Jennifer Hom

Sitting in Professor Hom's class, I could tell that she truly cared about whether the students understood the concepts she presented because she stopped to throughly explain questions students asked. Her lectures are outlined very well so that come midterms/finals study time you should have comprehensive and organized notes. Her exams are very fair so long as you do all of the practice problems she assigns as well as take the time to actually do the homework. The final was the toughest out of all her exams, but thats probably because the later material is harder to grasp and the final is comprehensive but has a definite focus on the untested materials we learned in class.

2 Midterms (Each 20%), 1 Final (40%) and about 20-30 homework problems per week (Total of 20% of course grade). The homework does take a couple hours but I think it appropriately reinforces the material. Honestly, it's not too much, nor is it too little.

Professor Hom acts like an adorable 10-year-old who actually does an excellent job teaching you calculus. Her class is pretty much all I could ask for in a math course: straightforward, fair, and curved fairly generously. She teaches very methodically, and even though the notes she writes on the board are fairly similar (if not identical) to the textbook, she does an effective job teaching you the material. I had never taken multivariable calc before (just BC calc in high school) so almost everything we learned was new to me. Yes, I'll admit the lectures aren't always the most engaging, but it's a math class – how much flexibility does the professor have in terms of being creative? She teaches the theory and then works out example problems. When things get boring, or if she makes a mistake, she tells us a Chuck Norris joke or a funny story about her niece. It's adorable. The exams are pretty fair. The first exam was definitely trickier than the second exam, which was as straightforward as you could possibly imagine. The final was definitely tougher than the midterms, with the average being around a 66%. However, there was a very generous curve for everyone's final course grade, as even people who had an average of a little over 85% uncurved ended up with A's. If you do your homework (which we affectionately referred to as Homwork) and actually understand what you're doing (not…

Not bad at all if you are a SEAS major, pretty horrible if you are an econ major. There is a pset due every week and the problems are announced well in advanced on her website. They usually take about 2-3 hours and are really straightforward with the exception of 1-2 problems at the end (again, some will rant that the psets are ridiculous, but those people have never taken physics). The method to solve these harder ones are usually explained in lecture but not in the book; regardless, a trip to office hours will save you much headache as she will explain how to solve any problem. There are 2 midterms that are rather easy if you memorize the formulas/know when to apply them, but as mentioned in the review before, have a multiple choice section that requires a true understanding of the material. The final was a rather difficult, but the class had a VERY generous curve.

TAKE JENNIFER HOM!!!! She explains math like we are a class of 5th grade students, which is largely appreciated when the topic is multivarible calculus. For this same reason, she is quite adorable in class and commonly tries to integrate chuck norris jokes and stories about her niece into her lecture. Even if everyone is not a fan of her psets, they love Hom as a person. The book explains calculus rather well, and you can pass the midterms/do all the psets without ever going to lecture, but go to lecture anyway. She explains calc better than the book does, she goes over practice problems that come up in the psets but are not explained in the book, and you'll actually save time by going to lecture vs skipping. She rarely asks for student input during lectures and when working out problems. This is really nice as you probably forgot a lot of trip/calc I/Calc II, but she also reviews the calc I/trig needed for certain topics. That being said, sometimes her lectures are really fast (with absolutely no bullshiting!) and you can easily get lost. Thankfully, she will stop to answer any question. Once a student said "CAN YOU PLEASE SLOW DOWN!?!!!!!" and instead of being offended, Hom completely stopped where she was, and went through the steps very slowly, re-explaining each part. So if you don't get something through lecture, its generally your fault; ask questions, or she will assum…

Weekly hw (actually, these were SUPER long, but she uses a lot of odds thank god), two midterms (kinda hard, not awful, nice curve), and a final (same as midterms, but SO SO SO long. god. 13 pages. WHY.)

Hom is all around a pretty good professor. She explains things better than the textbook and thus makes going to class worth it, even if you REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to...which was me most of the time. If you take her class though, be prepared to really understand the material. No longer can you just memorize formulas. You have to really get it. Her true-false questions and sometimes-always-never questions on the exam insist on it. Her class is not an easy A. Her exams are kinda hard. Her final was soooo long. But whatever. Those days can suck. If you want to really understand calc III (but really though, why would you?), Hom is your lady. Long story short--I am not a math person. I did ok. You can too. Hom is a pretty good professor. She talks about her niece a lot.