1/21 What's the word on the various profs teaching math 110 this semester?
They are Kahan, Aschenbrenner, Pachter, Kantorovitz, Iliev, and
Wogoner. Obviously taking from Kahan is somewhere between suicide and
insanity (probably a little of each). What about the others?
\_ If someone ever tells you, "Prof. XYZ is really hard but you'll
learn a lot!" you should run, not walk to the nearest L&S advisor
to drop the class. Don't ever take a class with a Prof described
that way.
\- taken a class from Marina "you'll probably fail but she's one
\_ i thought all math profs were gay?
of the best teachers i had" Ratner?
\_ she told me "i think probably you will not get an A, but
don't worry." after i failed the first and second midterm.
she gave me an F. I rally am glad i took it though, since
i learned lots of set theory that i never would have learned
from the guy with the weird sore on his head.
\_ And now you have an F on your record and need to retake the
class. Good plan, not worrying and all that.
\_ WAgoner sucks hard.
\_ Wu sucks so bad, how come the math department never does
anything about it? Like firing his sorry ass.
\_ He's a minority. Can't do that. Look at the guy who was
giving secrets to the Chinese. Nothing happened because he
was screaming racism and the Clintonistas broke.
\_ The guy who everyone accused of being a spy wasn't
even Chinese. Last I checked, Taiwan was a pro-US
country. I'm not crying foul because it's racist.
I'm crying foul because, as usual on the motd, you
accuse people without actual proof but give the
bullshit excuse that "revealing evidence would
comprimise national security". Trial by McCarthyism
died decades ago.
\_ Say what? Since when does being from a province founded
by the losers of a civil war make you not of that race?
That's just fucking bizarre.
\_ I am Chinese and the math dept has my full support if
they want to fire his sorry ass.
\_ Chinese studying mathematic is not a minority group
for admission or faculty recruiting. The math dept
cares only for researches. If Wu got published
and recognized for research, he would not be fired.
You need to research more on how academic positions are
filled.
\_ Why?
\_ Pachter is cool in person, but is known for being somewhat tougher
than normal in upperdivs. Also generally considered a decent
teacher, I'm told. -alexf
\_ Wow... I thought it was just me. Although Kahan is no Wu...
\_ negative vote:
Kahan: ...
Wu: ......
Lam: ..
Ogus: ..............................
\_ I think fewer have tasted of the wrath of Kahan
\_ I survived the splintery broom handles of each. Kahan
was slightly less painful during the actual rape, but left
me much more bloody. Wu was an experience I would do best
to leave to the imagination. --scotsman
\- ObWu:http://www.jiggscasey.com/slappy/book_of_wu.html
BTW, it's kind of pecular that Wu takes teaching so
seriously. If you go to his homepage there are links
to papers he wrote on teaching math, ok tnx --psb
\_ this makes me curious. What are some of the
"inappropriate" exam questions he has raised
\_ I took Wu for math 104. He was as fair as anyone else,
never asked a trick question or a question that wasn't
unlike anything we hadn't seen in the homework.
THe fact is, he always rags on the math 1a and 1b students
for not trying to truly learn math, but just trying to get a
good score. He held extra unpaid tutoring hours once a week
after class, and cared very much about each student putting in
the effort to learn. He's not pretentious nor holier than thou
with his smarts, whereas Kahan is disliked universally across the
board for his rather arrogant behavior, this includes faculty.
The exam difference is that Kahan will give you questions that
distinguish the top 1% in a class whereas Wu (for upper div math)
\- i dont think kahan is arrogant. i think there are
cases where he probably thinks "i have been thinking about
this for 5years so no i dont really want your off the cuff
opinion." however i image many of you working in technical
fields have been in similar situations. in my experience
he does not say things without researching them and when
he calls people wrong he provides examples and doesnt
just say "i am kahan. you are wrong." i think kahan is
probably the most discussed prof in themotd, which is
kind of interesting. --psb
\_ He does have a rather selective memory though.
Have a 'discussion' about something with him, and
prove your point. Watch as he forgets this ever
took place and have the same 'discussion' over
and over with him every week.
\- he probably marked the conversation to be
garbage collected!
will give questions that distinguish who has been following all the
homework and are comfortable with the material. Also, everyone in
Wu's class pretty much thought he was awesome and brought the material
to life.
\_ maybe he's a better updder div professor than lower div
i doubt you'll find one math1a or 1b student who would
agree that Wu was 'totally awesome'
\_ I think too many of Berkeley professors
cater to the top 10% of students rather
than the other 90%. Kahan is just an
extreme case of a general problem. He
probably should just teach graduate level
classes.
\_ good way of looking at it. BTW,
there are 15 seats left in the
class that is truly Kahan's baby,
Math 128B, i.e. "I am the most
recognized badass in Numerical
Analysis today, and you're all
fucked." Anyone want to take it
with me?
\_ Heh, I know profs who call Kahan
funny names behind his back
\- kahan was considered kind of a oddball
in the dept for a long time but he's also
one of those profs who other profs in
candid moments will say "you know he's
really smart guy" ... i remember BH and
PNH both saying that about him. The rep
for being peculiar comes from stuff like
when the faculty was soliciting ideas
for "what would you do with a terabyte
of storage" [i think this was for the
sequoia 2000 proposal] and most profs
had various responses saying they could
use a few hundred gigs for this or that.
Then they asked Kahan and he says
something like "i need 1.3453245 TB to
compute <>"[i dont remember what it was
_/
103 1/21 What's the word on the various profs teaching math 110 this se
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he wanted to do but apparently he had
worked it out very carfully and everyone
else was kind of speechless]. i think
there was a almost collective "holy shit"
when he won the Turing Award. --psb
\_ imagine kahan teaching in grade school.
\_ fine they're smart people. But smart != good teacher |