I have had prof Schley for 2 classes now, I think he is much better in upper division style classes that are more concept heavy than raw computation heavy. Both classes had a lot of homework and difficult weekly quizzes. If you want an easy A and to learn very little you probably wont like him as a professor.
Explanations of concepts weren't too helpful, especially the more complex ones later on in the quarter. The free textbook was a lifesaver. Nice guy with fair exams, a LOT of homework.
Professor Schley is very good on teaching. When he introduces a topic, he is very logical and articulates a concept,which is the best I've ever seen. However, his TA "Jeremy" ruined everything, including RMP grade. I don't know what the future of him, but right now, in 2025 winter, "Jeremy" is always doing something thankless.
Nathan is quite literally the worst teacher/professor I've ever had. From not clearly answering questions, to assigning homework and quizzes weekly, I eventually had to drop his Math108A course, but if I stayed in his course, Im sure I would've gotten a C- or lower...
Absolutely the worst.
[Standard Schley warning: I love him, but you probably won't]. My 3rd class with Schley. Extremely HW heavy (2~3 per week), so think twice before choosing him. Suited for self-motivated students who want a VERY solid & difficult Math 8 class. Tests are very hard and demand full mastery of lecture and HW contents. Grade: A+ (one of the only few).
Just hands out a worksheet and waits for someone to ask him questions during lecture. He also doesn't really mention anything about the midterms leading up to them? Always has to be reminded to put the time up for midterms. Said he'd been prepping for another class's midterm and didn't get to spend as much time helping prep for our midterm.
Professor Schley is genuinely the worst professor I have ever had at UCSB. He would not tell us what was on the midterm and he told us three days before that we needed to know 3 more chapters and his practice test was so hard so I dropped the class.
Dr. Schley is one of those instructors who very much cares about people learning. I greatly enjoyed his teaching style and willingness to revisit topics when needed. Of course, the material is difficult but he makes it much more exciting and gives motivation behind the proofs. I would definitely take another class with him!
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.
Very boring lecture and very heavy homework. Office hours is not helpful at all. Avoid him if you can.
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 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.
He is a fair and very good professor. I like to study with him.
Last minute he changed the grade percentage which affected my overall grade, gave us a written final and oral final. I do not recommend this guy. If there is an option "0" I will have no hesitation of giving that.
Very disengaging lecture and hard to follow. Skips steps in his math and is super unclear. Unclear exam dates. Nice guy, but honestly more cut out to teach algebra 2.
Mr. Schley was a good teacher and was very passionate about his lectures. He always tried to explain the complicated concepts in compressed ways and was very good about answering questions during lectures. That being said, the course material itself is quite complicated, so make good use of him, TAs and CLAS help! Allows index cards on exams!
The lectures were really good and helped explain material in a very intuitive way. The weekly section quizzes were way too hard, and not completely the same concepts that we learned in lecture. Midterms and finals were just like the practice problems he provides, and there aren't many surprises. Nice guy who genuinely wants students to succeed.
Professor Schley does a great job at teaching Math 6A since he always tries to explain the abstract concepts in the most simplest ways he can, and so it makes the course a lot more easier to digest. My only complaint would be the weekly section quizzes as they are unnecessarily difficult and test obscure/niche topics from section.
We had two midterms and a final that were pretty similar to the practice we were given however, we had really hard weekly quizzes in section. They curved them at the end because everyone was failing them and it only counted as 10% of the grade. The professor is super nice and the class is lecture heavy however I did a lot of learning on my own.
Nice guy. Lectures heavily focus on concepts and intuition which is why most people find them bad or hard to understand. Personally I did not attend much lecture due to the triviality of the material in Math 6A, but I could see them being very good in a more difficult class. Schley is very caring and understanding, he dropped low quiz scores.
