2.2
Quality3.6
Difficulty24%
Would Retake101
Reviews24%
Would Retake
101
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
14
4
10
3
12
2
22
1
43
What Students Say
“just don't take this class for the sake of your gpa don't”
MTH163 - 1.0 rating“She's not a great teacher”
MTH167 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
54%
Textbook Required
53%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.43 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH1314
5.0
(1)MTH3
5.0
(1)MTHMTH
5.0
(1)MTH04
5.0
(1)MTT2
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
MTH241
4.5
MTH161
4.5
MTH162
4.4
MATH163
4.3
MATH161
4.3
Reviews (101)
She is a fantastic teacher!. Extremely helpful and willing to help anyone who is there to learn and makes an effort. I took her for 3 classes before she moved and now I actually understand math and got an A in each class. Pay attention and do your work and you will do very well.
Avoid at all costs. Unless you learn with straight lecture and no questions, stay away. She seems to only leave time for her lecture and MAYBE 1 or 2 questions. Half my semester was her telling the class to figure out the error in an example problem on the notes, as if we already have the knowledge needed.
good teacher, she gives reviews before each exam, she will choose 5-6 questions from the review. if you get them she adds those 5-6 points to your exam grade. Cons, she doesnt grade homework she gives quizzes, no extra credit, no make up tests. if you go to class and do homework you will do ok, its still hard work though.
No Comments
Not a good teacher. Does not come to class prepared. She rushes through several sections of a chapter within one class session without clearly going over the section's content. Give exams on problems that were not taught in class.
Great teacher! Helps you a lot, and is willing to meet you outside of class
She is very unorganized. She does not have time for questions on assignments. She rushes through lecture often only going over one problem for the section. The reviews she gives before the exam introduces new material not covered in class. She doesn't always know how to do the problems and sometimes makes mistakes from rushing.
She is a great teacher thats gotten bad reviews but you have to do your part in the classroom too like ask questions you dont understand, do your homework, and just practice. The benefits of her class is a review packet before each tests and also answers to the review problems. I recommend you take her class.
Rushes through everything every class. Unorganized and lost students work sometimes. She lied about changing an exam grade. It's great she gave reviews before every exam and they were extra credit but the reviews always had new things that she never taught.There was an exam after every 2 classes. I don't recommend her.
She made it very easy to understand the subject. It was a lot of work but all you have to do to pass is to do it and attend to class. she is willing to work with any problems you have and open to questions.
Easy class.
She wanted to give students good grades, and offered several opportunities for extra credit (review packets, tutoring, extra quiz). She did get behind the schedule, and was a little unorganized. However, she kept the blackboard site updated so we could see all our grades. Overall, she was a good, and nice, teacher.
Wouldnt let you use calculators on tests...TRY DOING PRE CALC GRAPHING WITHOUTH A CALCULATOR....fail
Willing to help but doesnt give enough time to review the exams. Test are harder then reviews and doesnt let you USE CALCULATORS! If the exams needs the use of calc then she'll give you 15 before the end of class -__-
This was a great preparation class for calculus. She is by far one of the most helpful, knowledgeable teachers at the Manassas Campus. She really gives you the tools to succeed in not only the classroom, but also the math classes to come. Before every test there is a review packet. Which is quite similar to the test. Which is extra credit someti
She is the worst professor ever. I?ve never seen anyone more unorganized in my life. It?s almost as if she learns the chapter the night before. Those good ratings of her must be her or her colleagues writing false information.
She is a good professor. You must attend every class to stay on task & not get lost. She is very helpful. At times it seems like she isn't prepared & confuses her self. Other then that she is a good professor. This class shouldn't be hard to pass if you take the time to ask her questions and study :)
I've been thru 4 MTH professors at NOVA and Rajen is the best so far. Even though sometimes she is a liltle unorganized but she is definitely very helpful and always create opportunities for bonus points. She gives reviews for each exams and you can also earn bonus points for those added to your exams. I would say, easy A.
Good professor .... very helpful.. sometimes disorganized but its always to the students advantage. gives oppurtunitioes for bonus points. . pleasant teacher ... take her Fun fun fun
She really nice but CANT teach. i had to go home and learn from the book..so i stopped coming to class. She didnt even know how to do a problem on her own test! SHES THE WORST.
