1.8
Quality3.9
Difficulty23%
Would Retake89
Reviews23%
Would Retake
89
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
3
4
6
3
14
2
24
1
42
What Students Say
“The course was a gong show on an intergalactic level”
ASTR1103 - 2.0 rating“Please run the other way if you ever have him as prof”
ASTR1103 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
27%
Textbook Required
93%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.40 avg changeRatings by Course
1101
4.0
(1)ASTRO2201
4.0
(1)PHYSICS2253
4.0
(1)MATH1203
3.3
(3)1700
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PHYS2269
5.0
ASTR
5.0
ASTR1101
4.6
ASTR2203
4.5
ENGR1215
4.5
Reviews (89)
Nice guy, Horrible instructor
No Comments
AWESOME GUY, BUT HE HAS TO LEARN HOW TO TEACH!!!!!
I had to re-do this course at the U of A and got a b-. With Lovatt I got a d. I did half the amount of studying at the U of A because the instructor didn't confuse the hell out of me.
Needs to chill, too much going on and gets confusing. Left course because he can't teach.
Spends too much time explainin the background and doesn't explain how to use the consept to answer questions!
Nice guy, but has no clue how to teach a class. He is way too confusing and doesnt show you how to get any answers. He had to give us back the midterm to redo, after the class failed it. Horrible instructor, I wish mount royal would get rid of him.
Terrible proff. Left class after 2 weeks. DO NOT TAKE A CLASS WITH HIM!!! He is nice, but can't teach.
I can't even say I thought he was a nice guy, I just thought he was chalky and lacked teaching skill.
This guy is stubborn as **** and you may struggle unlearning bad habits from previous physics courses. He's a really smart guy and funny in a really eccentric way.
By far the worst prof I've ever had in any class. Lacks the fundamental ability to teach, his lectures and notes are completely incoherent, and he is extremely unhelpful. Your final exam (40%) will have extremely limited information from the course. Either study the book cover to cover or just wing it. I can't believe they let him teach.
No Comments
He does not answer questions fully and tells you to go find the answers yourself. His notes are all over the place and not organized at all. Since day one, we have been drawing circles all day, and then squashed circles, and now triangles, and now he draws wiggly circles. I have not learned anything from this class. SAVE YOUR MONEY!! DON'T TAKE HIM
The man can't teach. Not does he ruch through a lot, he never EVER uses the textbook (unless it's old school). Comes across almost sarcastic at times. Tries to crack a joke from time to time, but it never seems to fly. Lectures are somewhat useless. Never helpful. Memorize the textbook for the final. Save your money, don't take him.
Having a PHD doesn't make you a good teacher...someone needs to tell Dr. Lovatt this. Nice enough guy, but an absolutely terrible teacher. This class would be easy if the teacher knew how to teach...but because he doesn't it's very hard to understand what's going on and to understand what you're supposed to be learning.
Someone really needs to contact MRC and let them know how terrible this professor is. Like everyone else has said he's a nice guy...but he cannot teach.
He sucks
Nerdy sense of humor, but overall I think he's a good teacher. He is very approachable and will help you if you need it. Also, he has a very interesting style of teaching - one which encourages you to actually think.
I'd rather take a bullet to the head than take this course with him again.
Worst teacher ever! I couldn't stand him! He was a really bad teacher and his expectations were unbelievable! FRUSTRATING! Do not take a class from him. He is not only boring, but not helpful and just plain bad.
lmao....this class is a joke. He gives you a crazy course load, has a horrible sensed of humor, and rushes through everything and doesn't really teach you anything - you end up teaching yourself. Study from his "quizzes"..or a.k.a. "30 hours of you life you will never get back"
Ian's Astronomy class had to be the easiest excuse for science i have ever seen. He gives quizzes which the midterms are almost 80% produced from. most of the answers to the questions on the quiz he specifically mentions in class. if you want to sit and stare blankly at the board (like most of my class) you shouldn't be surprised thatyou dont learn
I had taken physics 30 before this class, and I'm glad I did. He was very difficult to follow in lecture, went off on so many tangents and it seemed most of what he talked about wasn't even on the final. Must have ADD or something. I wouldn't take another class with him.
