Thoren is a nice lady with good intentions, but that doesn't correlate with being a good teacher. She approaches a math class as though it were an English course. Using only powerpoints that contain more text than actual math coupled with class "discussions" that go nowhere, she leaves much to be desired. Pick another prof if you have an option.

Thoren has great intentions with her course. She truly wants to prepare us for real world scenarios. Tests and homework were fair to easy. Her lectures were well prepared, but only scratched the surface. She didn't work through tricky problems in class. Wasted a lot of time with simple iclickers. Has pointless, but easy projects in section.

Though she means well, Thoren is an incapable professor. Her lectures are on power-points which are difficult to follow and never teach enough material for the homework. Homework problems are often irrelevant, and weekly "discussion projects" are useless and detract from class time. Tests do not cover what you have have been working on during class

Really nice person, but a terrible prof. Lectures were very boring and often contained mistakes. I learned nothing in section and spent most of the time engaging in projects that had almost nothing to do with material. The tests were doable because of CLAS. Either take CLAS or become best friends with someone who is enrolled.

terrible professor, if you can learn through powerpoint.. good luck. she is one of the worst professors ive ever had, she is not clear whatsoever, and she has the class do useless project that do not prepare you at all for the final. the final was extremely difficult, i would to see a math professor demonstrate and work through certain examples.

Her lectures focus a lot on the conceptual and basic calculation problems, so the homework is quite difficult because it is heavy calculation. Heavy calculations were mostly self-taught (for me). Her tests were fair though, mostly basic/intermediate calculations and concepts rather than the crazy stuff on the homework. Very helpful in office hours

Very helpful in office hours, and really wants her students to preform well in the class. Tests are very fair (not too easy but not impossible or bizarre). Webwork is tricky but go to math lab and you'll be fine. Lecture covers a lot of the conceptual points; however, go to CLAS for problem solving tactics and skills. Not a bad class, do the work!

She is an awful undergraduate teacher. Mistakes appear regularly on her lectures and section is spent doing useless projects. Midterms and Finals represent nothing we learned in homework, lecture or section (actually you learn nothing in section). If possible, stay away from her.

Skip this teacher. She goes through her powerpoint every lecture, but they are never enough to do the homework. She gives discussion projects every week that just take away your class time for actually asking for help. She teaches the class asking everyone their opinions on problems, rather than just teaching. So much discussion but no learning.

Elizabeth Thoren is great teacher. She goes out of her way to lean students names and make sure that people have an understanding of the subject. Great Teacher.

Very helpful and caring. Best teacher Ive had at UCSB. Takes her time explaining and class goes by super fast. And shes not hard to look at.

useless teacher ever, only thing need to do is click i-clicker,, be sure not take her class, absolutely not worth!!!!

Does not know how to teach. Lectures, homework and tests barely cover the same material making you feel like you've just learned absolutely nothing. She would start explaining a hw problem and then midway stop and never solve the problem.

Honestly, the only reason why I go to class is to answer I-clicker. That is only thing you do all class, just iclicker. She is a terrible teacher, and honestly its not worth your time. If you struggled in Math 3A, I recommend to drop to Math 34B. It's not worth her class. She has these really dumb projects that you do in section instead of learning

terrible terrible terrible teacher ever.....only knows how to read PPT.....

great teacher

Tough professor. The exams are extremely hard if you don't understand her lectures. Her lectures are very unclear; sometimes she loses her train of thought, tries to get it back, and just gives up explaining the concept to us. When she's doing example problems, she often makes mistakes or skip a step and will completely confuse the class.

She explains unclearly, i can't understand what the hell she is talking about. Besides she let us do some stupid project, makes no sense at all, and let us explain it using complete sentence.Hello, this is math class, not f..king english class. She is the worst professor I have ever had.

Terrible instructor. Seems to have a very hazy understanding of the subject. Makes a mistake on the board every 8 seconds. Half of lecture powerpoints have some critical error. Assigns discussion projects that are completely unrelated to calculus, which are time consuming and render TAs unavailable for help with relevant homework during section.

She is a nice person and is open to helping students. The problem I had with her was that she just wasn't helpful. The homework (webwork) has almost nothing to do with what she teaches in the class. The tests are not too difficult if you study beyond the review guide. She makes mistakes every lecture making it difficult to understand.

Please do yourself a favor and avoid this professor. She makes math harder to understand because she makes mistakes in almost every single lecture, the homework is ridiculous and has nothing to do with what you "learn" in class, and TAs (or at least my TA) don't help, so you can't rely on them. Must attend lecture and section.

Professor Thoren is nice and patient. She knows math and teaches well. Her office hours is truly helpful. Tests are not bad. You will be fine if you work hard and pay attention in class.

Absolutely horrible. Now I am quite good in math. But Thoren is just the lowest of the low. Always makes mistakes, unclear explanations, overcomplicates things, assumes too much, hard as hell tests. Please, for your own GPA, avoid at all costs. This was my first non-A in a math class (B+). Unacceptable.

Terrible Teacher. bad test writer. Very unclear and assuming. she messes up ALOT. good person. but not a good teacher whatsoever. i love calculus. but she just made everything so complicated. the simplest thing would become total confusion.