Catherine O'Neil

Not only is she a fair grader on the exams, but she weighs homeworks relatively heavily in comparison to the tests, which works to your advantage. WebWorks may be difficult at times, but her problems are generally easy. She is very open to question in class and will never hesitate to help with any problems after class. In addition, she will listen to the class consensus when it comes to moving assignment deadlines if absolutely necessary. I had taken AP Calculus BC in high school and did not need to take this class, but Professor O'Neil made it all the more worthwhile. I would highly recommend her as a teacher. She does not grade the homeworks, so if you have a problem with the grading, take it up with the TAs.

Great teacher, great class. My biggest complaint is that they haven't offered this class in the past. Prof Oneil is cool and down to earth. There were only 20 students in this class and it was very interactive. A wonderful and unique learning opportunity in a college level math class. This class really was an intro to higher math. We did an overall introduction to proof and then an introduction to a number of different topics including number theory and analysis. She said it is meant to prepare us to take Modern Algebra.

One of the best teachers ever. Cathy is organized, enthused, and just cool. Her lecture style is very fast--she writes everything she says on the board, so you basically copy it down and try to make sense of it later. Number Theory is an extremely abstract topic, but Cathy does a good job of motivating everything we do. Very accessible after class and during office hours.

I chose her based on her reviews and the fact that nothing better seemed available. Having taken only AB and recieved a 5, I took Calc II. I found the pace of the course to be quite quick. The one good (or bad) thing about the class is the weight that hw recieves (~45-50%). My hw's were greatly assisted by the fact that I had a complete answer key from a friend. At the end of the course, I had an 85, which scaled to an A-. I was not pleased with her overall teaching. She was disorganized and would get lost in her own explanations (resulting in explitives). When a student asked a question, the answer would sometimes be "Ummmmm" or "What?" I have a list of priceless quotes that kept me amused in class. Overall, this is a safe bet, but nothing exceptional.

Professor O'Neil is very nice and you can tell she's really excited about math. I like that she welcomes other student's suggestions on other ways to do problems. However, her class wasn't as stimulating nor as fantastic as some of the other reviewers had said. She went through the material very quickly, taking what was supposed to be an hour and fifteen minute class and packing everything into an hour. There were times where it seemed like she knew her stuff, it was just that she didn't know how to explain it well. It made understanding certain concepts especially hard. She's also not very accessible. If you can't make it to the two hour, once a week time slot, she probably won't schedule another appointment to meet with you.

I looked foward to going to class on tuesdays and thursday's because of Prof. Oneill's calc II class. Calc II is not an easy topic but the class was run in a light enjoyable manner. In terms of clarity of the subject, Prof Oneill was a little disorganized in her subject and spent more time on proofs than on actual problems but overall she is a grerat person and a fun professor.I attended office hours almost every week and it she explained topics slower and more clear. She counts homework and webworks for 50% of the grade which allows a student to get a good grade even if they perform badly on tests. But her test are not that difficult because she only puts on problems done in class or ones that she can solve without spending time to figure out. Although the homework problems are more difficult, she often has difficulties solving them herself and therefore will not put anything of the sort on a test. Overall, I enjoyed this class very much and I am extremely fond of Prof. Oneill. Take her class!!!!!!

Professor O'Neil is very smart but cannot teach a class. she is very confusing and if you have not taken an advanced high school calc class before you really should not take this class because you will be really lost. she barely explains anything that is not already in the book. homework counts for a lot and you have to do it correctly, and don't forget to staple it or the really mean TAs will take off points. her tests are easy and don't count for much of your grade. webworks is just about the worst part of this course, START WEBWORKS EARLY! NOT AT 11:30 PM the night before its due. trust me. (she's a nice lady though, don't get me wrong.)

I took Professor OÂ’NeilÂ’s class because of her generous allotment of points; 40% for Homework, %15 for Webworks and no timed exams (which are also worth 15% each). This seemed like an ideal setting, but quickly turned into a nightmare. Our Webwork assignments were consistently behind the current material covered; therefore the time spent on WW did not reinforce what we were currently learning, but instead wasted our time. The program is very sensitive which can be frustrating. You can literally enter the right answer, but it may not accept it due to syntax error. WW was just one negative of her class. Professor OÂ’Neil herself seemed unprofessional to me and offended me many times by her continuous use of extremely foul language. She was unorganized. Her notes were all over the place, and our understanding was compromised by her inability to read her own notes and explain proofs. She was constantly corrected by very bright students – I hate to think where we would have been with out them! Despite her disorganization, she covered material extremely fast and relied on the pace of students who had taken AP calc and for which the class was merely a refresher. She seemed lazy. She repeatedly left problems unfinished or skipped steps – even in the answer key for our midterms. She also made mistakes often. She did not take responsibility for her actions, and was very inflexible.…

She is a pretty cool person, and at first it may seem that she is a good teacher. Now, I myself did well in previous calculus classes, but as soon as I got here everything got out of hand. She goes ridiculously fast, and if you don't do follow along closely you could get lost, and thats it. You have to do the homework, they make up 40% of the grade. Midterms are relatively easy, if you know the work, but if like me you have a little trouble grasping the material, you have to study and review the review sheet she hands out carefully. Shes a cool cat, but shes probably not that greatest teacher of Calculus II that there is in all of Columbia and Barnard.

Please take this advice to heart: RUN!! Catherine O'Neil is not the best calc teacher at Columbia. She may speak English, but she seems lazy and unorganized to me. She has to rely on us to correct her mistakes and would teach us something wrong if we didn't already know Calculus. Her workload is unreal - sure, she may count homeworks for most of the grade, but she assigns webworks which is the biggest waste of time. Don't take her class if you want to learn Calculus.