<p>I spent close to $400 which, I think, is ridiculous. How much did YOU spend?</p>
<p>That’s not too bad</p>
<p>I thought you were supposed to go through the first day/week of class before buying books so you wouldn’t have to waste money on unnecessary books…? Right? Or am I wrong? I thought some professors never even use books.</p>
<p>Always check Amazon for book prices, especially used. Also wait until the first week of class to buy your books if they are expensive. We bought the dumb Fluency 4 book for $75 and my son never even used it (and he got an A).</p>
<p>That’s rather unfortunate, but I’m quite certain that in classes like calculus and major science classes such as chemistry and physics, the professors will require the students to use textbooks.</p>
<p>That’s close to what I spent last year. Some of the engineering textbooks are expensive because you’ll be using them for more than one semester:</p>
<p>The physics book is used for 2 semesters
Chem is used for two semesters
The calc book is for Calc 1 through Calc 3</p>
<p>I never really used my matlab textbook, so if you didn’t buy it yet, I wouldn’t recommend paying $50 for it.</p>
<p>Textbooks are a ripoff in general. A lot of upperclassmen are selling textbooks via facebook, and you can always order from the used section of amazon.</p>
<p>Never used Matlab textbook? Who was your instructor? I heard one of them was not very clear with instructions and lectures, so it’s good to have an extra reference on you. Unfortunately, I already ordered one for $60.</p>
<p>Did you order from the bookstore? They are pretty good about cancelling orders. </p>
<p>Sometimes Amazon has new prices that are cheaper than the used prices at the bookstore.</p>
<p>There is only 1 matlab instructor, Brenda Cortez. She posted some good notes online, so I always read those instead of the textbook. She also gave practice problems, which can be done on matlab. She never assigned any reading or homework from the textbook. It was pretty much pointless; any lessons that are found in the book can be more quickly learned by googling the topic.</p>
<p>I pretty much learned all about matlab through these lecture notes of hers and random sites off of google. Many people on ratemyprofessors would probably agree.</p>
<p>That’s not very good. I heard lots of different things about her; some said her lecture notes are useless unless you go for extra help. I’m quite shocked that she doesn’t require you to use the textbook.</p>
<p>How did you study for the class then?</p>
<p>I would read her notes and type the code into matlab, so I could understand the process of everything. As with any programming language, the best way to study is to practice and memorize the programming techniques. With her exams, I relied mostly on memorization, like what code I need to type to give the output she wants. And the easiest way to memorize is to practice :)</p>
<p>She was a bad professor, but you’ll have TA-run recitations, and my TA was really good! The recitation is in a computer lab, so it’s easier to learn when you’re typing the code too. The lecture is in a lecture hall and she reads off of a powerpoint, so you can’t really learn much. Plus, she didn’t even allow laptops (For a huge lecture hall, she was alert enough to kick out people with laptops and headphones).</p>
<p>I’m actually quite surprised that there are so many complaints on the way she teaches, and yet, she some how manages to maintain her faculty position at SOE. I did some research and learned that she majored in Electrical & Computer Engineering at Rutgers, and graduated in 2009; so it’s very reasonable to conclude that she is yet just a “kid”, and, well, inexperienced.</p>
<p>I’m sure though that she knows her stuff by heart - how else could she have gotten her job? -, but if there are that many complaints from her students, the dean should do something to resolve this issue.</p>
<p>Anyways, enough of my rant. Without the textbook, your only source is her lecture notes; but I also heard that her tests are much beyond the capabilities of the students. So I’m not sure how you could just go by her notes. Did you look at the textbook at all, or you just didn’t order one?</p>
<p>This is gonna be long/a rant, just a warning.</p>
<p>I read the book a couple times, but it really didn’t help me. It depends, you might find it more helpful than I did, but it was worthless to me. The only time Brenda ever mentioned the textbook was on the first lecture, when she said that the book is only for your own good.</p>
<p>Now for the exams: The stuff we went over in recitations were basically fair game for the exam. The exams were a little weird because half of it was written (without the computer), so you literally have to memorize the easier material to do well on that part. For the second half, you can use matlab to write the code, and these problems are a little more difficult. The things on the written part were just about verbatim from recitation problems, so I’d say that portion was fair. She even arranged that part so that there would be 5 problems but you only had to do 4 of them. The second portion was like the homework/projects, which was much more difficult. The first exam was a piece of cake, but the second exam and final got pretty difficult.</p>
<p>Seems good so far, right? What was totally unfair is the grading system. Between Brenda and all the TA’s, someone will grade your exam. She openly admitted that your grade depends on the TA-- some are fairer than others, and Brenda herself was a really harsh grader. My exam scores fluctuated so much because it really depended on who graded your exam. This is how the homework and projects are graded too.</p>
<p>If you study hard and know what you are doing, you will be fine. It’s just the grading that puzzled me. I wasn’t happy about how she handled the course. It was a combination of her attitude and inexperience with teaching. Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get a new professor.</p>
<p>Don’t let this class discourage you from engineering either, it’s the professor that was the problem not the material.</p>
<p>Hmm, all right. So just basically, I need to “memorize” the format according to her way? I also looked at her syllabus for Spring 2010, and was surprised to find that the grades ARE NOT curved. 90=+ is an A, and even “89.66%” is considered a B+.</p>
<p>By the way, I inquired her about which version of the textbook I should get, and I started the email by calling her “Brenda” since the difference in our age isn’t that large. Interestingly, she hasn’t responded yet, so I was wondering if she liked freshmen calling her by her first name.</p>
<p>^ probably not</p>
<p>She wanted people to call her Brenda, and even addressed herself as Brenda, so it should be fine. Considering she sent out at least 1000 emails throughout the semester, I’m surprised she hasn’t responded. She could be traveling or something.</p>
<p>Grades were not curved. I had her in Fall 2010, which was her first semester teaching, and she started giving out a little extra credit (like extra credit pop quizzes in lecture). But the people who had her in Spring 2011 had so many more extra credit opportunities. It would be easier for her and for the students to just curve the grades.</p>
<p>She can’t curve it, anyone without previous programming experience would find it virtually impossible to get an A since a pretty hefty hunk of the students are familiar with one language or another to some degree.</p>