2.7
Quality3.7
Difficulty28%
Would Retake156
Reviews28%
Would Retake
156
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
38
4
24
3
18
2
29
1
47
What Students Say
“He has such a good personality but he is not very good at teaching or grading”
MATH123 - 1.0 rating“delightful person, accent not bad”
MTH202 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
67%
Textbook Required
38%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.33 avg changeRatings by Course
325
5.0
(1)MTH202203
5.0
(1)MTH277
5.0
(1)MTH34501
5.0
(1)MATH203
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
MTH325
5.0
MTH300
5.0
MATH201
5.0
MTH123
5.0
MATH123
5.0
Reviews (156)
It's calc2 and he's ethiopian. Obvious language barrier, but he know's the stuff
Extremely thorough. Takes a couple weeks to get used to his speech.
DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH - Drop as soon as you can.
Get used to the accent, very nice and versitle
He knows the subj. well but u cant understand him & that makes it hard
No Comments
you get used to the accent and you'll do fine
you will get use to the accent. very good, amusing! gets excited alot
Nice guy, really wants you to do well. "Easy as hot tea, Yes No?"
A nice teacher but moves fast sometime. His accent can be hard to understand
gave me a quarter for a correct answer in class!
real nice guy, but he moves to fast for how bad his accent is
He's the BEST! TAKE HIS CLASS! and when you do well, "braaa-vooo!"
Hard to understand, but knows his material... can make you feel stupid at times.
The ave of the first test was 69% and he didn't even review it.
class avg for first test 54..but nice guy and it got easier as it went on
Want to have fun in his class? Write down quotes and learn his accent
Very helpful and cares whether you understand. Accent gets better with time.
Not considerate to the entire class failing
Not the best speaker I ever heard but he is on of the best math professors.
if you're not doin good, it's because u don't ask for help! Have him say sheet!
A funny guy
No Comments
Take this class,its as easy as drinking a tea
Hilarious!! One of the best profs i've had. make him say Chicken Scrap!
No Comments
Plan on working hard, but if you can do that, he'll get you thru it
Funny guy. Take his class.
No Comments
Very nice guy, knows his stuff, very through, keep up with HW and you'll do fine
Easy class, funny/nice guy. Hard to understand though.
Awesome guy, always willing to talk in and out of class, cares whether you understand or not. Take his class, he rules
He is the best math professor, he makes things look very simple. I like his teaching style. Very funny guy, like his natural smile. He is from africa, he has strong accent.
he is very hard to understand, boring, but very easy prof
Extremely difficult class, grades tough on proofs. Very helpful outside of class. He's a genious, this class just sucks.
No concern for students' understanding, does not help outside of class, changes syllabus without notice, accuses students of plagiarism, has short temper. Stay on this guy's good side.
wouldn't recommend this teacher, hard to understand, expects everyone to understand what he teaches & moves on without making sure everyone understands. Doesn't give much help. Class is hard enough, but he makes it worse!
can't understand anything he says..picky and expects everyone to understand what he teaches. class is only hard for about 4 weeks
Hard class to begin with, added with hard to understand, and impossibly hard grader. Id reccomend a different prof if you can.
Bottom line, ask questions and he'll slow down. If you don't ask, he expects you understand... DUH! Extremely helpful and always in his office. Made calc fun for me!
Can't really understand what he says, very strong african dialect. Course is very hard, so if you're not really strong in calc, take a different prof. It's funny to listen to him talk though.
His accent takes some getting used to, but after a week, you can understand him. He is a funny guy, even though sometimes he doesn't mean to be. He is always willing to help out after class. If you call, he can meet with you at any time. There arent surpises exams, its exactly what he teaches you.
Loved this class! His accent is strong, but he's understandable & will restate or write on the board if it's still not clear. You only need to ask. If you don't ask, he assumes understanding. So speak up if you're lost! Pretty much everything is take-home with very little, if any, homework.
Great Professor. He knows all the slick, little math tricks. He really loves mathematics. Every math major should take him for a class.