Easy Professor, but doesn't know how to teach the subject. We use mymathlab for hw and for notes. She just goes over power points. Hardly ever use text book. Have 5 tests, drops the lowest one. Gives bonus points. Must get 70% on final to pass class.
goes over the material once and only once! didn't finish all of the sections before the exam, even told us some of the questions we hadn't gone over yet! does not answer questions about review tells you to ask your classmates!!doesn't give back exam for you to study from. You're on your own!!
look up a diff professor especially if it's for 151, over heard a conversation where she said she is soo over 151 and it shows. She's nice but can be very scattered and hard to follow
Very disorganized and easily distracted, she gave us class problems to solve and then started asking us random questions about our weekends while we were trying to solve them. Would also mess up her own problems and have to start over. Very confusing!!!
over heard conversation where she told another that she was so over teaching 151, the class I was taking with her, it shows. She is using teaching material she isn't familiar with & gets lost in while trying to teach. Once had to sit down & try to work out a problem on our review & couldn't figure it out, didn't have answer key!!
Great professor! She's very helpful when it comes to both lec and lab. Really wants to have you pass. She's a lovely lady and I recommend her!
Really good teacher. Helps you til you understand the material. Good on email responses. Definitely recommend her.
NOT a good choice is math is not your strongpoint, or if precalc is new material for you. She was nice&funny, but disorganized and unclear while explaining. Nice woman, but is more like someone you'd expect teaching a liberal arts class. DOESN'T LET YOU USE CALCULATORS ON EXAMS, but teaches you to be dependent on them through hw.
Often confuses herself while teaching. has told us false information more than once and did not realize her mistake until 3 or 4 equations later. she once taught us new material for an exam at the end of class and before she dismissed us announced that her answer was wrong and her math was incorrect!
She does not prepare for classes. Does not know the answers to problems and often answers them incorrectly. She is corrected by her own students multiple times per class. I think I may know less math after taking this class than I did before.
So I just finished taking her class. She is nice person, but I do not recommend. Often she would confuse herself on her own material.SHE DOESN'T LET YOU USE CALCULATORS UNDER AND CIRCUMSTANCE! She is a nice person but would be better suited for teaching middle school. Avoid if you can.
DONT TAKE HER CLASS. She's awfully confusing, her lectures are all over the place and hardly knows the material herself.
Dosen't know what she is teaching, will make mistakes in class, and the students correct her. She does not know/can't explain how grades are calculated, extremely disorganized and often goes back on what she said. Avoid at all costs.
Hated this professor. I stopped going to class, so getting a bad grade was my fault, but I seriously felt like I was being tortured in class. If you have a high tolerance for nonsense, go ahead & take a class with her. If not, I'd highly recommend someone else.
THE WORST TEACHER I HAVE EVER HAD. I was forced to take her online section because of the nursing program I am in. I have hated every second. She doesn't teach. Multiple people in my class have had to drop it because they were in danger of failing. Just horrible. NEVER take her online statistics class.
She does not teach, you have to just read the text and learn for yourself. The mid term was nothing like the quizzes we took up to that point, so I did terrible even though I was average 95% on the quizzes.Don't take this class if you plan on passing with a good grade or learning anything at all about statistics.
She does NOT let you use a calculator until the 4th exam, and its only a basic not graphing. DO NOT take her unless you can understand the book b/c you wont understand her in class. She gives a lot of extra credit b/c she knows students will fail otherwise. Lectures are pointless, and she doesn't take attendance daily. Exams are extremely hard....
She's the nicest lady, but can not teach. Her method of explaining things is not how I've ever been taught. She relies on students to correct her and often makes mistakes during lecture. Her tests are harder than material covered in class. She expects more effort from students then she gives to the class. THERE IS A TON OF HOMEWORK.
Do not take her. She is the worst teacher I've ever had. She blames the students for her poor teaching and loses her train of thought a lot. She makes you do pointless warmups. No study guides and no reviews before the final. She doesn't allow calculators and if I could I would rate her 0
She's a teacher enjoying failing students. If you were a A student before taking her class, you will be a B student after taking her class. four exams, about 16-20questins of high degrees of complicated numbers per exam, and you must finish in class with no calculator. You are not solving calculus problems but algebra!Ready to fail!
enjoy failing students. If you are a A student of MTH163/164, after taking her class, you will be a B student! Very disorganize even herself doesn't know what she's doing! Keeping chatting during the class and you don't have time to think quietly! Four exams with more than 16questions of lots of algebra work to solve within an hour without calculus
I was thinking of taking her MTH241,but, after I took her MTH271, I swapped my MTH241 to another teacher, I couldn't accept she turned me to a B student for twice!