One word ...CRAP..with all this stupid approximation, go buy a calculator. and he doenst follow the book. all his quiz/midterm questions are stupid
One word: Useless. Don't take a class with this guy he doesn't know how to teach at all. He needs to brush his teeth in the morning. If you ask a question, he makes you feel dumb.
He confuses his students with random spurts of information without a premise and avoids helping you if you approach him with a question. He copy and pastes his assignments which are full of spelling and grammar errors and actually lost all of the submitted marks for nearly an entire semester. Save your money, do not take him!
useless teacher ever, he does not know what he is talking about, always confused and so rude...never ever take a class with him!
Not a good prof at all. He makes his class so confusing. When students ask for help, he explains it in a way that no one understands. when a student asks a question, he makes them feel like an idiot for even asking it. DO NOT take any of his classes.
terrible teacher, all he does in class is write and write and write on teh board with information that doesnt seem to help you. You have no idea where you are sitting in the class because he never gives any marks back or posts marks on blackboard. DONT TAKE HIM
The most clueless man in history. At any cost, do not take this class. You're in a physics class and he won't let you say the word 'per' like meters PER second. you get marks docked for saying stuff like that. He is extremely rude and arrogant and should be fired asap.
I don't see how he still has a job at any school, you can find blogs about how bad he was at U of C and Mount Royal on a couple different sites!! He really doesn't know how to teach...
Terrible prof.. Makes changes to course outline which lower students average grade such as deletion of an assignment and receiving your average mark for this deletions portion of the mark.. Doesn't answer emails. Arrogant man!
Horrible Prof, he doesn't care to teach. Do yourself a favor and take this course with another prof...there is no point in attending his class, you will come out more confused. He really does not want you to succeed!!! save your money!
Not a physics lover?Don't take this class with Ian Lovatt. Lectures are difficult to follow (your time would be better spent in the library self-teaching). He can come off as sarcastic and dismissive. In tutorial, ask for all the help you need! Keep track of your OWN grades, and approach him for grades you believe he has missed.
TAKE NOTES IN HIS CLASS, his tests and quizzes come from what he goes over. His assignments are a pain in the A#S cause they are nothing like what he teaches, in his tutorials make sure you go over everything that does not make sense because he likes to test on it. Overall if you work hard and keep organized you can pass with a good mark.
here is the thing...I agree with some of the posts on here. Ian confuses you during the lecture. Hes not the best lecturer. however, if you do take his class....know this to succeed: 1) exams questions are taken directly out of quizzes, notes, txts...if you study those you will end up with a A-/b grade. 2) helps alot during office hours
A confusing mess of a class! Its very hard to follow him. It is very hard to feel you are actually learning.
His lectures do have a point but they are so badly put together that it is impossible to understand any concept or theory. Half the questions he gives are ridiculous while the other half make some sense. He will help you if you have a question but overall he is a terrible professor!
Very nice guy, willing to help you with just about anything. That said, lectures are disorganized and incomprehensible, he doesn't use the textbook hardly at all, and values theory over actually showing you how to use the material. Makes learning absolutely painful. Avoid at all costs.
Ian is a really nice prof and has a quirky sense of humour. That being said he is difficult to learn from as his lecture are dry and confusing. I dont think he is able to easily teach an intro course as he is probably too smart and cant "dumb" things down. Study the take home quiz's thats what tests are made up of.
his quizzes and tests were confusing. While I thought he was asking for one thing, he was asking for something completely different! I could understand what I was trying to learn and how to do it. But when it came down to figuring out what he wanted us to solve for I was lost! Took this class in Spring and got a D- I got a 98% in the labs 2nd: B
Lectures were terrible and extremely hard to understand. Keep an eye on the course syllabus as he will not tell you when assignments are due. He often states incorrect information, and after everyone has written it down, he tells us it was wrong. He does not use the textbook and is so disorganized that you dont know where you are in the text.
