APMA 2120

This is a challenging course, especially with Socolovsky. As a person, he's very likable and kind of cute in a grandpa type of way, but his lectures are focused entirely on doing worksheet problems on the board, with very little time spent going over topics or "teaching" the course. Almost all of it is done through these worksheet problems, which if you don't understand you just hand in at the end of class and never see them again for later studying. You need to be motivated enough to learn on your own before going to class using the textbook, Khan Academy, or whatever you can find, because you won't get a ton from Socolovsky. After spending a lot of time reviewing for the final exam, I feel like the class wasn't actually that hard- but as you're going through it, if you aren't putting in some time to learn on your own you might be lost. I think Socolovsky's class format works best if you come to class already with a grasp of the material, and if you do so, you'll be fine. If you expect him to teach everything, you'll be disappointed and lost.

I really like the professor personally, but I can't really say he was the best lecturer. If you are an engineer you need to take it once anyway, so just get over with it.

This course was difficult, but Dr. S gives you a lot of opportunity to do well with the in-class assignments. The midterms aren't too bad, but the true and false sections always hurt my grade a lot. The final is much harder than the midterms but they grade it easier than the midterms. Overall, I didn't mind going to class and ended with a B+.