Want to see a professor outsource an entire course, barely put in any effort, get test grades weeks later, and use computer-generated questions resulting in extremely complicated numbers? Luckily, it will only cost you 75 more dollars for the web access and double price for the book. Worst class ever, and I've taken 15 online courses.
Unresponsive to emails she doesn't want to respond to. Announced she would do online sessions last minute so no one knew about it, in which she then stopped doing them because no one showed up. Exams are too easy and don't reflect the homework that's long and challenging. Didn't even provide her email for the first 2 weeks. No office hours
Not impressed. All previous comments are correct-online sessions at 8:30 am during working hours. Spent more time watching ELI videos, which were good. I withdrew from class. Since I was teaching myself Precalc, might as well do it without the pressures of HW/Tests. Too bad I didn't drop in time to get my money back.
She's without a doubt in my mind my the worst teacher I've ever had. She never responds to my emails, she forgot to post the homework on Blackboard for 4 weeks, the test are so much harder than the homework. I do all the homework and study hard for the test, yet I still get a F or a D if I'm lucky. Don't not, I repeat DO NOT take Cynthia Rathjen.
Do not take this instuctor for MTH 152. She is VERY unorganized and unclear on her teaching methods. There were even times when she wasn't sure if she was teaching the methods correctly. She gets very behind on grading and you won't find out your grades until weeks after. If you want to pass MTH 152, don't take her.
Really disorganized. Rushes through the more difficult parts of the lectures, and frequently screws up examples, causing more confusion. I find myself wondering if she has an actual teaching degree.
nice person. bad teacher. confusing lectures where she constantly messes herself up and doesn't explain. delves deeply into easy topics and difficult things are unexplained. no time to review for tests that are on average WAY harder than any practice she will give you for some reason. just a bunch of supplemental videos and no calculator...?
This professor is a wonderful lady with a great personality but a HORRIBLE teacher. She would mess herself up all the time in lectures. The tests are a lot harder then the problems we try in class. horrible teaching style. realize on video homeworks to teach her students. For your sake stay away! I learned the hard way SHE DOESN'T ALLOW CALCULATORS
DO NOT TAKE HER!!!! most of the time off topic and is always bring up her personal issues in class. she is always making excuse for why she didn't grade the test. her test are hard and the power points she goes over are useless. she doesn't know what she's teaching.
Teachers like her are what we call the GPA killer. This woman cost me a trip to a university this fall due to her poor teaching skills. She is the most disorganized person I've ever seen in my life. She does not know how to teach, period. Do yourself a favor and switch out of this class immediately and find a different professor!
I hate math, but this teacher helped me understand it more, and as a result, made it tolerable. She's really nice, and super helpful if you ask her. Yes, you will need to do some work in the class, but nothing major. The flex book for her class is SUPER helpful, she organized the class very well! Very friendly!
If you get A in pre-calculus class, you can take her class. there are much homework on the mathlab website, that you have to complete. She usually gives extra credits after each test. Seriously, the College is not high school, so you have to spend time studying.
She is a good professor if you are not a naturally a strong math student. She doesn't assume that the material comes easy to you and she gives lot of one on one help both in class and during office hours. If you're willing to put the work in, she will go out of here way to help you. Communication is good, she answers emails promptly.
She is a great person and will help you if you ask. Gets messed up during lectures sometimes so it can be confusing. Over all if you understand what's going on in the class, you'll do fine on tests.
Seems friendly and engaged on the surface but is actually quite arrogant. Does not follow through on her own commitments. Emails are either ignored or half-answered. For ELI classes, offers zero flexibility and regards her role as an operator rather than teacher.
Her conscientious is low and she knows it. That is why you will rely on MyMathLab to survive the course. She diffuses her teaching responsibility through Khan Academy videos (etc.), index cards she'll ask you to fill out, and her own personal request for a write up at the end of the class for extra credit. Suggest picking someone else...
