Maria Cueto

Homework- 20% Midterms- 20% each Final- 40% Homework is do-able except for some of the challenge problems she throws in occasionally. Sometimes she'll also include an extra-credit problem. Tests are hard. Study up, get sleep, memorize the formulas, and focus on the concepts.

During the very first class at precisely 11:39am, Cueto rushes into the classroom with damp hair, notes and chalk in hand. She looks at her watch as she frantically erases the 9 boards in Math 207. This short Argentinian woman wastes no time in getting down to business as she runs through 1.5 sections of math at break-neck speed. Your questions will be answered; but they better be well thought-out. Everyone once in a while she'll throw in a little bit of humor, but math is just about the only thing that's talked about. After the first midterm, I dubbed Cueto, Ms. Concept because her first test was shameless in stripping you of any procedural knowledge you might have gleaned from the homework, revealing that you actually don't know how to define that plane between those oh-so-tricky orthogonal lines. The average was a 73. The second midterm had an average of 59. The final's average wasn't divulged. The tests are hard and not for the faint of heart; review ALL lectures, notes, and homework and do the practice midterms and finals with a time constraint and without the solutions. Some test questions will be like the homework, but others will seem familiar, yet scary. Write out as much as you can because pity points exist- and can mean the difference between being above or below the average. For all the trauma, Cueto still had some redeeming qualities when it came to her tests; aft…

Manageable Weekly homework (11 total) w/ lowest score dropped and the occasional extra credit opportunity. 2 midterms that are difficult but pretty close to the practice midterms. Final was difficult. Overall her tests definitely seem harder than other Calc 3 teachers from what I've heard.

Cueto seems nice enough and she really wants her students to understand concepts and theory. She covers a little bit of material that other Calc 3 classes don't cover (ie. cylindrical and spherical coordinates) and I think that scared off some students the first day. Her handwriting can be a little tricky to read at times, but overall is not bad. Sometimes she explains things in a way that is more complicated than necessary, and the textbook seems to be a lot clearer and is a great resource, although she does follow the textbook pretty closely. The homework is straight from the textbook and pretty straightforward. It's out of 10 points with 3 questions graded fully and some credit for completion. She does offer the occasional bonus question on homework for extra credit, which is nice. The midterms can be difficult, but they stick pretty closely to the practice midterms, so if you do those and understand the solutions, you should be fine. Final was pretty challenging.

Moderate 12 Problem Sets, Two Midterms and a final 1st Midterm: Easy 2nd Midterm: Hard 3rd Midterm: Harder - Challenging in the worst of ways and with a fair amount of time pressure

Pros: - She is generally nice and her English and writing is mostly comprehensible - Homework is annoying as expected but it's pretty easy and straightforward Cons: - I spoke with other friends in Calc III and Cueto's tests are by far the hardest - She doesn't really give a great description of the information and expects the students to know everything, and when you have questions, she will sometimes answer them condescendingly, as if there is no reason in the world anyone wouldn't get the question right the first time. - Tests are usually impossible, final is quite difficult

Weekly homework assignments, which take between 30min-2hrs, depending on how familiar you are with the material and how quickly you tend to work. 2 midterms of six questions each 1 final of eight questions

I will preface this review by noting that when I was choosing from the numerous Calc III professors, many of them had all over the place reviews, and I took my gamble with a professor who didn't even show up on Culpa. Hopefully, this review will give some measure of accurate picture as to what the class experience was like. (for a shorter review, please visit the last paragraph). The Good: There were, in short, really only two good things that she excelled in as a professor. The first was that she provided practice tests before each midterm, and all of her homework assignments were clearly laid out on her website. The second was that she always held review sessions that went over the majority of the material, so that if you missed a lecture, you could probably get a mini-lecture on it on review day. The Not so good: That website looks like it was made in the early 2000's, and there were no practice tests for the final, simply a giant list of book problems that were from each of the sections out of the book. Her reviews covered a lot of superfluous material and don't really map over to her tests as well as they could, and she often runs out of time on review day so only the first x% of the material is reviewed. For the most part, you could study out of the book and understand ~90% of the course material. Only a small subset of things does she teach that aren't in the book. In l…