MATH 1220

Wow. This dude is an actual psychopath. He's obviously very smart but cannot teach, is literally addicted to vaping. This man does not own an actual phone, hes "afraid of the government tracking him". Hes incredibly condescending and rude, never take a class with him.

Ah Calculus 2 the biggest hurdle in anyone’s career at uva . Most failed course at the university and a prerequisite to all “good” majors at the university. I entered this course after achieving a B- in calc 1 and knew I had to put a lot of work in if I wanted to get that magical C+ I needed as a prerequisite for the econ major. My professor was Matt Gagne who honestly is one of the nicest people let alone professors I have ever met. He goes through content very quickly but gives examples of every question you will find on the exams and goes through Webassign problems in class on the board basically giving you the answers. He will cover a whole section of the book in one lecture then give you about 2 weeks to complete the relevant webassign and will over that period go through the toughest webassign problems.
Do well on your webassign! It counts for 10% of your grade so it’s important if you need that C+ to come in clutch . The rest of the grade breakdown is 5% diagnostic quiz. 10% classwork/ quizzes. 20% midterm 1 , 25% midterm 2 , 30% final .
Biggest advice get 100% on your webassigns and do well on classwork and quizzes this is an easy 1/4 of your grade you can secure.
Study your ass off for midterm 1 and 2 unlike me who got below the average on both of these exam . And it was looking like a D+ was life for me . However in the last 3 weeks of school during finals I attended office hours with Matt Gagne and he blew my mind. He explains confusing topics in such simple terms and glazes over the stuff you don’t need to know. Also just a super interesting guy who is ridiculous smart.
Overall I would strongly recommend taking Matt Gagne as a professor. At times you won’t know what he’s talking about but if you attend office hours he will explain it simply for you . Also do all the previous exams possible as they reuse questions all the time . And no matter how hard you’ve prepared the final is always impossible . I somehow managed to get my C+ and don’t really understand how.
Attend Matts lectures they are fun and engaging and he usually lets you out early . Also he’s probably the only professor at UVA who vapes indoors so that’s a must see . Calc 2 is really a simple course which is just teaching you statements and methods of calculus then testing you to see if you understand them on the exams . If you just write down what they want to see and keep it simple you’ll do fine . Good luck my children !

calc 2 is a beast, not gonna lie. Obviously, don't take this course if you dont have to. However, if you have to take this course because of your major, Matthew isn't a terrible teacher. He does his best to answer your questions in class, but teaches pretty fast so pay attention. He'll do web assign problems on the board and basically give you the answers. Since you don't have to do the webassign to do the webassign (i.e. practice another version) my biggest advice would be to actually try doing the webassigns on your own. This way you know exactly what you don't know and can ask him to go over it in class. The textbook is mildly helpful as well for the webassigns and you could always go to office hours. There are about two webassigns per week. He also assigns written homeworks and classwork which he grades pretty leniently and you're allowed to work with others on these. I thought both midterms were pretty difficult and they weren't like the practice exams. I took math 1210 and if you did one practice exam, you were pretty much golden for the actual exam but that wasnt the case for 1220. I got the average for both midterms and there was a pretty generous curve for both. When it came to the final I was really nervous, but it didnt end up being so bad and i was able to get a B in the class.

While I was really intimidated by calc 2 (esp with the math departments poor reputation on profs and Matt's earlier reviews) Matt was a genuinely great professor. He was a chill grader, relaxed in class, and would go through problems step by step if you asked. Ignore the earlier negative reviews. Matt's nice and wants you to do well. Take calc with him if you can.

This class has stuff due every week. Before tests, do the webassigns and practice tests multiple times and the real test will be similar. They tend to use the trick questions on exams, so don't skip them in practice thinking you'll be fine. There is a decent curve. Make a groupchat for a study group, and you'll end with a good grade