Patrick Gallagher

Dearest Student, Congratulations to you, your tuition was well worth it. You find yourself in a course taught by none other than the living legend Patrick X Gallagher. The man has seen many moons, and a ton of numbers, and is all the wiser for it. A phenomenal calculus teacher, and an even better granfatherly figure in all of our lives (whether you're aware of it of not), Patty G's is the type of guy you want to sit down at a fireplace with, have hot chocolate with, and hear stories from the Euler's day. In all seriousness, this guy is fantastic. Lectures are more interesting than necessary for exams, book can teach you everything you need to know. Exams are fair, he is fair if you have to miss exams, homeworks are relatively simple. TAKE THIS CLASS You're welcome.

Having taken Gallagher for two semesters now in the Honors Math A-B sequence, my overall feelings for him are definitely very mixed. If you are looking for an easy time in an otherwise difficult class (Gallagher also teaches Modern Algebra and Modern Analysis), look no further. He prints out his own notes and doesn't need a textbook so everything you need to know is on those packets. You don't even need to go to lecture, since he just repeats everything he puts on the packets in lecture. As for grades, let's just say that last semester 75% of students got an A-range grade according to my transcript. He also gives out many A+'s. That said, if you are looking to really learn the presented material and get something out of the class, I would stay away. As a math major with a strong passion for the subject, I don't think I'll ever be taking a Gallagher class again. - He is not a good lecturer. He speaks very softly in at a volume that is probably softer than a normal person's talking voice so it's very hard to pay attention, especially when he's just repeating what's on the notes anyway. - He doesn't use a textbook. Some see this as a good thing, but as someone who learns best when given a very rigorous (albeit dense) presentation of the material, I found it hard to really learn the material through his notes. Gallagher's notation is his own which can be confusing, especially when…

Gallagher definitely deserves a mixed review; he's great in that he truly loves the material, he's very sweet and pretty funny at times, and the homework is reasonable. The midterms/final weren't terribly difficult, but the time constraint on the midterms was rough, especially considering that he takes off 5 points from a 20 point problem for any math mistake, no matter how small. It's very easy to get a low midterm grade if you make a few small mistakes. Also, I found the lectures entirely incomprehensible. Even when I tried to pay attention, it just seemed impossible to follow his logic. Still, I would generally recommend this class just because it's not unreasonable, and 90% of the material is out of the Stewart textbook, which I liked. Also, Gallagher's random tangents on poetry and mathematicians and the like are very enjoyable.

Taking Calculus II with Patrick Gallagher is like taking Calculus II with your kind grandfather. He usually teaches harder courses, but of course he's nice enough to teach some introductory ones as well, and at times, he'll put things so simply that it feels like he is actually speaking to a 4 year-old. He is an elderly kind man and his lectures cover exactly what you need to know, meaning you'll hardly ever have to look to the book for clarification. However, his lectures do tend to run late often, as his eyes cannot see the clock in the back of the room. Also, because he's is a pure mathematician in the purest sense, he gives a lot of proofs. A LOT. And you don't need to know them for tests or homeworks, which means that once he begins one of his 10-minute proofs, you can put your pencil down and safely nap for a while. He sometimes also puts ideas and defines things in a more abstract mathematical way, which may not have been suitable for a low-level class, as there were times when it seemed like the entire class was lost. Overall, I'd highly recommend Professor Gallagher. He will perhaps be the nicest professor you'll ever have, is very accommodating to students, and will answer any question in class and phrase his responses in a cute grandfatherly way.

He's like they used to make 'em: a pure mathematician who understands thoroughly his material, with a British sense of humor to boot. He finds most appealing the concepts rather than the illustration of the concepts through examples. He thinks in theory. Thus the pedagogical approach is unusual, but in the end-- if you'll stick around to it and work hard-- he will make YOU a stronger mathematician, comfortable with hard proofs...

Gallagher is a brilliant, eloquent & likeable professor who spends his classes weaving through proofs; his approach to teaching is very theory-oriented. Unfortunately, not all those attempts ended satisfactorily, and we often had classes that ended abruptly or were left incomplete. The text book was easy enough to understand though. That said, he was teaching the Engineering version of ODE, and did occasionally make a concerted effort to include examples & solve text book problems. The material was best learnt in classes where he did this. My biggest qualm with Gallagher were his tests though. The two midterms were unbelievably easy, completely distorting the curve, so that a 96% ended up being a B. His final was a Multiple Choice+ No partial credit & he made it difficult to make up for the midterms. Worst of all, his grading system averages the letter grades you received in the HW, midterms & final (double counted). In short: Brilliant, quirky & eloquent professor; loves the theory & neglects the administrative/practical side of the class.

Professor Gallagher is a very nice man who is clearly very brilliant in math. My only problem with his teaching style was the number of proofs which he decided to include in the course. Basically every theorem we learned was followed with a proof, some of which found themselves onto his tests. In terms of personality, Gallagher is one of the most approachable professors I've encountered at Columbia; he is always willing to answer questions or even look again at grades on tests that students felt were incorrect. If you are taking Calculus III for the economics requirement, I would stay away because this course is quite in-depth.

In short: Gallagher is clearly brilliant, but the course has some serious flaws. The course packets (handed out each lecture) are elegant, concise, and make complicated proofs seem simple, but the exercises assigned (which are very time consuming!) aren't designed to help you learn the material. Rather, the homeworks often introduce new stuff and that doesn't really enrich your understanding of the old. The midterms literally asked you to spit back definitions and theorems you have memorized -- they require absolutely no understanding whatsoever, and are graded somewhat harshly (two missed words like 'convexity' is a B-range grade). Then out of nowhere the true/false final exam asks you to apply the theory in the lecture packets in ways you've never seen before and that require a very deep understanding of the material in the packets, an understanding you were never encouraged to develop in the joke midterms and somewhat orthogonal homeworks. In short, having gotten what most likely will be an A or A- in this class, I don't really understand complex analysis.

To avoid repeating any opinions hereinto expressed, let me just say that this man gives you a glimpse into how graduate-level mathematics should be done. Having done mathematics research over the past summer, I was amazed at how close Gallagher's method of definition, theorem, proof is to research caliber mathematics. While the protocol that he uses can be construed as boring [xeroxing notes and requiring no homework essentially], one should allow time to digest the notes that he does give. Bombard him with questions, he will give you great answers. While this class might be a shock to some who have been used to the calculus sequences, it is definitely a great class to test one's aptitude and curiousity for higher mathematics.

Maybe it was just for this class, but really not that hard a prof. Talks to himself though---not engaged in the class at all. He randomly recalls a Vietnamese song or poem and sings it to the class and translates it. Despite only 4 people showing up to class regularly he would start exactly on time even if only one person was there. If people slept in class he pretended not to notice. Kind of a space cadet. I don't really recommend him, though he seems to have a good rep.