I thought that since I'm a homeschooler, I'd be able to get through this course pretty easily, because I'm used to teaching myself. NOPE. True, the second half of the course was easier due to material, but DO NOT count on her teaching. I had to learn solely from the book and asked her a bunch of questions, but she answered only like half of them.
If you prefer teaching yourself by watching YouTube videos, then this is the class for you. She has given us false information on several occasions each class period, and assigns online quizzes on material that she has not covered. She also gives pop quizzes and will not let you make them up if you are absent, even if you have a doctor's note.
Makes several mistakes and occasionally gives misleading information. I doubt she could pass her own class. does not go over special case problems. gives extremely tedious homework and quizzes online that take forever. The worst teacher I have ever had. Use the text.
Was terrible at the start but really turned it around halfway through the quarter. She may not know an answer to a question but she will look it up and tell you in the next class.
Profess. Rathjen is an amazingly nice person who is helpful outside of class. However, in the classroom, she is confusing, misleading, and did i say confusing. She is disorganized and the lectures I found were a complete waste of time and often left me more confused. Please please please please listen to the other students who've posted on here!
In general, she is a nice person. But not knowledgeable. She makes a lot of mistakes and is confusing. Uses PowerPoint slides instead of teaching effectively. Would not advice taking her if you are not a good math student.
Ms. Rathjen is a nice lady but I'm not sure that she has any business teaching math. Her lectures left me more confused than when I started and she sounds so unsure of herself that it's hard to believe she's giving the correct answers. When she works through a problem, she literally answers the problems with a question like tone in her voice.
I took the 12 week summer course for MTH 173. Grading was straight forward, 4 exams worth 80% of grade and the rest made up of Quizzes taken at home. Exams are short and only cover main topics. Prof Rathjen is a fair grader, and offers some feedback. Just try and work at it over the week as there is work due every Monday. Not to hard if you try.
She is a nice person, but I don't know how is she a math teacher. Can't teach, don't know simple math. When you ask her questions, she doesn't give a clear answer. She gives a good amount of homework, but she doesn't know how to solve the homework she gives out. Listen to everyone and don't take her
I took her online class last fall. The WORST online class I have taken especially for Math. That was my third Math class online and about my 10th online class. She expects that you know every thing for an Exam and DOES NOT give study sheets. I am retaking this class and the teacher now has even provide one for each test. Don't risk an F.
her pros 1)she gives extra credits 2)she is flexible with exam's dates her cons 1)she is good in math she can't answer hard questions 2) she makes a lot of mistakes while solving a question 3)she makes mistakes while grading papers 4) if you asked her a question she is not prepared to she can't answer it 5) she doesn't care if you understand or not
Yes, she gives extra credits but she is quiet not organized very well and sometimes it felt like she is losing her own speed. But she also cares you if you asks for help.
awful as a professor would never recommend taking one of her classes
She can't teach for her life, during lectures she constantly needs to be corrected by students and her face will get cherry red. Doesn't know what she assigns for homework, and if you have any questions on the homework don't expect them to be answered by her. Tests are very hard, nothing like her hw... Don't get me started on math lab homework
Legit one of the worst professors I have personally ever had. Do NOT take this class with this professor unless your trying to mess your gpa up.
just don't take this class for the sake of your gpa don't. It was too late for me but I can still save the future students.
Professor Rathjen is very easy to work with when you put in the time and effort. She may run late and be disorganized but she cares about her students and is willing to give you her office hours to go over anything you don't understand. Math is my weakness and I've never failed her class.
DO NOT TAKE!!! If you want to mess up your gpa then this is the class to do so. Calculators are not allowed. Every week about 40 questions of H.W. The review isn't really a review since she grades them after grading the test. Her class is confusing and powerpoint based. Be prepared to watch a bunch of videos to try to pass this class.
Terrible Professor. Constantly changes dates for homework, exams, quizzes. Needs to be reminded of everything by students. Doesn't cover material in class. You have to teach yourself everything. Do extra credit or you won't pass. Avoid!
Overall is probably dumber than her own students. Can't get her own work right, extremely lazy homework assignments, tests arent like the homework, she doesn't explain things, and is a below average grader. Everything bad in a teacher all wrapped up in one cluster of a mess.
