Marc Spiegelman

Great class. It was very difficult and time-intensive but I learned a lot. You need to be motivated and willing to put in long hours but Dr. Spiegelman is a great professor (go to his OH) and cares a lot about his students. Previous knowledge of linear algebra and ODE is very helpful but he reviews a fair bit. Overall would definitely recommend to all motivated STEM majors looking for a bit of a challenge!

In theory, this course is awesome. It gets you through Differential Equations and Linear Algebra in only a semester. The reality is that while Marc Spiegelman is one of the nicest guys I've ever met, he's extremely scatterbrained. When proceeding through lecture, he VERY frequently steps a few steps back finds a mistake and restarts. He often goes on tangents that make the material unnecessarily complex. That said, the course does use Gilbert Strang's Linear Algebra text as "backup"...the Strang lectures are awesome. Zill is pretty dense and sometimes misguided, but is probably a good life-long resource for many engineers. First midterm was easy, second one was not...there was more theory than I had expected.

Professor Spiegelman is wonderful! Quirky, down-to-earth, in LOVE with his subject, solid lecturer... The only qualms I had were that he sometimes goes off on tangents, but that's not really bad when you want to relax a little. Professor Spiegelman showed me how awesome and cool linear algebra can be. DEFINITELY recommended over the math department's proof-heavy version. Spiegelman rocks.

So, initially the class looked really good because Spiegelman is a nice guy (VERY BUSY though outside of class) and easy to talk to and ask questions. However, I ended up not going to class for pretty much half of the semester mostly because I got a lot more out of Strang's book than I did from lecture. It was also the added complication of the Smart Board and premade slides which made it very difficult to take notes because he moved so fast. Also, watching some of Strang's lectures was pretty useful. All in all, a relatively straightforward math class. Read the book and PRACTICE problems and you'll do fine.

Prof. Spiegelman was AWESOME! Definitely one of the best professors I've had for a math class- and a real nice guy too. He explains everything relatively slowly, answers questions very clearly, does lots of examples in class too. I always found that class was helpful, although some of my peers did not always agree. However, if you're in the once-a-week class, it really does get grueling. On the other hand, one problem with Prof. Spiegelman is that he was out of town for many classes, which put us behind and messed up the test schedule. (I guess he's really important... try reading his CV- it's on his website.) So, for our class, we had one midterm and a final worth 60% of our grade. Yeah, needless to say, I think many of us were studying our butts off for that final...

Awesome human being and a great professor. The class material isn't that interesting in the first half but gets very practical and fun in the second half. There were no exams when I took and it and only homework and one final project. I definitely feel like I learned some stuff and getting better at Python.

Spring 2011 was the first semester there were classes held in Noco 501. Unfortunately, I found myself expending more effort trying to stay awake than learning the material. However, I don't think this is necessarily a reflection of Spiegelman's charisma. It's THAT ROOM. So temperate, lighting so warm, chairs so comfy... I actually felt kind of bad for Spiegelman, because people were falling asleep left and right. I even heard him mutter once, 'asleep in the first row...'

Spiegelman is one of the best math professors I have encountered at columbia. He is very laid back, knows the material inside out and absolutely loves it, and he is very approachable. The material in the class is very straight forward and is made even easier by Spiegelman's teaching. Though he may digress or get ahead of himself at times, he usually explains things in an organized manner and will try to make sure people get it by explaining it over if he feels it didnt get through the first time. The book used is Gilbert Strang's, a professor at MIT who has posted lectures online, however it is simply a complete waste of time to watch any of these. Spiegelman is a great teacher and it is better to go to class than to have to sit through video tapes of Strang droning on. Bottom line, great professor, straightforward material makes for a good class.

By far, the BEST!!! Math has NEVER been easier, and the professor was really really good. (One good hint about this class: there are a couple lectures that I found a bit challenging: when he gets to talking about subspaces, and you don't really understand what he's talking about, don't worry...no one really understood the first time. That's when you start going to MIT's Strang website and start watching his online lectures which are just fantastic). I did the problem sets (~2 hours a week), and watched about 10 of Strang's (author of the book at MIT) online lectures, and easity aced the class.

Professor Spiegelman was my favorite professor this whole semester. I had lecture with him once a week for three hours. I never thought that I'd be able to sit through a whole three hour lecture and stay awake but I did because he is awesome. He makes linear algebra interesting and easy. Lecture was organized very well, he'd start by outlining the concept and then doing example problems and sometimes he'd show us some slides about the crazy ways in which linear algebra is applied. The book he used was great. He never put concepts on the tests that weren't covered in the book. The tests were always straightforward, if you can do the hw and know the concepts you'll probably do pretty well. The TAs were awesome and always willing to help with HW and questions. Professor Spiegelman was also very approachable during office hours. He really cares about how students do in his class. When he had to cancel the second midterm, he calculated each student's grade with a bunch of different algorithms and ended up giving each student the best possible score. One time he told me that he wishes he could just give everyone A's because it would make his job easier. I'm with him on that one, but going through the trouble to make up algorithms that put extra weight on each individual's best grades really shows his dedication and awesomeness.