong lecturer and attending lectures often left me confused ( same with office hours). You have to rely heavily on TA discussion sections and doing a lot of exercises from the textbook. Fortunately, it's pretty straight forward so you can teach yourself. Exams weren't too bad, but a lot of concepts weren't talked about in depth and just kind of rushed through.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2019
Grade: C
April 1, 2019

Context: This was his first time teaching a lower division class and was nervous to begin with.
His accent was hard to understand at times and he was not good at explaining concepts in an EXTREMELY conceptual class. I would like to note that sometimes I just didn't go to class because I didn't see the value in attending because I didn't feel I would be able to understand what he was talking about.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B-
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Dec. 2, 2020

The prof had a habit of speeding through the materials hella fast. I thought it was out of nervousness in week 1, but it kept going even with students continuously asking him to slow down, so we all unanimously gave up trying to remind him. By the time week 3 rolled around I had no idea what I was doing, so I gave up and followed the textbook instead, which was a lot more helpful and provided a variety of examples. Some methods they used were over-complicated though, like the bit on determinants of massive matrices, so I suggest you go to Khan Academy if you're stuck because they have a lot of resources as always.
First midterm was totally fine, and I accidentally missed the second midterm due to being overseas this quarter, but I heard it got quite difficult and people complained. I asked the prof if there was any way that I could retake the midterm, but he said no and that my excuse wasn't good enough and that he would talk with the department about it, which is fair enough. I didn't get a response for a few weeks though, so when I followed him up about it in week 10 he quite readily allowed my grade for my final to be the grade for my second midterm was well, which was nice.
Homework was pretty standard, everything came from the textbook, and were due once every two weeks. If you're stuck, look over the examples in that chapter and you'll find something very similar to imitate. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure the textbook answers are on Sl*der.
Overall, the class content itself wasn't that complicated, especially if you have a good grasp of basic algebra and simultaneous equations, but the prof made things a bit difficult.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 2, 2020

Took this class online during COVID.
Professor Madrid Padilla is a terrible lecturer, moving at a pace that left everyone confused. His explanations of the material were overall poor and despite sending him many emails he never responded to me. The first midterm was reasonable but the second one was the hardest test I have ever taken which is how he intentionally designed it because people were doing too well. Overall I would NOT recommend taking any class with this professor as you will leave more confused than you were when you started.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B+
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
July 2, 2020

I took this class when remote instruction was first offered and it was rough at times. Jose talks fast and the audio was not too clear, although he did listen and improved afterwards. The tests were open-notes timed, with midterms being 2 hours and the finals 24 hours, and while difficult, was manageable (although the second midterm was noticeable harder than the first). He was very accommodating for the situation however, curving the class and making the finals more application than conceptual. The homework was on a biweekly schedule and was comparable to math 32 series. My TA Talon was extremely helpful and answered any questions that we had. Overall it was a decent class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
June 30, 2020

Although at first, his lectures were hard to follow as he went quite fast, in the end, he made sure that everyone understood, and I really liked this professor. Homeworks were given every 2 weeks and his tests were overall very simple and straightforward. If you do your homework and attend lectures, it was easy. He does have an accent that made certain parts of the lecture challenging but it wasn't too bad, and you get used to it too. Overall, I enjoyed this class and its materials, and the professor was lenient with grades (due to the coronavirus).

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: P
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 25, 2020

He speeds runs his lectures, so it's way too fast to follow. I didn't get much out of lectures and often left very confused. I basically relied on my TA, 3blue1brown, and Khan Academy to teach me this course. If you go to his office hours with a problem from the book, he will walk you through it step by step through which is quite helpful. If you learn through concrete examples, this professor is not for you. He doesn't do many problems with actual numbers associated with them during lecture.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 22, 2020

Jose was a good professor but he had trouble explaining concepts well. A textbook is needed but he says to just go online and find the pdf. He is very kind.

Make sure to get a good TA (mine was Talon Stark and he was great) and watch 3blue1 brown videos and you'll be fine

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: P
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
June 17, 2020

Class isn't hard - but professor is mediocre at explaining concepts - be prepared to self study. Does have a somewhat strong Spanish accent.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: N/A
April 2, 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!

Helpful?

2 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2019
Grade: B
June 26, 2019

Professor Padilla isn' t a strong lecturer and attending lectures often left me confused ( same with office hours). You have to rely heavily on TA discussion sections and doing a lot of exercises from the textbook. Fortunately, it's pretty straight forward so you can teach yourself. Exams weren't too bad, but a lot of concepts weren't talked about in depth and just kind of rushed through.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
Quarter: Winter 2019
Grade: C
April 1, 2019

Context: This was his first time teaching a lower division class and was nervous to begin with.
His accent was hard to understand at times and he was not good at explaining concepts in an EXTREMELY conceptual class. I would like to note that sometimes I just didn't go to class because I didn't see the value in attending because I didn't feel I would be able to understand what he was talking about.