Loved this teacher would take it again if I could, gives extra credit, and teaches good
I took her class over the summer for 6 weeks and it went by pretty fast. During class she made lots of little mistakes when going over problems, but we are all human. She assigns a lot of homework. There are 3 tests and 1 final. The tests are very hard. She also gives lots of extra credit.
I thought Precalc would be a very hard class, but with her I understood a lot about math and now I think that thanks to her I am ready to Applied Calculus
show up,pay attention to the class, do the homework and get your A. Don't think you gonna get a good grade effortlessly, but with minimum effort you definitely gonna succeed.
First off no calculators, that wouldn't be a problem except for the fact that the online homework trains you to use calculator so when test time comes around you have no idea what the answer should look like. Generally the homework does not correspond to the tests. Only take this class if you think GPA works like golf, the lower the better.
Her tests are harder than the material covered in class. She gets confused/moves fast during lectures; students usually correct her. Doesn't review for tests that are harder than what we learn in class. HW uses a calculator. NO calculators allowed for tests. She doesn't take attendance daily. If math isn't your best subject DON'T choose this prof.
NO extra credit. She hasn't mentioned it once. Rushes everything and wants to finish everything she planned for that lecture in that one hour. Erases board before people finish writing. Many mistakes during lecture. She's nice but won't be able to help those who struggle with math.
Shes really nice but I get confused a lot and she makes mistakes during her lessons so it isnt helpful since im bad at math
She's not a great teacher. She messes up a lot in lectures and explains things in a confusing way sometimes, but if you do the ALEKS hw (there's TONS of it) then you'll do well on the tests. She offers lots of extra credit on tests so I had over 100 on all 5 of them. If you're not great at math, don't take her, but if you're decent then she's fine.
rude, uncaring, and a horrible teacher. would not recommend
Worst professor at nova
She is an amazing teacher, I love the way how she does a detailed explanation, respond to our questions, and the most important prepare us well for the exams. the best math teacher at NOVA.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS PLEASE DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR, SHE IS BY FAR THE WORST PROFESSOR IN NOVA. DO NOT LISTEN TO THESE FAKE RATINGS, THEY'RE ALL LIES.
Avoid this professor at all cost. Gives a lot of homework to complete in short periods of time. Also mainly uses an online program, ALEKS, for homework but teaches differently in class than the program teaches. Will say there are only 14 questions on a test, but don't be fooled. Each of those 14 questions have about 4 different questions attached.
If you are decent in Math, her class is fine. However, she often made mistakes in lectures so that it was hard to understand what she said. As I said, if you are good at Math, her class is quite relaxed. Just do homework and study for the tests. 3 tests, 3 reviews for tests and 1 final. And you have to purchase WebAssign to do the homework
Hard teacher.
A lot of homework but gives extra credits on tests . Lectures are sometimes confusing to fallow.
Her 8 week online curriculum is straight up garbage she doesn't follow her syllabus and takes forever to grade. Uses Aleks for online homework but when the test comes it's completelety different than what you practiced for. Seriously how hard is it to grade your student's homework on time so they can get feedback before the tests. Don't take her!
She is the worst. I went to get extra help and she told me "you should know this" and look in your book" instead of explaining what is going on.
Makes you feel stupid for asking questions. Sucks at explaining. Is not flexible at all whatsoever. She wouldn't care if you got hit by a train. Don't take this class unless you want to feel stupid and fail.
Takes forever to grade and respond to emails. Is very unorganized. And uses ALEKS for homework, which is very tedious compared to other, better alternatives. Quite possibly the worst instructor I've had.
Does nothing but outsource the instruction to ALEKS, which is mediocre at best and frustrating at worst. No lectures, no help. Supposedly has office hours. One plus: she grades the tests individually, but does not explain. If you want learn from a person and not simply by reading (and subjecting yourself to CBT), this is not the instructor for you.
I actually took her class for Precalc 2 but the option does not pop up. I can't remember much of what happened during the class. But I am assuming her classwork and exams were the most difficult. I do recall that I believe she was an elderly lady with glasses. Otherwise, in some way, I would not recommend taking her.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
54%
Textbook Required
53%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.43 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH1314
5.0
(1)MTH3
5.0
(1)MTHMTH
5.0
(1)MTH04
5.0
(1)MTT2
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
MTH241
4.5
MTH161
4.5
MTH162
4.4
MATH163
4.3
MATH161
4.3