It is very clear that Dr. Schley wants his students to succeed. HW is unlimited tries and you get extra credit for completing homework assignments early. He removes exam questions that might've caused confusion. He is very accessible outside of class. He truly cares about his students and it shows. If you put in the effort, its easy to succeed
After reading these ratings at the beginning of the quarter I thought "Maybe he isn't that bad" I greatly underestimated just how bad someone could be at teaching. The lectures were unorganized, he constantly made mistakes, made topics overly complicated, etc. Possibly the worst experience I've ever had with an educator. Avoid if possible.
I think I did well in this class simply because I already had a pretty good foundation of calc prior to taking this class, not necessarily because of his teaching. Lectures were sometimes confusing and students often had to correct him on several problems.
You could replace him with a bar of soap and learn more. Sign up for CLAS before signing up for him as a professor. You'll get away more from the tutors than the Pillsbury dough boy who runs that classroom. This is the 3rd time I am posting my comment after this dude requested to remove people's honest reviews twice, no shame!
He was always asking for ways to improve his lectures. However, I often found his lectures to be a bit unorganized. In my opinion, you definitely need to read the textbook to do well in this class. Gave lots of extra-credit. Overall a very kind and caring professor, lectures could be improved a bit so give him suggestions if he asks!
Schley is an amazing teacher and person. He was genuinely interested in the things he taught and that made his class all the better. His office hours were great and at the end gave copious amounts of extra credit so grades weren't an issue. Its a upper-div math class so you should prepare as such. If you don't like it take a comm class lol.
His lectures are extremely unorganized and complicate the material. He treats the textbook like it's a sacred text and his approach to teaching is "I am a guide but I can't make you learn the material." Unbelievable amount of homework. Despite this, he is very forgiving and accommodating when the class is struggling.
Don't take this course with this person if you are okay with poor-quality teaching, I'd wish I could sign up with Professor Porter instead of this guy, he is not meant to teach at the university, confuses people even more.
He was a very nice guy. Cared about his students and gave extra credit on our homework. The average grade in our class was really high, so he obviously did a good job teaching the material.
Very boring lecture and very heavy homework. Office hours is not helpful at all. Avoid him if you can.
Wow. Worst teacher i've ever had. A very nice man I'm sure, but utterly and wholly incompetent. I had him for 34a and 34b, and just wait to take this class with another professor. Simply not worth it at all. Lectures are completely useless and hard to follow, couldn't even do his own problems in class. He's so disorganized and just.. don't.
Very hands-off teaching style, but he will help you if you go to office hours. Super important to find a group you trust to succeed. 2 Midterms and 1 Collab Final Project with Homework due every week. Can be seen as too much to learn by yourself, but he'll work with you
He is kind. He does not go very in depth into the content and lectures are short. 102A is very group oriented which it makes it quite easy. Workload is light. I enjoyed the final project and presentation.
nathan loves math and wants us to succeed. if you do the hw and take notes from lectures and/or textbook you will do well. the course is well designed and lectures and hw are helpful, but people have bad attitudes and complain. tests aren't too hard you just need to know the concepts; lin alg is very conceptual. 11% extra credit for doing hw early.
He seems like he genuinely cares about his students. However, he's a pretty bad teacher and it seems like he doesn't really know what he's talking about. He makes a lot of mistakes during his lectures and honestly I'm more confused after attending his lectures. Take him as a professor only if you're good at self-studying.
If you ask me what I've learned for the past 7 weeks from this man literally nothing comes to mind. I review all his lecture slides and materials and still don't understand how I'm learning anything. he worst part is that although he doesn't make sense the TA Christine Alar is also unhelpful as well. He also rarely posts answers to his study guides
Lecture is a complete waste of time. Prof rarely does example problems with the class which is unfortunate considering how many he assigns. Spends most of lecture reading off slides he's forgotten. Material+tests are pretty simple and all it takes is a competent CLAS tutor to do well Easily the most useless prof/lecture I've had here (4th yr)
I'm sure he's a great person but this man cannot teach. My friend and I decided to teach ourselves the material instead of actually going to lecture. We've noticed we can get more done and actually understand it that way. 0/10 would not recommend. If you have the choice choose Peter Garfield as your math34b professor.
Seems like a lovely person who wants his students to succeed but he does not know how to teach. We went over his quiz question and even he was doing it wrong
I took Math 8 with Nathan in the summer, and I had a great time in this course. His lectures help you summarize the chapters of the textbook, so reading the textbook is very important. Please study for this course if you want a good grade! I didn't study enough and got a B+.
I took Math 8 over the summer with Nathan, and all I can say is that he was great. I think this is the first class I take at UCSB where I don't feel forced to watch online videos to actually understand what is going on. That said, we had lots of homework and some problems were very involved. Also, this guy takes deadlines very seriously.
I enjoyed his teaching more than I had anticipated based on his other reviews. He's incredibly dedicated to helping students understand course material. Lectures are heavy on student engagement: it's awkward when the class is quiet, but participate and you'll learn much better. Homework is harder than assessments; grading is generous w/ EC offered.
He is a fun teacher but doesn't have a focus on his lecture.
He does not accept any late homework even if you have appropriate excuses. He forces students to engage in class and no one responds, which is super awkward. He only spends time on the easy parts of the course but doesn't teach well on the hard parts.