3.1
Quality3.8
Difficulty50%
Would Retake100
Reviews50%
Would Retake
100
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
100 total ratings5
26
4
24
3
15
2
8
1
27
What Students Say
“Bolles, I believe, has good intentions for the class”
MATH165 - 3.0 rating“The lack of actual lecturing and excess of work graded based upon a group of 4 or 5 people is a terrible way to effectively teach individuals”
MATH165 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
60%
Textbook Required
24%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.73 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH297
5.0
(2)CALCI
5.0
(1)MATH540
5.0
(1)MATH195
4.8
(6)166
4.4
(5)Difficulty by Course
MATH165
4.1
165AND166
4.0
MATH265
4.0
MATH166
4.0
165
3.8
Reviews (99)
She makes a point to know all her students names and interact with everyone. She comes off kinda harsh at first, but she know's how to control her class and work with everyone and helps you actually learn something.
Looked foreward to class everyday!
Very helpful and easy to talk to. Unorganized at times, but overall a pretty fair and effective professor.
No Comments
great teacher! knows how to really talk to the students and she always makes sure that everyone understands what shes talking about!
Great class, I looked forward to it everyday. test are a little difficult, and grading is very picky
Hated the class, loved the prof!!
The content of this class is very boring, but Dr. Thompson is a great teacher and incredibly approachable and willing to help. The tests are very easy and you don't need to put forth a lot of effort in the class. Just go to class everyday, because your grade drops everytime you miss after 2 absences.
Math is a hard subject for me and she really helped and made sure I understood things...great teacher!
Professor Bolles is a great teacher who enjoys watching students learn. That being said she sometimes has tendencies to go off on non-related tangents that no one really follows.
Bad teacher all around, not recommended. Terrible exam/quiz writer and hard grader. Should not be teaching.
I thought she was a great teacher for Calc 1. She went by examples rather than just lecturing, so that was nice. Her grading really pissed me off (because I got the correct answer, but she'd count points off for something stupid).
Most teachers are helpful and lenient with grades for efforts.(SI classes, tutors to show you have been trying) but not Bolles, you can be 0.39%-1% from the grade you need to move on and she won't show any leniency at all. She wasn't a very helpful teacher either. Just went over examples. Exams were cmpletely different than what she went over.
Dr. Bolles is an excellent professor who demands excellence from her students. She is fair and thorough, and if you enter her class with a desire to learn and a basic understanding of differential calculus, you will learn a lot.
Professor Bolles knows what she's talking about, but her quizzes and tests are always completely different than what you expect and don't make any sense. I don't recommend having her as a teacher.
She definitely knows what she's talking about and wants her students to learn. I found her lectures to sometimes be helpful. But sometimes not, because all she did was go over examples. Make sure you take your time when taking the reading quizzes because they are very tricky. The sample exams that she provides are very similar to the actual exams.
Im in the fall 2014 class and the exams are switched and much harder than the past exams she gives you. My tutor confirmed that this semester's exams are much harder than spring 2014's exams. Average on our exams are in the 50-60% range
Dr. Bolles was a really good teacher I thought. She does lots of examples and if you ask a question she will answer it and go through an example. I like the way she did her tests because they were 5 questions, but only 4 got graded so you could pick your worst question to not get graded.
Makes you teach yourself. There are graded quizzes online before she has taught the material, In-class clicker quizzes before she has showed you how to do it, and MyLabsPlus homework that is way more difficult than the in-class examples. If you draw her, switch sections.
Her lectures are very confusing. I had a tutor along with the class all semester so that really helped. Clicker points every day. It seems like that's all we ever do in that class
I had Dr. Bolles for Calc I, and thought she was great. Her tests can be hard, but if you follow along during lecture and put in the effort to learn the material, you should be fine. She explained things thoroughly in lecture, which really helped. Reading quizzes are great! These let you learn in your own way, then in lecture she explains it
Dr. Bolles is the best Calculus professor at ISU. She does many examples in class, follows through every step, and has helpful office hours. She is always there to help you if you need it. Most importantly, she is VERY clear and ensures that we have a strong understanding of the fundamental concepts to calculus. There is homework, but it helps!