Very nice guy, his accent is pretty strong but after a week you get used to it and it becomes really funny. His tests are kinda hard though.
Seriously, if you can figure out the grading scale I would give serious accolades. We would double check our work and he would still find problems with it, mostly grammatical. Unwilling to adjust class pace and just keeps going and doesnt seem to care about students
Definitely knows his math. Work load was quite light. Very enjoyable class, if you like math. Would recommend Tefera all the way.
Maybe very intelligent, but you can not understand him with his accent and mumbling - flies through material and the board becomes a mess - dont try to follow his graphs. why does GVSU let these people teach who can not communicate?
He teaches really quickly and I had a hard time understanding him. He isn't very patient when a student doesn't understand a concept.
This class is legendary among CS majors for revealing the true face of collegiate evil. The material is completely insurmountable, his teaching style is about as clear as fog, and his grading is merciless. It doesn't follow Discrete Structures 1 at all, has nothing to do with CS, and takes the award for most needlessly obtuse class ever created.
He is really great.he is through and explains every thing.He was secound Ethiopian teacher I had and he was genious ....I think Ethiopians are really smart
Explains nothing well. Dismisses concepts as trivial. Take-home exams take hours. He put a concept he never explained - and there is nothing in the book or online - on a test. His tests are much more difficult than the in-class examples.
A good professor and a cool guy. ALL TESTS WERE TAKE HOME, which is GREAT if you're an engineering student like me. This guy is also hilarious. Half the fun of this class is quoting him. If you are an engineering student, you have to take Calc III with him. His only real flaw is that he can be hard to reach for office hours.
He knows his stuff, but his ability to teach is severely lacking. Goes over material very quickly and assumes we all understand(wrong!). Mini quiz EVERYDAY. Grades incredibly hard.If you dont show up to class, you will miss a quiz. Material is almost impossible to work out on your own unless you have a tutor.Very hard to understand anything he says
Having been a mathematics major my freshman year, I took MTH 210. Because of this I knew most everything he taught in the early part of the semester. However, I could CLEARLY see how his teaching methods were lacking and that everything he was saying was going over the other students' heads. I had to teach half the class myself outside of class.
Very nice person. His teaching goes over the head of many students but if you can think logically and follow what he is doing you will do well in the class. Quizzes by committee and take home tests. Not a bad prof overall.
He was a cool professor. He taught the material well but not excellent. He was also really funny. I laughed almost every class periods. However his quizzes and tests were really challenging. Mostly take home tests and they used to take several hours each because the problems required a lot of thinking.
Not very good. Quiz questions were always way harder than what we learned in class and test questions were harder than quiz and homework questions.
He is a horrible professor who does not teach. His idea of teaching is throwing a bunch of crap up on the board and hoping you understand it. English is not his first language, it might not even by his second, so he doesn't understand questions. He is not helpful. He told us "I can't believe you don't know how to do this, it's easy!"
Not helpful, bad teacher, questions aren't always clear.
Horrible. Absolutely horrible. Nothing about his "teaching" methods were at all helpful. Does not help, does not care, FILES through the material, plays favorites. I don't understand why Grand Valley allows such awful professors to be associated with their university! Last math class I had to take for the major, worst prof out of all I've had!
If you take him for 325, get ready for a ride through Discrete math hell. Utterly incomprehensible and poor at explaning, you'll battle surge after surge of demonic assignments and horrific exams all while struggling to keep your sanity in the labyrinthine cognitive maze that is poorly taught upper level discrete mathematics.
He wouldn't tell us whether or not we were actually having an exam, just told us to study. I wasted a bunch of time studying just to come to class and find out that the exam was now take-home. He also wont give you a copy of the "mini-quiz" (it's just homework) if you don't come to class, even if you go to his office hours and ask!
Good person & knows his subject. He has a heavy accent that can be hard to understand. Exams seem difficult & he seems to grade a bit hard, but fair. Quizzes & some exams parts were take-home ? so probably tougher grading is appropriate. Also he expects you to ask questions if you don?t understand something, and he tells you that, or he moves on.
