Funny guy but get ready to teach yourself calculus. Reads straight out of the book for lectures. Grading is easy and the curve is huge so that will save you.
Birnir is a very intelligent man. However, his intelligence and highly mathematical mindset are not fit for teaching low level calculus. He assumes everyone knows what he quickly reviews during lectures and only teaches advanced, representational nomenclature instead of actual example problems. Work independently and you'll be fine; TAs grade easy.
Choose another prof please.
The average score always like 3060 or 1640 and there is no curve! That makes nearly everyone gets a B or C. But it is a 3A MATH for freshman. And his lecture NEVER talks about which part is important!
Homework was pretty easy, but the lecture did a poor job of teaching much. Most of it could easily be found in the book, and didn't correlate to what was covered on the test. He did give a final practice review but the final was just.... PRAYING FOR A CURVE Also always sign up for CLAS
This man is literally the worst professor I ever had. There was a petition on the 2018 FB group on him after the first midterm. Gave a practice exam for final (first time yay), and it was nothing like the final. He has a thick accent, so impossible to understand, tests are nothing like recommended homework or homework given. Pls switch...
Don't anticipate learning much by his instruction. It is 100% get help of do it yourself. He threw in a math 3b topic on the final which was absolutely unjustified.. If it was mentioned at all in his lecture it's fair game as a tough question... the curve is the life line as always with this university... majority of students fail so a C- is an A
You better hope for a good curve at the end of the year because without it only a few people actually have hope.
You can't understand what he says half the time and then the tests don't cover the hw he leaves. Would not recommend at all.
I knew the class would be hard since it was my first time taking calculus. That being said this class was awful. The lectures were really only useful to figure out what sections to go over and the slides were practically the pages of the book .CLAS and math lab were grade savers. The test averages were all failing grades.
Very good professor. Thinks he is funny which is pretty charming. I never needed my textbook but I took calc in high school so I may have an unfair advantage over the other students. He frequently provides useful examples. The online homework isn't too hard for the most part but I recommend finding someone to do it with so you can help each other.
Bjorn is a great professor. He is very focused on theory and a more holistic understanding of the material. He is very patient, and eager to help you in OH. His courses are not for the lazy, help him help you. Pay attention and when he says to work a problem at home, do it! He expects you want to learn the material. My Favorite Math Professor.
Lecture is basically useless. Practice tests are 90% identical to the actual tests. Since this is the highest lower division math class, TAs arent that great. Go to CLAS and drop in and they explain everything better than the professor. If you can do the practice tests youll do well for sure. He also allows note cards so take advantage of that
Do the practice exams, and then do then do them with other people, and then do them again. The exams are almost identical to the practice exam. Ditch lecture, just take CLAS with Alex and you will learn much more! Easy class though, and homework is optional, which is nice
The class was very heavy on theory. However, the tests seemed not really to address the theory at all. Good professor for math majors, but utterly confusing otherwise. Success depends on crowd-sourcing. My scores improved dramatically once I started skipping lectures/section and studying with others/ CLAS.
He talks very quietly and with an accent that is hard to understand. Having the lecture at 8am wasn't helpful either. That aside, he couldn't explain concepts thoroughly for everyone to understand. During lecture, he would make computational mistakes, which would confuse everyone even more. Would not recommend.
Got behind on the material so he crammed it in and became less clear later in the quarter. Posted practice midterms and final with multiple typos that were never fixed and never posted solutions. Not very good at clarifying and explaining work. Tested on problems he never presented in lecture.
Nice professor but I think the problem is this class is just too hard for the average math student. Went to his O.H. and I still couldn't understand much. Gives homework once a week and if you get at least 50% of it right it counts for 10% of your grade. Midterm and final are both take home and luckily you can find most of the answers online.
Birnir is a great professor who wants you to learn about higher mathematics. That said, I can pretty much guarantee that this will be the hardest class you have ever taken if you want to actually learn the material. It's basically an introduction to graduate level mathematics
He is very unclear during lecture and makes many many mistakes. He was often times corrected by the class then got very flustered trying to find his mistake and would give up. He was, however, more helpful during office hours. His TAs grade the tests very easy and will give points for showing any amount of work, even if it is completely wrong.
He is a really nice guy but you really have to teach yourself. The only thing I didn't like was that he was always unclear about was being covered on the exams since he rarely followed the syllabus. The textbook he uses is a definite upgrade from the original math34A/B book so you're not completely lost. Just work hard and practice on your own.
This class is extremely easy. If you are having trouble with his class, then you must not be very smart.
This class was only easy because everything was take-home and class was not mandatory. Because he chose to teach it like a graduate level class, this meant everyone just copied proofs online to turn in. Learned absolutely nothing. Got an A. Nice guy, but he really does look into a sea of faces desperate to know anything and deny them knowledge lol.
Beware...You will not learn a thing in the class....he is nice but messes up all the time and class has to correct him. If you don't know a to of calc before this class good luck. you will have to be your own teacher.