The tests that she writes are extremely hard even if you know the material well. The homework assignments are behind what we are doing in class and the online quizzes are are days ahead of class. Material has to be learned on your own time because class I filled with pointless group projects. One positive is her Blackboard is organized well.
Dr. Bolles was the best math professor I've had at ISU. She was extremely clear in all of her lectures, and even though the clicker quizzes, recitation quizzes, and exams were very difficult, they were all very fair and she prepared you for every single one. Much better than any other calc 2 lecturer
Best math professor I've ever had. I had her for Calc 1 and 2. A lot of people don't like her because the clickers and reading quizzes can be hard. Lectures are very well explained and thought out. Very good at understand and answering students questions in a way the understand. Calc 2 is supposedly the hardest math class at ISU she made it oreasy
Getting help is hard, and the the tests are always way to long. The quizzes and group projects are so hard that sometimes she gets tripped up, even though she made them. I would never recommend this professor.
Good teacher. There if need help.
If you have Team based learning try and get a different section because it was not fun and many people did not do very well. She didn't lecture a single day and we had to learn all of the material online.
She over complicates a lot of the problems and don't expect the tests to be anything like the homework, you have to REALLY understand the material.
Dr. Bolles was one of the most frustrating instructors I have ever encountered. The lack of actual lecturing and excess of work graded based upon a group of 4 or 5 people is a terrible way to effectively teach individuals. The tests are way too long and requires more work than needed to demonstrate understanding. Too much conceptual nonsense too
Avoid her if possible. She has the worst method of teaching. There are graded quizzes over a section that have to be taken before the section is taught in lecture. Her tests are pretty tough, and the way she grades them is ridiculous. I did well in this class because the SI leader was able to explain everything well.
Dr. Bolles, I believe, has good intentions for the class. The way she used team teaching though was just ridiculous. If you haven't taken calculus yet I would not take her as your professor. She has great intentions but trying to watch videos instead of learning the material in class was ridiculous.
A picky grader but is clear on what she expects on exams and prepares you well for them. She was very helpful and good at answering individual questions. Difficult course material but an effective teacher. Her teaching style requires a lot of outside reading of the textbook for short quizzes on material that hasn't yet been covered in class.
Heather is a great professor. She is extremely helpful during office hours, but the course itself is very difficult. You have to come to class already knowing the material. I suggest to read the textbook. The videos provided are hard to understand and sometimes unhelpful. You really have to teach yourself.
Almost every concept in this class has to be self-taught in your own time, and there are two graded quizzes before Dr. Bolles even says a word on the content of each section. This is a lazy and ineffective way to teach, and I would strongly urge anyone to enroll in a different section if at all possible.
She explains things really well.
The class is set up in such a way that you have to teach yourself the material. The videos provided are slow and at best of little help (depending on how much you can learn from watching someone read a slideshow word for word). The teams are a poor excuse to avoid having to lecture, and the assignments are more tedious than helpful.
Dr. Bolles is very kind and always willing to help. She explains things very thoroughly and clearly. On the flip side, this class has no such thing as 'lecture'. All the learning is done outside of class in 10+ hours of homework each week. Her exams are difficult and the team-based learning setup is frankly ineffective. Still a very sweet lady.
Dr. Bolles knows the material very well and she can also explain it to students in a way they can understand. She is very willing to help students during class. The class is very team-based and it helped me out a lot because I could talk to other students and Dr. Bolles personally. I left the class with a very good understanding of calculus.
Dr. Bolles is a solid choice if you're taking 165. But here's the thing: she makes you take online quizzes called IRATS before lecture. They're fairly difficult at times, so WATCH THE VIDEOS. Attendance is mandatory if you want a good grade. If you take this, I hope you like teamwork because that is 90% of the class. Overall, I would pick her.
Avoid her class unless you like working in groups, getting excess homework and failing tests.
Team based learning kinda sucks. Dr. Bolles rarely lectures over the material unless it's the iRATs and tRATs that you've already done twice. There's lots of different types of assignments to keep track of and it's manageable if you know what you're doing. Wouldn't suggest team based learning to someone whose never taken calc before college.