Unfair and incompressible, he is at least funny and intelligent. Majority of his class was failing after the midterm, he then blamed the students for "wasting his time" last I checked I'm the one paying for this course. I dropped him because I had about a 40% in the course, I later got an A- with another professor. Please avoid, not a good prof.
Awful professor. I am a math major and had never done worse than a B+ in any math class until this one. I passed with a C by only a couple points. I have never struggled so much in a class. I went to his office hours once, asked a question multiple times telling him I didn't understand what he meant and all he did was repeat the same thing louder.
By far the worst math professor I have ever had. If you ask a question and he doesn't understand he just rambles on like he understands but obviously doesn't. Plays favorites, mini quizzes every week. If your in one of his classes switch out. Accent is hobbible, blames students for "wasting his time" if your not doing good.
I retook the class with him. He teaches it much better than many other profs. I had a D+ the first time I took it and am easily getting an A this time. He is hard to understand but he puts all of his notes online and will go over any questions you have.
He is a nice guy, but it is really hard to understand him. Our class tried asking questions, but only a few of us could understand what he was trying to explain. He also got frustrated with us because we couldn't understand him.
Hard to understand at first, but you get used to it. Doesn't assign homework which is nice. miniquizzes each week are really annoying. But you can take it to the math lab and work on it with others so you should do good. Nice guy, but gets mad at students who don't get math and/or don't care
Hard to understand, Can be insulting when you ask him a question when you do not understand something. Plays favorites, if you take his class do all that you can to become one, he will grades your tests and homework easier
Cant understand him and if you manage to its useless anyway because he cant tell you in a way that people can understand in english
He was rude, and not helpful what so ever. If you have the option don't take him. His accent makes it hard to understand him. He didn't seem to care whether you passed or not he was just there going through the motions. I actually had to drop the class because of his attitude towards students.
This class is so boring. I am currently doing thus while in class. If you just do the practice tests you will do fine on the exams. His voice gives me a headache.
Professor TEFERA is an awesome professor.He is great in helping students succeed in the course. I greatly benefitted in having him for CALC 2. If you really want to learn and master Caclulus take Prof. TEFERA
I go to another University. I took this course to fullfill the requirement in my major. Prof. Tefera knows the math. He made it looks easy to us. He was very undestanding, helpful and friendly. He did a lot of examples to help us undestand. I love his african thick accent!
The class was very difficult, specially taking it in the summer. But he gave us multiple opportunities to improve our grade. Very helpful! I enjoyed the course.
He is super smart and expects a lot of his students. There's a little bit of a language barrier that makes explaining things difficult, over all he's a good teacher.
Profesor TEFERA is BRAVO! I like it when he says BRAVO! AWESOME! when a student answers question or do well on tests. You would like TEFERA more if you are good at math, he is genius!
Hard to understand, and a very difficult grader. But allows retakes on all tests to recover some of your grade, and is really enthusiastic. Has optional pretests that are nearly identical to exams. Daily homework assignments out of book get annoying fast though.
Unclear, unorganized, inconsistent with the book (eg uses diff. variable names and different language) not prepared to teach the class. Exams and quizzes are super tough, mostly proofs that referring to notes and book are useless for. Spent more time on this class than any class, EVER and never got more than a 50% on assignments. Don't do it.
Prof. Tefera really understands math and is extremely helpful if you need further explanation during his office hours. Provides pre-tests that are nearly identical to real tests so not as tough as others say. His English is definitely good enough to teach math. Overall, a fine teacher. Bravo, Akalu!
Professor Tefera is highly organized and very friendly professor. He has high expectation from students, but he is very helpful and cares about students' learning. He gave us multiple opportunities to do well in the course. If you are not willing to put minimum effort to do the course work, you will definitely not pass the course.
If you really want to know Calculus, I recommend this professor all the way. He is the best calculus professor I ever had. His Mini-quizzes and exams are very challenging. But Professor T is very helpful when needed.
The Professor is awesome. I like his smile. He posts his lecture notes on BB (which is very helpful, if you miss classes). He allows test redo for partial credit. He cares about student success. But his tests and miniquizzes are very, very challenging.
