Ali Altug

Light! One problem set each week ~ 12-14 questions. 2 midterms - 22.5% each. Final - 40%. Homework - 15%.

Professor Altug is one of the BEST professors I've had at Columbia. Do not take any other Calculus II class over his. Honestly. I sat in on many other Calculus classes which my friends thought were good, but his is by far the best. I took him for Calculus I and II and he was great. He gives amazing notes in class and explains everything very slowly and extremely well. His homework is very relevant, with a few somewhat tough questions at the end, but he gives you a lot of questions to choose from, and you have to submit approx. 15 each week. The homework takes around 2 hours maximum each week. His exams are extremely fair! He gives hints in some questions and some bonus questions too for extra points. He really really cares whether his students are learning and is extremely accommodating. He wasn't planning on using Webassign but some students wanted it so he gave them a choice to do some questions on Webassign and handwrite some, or handwrite all. (His class does not have Webassign compulsory, which is great!) You need to study about 8 hours for the midterms if you attend the classes and do all the homework. He always posts sample midterms that are very very similar to his midterm.

medium to small. Homework sets (some are a little challenging but they're very doable). 2 midterms (fair). One final (fair as long as you practice). We got an extra credit problem to boost our midterm also!

People are extremely biased on CULPA and you should not take everything these people say as granted. Altug is a great teacher and as long as you do most of the homeworks and try to understand them, as well as practice some questions from the textbook before tests you'll do great. He is very concerned about his students and his explanations are very clear. This class was great. As long as you aren't some slacker you'll think the same.

Homework sets written and webassign. 2 midterms (Fair). Final (fair)

Just to let you guys know these culpa reviews are very Biased and should not be the main basis which you use to select your classes. Altug is a great teacher and makes it clear that you can let him know whether to slow down or speed up his teaching. He asks questions that help to make sure you are paying attention. As long as you practice some questions and attempt the homework making sure you understand it then you will do well. He is very lenient. He even gave a makeup for the midterm for those who wanted a better grade. His pace is perfect and explanations clear.

aaaahhh...it took me forever to do the assigned problems every week (we did not have webassign) I believe he dropped the lowest 2 homework grades, 2 midterms + a final. Do well on the first midterm because it only gets worse from there.

I took this class with him last Fall. I was a freshman and did not take calc in high school. This class is ridicouslously hard for somebody who has never taken calc before (there were a good amount of people in the class who had already taken calc in HS). He is not very great at explaining things in class (he's a lot better at explaining things in office hours). Every lecture would go from extremely easy examples and then all of a sudden extremely hard examples. The homework problems were significantly harder than the material that was actually covered in class. The curve was very generous but I really did not learn anything in the class. I believe he curved in my class so that the average was a C+ (55). I should have dropped it...but I stayed and ended up with a P.

One web assign problem set (10-15 questions), a few homework problems in the book, not too much. Two midterms and a final, generally pretty hard but with an extremely generous curve (a 55 average became a b/b+)

He's a nice guy, and means well, but is not a particularly good math teacher. He teaches out of the textbook and does not clarify questions particularly well, as he will simply restate the definition or do more practice problems. That being said, my class was also incredibly shy and wouldn't ask questions, so though he didn't explain questions well, many people simply didn't ask questions and blamed him for not initially explaining topics well. Anyhow, he's a nice guy and if you take your time on the web assign and take practice midterms, an A is not that hard to get.