Professor
Robert Greene
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - I actually took math 31b with Greene but I need to literally post this asap so everyone knows NOT TO TAKE GREENE FOR ANY CLASS. I literally taught the entire class to myself because his lectures were useless. I swear I spent every second of the day studying for this class and still struggled because his tests were so difficult. I got a 5 on ab calc and an A in math 31a so I'm not awful at math but this class was the death of me. Our average for our second midterm was 55. Steer clear.
Fall 2021 - I actually took math 31b with Greene but I need to literally post this asap so everyone knows NOT TO TAKE GREENE FOR ANY CLASS. I literally taught the entire class to myself because his lectures were useless. I swear I spent every second of the day studying for this class and still struggled because his tests were so difficult. I got a 5 on ab calc and an A in math 31a so I'm not awful at math but this class was the death of me. Our average for our second midterm was 55. Steer clear.
Most Helpful Review
Professor Greene was a very unique professor, to say the least. I came in having never taken Calculus before, and suffice to say, it was very challenging. He's not the traditional teacher where he explains concepts and gives examples, he dives straight into proofs, and like what everyone else said, he does expect you to know alot of basic Calculus. Most of my class was composed of students who had already taken Calculus before, so it was probably a cinch for them. He doesn't teach in the same order as his colleagues does, some of the stuff he taught I learned again in 31B. His class is broken down into 10% quizzes, which is one problem taken straight from the last week's homework, 20% each for the two midterms and a 50% final. The homework, and therefore the quizzes, were fairly easy. They were challenging problems, most of them proofs, but he gives you the solutions beforehand, so if worse comes to worse you can always memorize the solutions. First midterm was alright, again it was mostly proofs, and he gives you sample midterm problems. Only problem is that the sample problems were composed of ~30 problems/proofs, and he picked some of the hardest ones. The average was a 74%. Second midterm was a bit harder, again he gave sample problems but this time he switched up the numbers a bit. Average was a 68%. The final was composed of 10 problems, plus an extra credit problem. Each problem was multiple parts and contained a proof of some sort. This time he gave us a list of topics to study, and some of those were on the final word for word. The average was a 57% if I remember correctly. Overall, his lectures were pretty boring, he tries to do the proofs in class but sometimes he goes on tangents trying to explain them. I recommend getting a calculus book of some sort (probably the one used by the school) and just watching the MIT lectures. You'll probably get more out of it. Conclusion: If you've taken Calculus before, this class should be a piece of cake. Even if you haven't, as long as you have decent memorization skills, you should scrape at least a B. However, if you're trying to learn the material (for people who haven't taken Calculus), I recommend taking another professor.
Professor Greene was a very unique professor, to say the least. I came in having never taken Calculus before, and suffice to say, it was very challenging. He's not the traditional teacher where he explains concepts and gives examples, he dives straight into proofs, and like what everyone else said, he does expect you to know alot of basic Calculus. Most of my class was composed of students who had already taken Calculus before, so it was probably a cinch for them. He doesn't teach in the same order as his colleagues does, some of the stuff he taught I learned again in 31B. His class is broken down into 10% quizzes, which is one problem taken straight from the last week's homework, 20% each for the two midterms and a 50% final. The homework, and therefore the quizzes, were fairly easy. They were challenging problems, most of them proofs, but he gives you the solutions beforehand, so if worse comes to worse you can always memorize the solutions. First midterm was alright, again it was mostly proofs, and he gives you sample midterm problems. Only problem is that the sample problems were composed of ~30 problems/proofs, and he picked some of the hardest ones. The average was a 74%. Second midterm was a bit harder, again he gave sample problems but this time he switched up the numbers a bit. Average was a 68%. The final was composed of 10 problems, plus an extra credit problem. Each problem was multiple parts and contained a proof of some sort. This time he gave us a list of topics to study, and some of those were on the final word for word. The average was a 57% if I remember correctly. Overall, his lectures were pretty boring, he tries to do the proofs in class but sometimes he goes on tangents trying to explain them. I recommend getting a calculus book of some sort (probably the one used by the school) and just watching the MIT lectures. You'll probably get more out of it. Conclusion: If you've taken Calculus before, this class should be a piece of cake. Even if you haven't, as long as you have decent memorization skills, you should scrape at least a B. However, if you're trying to learn the material (for people who haven't taken Calculus), I recommend taking another professor.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Professor Greene was probably the single worst math professor I have ever had in my entire life. However, a lot of reviews unfairly characterize him as some sort of eldritch monstrosity. Greene is obviously very intelligent, and he does obviously care about his students. His office hours for example were very generous, there were three available every week-lasting until every single question asked by every single student was answered. Most math professors- even the nice ones-don't dedicate this much time to genuinely trying to teach the material. The issue is he's a terrible teacher and all this time was useless. The tests were terrible. They were almost entirely unrelated to the homework, however, if you go to all the lectures you are technically exposed to all the material. In summary, Professor Greene is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. But do NOT take his class. Don't even consider it. Wait the extra quarter.
Fall 2021 - Professor Greene was probably the single worst math professor I have ever had in my entire life. However, a lot of reviews unfairly characterize him as some sort of eldritch monstrosity. Greene is obviously very intelligent, and he does obviously care about his students. His office hours for example were very generous, there were three available every week-lasting until every single question asked by every single student was answered. Most math professors- even the nice ones-don't dedicate this much time to genuinely trying to teach the material. The issue is he's a terrible teacher and all this time was useless. The tests were terrible. They were almost entirely unrelated to the homework, however, if you go to all the lectures you are technically exposed to all the material. In summary, Professor Greene is probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. But do NOT take his class. Don't even consider it. Wait the extra quarter.