I always struggle with math. But this semester, thanks for Prof. Tefera, I'm happy with my performance in this course. It was very challenging, but the professor is helpful. I learned not only calculus but the algebra that I was supposed to know in prior courses.
I took this course this summer. Dr. Tefera was very friendly and cares much about students's understanding and doing calculus rigorously. He gave us practice questions before tests, it was very helpful. If you fail a test, he will gave you another chance to improve your grade. Overall, my experience was great! Great teacher! Very genius!
Goes over main points of calc I, post all lecture slides on blackboard, Gives practice test that are literally the exam he will give. Gives one mini-quiz per week and gives you 7 days to do it, a lot of webwork but its good practice. delightful person, accent not bad. gives proofs and examples, tough grader.
I found this course very challenging. Professor Tefera has helped me a lot, he allows exams retake (without it I could not pass the course). The Professor posts notes on the BlackBoard site and no textbook (you do not need textbook). He has high expectation and his questions are very challenging. But the professor is very helpful if you need help.
Professor is awesome, friendly and his smile gives me energy and not to sleep during very early morning (8:00AM) class. I like it when he says BRAVO!, As EASY AS DRINKING TEA (even though I do not drink tea). Seriously Prof. Tefera taught us Calculus very well. Practice Tests were very helpful..I passed the course successfully.
Simply an awesome professor!Take this course with Professor Tefera.
Akalu is a fun person, but a horrible teacher. he keeps the class interesting but he is hard to understand and doesn't like taking time out of his day to answer questions, at least not without making you feel like an idiot. his class activities and quizzes don't prepare you for the exams, and he grades everything extremely hard. Don't take him!!
Two words: Genius and Fun. Professor T is the most challenging math professor ever, he is a tough grader. But you learn a lot of cool maths. He is extremely helpful, he allows exam redo (I was really benefited from exam redo).
This professor should not be teaching. He expected everyone to know the material before class even started and was EXTREMELY unhelpful when it came to helping us understand the material. He was disrespectful to students when they asked questions and had no interest in helping us pass the class. DO NOT take this professor! He was an awful teacher.
He is an awful teacher and makes this class impossible to do well in. You can't understand him. He is the toughest grader. He isn't fair. When picking your professor avoid him at all costs.
If you have him for Math 122, switch at all costs. It will save your GPA and your sanity. He was the most unhelpful professor I have ever had. The tests were extremely hard and the class average was usually below passing. He did not seem to mind, nor did he change his style. He was unresponsive to questions. I cannot say one good thing.
The practice tests are EXTREMELY helpful, and he post them on BB at least 2 weeks before test. The professor answers questions throughly. I like his teaching style:you spend time thinking how to figure out math problems than memorizing formula. The class notes are available online, so during lecture you focus on learning than copying note.
Terrible teacher. You can hardly understand him and he expects that you remember math from h.s. & if you don't he moves on without explaining anyway. He is an EXTREMELY TOUGH GRADER. And that being said, each of his MA 122 classes had an average of 60% for each exam. Also, He is impossible when it comes to answering your questions. Don't take him!
The professor made the course challenging but he helps you if you ask him. He encourages through answers. He is highly enthusiastic, and makes you feel happy during lecture. He is strict in grading but allows you to retake exams if you fail. Overall, my experience with this professor was great.
If you have him try to switch IMMEDIATELY. He was one of the worst professors I've ever had and this class is near impossible to do well in. He is rude and unapproachable and expects you to remember everything you learned in high school. I would study for hours and I had a tutor but it didn't matter at all. Just a terrible and unhelpful professor.
This professor tries to be helpful, but is not. You can not understand one word he says. His tests are only 5 questions long, so if you only get one wrong bye bye grade.
When you ask a question it does not get answered completely. Then he tells you to come to his office hours if you don't want to raise your hand in class, just leaving you more confused by not answering your question yet again. Also takes off a lot of points if 1 thing is wrong, and he will tell you to just go look over it at dinner by yourself.
