APM · Columbia University
weekly (absurdly long and unhelpful) problem sets. 1 midterm. 1 final.
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH LETOURNEAU. it seems like a really cool subject, and maybe letourneau would have been good at teaching something else, or with a few more years under his belt; but for now, do not take functions of a complex variable with letourneau. i got an A in the class, so i say this without any spite: this was the worst-taught class i have ever taken. before i give my opinion on why the class did not suit me, i can offer 2 concrete reasons why it is a class that you should avoid at all costs: 1. the class does not cover all of the material that you need to learn in the subject, and the topics that were left out were the most important ones in the course (fourier, laplace, and schwarz-christoffel). the bottom line is, you will either need to go learn these topics on your own or take another class in complex analysis if you actually want to use any of the most important applications of the subject. 2. the professor will not match the amount of work you put in (unless, of course, you put in little to no work). letourneau was completely unprepared in lecture. he had very few office hours and frequently cancelled or rescheduled them. there were significant errors on every posted homework assignment, and they often went uncorrected until just 2 or 3 days before the assignment was due. there were frequent errors on the posted solutions. homeworks were not returned un…
10 problem sets (each takes a few hours, some are easier/shorter than others) 1 midterm and final
I agree with the other reviews that the class was a bit disorganized. However, Professor Letourneau was overall not too bad. His lectures could sometimes be confusing and hard to follow, but I don't think it is his fault that the material he teaches takes time to absorb and understand. He always responded to our questions on Piaza, and was very helpful during office hours. I ended up not doing as well in this class as I hoped, but I wouldn't say it's his fault. If anything, I think the undergrads just get unlucky that the class is filled with graduate students, many of whom have already taken the class.
I thought it was pretty rough, especially in the beginning. It got easier as time went along. 10 problem sets. He drops one if you do a "bonus" HW at the end of the year (which was the length of like 3 problem sets, but was good review for the final. His homeworks are NOT easy. He takes problems from the book, then makes them 5 times more difficult. He ended up dropping the midterm for people if you did poorly on it. Usually 30% midterm, 30% hw, 40% final, or 45% hw and 55% final. I thought the midterm was pretty tough, quite computationally difficult (didn't test concepts, but how well you can do math), 3 questions with a few parts each. Final was not too bad! Graded in 4 parts, 2 of which were integrals that were easy if you studied the material. Third was doable, but more tricky, last question was very difficult. "Cumulative", but covered nothing directly from the first half.
So, I thought this class started off as a train wreck. It was his first semester teaching and it showed. However, he was extremely responsive throughout the semester. He usually replied to questions on piazza within an hour. He told us to let him know if there's anything we want to do to improve the course. He started off with it being very proof heavy and with long homeworks. He responded to student concerns and while the theoretical base for the class never really changed, he did less proofs and shorter homeworks as time went along. Unfortunately, while I found the course incredibly tedious at first (and agreed with some of the concerns), I found it highly inappropriate that people just completely crapped on him on piazza. I feel that can't be a great morale booster for a first time professor who is NOT THAT BAD. His lectures are fairly decent. His handwriting takes a bit to get used to, but I now know what to expect (but he still writes super tiny so sit up close). I think it is more worthwhile for you to listen intently and try to understand than take notes. He teaches pretty much from the textbook and tells you whenever what he is writing isn't in the text. I used to take notes and not understand, but felt like it got better when I tried to just listen. He does do his own examples and notes, however, so sometimes in the middle of a proof or example he'll just stand and th…
10 Homework Assignments (Take 3 hours per week) Difficult Midterm (Avg 70%) Told to be an even more difficult final exam
DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. WORST PROFESSOR EVER. I can't believe I'm taking time out during reading week to write a review for this class. This is probably how upset I am in this class. Professor Letourneau is a young guy. Just got his phD from Stanford and probably only a few years older than most of us. Whereas most of the younger professors are easy to get along with, he is NOT. First of all, he is a horrible instructor. He began the class by teaching complex analysis (as composed to complex variables) and promised not to anymore. Did he keep his promise? Not necessarily. His lectures became even more theoretical throughout the semester to the point that a lot of the students in the class stopped showing up. We would have taken Complex Analysis, offered by the Math Department, if we knew that he was going to teach it like that. The homework, however, was completely practical. Actually, it was very computational and you get the ugliest answers ever. You never have to look back at your notes to do the homework. Thus, going to class is indeed completely unnecessarily. You should save yourself from going to this class Monday evening and just teach yourself. Oh yeah, there is a lot of typo on the homework assignments and even in the solutions that it doesn't help. The exam is brutally hard. The average was a 70% on the mid-term. Is there are curve? NO. He offered to be "lenient" an…