Bolles is a sweetheart. She cares about her students. But the structure of the curriculum and the way the class is taught in general is not conducive for learning Calculus. There is some form of assignment due almost everyday of the week. The exams were poorly written. Some super long with short spans of time & others were short but graded harshly
Team based learning just does not work for math. Our entire class was based around doing extremely hard calc based group projects, which was what the tests were designed around. So if you can't understand the group projects, you'll never be able to figure out the tests! She barely lectures and is a hard grader.
Don't take this class!!!! Worked 1000 times harder than other calc students at ISU and I was still failing. Lots of homework and quizzes everyday!
I had her for Calc I my first semester here so it was my first college level math class. I ended with an A, but it was by no accident. There's a lot of work you have to put in to be successful in this class, but Bolles does a great job of explaining things and is very helpful and accessible during her office hours.
her class is group project. Depends on the group mate, you will have easy semester or hard semester. IT is your own luck. Almost every week, their is an group project and it takes a big part in grading. If you skip class, it affects your grade. Extra credit exist. If you participate half of it, you will get 3% more at the end of the semester.
This class is very difficult especially if you have the team based learning section. It's a lot of work and you have to do a lot of studying. However Dr. Bolles made calculus bearable. GO TO HER OFFICE HOURS. She is amazing at explaining concepts that will stick with you for the rest of the course.
I would recommend her office hour 100%. She grades harshly, but if you take Calc 1 you need to know what you are doing. This is a team-based learning class, so take that as you will, I ended up liking the class and my team, so it was a good time. She makes you work for your grade but is really passionate about the subject.
She is a great teacher. Explains concepts very well and teaches concepts well if asked one on one. You learn the concepts much better than other calc students but you have to put in much more work than others. There is usually a project or team quiz every day and some of the projects help and enforce your understanding while some don't help.
Uses Team Based Learning, which basically boils down to the student needing to teach themselves the material on their own time by watching hours of videos each night, while class time is used to complete group projects. If teaching yourself calculus on your own time isn't how you want to spend your semester, I would highly recommend a new professor
Dr. Bolles uses the "team based learning" style of teaching which means that you have to teach yourself the material outside of class and then do group projects in lecture. This isn't the worst way of learning especially under Dr. Bolles because she is very helpful, but I believe a traditional lecture is much more productive.
Dr. Bolles is a very good teacher, I personnally like Team based learning and believe it helps in future classes with remembering concepts past that semester. I do think if you end up with a team that doesn't pull their weight, you could be screwed, but Bolles is very helpful and will likely move you if asked. Bolles is available for office hours.
Dr. Bolles is a great person, but the Team-Based Learning style just does not work for Calculus. She barely lectures which means you have to teach yourself. There is a ton of group projects which has much more advanced applications of Calculus which is what the exams are based on. Having understanding and nice team members is helpful as well.
Dr. Bolles is passionate about math, caring, and a good person, but the Team Based Learning (TBL) process does not work for learning complex calculus concepts and solving calculus problems. In TBL, there are so many homework assignments and projects and I feel that I focus more on just getting the assignments done than actually learning calculus.
Bolles is a very nice lady but not a very great math professor. Unless you enjoy doing tons of homework that doesn't pertain to the exam and teaching yourself the subjects, don't take this class.
In case she is using the TBL method, you are screwed. There is barely any class without a quiz, ends up giving up 4 test/assignments for each topic. Exams are not at all easy. Only good thing about her is there is lot of extra credit. Works with Dr Elgin Johnson to make our life miserable. Try to to get out of her class asap.
Honest and object review: TBL is something I don't recommend simply because of how much more time it sucks up than regular calc, and engineers already don't have a lot of spare time. The videos were so boring, and I never learned much from them or from the quizzes. Be aware regular calc has weekly difficult quizzes, so I'd ask upper classmenformore
Team Based Learning is not fun. We were required to teach ourselves the material.
This class is reversed format. What this means is you have in class work with your assigned group. How you do in this group and homework determines nearly 60% of your grade. There is no lecture in class, you must watch videos on your own. The homework consists of 3 assignments a week and post quiz's. Also, 4 class tests, plus a cumulative final.
