APMA 2120

Professor Socolovsky is a great and nice person but he can't teach or explain the material in lecture. He often just reads the power point notes word for word and goes through the problems in the powerpoint which already has the work all shown out. He doesn't give you practice problems besides the 2-3 webassigns that he assigns each week so learning while in class is really hard. However, if you have strong foundation in Calc II or a strong BC foundation, this class is not bad until you start getting to material on the 3rd exam. But still be prepared to put in hours of studying and learning the material on your own. The only homework that he assigns is the webassign and you have quizzes and group work every week in class. Overall if you have a strong foundation in calc but can't get into another section of Calc III it is doable, otherwise i would suggest NOT to take his class.

Socolovsky is honestly just a bad teacher. He reads straight off the slides, and he's bad at answering questions. Going to class is pretty much worthless. On the plus side he doesn't give a lot of homework and all the notes can be found on Collab. The material isn't too hard if you have a good grasp of Calc II. If you're good at self-studying, finding example problems online, and teaching yourself, you should be fine.

Dr. S was an extremely poor teacher. He does not explain anything; he just writes on the board in handwriting that half of the students cannot read. He also struggles to answer questions, perhaps due to a language barrier. I largely taught myself Calc III, and that was not easy. With that being said, I found that his tests and quizzes were reasonable and not too challenging. I received an A in this class, but that is not a reflection of his teaching...you have to work a lot outside of class.

Doesn't explain concepts or example problems well. Very scattered teaching style, not a very good handle on material, and basically lectures out of the text book (text book is literally on the board while he's lecturing). If you have a question about what he's doing, he normally just repeats what he previously said. I started reading the text book a lot, and came to class to get a better understanding. Instead, I left more confused. You can't see any of the diagrams he draws because he uses dark colored chalk on a black board (diagrams are a big part of the course). Very nice man, very bad math teacher. Would not recommend.

If by some stroke of bad luck you end up with him, I suggest sitting in on other teachers' courses and reading the textbook/watching videos if his teaching style doesn't work for you.

Socolovsky cant teach, thats all im gonna say. The only reason i passed the course was because i took it in high school. I feel bad for the kids who are taking it for their first time. I know i would have struggled majorly.

People have mixed feelings on Socolovsky, but personally I liked him a lot. The biggest thing to note is that he puts all lecture notes up before class, and you should absolutely look at those beforehand because otherwise you will have no idea what is going on. I didn't find his office hours helpful, but his review sessions for tests absolutely are. He wants everyone to succeed, so don't hesitate to ask for help if you need it! There is also normally a curve at the end of the semester.

Guys don't sweat Dr. S. He really isn't that bad and I ended up liking him a lot. The biggest problem people have is not utilizing the text book before class. I made out with an A- in the class and that was after not studying for the final. Just do the reading before class and take notes then spend the entire class looking over your notes to help you with the worksheet. He's much smarter than you or I will ever be so don't try to really follow his lecture's too much. This class can be entirely self taught even if you were trash in single variable (like me). Again JUST READ THE TEXT BOOK. and I promise you'll be alright.

Multivariable calculus is an important class for understanding math in higher dimensions and has the potential to be an incredible class. Unfortunately, Professor Socolovsky does not capitalize on this potential. His class seems to be structured around getting an answer, not solving the problem. As a result, I can get answers for multivariable calculus problems. But I don't have the firm understanding of multivariable calculus I was hoping to gain from this class.

Oh, Soc. That's what I always thought as he bumbled around the chalkboard, doing the worksheets in backwards order for no particular reason. He seems like a wonderful man, but he really is a god-awful professor. We were at least a week behind the other class within the first week of class, meaning that he crammed harder lessons into the last week and we had four huge homework assignments on the same day. Did I mention that he overslept and was late to give his own test? He definitely has this grandpa vibe so you'll end up feeling more sorry for him than angry, but I would not recommend taking him at all.

This class is hard. Don't take it if you're just trying to breeze through. You can't really tell what's happening in lecture and you barely have time to write down the problems he is flying through without explaining. The TA's usually don't even show up at office hours. Soc himself usually tries to finish up problems in the last two minutes after class has already ended, so don't schedule any classes after this class. Frankly, the best thing to do for this class is read up on Paul's Math Notes and the lecture notes, fill out the worksheets on your own time, get a group of people to work with, and hope for the best on exams. Going to lecture is kind of a waste.