Listen, he's not gonna blow your socks off. His lectures are slightly all over the place but homework is optional but needs to be completed to take exams. His grading is very lenient, which helps with learning the material. Holds office hours regularly, nice guy
My favourite professor at UCSB. I highly recommend taking his class. I took 4A and 124A with him and he was a great lecturer for both and I prefer his course format.
I could not understand anything from his lecture. Everything I learned is from TA, He made many typos in class and lecture notes. He could not explain things clearly. Lecture is totally useless.
Professor Birnir is a nice person, but maybe not a perfect instructor. He is willing to help, but his lecture is basically repeating the textbook (90% is exactly the same). The grading is very very lenient. Higher than 85 is an A. TONS of HW. Extremely difficult knowledge but tests are relatively easy, especially the final. Hard to learn something.
The course is so hard; the material is difficult to understand, and homework can take 10 hours each week if you do it on your own. Lectures are no better than directly reading the textbook. However, exams are open-book, and everything on homework and exams can be found online or in the textbook. So the difficulty really depends on how you learn.
very easy class but did not learn anything
If you survive Birnir, you'll be reforged into an immortal.
This class was super easy to take online. His lectures weren't the best but I feel like I learned enough. 4 exams but you have one week to do each one and you can ask your TA questions about it in your section. No final. Was really nice to have a low stress class for once.
Take him if you want an easy A. But don't take him if you want to learn the concepts. The lectures are very confusing and not well organized, and I highly recommend using the textbook he recommended to help your understanding. The exams are VERY EASY. Just make sure you fully get the concepts for future math courses.
By week 5 I stopped watching his lectures; YouTube taught me better. But there were many helpful TAs, and his exams were really easy/straightforward, which completely made up for his confusing lectures. He's also really understanding about extending Webwork deadlines. If Math4A is the last math class you need, take him bc it'll be pretty easy!
He's so nice and understanding, and exams are so straightforward. Amazing professor. TAKE HIM!!
One of the most disorganized classes I've ever taken. Half of what the homework is on is never even mentioned in lecture, and what he talks about he does so in such a confusing way that it's not even worth watching the lecture. Plus he spends most of each lecture trying to figure out where he went wrong in the problem. Be ready to teach yourself
This is my guy!!! Ok he's not a good lecturer but the tests were super easy and the times I did go to lecture he was funny as hell. Take 4A with him for an easy A
Love this dude. Super chill, has an awesome (german? nordic? austrian?) accent, grades very fairly, exams very much reflect what is taught during the course and given in practice exams. If you apply yourself you'll ace his class.
This man is the GOAT,no joke. Homework: 50%100%, iclicker: 75%100%. Go to CLAS and section because lecture is too disorganized. Self study and you'll get 100% on both midterms like I did. The final wasn't as easy as the midterms but I finessed a 96% on it thanks to CLAS and my 3x5 notecard. Basically, take this class for the easiest A+ in math.
He doesnt reply to your email. He doesnt post a suggested reading info on time. He doesnt break the material down. He doesnt fix minor system error. He doesn't upload slides online although others mostly do. He doesn't speak clearly and it's hard to get. He doesn't answer to student's questions well. He is incredible, of course in a bad way.
He is awful. Never take his class again.
I took this class Fall 2014. Birnir was an absolutely awful lecturer. His slides were out of the book, he did not break down concepts adequately to understand without background in Calculus, and his midterms were much more abstract than the homework would lead you to believe, with no practice test. Study hard on the internet (for ex: Khan Academy)!
Better get cozy and binge watch Khan Academy if you want to do good here. Birnir puts things in his tests that he covered for a couple of minutes. 3 midterms, 1 final, and he rarely showed any in-class examples of how to do a problem. If you want to learn calculus, go to office hours, TA office hours, and Khan Academy. Otherwise, beware. #aliens
Birnir's class was very disorganized. His Powerpoints consisted of convoluted textbook pages that few could understand. If you want to do good watch Khan Academy and go to office hours. He's a funny guy and speaks Spanish, but his classes are boring and he rarely does problem examples. Failed 2 of 3 midterms and final and still passed class. #curve
Terrible teacher. Very smart guy but clearly has no idea to teach lower division math. You will pretty much have to teach yourself calculus, and watch a lot of Khan Academy videos because he doesn't explain how to do problems at all, and his lectures are literally just slides copied from the book.
Do yourself a favor and go watch Khan Academy from day 1. Birnir is hilarious, but doesn't teach a thing. I only recommend going to lecture if you want a laugh.
Didn't learn anything the entire quarter. Never went to section. Rarely attended lecture. Scored 20-30% below the average on every exam. Got a B- in the class. I don't even know anymore.
Legendary