APMA 3100

better than kauffman but still really really hard go to snider's office hours

Snider sucks. She has no trust in anyone. You're not allowed to use TI83 calculators because someone cheated last year using one. As for solutions to tests, quizzes, and homework, she is so paranoid that they will be passed onto future classes that she does not make the solutions to tests and quizzes available at all and the homework she puts on reserve in the library. Also, her office hours are very chaotic. She has 2 different classes asking her questions and often gets confused. When she does help you work out a problem, often she'll do the problem with you, confer with the solution manual and determine that the solution manual is wrong. In class, if asked to do a problem that she hasn't done beforehand, she will complain about not being able to think correctly. As for examples in class, she doesn't do that many. She writes the book on the board, but skips the problems in a way. If I had a choice, I would not take this class with her again and I will never take another class with her EVER!

Professor Snider is not able to effectively teach this course. While all of the details in the previous post are absolutely correct, there remains overarching problems yet discussed. The biggest judge the level of teaching ability in a professor is how you comfortable you feel when you ask them a question. Snider created an atomosphere that was hostile towards the student. Her sarcastic, demeaning responses to students' questions led to fear to ask questions. Many times I had questions on quizzes, exams, homeworks and wanted to get them answered but I didn't because she was unwelcoming. She clearly has better things to do than teach kids at a school her own son couldn't even get in to.

This course was terribly run- solutions were very inaccessible or sometimes not made available in any way (both after tests and quizzes and in the textbook). Homework problems were at times very difficult- which wouldn't be a problem except that the professor was not able to do/explain some of them when asked. However the professor spoke loudly and clearly.

Odd class. Not a challange if you do the work. Snider requires attendance, and I attended all classes but may have missed the attendance sheet once or twice, averages a 96 on the first two midterms and came out with a B+. Maybe I did unknowingly poorly on the final but this was a surprise come grade time, and I think it might be attendance based in some way. Other notes are that the textbook is the worst I have ever had at any level. Seriously its horrendous. Its ~15+ years old and its titled "for computer and electical engineers" which translates to "every question or example in this book will involve electrical transmission." On top of that Snider is a moron. Tests are far easier than homework because Snider does not understand the concepts very well herself (teaching right out of the book/and trying to sound incredible knowledgable). She made errors in some of the numbers for the tests, and overall is a bad professor, but with attendance and some probabilty knowledge fairly simple class.

Absolutely TERRIBLE professor. I have never say in a class before and been angry, but this woman made me want to walk out of class every single day. She talks down to everyone in the class, and creates a very hostile environment which is hard to learn in. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the amazing CS department, but this woman made me want to punch things. Please avoid her at all costs.

Snider was a very tough-love professor, but she knows her material and is actually a very good professor if you can get past her tough facade. The material was very difficult, but she was willing to help you understand where you were going wrong. Go to office hours, she will like you better, and you will understand the material in the manor of which she asks it on tests and quizzes. Her quizzes were fairly challenging considering they were suppose to be seeing if you were keeping up with homeworks and lectures, but they helped prepare you for the difficulty of the tests. I would recommend this class, you just have to learn to look past her tough demeaner.

Snider may be the worst professor I've encountered at UVA. The material is extremely difficult, and that is exacerbated by a horribly written textbook. Moreover, her class notes do not go deep enough to prepare you for quizzes and tests( I saw a few people crying after the final exam ). Actually the first 4 chapters are pretty straight forward, but after that the material just gets insanely difficult. One look at the average gpa and the comments below confirm that.
Don't make the same mistake that I made, and take it with Fulgham instead. I am warning you !

This class was not awful. I didn't love Snider, but she wasn't as bad as a lot of people say. My major complaint about the course is that the homework is DIFFICULT. The notes and examples in class are nowhere near as challenging and as a result my homework grade was not great. The big problem is that if you do not get the homework right, you will do poorly on the quizzes. You don't get the homework solutions till right before a midterm, so you are stuck not knowing the material until then. However I felt that the midterms were extremely easy just from reading the class notes and (finally) going over the homework solutions. Another complaint is that after the first month of material the class is just useless, I never see myself applying the stuff learned later in class. The midterms and final are 70% of the grade and they are easy so just study and you will be fine. Also be prepared to pay an extra $20 for a scientific calculator for no reason.

She is pretty passionate about having her students understand the material - and extremely helpful in office hours. Her quizzes are mainly from the homework, but tests can be quite difficult. Don't let her intimidate you in class when asking questions, youre paying big money to be there. Exam requires lots of studying, but can be beat if you study lots of homework problems. Got a A- in class