I would recommend to not take this course with this specific professor. I took a similar class to Math 122 in High School and he makes this class harder than it should be. He won't answer questions and you can't understand him at all. I like math and he ruined that for me.
He is a good professor to have for Math 203. He really cares for the subject and can be funny at times. You might have to learn the information yourself outside of class, but he makes it pretty simple for you.
I was very nervous about jumping back into an upper level math course. This professor speaks very fast however if you pay attention you can do well. He give excellent examples to clarify himself. Prepares you for his exam. Would definitely take this professor again.
Coming from someone who usually loves math, after taking this course I hate it. It's all basic algebra from HS which should make it easy but he is a HORRIBLE teacher and is one of the hardest graders I've ever met. Only good thing about this professor is that his exam reviews are exactly the same as his exams.
literally one of the absolute WORST professors I have EVER had. You could get everything 100% correct on an exam and he will find the smallest things to mark you down for. if you have a choice DO NOT take him. SUCH a hard grader, not clear AT ALL. expects you to remember everything from high school, assigns homework on unlearned material etc.
I love Math, and coming straight out of Math 110 the previous semester I thought I was prepared for what Math 122 had to offer. Dr. Tefera is a horrible teacher. Do not take him. You cant understand him and he asks much more of you than needed of a Gen Ed.
Professor T is very awesome, friendly, cares about student success. He gave us several opportunities to succeed in the course. He taught us well. Gave us practice test way a head of the scheduled exam, which was very helpful. He allows exam redo if you do not do well on the exam the first time. There is no way to fail this class.
Worst professor I've ever had. He doesn't teach, he simply does examples on the board with no explanation. Tests are impossible to pass because he picks apart every answer and if you don't have every single part, you get docked a lot of points. If you have any questions on homework and email him, the answer you will get is "check your notes".
He makes this class so difficult, what he teaches in class has NOTHING to do with the homework or exam. MEMORIZE the practice tests and in class assignments if you want to get at least a C on the exam. Good luck!
Dr. Tefera is an incredibly intelligent man, too intelligent to teach intro calc classes. Does not explain, its like he reviews over material and barley explains, gives an example and never touches on the subject again. Tests are insanely hard. His practice tests are word for word his exam, but he is the most strict grader, absolutely insane.
This class was way harder than necessary but still really do-able. It helps to completely memorize the practice tests because the real ones are an exact copy. He is a really tough grader so make sure to answer the questions exactly how he wants them. Really nice guy who wants his students to succeed.
Professor Tefera is simply AWESOME. If you really desire to learn calculus take Professor Tefera! I learned a lot from this class, including algebra that I should have known before this course. Do the practice tests, WebWork homework problems, you earn good grade. The professor is very helpful, caring and friendly.
Dr. Tefera is a brilliant man, but he expects you to be just as brilliant. Attendance is 1/6 of your grade, but unfortunately his lectures do not help much. Possibly one of the most anal graders to exist, taking points away on exams for anything he can find an excuse for. Avoid this man at all costs.
Unless you are able to understand someone writing out new Calculus material at an fast rate on the whiteboard, Tefera is not your prof. He is hard to understand sometimes and moves through the tough material quite quickly. You can ask questions in class if you even understand what to ask, but good luck getting a helpful response over email.
Prof Tefera is a tough grader. He is very picky, he will take points off for anything other than exactly what he wants. His lectures aren't helpful. I only succeeded in this class because I spent my time in the math success center.
Professor Tefera is brilliant and caring. If you do not miss class and put sufficient effort and work for Webwork and tests, you would be fine. I learnt a lot of algebra concepts and skills in this course. The professor is caring and I went to his office hrs frequently, he is helpful, friendly!
Prof Tefera is the hardest professor I have ever had. He expects that you undersand something after the first time he explains it. His exams are exactly like the practice exams but he marks you down any chance he gets. He is very hard to understand and goes way too fast. Expect to put in A LOT of extra work outside of class just to get a C.
Professor Tefera is a brilliant mathematician and I am astounded by his knowledge. That being said, he was unable to "take it down a level" and explain concepts for someone who was not knowledgeable in the content area. While Professor Tefera is a kind, wonderful person, I didn't learn anything from this course because he didn't explain well.
