Answers to questions from the syllabus:
Q: What is your year in school and major?
A: I am a senior and my major is mathematics.
Q: Which post-calculus math courses have you taken?
A: I have taken Math 334, 341, 570, 521, 447, and Math 352.
Q: Why are you taking this class?
A: I am taking this class because it is required for the mathematics major.
Q: Tell me about the math professor or teacher you have had who was the most and/or least effective. What did s/he do that worked so well/poorly?
A: Dr. Barrett is the most effective I've had thus far. I had him for Math 570, a class I really loved. He was effective because his lecture notes were very well organized, he wrote clearly on the board at a comfortable pace, and worked very hard to help students have their questions answered. He's also a very kind and funny man, which helped me feel at ease about approaching him and discussing the course with him. Another way he was really effective was in his tests. I feel like the questions he put on exams were very well correlated to what we learned--no surprises. Yet, the questions were challenging enough that they required complete mastery of the material. Also, given the nature of the course and all the cool theorems and results associated with matrices, some of my most joyful moments in math were when I'd figure out how to prove or disprove something I'd been working on for hours, and the result or proof of how to do it was beautiful and clever. I guess I'm saying that he chose test questions that were actually interesting...something that I feel most people would want to know the answer to and be delighted as to why it is true or not. This is in contrast to teachers who've asked questions that are enormously beyond the scope of what was discussed in homework or previous preparation for the exam. I won't name names, but a really good professor who I think writes terrible tests did just that--he'd ask students to reach (I felt) too far. That sounds like I'm just complaining about hard tests...I'm not, because I have aced some of them, but objectively, I felt like I could prepare as best I could from homework and study sessions, etc. and then only hope that I'd figure out the result he wanted that was beyond the scope of the learning outcomes. I resented this. Other teachers have been ineffective by not being polite, talking in a monotone voice, or showing a lack of interest in the course or their students.
Q: Write something interesting or unique about yourself.
A: I am a pretty good drummer. I'm not in a band, but I love rock music and really enjoy playing.
Q: If you are unable to come to my scheduled office hours, what times would work for you?
A: I actually can't make office hours because I have a class then. A time that would work would be between 10 and 2 on Tuesday, or 9 am MWF.
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