Helpful?

1 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B-
Dec. 2, 2020

The prof had a habit of speeding through the materials hella fast. I thought it was out of nervousness in week 1, but it kept going even with students continuously asking him to slow down, so we all unanimously gave up trying to remind him. By the time week 3 rolled around I had no idea what I was doing, so I gave up and followed the textbook instead, which was a lot more helpful and provided a variety of examples. Some methods they used were over-complicated though, like the bit on determinants of massive matrices, so I suggest you go to Khan Academy if you're stuck because they have a lot of resources as always.
First midterm was totally fine, and I accidentally missed the second midterm due to being overseas this quarter, but I heard it got quite difficult and people complained. I asked the prof if there was any way that I could retake the midterm, but he said no and that my excuse wasn't good enough and that he would talk with the department about it, which is fair enough. I didn't get a response for a few weeks though, so when I followed him up about it in week 10 he quite readily allowed my grade for my final to be the grade for my second midterm was well, which was nice.
Homework was pretty standard, everything came from the textbook, and were due once every two weeks. If you're stuck, look over the examples in that chapter and you'll find something very similar to imitate. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure the textbook answers are on Sl*der.
Overall, the class content itself wasn't that complicated, especially if you have a good grasp of basic algebra and simultaneous equations, but the prof made things a bit difficult.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B+
July 2, 2020

Took this class online during COVID.
Professor Madrid Padilla is a terrible lecturer, moving at a pace that left everyone confused. His explanations of the material were overall poor and despite sending him many emails he never responded to me. The first midterm was reasonable but the second one was the hardest test I have ever taken which is how he intentionally designed it because people were doing too well. Overall I would NOT recommend taking any class with this professor as you will leave more confused than you were when you started.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: B+
July 2, 2020

I took this class when remote instruction was first offered and it was rough at times. Jose talks fast and the audio was not too clear, although he did listen and improved afterwards. The tests were open-notes timed, with midterms being 2 hours and the finals 24 hours, and while difficult, was manageable (although the second midterm was noticeable harder than the first). He was very accommodating for the situation however, curving the class and making the finals more application than conceptual. The homework was on a biweekly schedule and was comparable to math 32 series. My TA Talon was extremely helpful and answered any questions that we had. Overall it was a decent class.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Verified Reviewer This user is a verified UCLA student/alum.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 30, 2020

Although at first, his lectures were hard to follow as he went quite fast, in the end, he made sure that everyone understood, and I really liked this professor. Homeworks were given every 2 weeks and his tests were overall very simple and straightforward. If you do your homework and attend lectures, it was easy. He does have an accent that made certain parts of the lecture challenging but it wasn't too bad, and you get used to it too. Overall, I enjoyed this class and its materials, and the professor was lenient with grades (due to the coronavirus).

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: P
June 25, 2020

He speeds runs his lectures, so it's way too fast to follow. I didn't get much out of lectures and often left very confused. I basically relied on my TA, 3blue1brown, and Khan Academy to teach me this course. If you go to his office hours with a problem from the book, he will walk you through it step by step through which is quite helpful. If you learn through concrete examples, this professor is not for you. He doesn't do many problems with actual numbers associated with them during lecture.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: A
June 22, 2020

Jose was a good professor but he had trouble explaining concepts well. A textbook is needed but he says to just go online and find the pdf. He is very kind.

Make sure to get a good TA (mine was Talon Stark and he was great) and watch 3blue1 brown videos and you'll be fine

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
COVID-19 This review was submitted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your experience may vary.
Quarter: Spring 2020
Grade: P
June 17, 2020

Class isn't hard - but professor is mediocre at explaining concepts - be prepared to self study. Does have a somewhat strong Spanish accent.

Helpful?

0 0 Please log in to provide feedback.
1 of 2
3.0
Overall Rating
Based on 17 Users
Easiness 3.0 / 5 How easy the class is, 1 being extremely difficult and 5 being easy peasy.
Clarity 2.2 / 5 How clear the class is, 1 being extremely unclear and 5 being very clear.
Workload 3.8 / 5 How much workload the class is, 1 being extremely heavy and 5 being extremely light.
Helpfulness 3.1 / 5 How helpful the class is, 1 being not helpful at all and 5 being extremely helpful.

TOP TAGS

  • Uses Slides
    (8)
  • Needs Textbook
    (8)
  • Useful Textbooks
    (7)
  • Appropriately Priced Materials
    (7)
  • Tolerates Tardiness
    (5)
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