I took Professor Tefera for Calc 2 and 3, got an A both times and I wouldn't have been able to do as well with any other professor. Homework once or twice a week, usually took about an hour or two each. Tests super easy if you're willing to study for them, Tefera literally gives you the resources to get a 100%. I would definitely take him again.
Worst Prof! Everyone failed this class and he would give examples but they would be nothing like the problems he would use on exams. Almost everyone failed the class. DO NOT TAKE!
He has such a good personality but he is not very good at teaching or grading. He is VERY picky on exams if you miss one little detail he will mark off a bunch of points. He gives no extra credit , he does give another opportunity to retake exams but overall I would suggest not taking his class.
Prof Tefera is a nice guy but honestly the worse professor I have ever taken. If you get the answers right on test but your work isnt EXACTLY what he wants, he will still take off most of the points. The average for our take home test was a 61%. He is so hard to understand, and really doesnt care if you do good in the class or not. Dont take him
He definitely cares about his students and is VERY excited about math, but my group and I have attended every lecture and still have no clue what we are doing! He gives unclear instructions and tells you that you are right when you are wrong. Unless you're a math whiz, find a more accessible teacher!
He is a vary great person and LOVES math. He pushes you to do your best and sees potential in everyone. He is willing to go through all the tests during his office hours and tell you exactly what you got wrong and why. I will say he is a tough grader but hes definitely a good professor.
Worst professor I have ever had. He has ridiculously hard assignments, which I would spend hours on and the math center tutors couldn't figure out. His accent is hard to understand Doesn't like questions; scoffs and mocks you if you dare not understand. He races through the lecture, then assigns group work and doesn't teach anymore. DO NOT TAKE
Tefera is one tough teacher. I managed to do well but I spent crazy amounts of hours on the homework. The one good thing is that if as a class you chose to take tests in class rather than take home he'll give you the EXACT test before hand and you can get help on that then memorize the work you got ... this was the only reason I did well.
Terrible professor. Has an awful way of teaching that makes it impossible to do his homework. The homework he gives absolutely does not relate to his lectures. would not recommend taking any of his classes.
Absolutely the worst professor I have ever had!!! His lectures make no sense what so ever and you can't even understand what he's saying half the time. None of his lecture material translates to homework or tests so you are pretty much learning the material by yourself. Please do yourself a favor and do not take anything he teaches.
He doesn't teach you anything, you have to figure out everything on your own. his accent is hard to understand. When he does actually go over something, he jumps around and hardly explains anything. The first month of class we "learned" math from things we learned years ago back in high school, Didn't bother teaching any of it. Get a tutor or fail.
by far the worst prof. I have ever had. You don't learn a single thing in his class. Everything is up to you. Have a question? funny, he will answer it but will give you a poor response, and barely answer it. Whatever you do try your hardest to stay away from his classes.
If you end up Akalu Tefera as your math teacher, run. While he may be better in person, taking his course online was a mental and grade nightmare. His lectures were terrible, I was often stuck on concepts and upon asking for help would get frustrated that I didnt already know the course material. Testing was bad in top of that. Stay away, FAR away
In reality he doesn't teach, he doesn't help with homework, doesn't even understand half of the homework he assigns. What ever you do, DO NOT take his class
I don't understand how he's even employed at GVSU, I have never had a worse teacher or prof. If you have questions in the class he wont really answer them. This was a synchronous and asynchronous class, his videos were never helpful and he never taught during our zoom meetings, he gave us homework on things that were never explained or taught.
He doesnt teach, he isnt helpful, hes pretty nice but very hard tp understand and follow in his lecures. what ever you do don't take any of his classes chances are you wont pass, my entire class practically failed his class, he needs to be fired
Taking any of his classes will kill your GPA. WORST professor i have ever had, he grades you so harshly you could do really good but if you didn't do things the EXACT way he wants it he will kill your score
Heres how his lectures are structured: Stands in front of whatever hes writing on the board, doesnt explain any of his steps, assigns a mini quiz and webwork problems. Everyone takes the test. The class average score is 60%. Moves onto the next topic If you actually want to learn something, I would NOT recommend taking his course.
