<p>Has anyone taken Calin Martin for math? I've looked on bruinwalk for reviews about this professor but no one has posted anything so I'm here to ask for your thoughts on him.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>He’s never taught a class at UCLA before</p>
<p>[Calin</a> MARTIN - Personal Home Page](<a href=“http://www.math.ucla.edu/~cmartin/]Calin”>http://www.math.ucla.edu/~cmartin/)</p>
<p>I never had him, but he taught Math 32b in the winter and Math 33a in the spring.
I’ve heard mixed things about him: he has an accent, his handwriting is horrible, he’s stingy with grades, he’s nice with grades, his midterms are easy, “i liked math until martin happened”, yada yada… basically, it’s hard to know…</p>
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<p>He obviously has taught a class according to his website and to past schedules. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>Thanks. I guess it depends on his mood for the quarter. :(</p>
<p>a couple of my friends had him and they all said that he is a poor lecturer. they had to do a lot of self-studying in his classes.</p>
<p>^ Thanks. What about his curve?</p>
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<p>Sorry, I only looked at his CV.</p>
<p>I had him for 33a which is linear algebra. Basically he is a clear lecturer but he has a very low, monotone voice which is hard to pay attention to, and if you lose focus for even a minute or so you’re lost for the whole lecture. Being that it was 8am lecture more than half the class ditched and used the MIT OCW lectures. As for the tests, the midterm was just like the easy/avg problems from the hw. Very very doable buy for some reason the class avg was like 74/100 or something. The final though was a complete gangbang like i’ve never seen. Basically all the homework had been mostly computational with a couple conceptual type questions thrown in, but on the final martin hit us with 12 hard proofy, conceptual questions, some with many parts and everyone, even some very brilliant people, got there asses kicked. The avg. was like 74/240 with the highest score being 70%, which was the really surprising part. Usually even when the avg is horrendous there are some outliers in the 80s and 90s, which makes me think some of the final simply could not be done with what we learned in class. In terms of grades i think Martin sticks to the typical 25% A,35% B… scale. Overall I didn’t learn much but came out with a decent grade. Take from that what you will.</p>
<p>So, based on these reviews, should I take Song or Martin for calculus? It appears they both require self studying.</p>
<p>I had him for one day and dropped the class. He talks and writes at the speed of light and is pretty terrible at explaining what he writes on the board. His accent doesn’t help either. I’d say if Song’s tests are easier, go with him.</p>