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