If you are somebody who likes math a lot, and you want to learn how to do everything without a calculator you should take professor Tefera. Despite what other reviews say, he is a good professor and does a good job. He offers to answer any questions before every class. He is from Ethiopia, so he does have an accent.
Listen, Tefera is funny and also a nice guy, but he is most definitely not a good teacher. He speaks very fast, is hard to understand, and honestly, too intelligent to teach. Also, he will erase his work immediately after doing it, so good luck keeping up with that. Was only able to pass this course by seeing a tutor weekly, which is ridiculous imo
Tefera is a wonderful teacher as long as you contribute in class. He goes at the speed of the students, so if you speak up he will slow down and go over topics again. For me he also had open note tests and gave a practice test before hand and as long as you practiced you are guaranteed at least a B. I will be signing up for him with MTH203.
This professor was hard to learn from and I did not enjoy this class at all. I am usually an all A student with this class becoming the one exception. I passed calculus 2 with an A- and was told calc 3 would be a lot easier but it was definitely not easier with this professor. I don't recommend this class to anyone unless you want to ruin your GPA.
He gives a lot of homework/mini-quizzes that ends up being 40% of your grade- easy points. For the other 60% its evenly split between 3 tests that allow up to 3 attempts for. And theres no cumulative final! However, he does move pretty fast but if you get the topics fast youll understand the class.
This professor is amazing! He's always willing to change his plans for class to best fit the students' needs. Attendance isn't mandatory, but it's very important to go to class because he moves quickly through notes. He makes the class as easy as he can, letting you have multiple attempts on tests/quizzes, and providing extra credit on homework!
Very engaging with students and success is based on participation in class. He's very flexible with the schedule while providing time in class to work on homework or get help. Lecture does move quickly, but many examples are given to help students understanding of the material. He cares about everyone in the class understanding all of the material.
The class was a challenge. He did not always log into his office hours. Attendance was not mandatory, but you would not understand the content if you did not go. Most examples were easier than the quizzes/exams. He did not always explain questions clearly. All quizzes were open notes, exams were not.
I couldn't understand him and he made learning very hard. Most people dropped the class.
Tests, Quizzes, Homework is all online and very frustrating when you don't understand how the website wants you to type to answer. Best to work on homework in class and take notes before class. Talks very fast and expects you to know everything and your questions will never be answered with a simple yes or no and you still won't know your answer.
Heavy Ethiopian accent very hard to understand. He taught the class as if it was review. Rarely ever explained topics in depth, if you ask questions you'll get the run around. He will screw you over on the final. After finishing my first year at GVSU I can confidently say he was the worst professor I have had. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!
horrible.
Avoid this class if you can. Prof. Tefera expects perfection and provides little guidance. However, using resources like unstuck AI alongside the textbook can help manage the high difficulty.
Can be difficult to understand. Lectures make no sense. No help when you ask for help. Very irritating, and I enjoy math. Never responds to emails.
I don't know how he has any bad reviews, he is the best math teacher i've had at GVSU. He is so easy and laid back. Notes are allowed to use for the quizzes ad tests. He gives you time to work on assignments in class.
Theres a lot of bad reviews but he isn't that bad. I was nervous going in but I truly understood everything he taught. He was always willing to help you understand and often checked in with us to make sure we understood. Tests were open note and there was only 3 of them. Grade was test heavy but practice tests helped you get a good grade on tests.
I could not understand his lectures, but sense we can have hand written notes for the exam it did not matter. I simply taught myself and wrote out notes for each question which you should do sense it improves your grade.
Graded work is online, but you take notes on paper. It's hard to follow what he is doing sometimes. Luckily he allows Desmos and open notes on tests which is nice. Be warned, if you finish a test before the class ends he won't let you leave or you'll be marked absent, even if you were present.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
67%
Textbook Required
38%
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Predicted Grade
B-
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