Marc Masdeu

I am going to have to three way the past two reviews to say this -- marc is a nice guy - yes thats true - but when it comes to teaching he simply is not that great. i had to basically teach myself through extensive review of the text, online sources etc because he does not teach in a way that a student can establish the fundamental concepts. so at the end, my gpa was shot down, but because I resorted to other sources and made the extra effort to actually learn the subject properly, I do GET the topic. not sure if that made up for the dent in my transcript, its a sad reality- but if I were to advise anyone, i would say, take the course from someone else, regardless of whether you really want to learn or whether you are afraid of a-bombing your gpa. you can find another venue to get to know him if you really want to.

TOO MUCH TO HANDLE. MOSTLY USELESS. NOT WORTH IT AT ALL WHEN HIS TA'S LOSE THE WORK!!!!!!!!!

The previous review is SPOT ON. This professor does not understand that math does not come easy for everyone and there are students in his class that simply need a class like CALCULUS I to fill a prerequisite. A class at this level should not be hard at all - yet his class seemed impossible most times. I felt like the entire semester I only worked for his class. Seriously, his homework took me ALL WEEKEND. I neglected other classes because of the workload in this class - and what did it get me? B- !! His class is seriously made for students with an advanced calculus background. BASICALLY:--- DO NOT TAKE CALCULUS WITH MASDEAU IF YOU DO NOT KNOW CALCULUS ALREADY BECAUSE HE WILL NOT TEACH YOU.

Weekly homework and Web assign- complete waste of time, the two lowest scores are dropped, and the problems are impossible yet irrelevant to the class. Expect to spend at least 4 hours a week completing both. In addition- the TAs lost our written homework on several occasions and we were given zeros, even if we had completed the assignment. Marc did nothing to fix this even though several people emailed him. The 2 midterms are impossible- both exams are composed entirely of material that is not covered in class or on the homework.I believe the lowest score is dropped. Our class average was a 40% and Marc blamed it on us. I don't think anyone got above 18 out of 20 points for the second midterm and only one person got 18. The final is split into two part- half the problems are starred which signifies that they are "extremely" easy and the other half are supposed to be the harder problems that you should do if you want an A+. According to Marc you should not even try the true or false extra credit because that's only if you are worth an A. Let me just tell you, most of the extremely easy problems are extremely difficult and the hard ones are almost impossible. Most people took close to the full three hours for an 8 question exam.

Do not take this class unless you have taken BC Calculus and got an A+ or a 5 on the exam. Maybe not even then... Marc is an extremely nice guy, and he devotes a lot of time to the class, but he is a terrible teacher. He spent entire lecture hours explaining one concept, but it was extremely unclear and he taught way too fast, making it impossible to copy down notes and understand them at the same time- something that shouldn't be impossible for someone who goes to COLUMBIA especially if it is feasible in other classes. Also, he made a lot of mistakes while doing problems on the board, which is not his fault but it made it even more confusing when we had to stop and redo entire problems. I had already learned most of the material we covered in class this year, and got an A in high school calculus but Marc confused me to an extreme reteaching it and I will be lucky to end up with a B in the class- but this is only with the curve! I should actually have a 55%. Do not take this class if you can avoid it!! It's really just not worth it.

Weekly Webassign and Written Homework. = 5+ hours of work. Lowest 2 scores dropped 2 Midterms= extremely difficult. The class average was a 40%. 40%!!! Yet he blames us...clearly there is something wrong with your teaching if its this low. Final=I have no idea what to expect.

I could not agree more with the review below this. Coming from High School, I had a solid B average in the class. But let me tell you something, this class has become the death of me and is making my experience here at Columbia an incredible rough one. He is by far one of the worst Calc professors there has to be. I ADVISE YOU: DO NOT TAKE MASDEU'S CLASS. If he's the only professor available, wait till next semester. You will thank me. But if you have to, be prepared for wasted nights on Homework that has no relevance to class, wasted nights stressing about if you will pass or not, and wasted nights reviewing for midterms that will ultimately be COMPLETELY different then what you studied. I am currently enrolled in this class, unfortunately, and I cant take it. He does not listen to anyone, he talks way to fast, and he assigns so much work. Dont get me wrong, he seems like a "nice" guy, but as a Calc Professor, by far the worst. Weekly Webassign and Written Homework. = 5+ hours of work. Lowest 2 scores dropped 2 Midterms= extremely difficult. The class average was a 40%. 40%!!! Yet he blames us...clearly there is something wrong with your teaching if its this low. Final=I have no idea what to expect. All in all, avoid this class like the plague. Otherwise you will seriously regret it like I am. This was supposed to be a booster, but now could do serious damage to My GPA/Transc…

2 midterms, drops lower score. 1 final. 4+ hrs of homework weekly.

Let me be honest. Marc Masdeu is hands down the most terrible Calc teacher I've ever had-- and that's saying something. I came from an incredibly challenging high school where I aced AP Calc (with what I then thought was a "terrible Calc teacher"). Since I don't want to major in anything math-related, I took Calc 1 as a grade booster. Grade BOOSTER. Jesus that was a bad idea. Masdeu somehow manages to talk the entire class period without teaching you anything at ALL. I honestly still fail to see how it's possible that he's managing to unteach me everything I thought I knew well, and then reteach it to me in a horribly confusing way that lands me in a worse position than I was when I started the class. And don't even think abou trying to just skip class and do the homework-- his homework does a really great job of "branching out" from the Calc book, which means that you're forced to teach yourself from the internet. This is not what I'm here for. He did ask us to tell him what to change about his teaching, and I wrote him a long message that he so far seems to have ignored entirely. What the other reviewers say is true, he's a nice guy, but I don't care about how nice he is-- I want someone who can teach. I know it's easy to read the reviews on culpa and think that it will be different for you, but trust me, I'm speaking for the solid percentage of the class that spends all the…