Team Based Learning is part of her research, I believe. She'll explain it in more depth, but basically you're assigned a group and you complete team quizzes and project together. It makes it difficult to know how much you (as an individual) know for the test because everything is done as a team. Good luck and you have to work hard to get an A or B!
Team Based learning would work for you only if you are willing to work really hard outside the class. Group projects and quizzes will boost your grades up so much compared to other sections in the course. The exam weight for the final grade was less which helped! And Dr. Bolles had very effective office hours
Dr. Bolles is a great instructor who works through examples and really tries to set a lot of her time aside to help her students. That being said, Math 165 at ISU is set up to be difficult, and I think she does the best she can at making the course and content tolerable for her students.
To quickly sum her up. She isn't the teacher, she tells you via email once you join her class it's taught through the person e-text. Every assignment including exams is made and graded through that. You pay her to respond to emails as she doesn't have any classes to teach. And any attempts to reach out result in a rude email. Very rude. Non-caring.
class is more about finding a way to complete the assignments than learning anything.
Gave us prerecorded lectures to look at the whole semester and didnt care about the students. Proceeded to sit back the whole semester and collect a paycheck from the university despite not lifting a finger.
Difficult class but what d you expect for calc 2. Lectures that were given were recorded by steve butler, which makes sense considering it would require a ton of work for her to record a whole new series. HW was easy, quizzes were somewhat difficult but were manageable. Exams were very difficult, more difficult than in-person exams.
When I reached out to her for advice for improving my grade I was left with little to no advice and no idea of how to move forward. I prepared for exams using the textbook and practice exams given and still performed poorly on the exams, and quizzes. Very expensive course which is taught through previous recordings from professor Butler.
Would not recommend. Class was online with pre-recorded lectures from other professors. She only a makes announcements. Level of difficulty on tests was not covered on homework or help sessions. Right at the end of the course she changed the grading scale so that grades were lowered. Save your time and energy and take math courses at DMACC.
The worst experience I have had at Iowa State. Her structure for the whole calculus curriculum at this university is an absolute joke. The HW and lectures are simple to understand if you only watch Steve Butler. The quizzes and exams are difficult. She will expect you to solve total curveballs to what was learned in class. She was never helpful.
All she did was look over and supervise the course. Not helpful and did not seem to care about the students. Lectures were prerecorded videos that can easily pile up if you fall behind. Class was a big joke. She simply sat back and claimed to teach the class while collecting a fat paycheck from the university. Students really suffered
She does not care about the students and the organization is all over the place.
She doesn't care about her students. She will not make accommodations for you in any way.
She does not care about her students and refused to make accommodations for the rescheduled final exam that was announced the day of.
Heather Bolles is in charge of the calculus program (1-3) at Iowa State. I luckily only had to survive one class (Calc 2) under her tyranny. Her system is set up in a way that encourages memorization over learning and an intolerance of small algebra mistakes rather than focusing on calculus techniques. Take as few calculus classes as possible!
The homework is literally useless only good for keeping you busy. Lectures are a complete joke its not even her teaching. Be prepared to fail because more than likely you will. Even if you suffer nights studying you will be unprepared for exams. She does teach, you teach yourself with little to no help. If other classes are like this, I am transfer
made calc unbearable
I have Bolles for Calc 1 and she is a solid professor. I stopped going to lectures because we are provided with videos of the material covered in class and going to class was not the best use of my time. Now she is not a great lecturer, but she is fantastic in one-on-one office hours. She will work with you and make sure you understand.
My experience with Professor Bolles was fine honestly. I think the setup of Calculus 1 and 2 at ISU is unnecessarily rigorous, but Prof. Bolles did a good job explaining calculus concepts and trying to incorporate student feedback. She tends to go fast through problems and material, but is responsive to questions and helpful in office hours.
Dr. Bolles is a great instructor, especially for calc 1. She is thorough in her explanations and won't hesitate to answer any questions in class. Make sure to take advantage of help hours if you struggle in class. Personally going to lecture was the best option for me because Dr. Bolles goes over good examples of problems.
