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- Siddarth Venkatesh
- MATH 32A
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Siddharth is overall a pretty good teacher and clearly knows the content. The content in this class is pretty dry, however, which made his lectures a pretty tough watch.
Overall, I would recommend avoiding Siddarth. I rarely found the lectures helpful and felt as though he would spend way too much time explaining concepts rather than going over examples. He also constantly cancelled lecture right before it began, which was annoying because it would often be at least a week before he uploaded it. This lead to lectures being out of order and overall disorganized. I will say I do feel bad because he seemed to be dealing with some rough things this quarter such as sickness and many emergencies. I found the midterms and final particularly difficult and honestly nothing like the reviews he put out. The homework wasn't too bad and he would go over problems in the OH. My TA, Mark Kong, was probably the least helpful person ever so also avoid him if you can.
tl;dr - messy-ish lectures, difficult tests, not a lot of homework, overall pretty challenging, semi-clear professor
It was my first quarter at uni, so I wasn't prepared for the quarter system. I generally felt like it was just a lot of information thrown at me that I didn't have time to process. There were a range of 8 to 15 homework problems a week, and if you understand the material, it wasn't too bad, but they took me hours, and they were even questions, so I couldn't check my answers, either. The homework was graded fairly, though, with 50% of the homework grade being based on completion and the other half on accuracy. The lowest three homework grades were dropped. There were also three open-note quizzes and the lowest quiz was dropped. It was an online class so asking questions was really difficult for me. Similar problem? Go to your TA's in person office hours. Biggest mistake was not going earlier in the quarter. Honestly wasn't expecting to pass the class, but the tests were not awful. I think I got a 53% and an 88% on the midterms, and then around an 80% on the 40% final. They're difficult because they're not open note and there's no equation sheet, so you have to have everything memorized. There's a lot of time during each test to check answers, so it's not a time issue. You either know how to solve the question, or you don't. Venktaesh also doesn't post answer keys, until almost the whole class asks for them, so be aware of that for regrade attempts.
I'd take this class again, because I think it was probably more of the material that got me than bad teaching. Keep in mind though, Venkatesh doesn't offer any extra credit, while a few other math 32a teachers did.
Im selling the textbook for this class for $20 plus shipping, or you can offer something lower, if it hasn't sold yet, I might take it! email me: *************
Love this professor. He gives the best math lectures I have ever heard in my life, I genuinely looked forward to them. Venkatesh explains concepts so clearly I didn't even have to take notes. He's also really funny and insanely smart. Massive amount of homework unfortunately. The final was hard as shit, but he curved it so whatever. The class wasn't too hard imo, no special effort required really. Just do the work and you'll be fine. Overall, I highly recommend taking Math 32A with Venkatesh.
He taught the material pretty good and had everything memorized. It was just a lot of info and he would speak rapidly. He didn't take time to explain concepts and taught as if we were reviewing. Hated the hws and tests lol
I thought Venkatesh was actually a good professor, though he went through a lot of content quickly. When posting homework he also provided the actual questions (so we didn't need to buy the newest edition of the textbook) which was really nice. Midterms weren't too bad, though the final was ridiculously hard comparatively (I think the class average was a 67%?). Would take again.
The material up to the first midterm (stuff with vectors) was wonderfully taught. After that, shit hit the fan. The lectures were very hard to follow if you did not read the chapter beforehand. I was so confused most of the time that I didn't even know what questions to ask. However, he followed exactly the material in the textbook, so it was possible to figure out everything if you put enough work in (which was a lot). The discussions were totally and completely pointless. He provided review sheets for both his midterms, which were extremely helpful and had problems with difficulty similar to that on the tests. His final, however, was really hard. Although he said approximately 60% of the final would be material covered in the first two midterms, that was completely untrue. Basically everything was new material, and it was bad, but not completely impossible. However, he did curve it so I can't complain too much. Also, homework counts for 15% of your grade, and later on in the quarter it is very very very long. He also allows you to drop a midterm, which completely saved my grade.
Overall, Sid was a bad lecturer, but he wasn't a complete disaster. Like a 3 or 4/10. He just needs to slow down his thinking a little. His tests were fair and doable if you studied A LOT. His grading was fair as well and it was definitely possible to do well in this class, but be ready to study your ass off. Difficulty: 7.5/10
I feel like the previous reviews aren't fair as they were likely written out of anger after taking the final. Although the final was difficult, Siddharth made up for it by curving it such that the average was an 80% (which was the average for the other two midterms). The median final grade in the class was a high B, which is similar to, if not better than, other classes in the math department. I felt that Siddharth did a good job explaining the concepts in a way that was easy to understand, however, I wish he did go more in-depth as it felt as if he was teaching the class at a high school level sometimes. The problem sets were assigned directly from the textbook and were often very tedious and covered things that were not tested, and were graded for accuracy, which I was not a fan of. The midterms were very easy as he did a good job communicating exactly what he expected us to know in the lecture and through his study guides. The final was a bit of a curveball in terms of difficulty and complexity of the problems, but there wasn't anything on there that we hadn't learned. Overall, I would recommend taking a class with Siddharth since I feel that he will only get better as a professor since this was his first year.
Siddharth is overall a pretty good teacher and clearly knows the content. The content in this class is pretty dry, however, which made his lectures a pretty tough watch.