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2021 - Preface: this is a review for math 31B with Professor Greene not 32A Imagine: you are a first-year bio major having just taken AP Calculus BC and you need to start your major prerequisites, one of which is the math series. "Oh, calc 31b should be easy," you think. "I mean, I just finished calc bc so it should be a nice way to ease into a college courseload..." Ten weeks later your skin is oily, you haven't slept in a week, and all of your hair has turned grey as the final exam approaches and you are even MORE confused about calculus now than you were before you took the class. Let me get something straight, this class is not taught by Professor Greene, it is taught by Sal Khan and the archived videos of your high school calc bc teacher. Professor Greene's lectures are so convoluted and his notes are so messy that you will have a better chance of translating hieroglyphs than you will in trying to understand his thought process. The TA's in this class genuinely try to make the course material understandable, but when faced with mass confusion as every single student has multiple questions to answer in only a 50 minute period, it is impossible to make up for Professor Greene's incapability as a teacher. Generally, the workload is manageable on non Gradescope homework days. But on the weeks that Professor Greene assigns written homework, your time is better spent writing your will and picking out a cute coffin than it is trying to understand his extremely vague questions or deciphering his chicken scratch. The written homework for this class is so mentally taxing that each assignment has a high chance of landing you in the ICU by question 3. There is no doubt that professor Greene knows the material; the issue is that he is utterly incapable of conveying it to undergrad students in such a way that is comprehensible. Other students in the line for Rende have confused me for an upperclassman because the insomnia caused by this class has led to eyebags that rival the soulless look of a 4th year with thousands of dollars in student loans, an unpaid internship with a misogynist boss, and 4 research papers to write. For the sake of your mental, physical, emotional, and academic health, please please please do not take this class.
Fall 2021 - Preface: this is a review for math 31B with Professor Greene not 32A Imagine: you are a first-year bio major having just taken AP Calculus BC and you need to start your major prerequisites, one of which is the math series. "Oh, calc 31b should be easy," you think. "I mean, I just finished calc bc so it should be a nice way to ease into a college courseload..." Ten weeks later your skin is oily, you haven't slept in a week, and all of your hair has turned grey as the final exam approaches and you are even MORE confused about calculus now than you were before you took the class. Let me get something straight, this class is not taught by Professor Greene, it is taught by Sal Khan and the archived videos of your high school calc bc teacher. Professor Greene's lectures are so convoluted and his notes are so messy that you will have a better chance of translating hieroglyphs than you will in trying to understand his thought process. The TA's in this class genuinely try to make the course material understandable, but when faced with mass confusion as every single student has multiple questions to answer in only a 50 minute period, it is impossible to make up for Professor Greene's incapability as a teacher. Generally, the workload is manageable on non Gradescope homework days. But on the weeks that Professor Greene assigns written homework, your time is better spent writing your will and picking out a cute coffin than it is trying to understand his extremely vague questions or deciphering his chicken scratch. The written homework for this class is so mentally taxing that each assignment has a high chance of landing you in the ICU by question 3. There is no doubt that professor Greene knows the material; the issue is that he is utterly incapable of conveying it to undergrad students in such a way that is comprehensible. Other students in the line for Rende have confused me for an upperclassman because the insomnia caused by this class has led to eyebags that rival the soulless look of a 4th year with thousands of dollars in student loans, an unpaid internship with a misogynist boss, and 4 research papers to write. For the sake of your mental, physical, emotional, and academic health, please please please do not take this class.
Most Helpful Review
Summer 2022 - I took math 33b with Greene for 2022 Summer Session C. Although his teaching was a bit disorganized at times, he is not nearly as bad as what his reviews say. He is very helpful during his office hours and thoroughly answered everyone's questions. However, I do agree that he would probably be more suited to teaching an upper div math course, as the material from math 33b is simply way too easy for him. The homework assignments were for the most part straightforward, as they mainly came from the textbook. Only the last homework was written by Greene himself. I found TA sessions helpful for completing Greene's written homework, as the TA does a good job clarifying what exactly each problem means and what we're supposed to include in our solutions. Exams were fair and heavily based on Greene's lectures. It's important to attend lecture to do well. A lot of what Greene says in class cannot be found in the textbook. I personally made an effort to thoroughly review Greene's lecture notes and attend office hours to clarify concepts I felt unsure about. The grading schema was 30% HW, 30% midterm, 40% final. Overall it was fair. But be warned. The final was 20 multiple choice questions, so even missing a single question could have a significant impact on your final grade. Also, homework is worth much more than in a regular school quarter.
Summer 2022 - I took math 33b with Greene for 2022 Summer Session C. Although his teaching was a bit disorganized at times, he is not nearly as bad as what his reviews say. He is very helpful during his office hours and thoroughly answered everyone's questions. However, I do agree that he would probably be more suited to teaching an upper div math course, as the material from math 33b is simply way too easy for him. The homework assignments were for the most part straightforward, as they mainly came from the textbook. Only the last homework was written by Greene himself. I found TA sessions helpful for completing Greene's written homework, as the TA does a good job clarifying what exactly each problem means and what we're supposed to include in our solutions. Exams were fair and heavily based on Greene's lectures. It's important to attend lecture to do well. A lot of what Greene says in class cannot be found in the textbook. I personally made an effort to thoroughly review Greene's lecture notes and attend office hours to clarify concepts I felt unsure about. The grading schema was 30% HW, 30% midterm, 40% final. Overall it was fair. But be warned. The final was 20 multiple choice questions, so even missing a single question could have a significant impact on your final grade. Also, homework is worth much more than in a regular school quarter.
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