One of my favorite aspects of the class was how Dr. Bolles would dedicate a good chunk of the lectures around exam time to plenty of calculus practice. I like how she incorporates practice outside of homework to help understand calculus. Calculus 1 is doing to be a difficult class so make sure to keep up with the work constantly.
Calc 2 is just hard no matter who your teacher is. She is very kind and good at explaining concepts but if you don't put in extra effort and attend supplemental instruction then you probably won't do well. She engages well with her students and is very kind.
The exams in this course are impossible and affect your grade so much. Heather is nice and willing to answer questions, but she writes near-impossible exams. Calc II is a whole other beast than Calc I and will make you question your existence.
Dr. Bolles is a good professor. It is clear she cares about all her students. She has a great understanding of calculus and can answer almost any question that comes her way. She explains concepts very well. Sometimes she goes a little fast and I did sometimes find her lectures a little boring which led to me missing important information.
Dr. Bolles is a wonderful professor who truly cares about her students. This is a tough class, and she knows it. She does a lot behind the scenes to ensure that the tests and quizzes are fair, while also encouraging students to become problem solvers. If you take this class, be ready to dedicate a lot of time to mastering the material.
With Calc II, you are going to struggle to find a great professor no matter what, but she was not the best option. Teaches as if she's trying to prove how smart she is, skips a lot of steps while teaching, and rarely picks examples that apply to quizzes and exams. Nice and helpful in help hours, but not didn't enjoy her teaching.
The class was not easy, but that was not her fault. She explained everything you would need to know for the exams, you just had to be able to remember and apply it.
She does a great job at listening to students and tailoring to their needs. She is very compassionate with what she does and very intentional when in conversation. She genuinely cares about her students, you just have to take a second to get to know her.
She is very kind. She is very engaging in her lectures and she wants you to succeed. She can go kind of fast, however she posts her lecture notes for you to review. Definity recommending going to help hours. Calc II is a weed-outclass, so do not fall behind.
Teaches like she is bragging about how much she knows. Extremely boring lectures which go onto extremely long side tangents unrelated to the material. Class is basically just on exams. Never finishes lecture on time and rushes material just to stay "on schedule".
Teaches good. You need to stay engaged and answering her questions to make class more fun. Lectured are great and go by fast for me.
Proactive and very helpful during Help Hours and other times outside of class. Makes you feel confident in what you know and it feels more easy asking her questions than other professors.
Realized she was good after having a true bad professor.
All the Calc 2 Professors get a bad rap. It's a hard class, and I would say the lecturer doesn't matter as much as other classes, because at the end of the day it's all about the Quizzes and Exams. With that being said, I think Bolles did a good job at explaining topics and went over a fair amount of examples. She can go off on side tangents.
This Calc II class is challenging, but the professor is helpful and engaging. Attend all lectures, actively participate, and utilize resources like unstuck study and the textbook. With dedication, you can succeed in this course.
Calc 2 is a really hard class but she explains concepts well with a lot of examples. Very helpful in office hours.
She is an amazing professor with a sense of humor and she really caters to student's needs. Her lectures have handwritten notes and practice problems, so its easy to follow along in your own notebook. She gives good advice on what to study for exams and she takes time to answer student's questions. This course is hard, but not because of her.
Wastes time with ice breakers and tangents - then complains there's a lot of material she has to get through and rushes through the actual lecture which she never finishes. You'll teach yourself the material because she certainly won't. If I didn't already like math she would have made me hate it. Terrible teacher.
Dr.Bolles wants you to learn, but in lectures, she often rushes towards the end to fit everything in. She wants to stay on track for the exams, but therefore skips essential steps in the material. Exams are moderately complex and heavily weigh on your grade. She does provide multiple resources for help, including meetings with her.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
60%
Textbook Required
24%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.73 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH297
5.0
(2)CALCI
5.0
(1)MATH540
5.0
(1)MATH195
4.8
(6)166
4.4
(5)Difficulty by Course
MATH165
4.1
165AND166
4.0
MATH265
4.0
MATH166
4.0
165
3.8