Overall, I would recommend avoiding Siddarth. I rarely found the lectures helpful and felt as though he would spend way too much time explaining concepts rather than going over examples. He also constantly cancelled lecture right before it began, which was annoying because it would often be at least a week before he uploaded it. This lead to lectures being out of order and overall disorganized. I will say I do feel bad because he seemed to be dealing with some rough things this quarter such as sickness and many emergencies. I found the midterms and final particularly difficult and honestly nothing like the reviews he put out. The homework wasn't too bad and he would go over problems in the OH. My TA, Mark Kong, was probably the least helpful person ever so also avoid him if you can.
tl;dr - messy-ish lectures, difficult tests, not a lot of homework, overall pretty challenging, semi-clear professor
It was my first quarter at uni, so I wasn't prepared for the quarter system. I generally felt like it was just a lot of information thrown at me that I didn't have time to process. There were a range of 8 to 15 homework problems a week, and if you understand the material, it wasn't too bad, but they took me hours, and they were even questions, so I couldn't check my answers, either. The homework was graded fairly, though, with 50% of the homework grade being based on completion and the other half on accuracy. The lowest three homework grades were dropped. There were also three open-note quizzes and the lowest quiz was dropped. It was an online class so asking questions was really difficult for me. Similar problem? Go to your TA's in person office hours. Biggest mistake was not going earlier in the quarter. Honestly wasn't expecting to pass the class, but the tests were not awful. I think I got a 53% and an 88% on the midterms, and then around an 80% on the 40% final. They're difficult because they're not open note and there's no equation sheet, so you have to have everything memorized. There's a lot of time during each test to check answers, so it's not a time issue. You either know how to solve the question, or you don't. Venktaesh also doesn't post answer keys, until almost the whole class asks for them, so be aware of that for regrade attempts.
I'd take this class again, because I think it was probably more of the material that got me than bad teaching. Keep in mind though, Venkatesh doesn't offer any extra credit, while a few other math 32a teachers did.
Im selling the textbook for this class for $20 plus shipping, or you can offer something lower, if it hasn't sold yet, I might take it! email me: *************
Love this professor. He gives the best math lectures I have ever heard in my life, I genuinely looked forward to them. Venkatesh explains concepts so clearly I didn't even have to take notes. He's also really funny and insanely smart. Massive amount of homework unfortunately. The final was hard as shit, but he curved it so whatever. The class wasn't too hard imo, no special effort required really. Just do the work and you'll be fine. Overall, I highly recommend taking Math 32A with Venkatesh.
He taught the material pretty good and had everything memorized. It was just a lot of info and he would speak rapidly. He didn't take time to explain concepts and taught as if we were reviewing. Hated the hws and tests lol
I thought Venkatesh was actually a good professor, though he went through a lot of content quickly. When posting homework he also provided the actual questions (so we didn't need to buy the newest edition of the textbook) which was really nice. Midterms weren't too bad, though the final was ridiculously hard comparatively (I think the class average was a 67%?). Would take again.
The material up to the first midterm (stuff with vectors) was wonderfully taught. After that, shit hit the fan. The lectures were very hard to follow if you did not read the chapter beforehand. I was so confused most of the time that I didn't even know what questions to ask. However, he followed exactly the material in the textbook, so it was possible to figure out everything if you put enough work in (which was a lot). The discussions were totally and completely pointless. He provided review sheets for both his midterms, which were extremely helpful and had problems with difficulty similar to that on the tests. His final, however, was really hard. Although he said approximately 60% of the final would be material covered in the first two midterms, that was completely untrue. Basically everything was new material, and it was bad, but not completely impossible. However, he did curve it so I can't complain too much. Also, homework counts for 15% of your grade, and later on in the quarter it is very very very long. He also allows you to drop a midterm, which completely saved my grade.
Overall, Sid was a bad lecturer, but he wasn't a complete disaster. Like a 3 or 4/10. He just needs to slow down his thinking a little. His tests were fair and doable if you studied A LOT. His grading was fair as well and it was definitely possible to do well in this class, but be ready to study your ass off. Difficulty: 7.5/10
I feel like the previous reviews aren't fair as they were likely written out of anger after taking the final. Although the final was difficult, Siddharth made up for it by curving it such that the average was an 80% (which was the average for the other two midterms). The median final grade in the class was a high B, which is similar to, if not better than, other classes in the math department. I felt that Siddharth did a good job explaining the concepts in a way that was easy to understand, however, I wish he did go more in-depth as it felt as if he was teaching the class at a high school level sometimes. The problem sets were assigned directly from the textbook and were often very tedious and covered things that were not tested, and were graded for accuracy, which I was not a fan of. The midterms were very easy as he did a good job communicating exactly what he expected us to know in the lecture and through his study guides. The final was a bit of a curveball in terms of difficulty and complexity of the problems, but there wasn't anything on there that we hadn't learned. Overall, I would recommend taking a class with Siddharth since I feel that he will only get better as a professor since this was his first year.
Based on 37 Users
TOP TAGS
- Tolerates Tardiness (13)
- Needs Textbook (15)
- Useful Textbooks (14)
- Tough Tests (15)
- Appropriately Priced Materials (13)