I'm sorry, but this is by far one of the worst courses I've had so far at MRU. Nothing was explained in depth, it was basically just "let's do a problem, now!" kind of lecture, thus students were left with feeling confused and agitated. He is super disorganized and too many mistakes in his answers to problems. Never again!
Ridiculously difficult and incomprehensible instructor. He is really awful. Taking his class was one of my worst university experiences.
brutal prof.. not prepared for class at all, ever!! his lectures are god awful, zero preperation and it is evident. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH IAN
Terrible teacher, I learned everything from the textbook myself. The only purpose to attending lectures was to find out when assignments were due, and even then, the due dates were changed constantly. If you go to the head of eng and complain about him, he will attempt to get his act together but will still be terrible at teaching.0/5 if possible.
Lectures bounce around with countless side notes. He is a scientist, not a teacher. He just doesn't know how to simplify the content to a first year level.
By far one of the worst professors I have ever experienced, to lump him together with any other teaching professional would be an insult, this man is incapable of organization. He is fond of giving little to no warning on major changes to due dates, exam dates or content of assignments/tests. If you have interest in this course, avoid Ian Lovatt.
Hes not a really bad prof ; yeah it sucks that hes disorganized and not clear but he gives easy assignments that are online and the tests are basically the assignments; great thing about him is that he posts his lecture notes so all you have to do is just read them and memorize them. its hard but easy at the same time
By far the worst teacher I have ever had. He doesn't give clear instructions for assignments and does not understand when you ask even a simple question. It seems he has no marking rubric and will give 0 even if you have the right math and correct final answer but be doesn't like your explanation. Avoid at all costs!
His online notes are hilarious. He is such a funny dude, just wait until he rants about his atheism. I pretend I am in a Hogwarts class the whole time.
I would equate Ian to an addle-minded professor. He was fairly disorganized, but I could tell he was passionate about his subject matter. Unfortunately, he was unable to convey that properly in a first year manner. His assignments and tests were fairly simple and straight-forward, as long as you read his Blackboard notes.
Pretty good teacher.
This prof. is all over the place with his teachings and does not leave a clear answer or solution by the end of his rant! He is also a tough marker but gives little instruction to his assignments and take home quizzes. I would not recommend at all.
Please run the other way if you ever have him as prof. He is disorganized and you can basically never go to this class and just look at his bb notes because his lecture notes make no sense. His take-home test are basically the same as in-class tests, so memorized those answers. Make friends in this class or you will fail.
From reading past comments i take it no one is very interested in astronomy. It IS NOT an easy topic for everyone. He cuts pretty much all the math and only sometimes uses it to help get points across,great! Take this class if you are at all nerdy or interested in astro take. Also listening to him explain in class is much better than his notes
Very Rude towards students, signals you out if you skip class or leave early. Jumps around when it comes to the lectures. Notes are long and pointless. He may say you need the Textbook but you open it twice. I honestly thought this class would be fun, but it was awful. Assignment are ridiculous, Long and confusing. Doesn't help you if you need it.
Ian is a good guy. I found him confusing at times but gained from the experience.
Disorganized lectures/notes, but his exams aren't bad if you've followed and he does what he can to give you points where you need them.
Super hard to follow, doesn't describe the information being taught. Starts with examples and starts to ramble.
he is the worst professor any unfortunate student can get . he is not organised nor he knows what he is teaching , he just memorises some problems and vomits them on the board with lot of mistakes on them
If you put the work in and do the recommended problems this class isn't bad. Ian knows what hes talking about and the times I asked for help it was useful.
Ian is a very intelligent professor and you can really tell he is trying so hard to teach his students.. He is just complicated. An idea would be so simple and he would make it impossible to understand, his lectures never make any sense. And his tests are hard. Oh and he has a really dry sense of humor. In all seriousness, do not take his class.
Awful teacher and very confusing. His lectures consist of him writing on the board the whole time, and he doesn't know how to get to the point. Never posted marks once.
Horrid. Made physics impossible. He cannot teach properly and is too smart for his own good and therefore cannot communicate info to students. Final was incredibly hard. He is always in the physics/chem room to help but once again cannot explain himself properly so he doesn't really help.
He does convey the information properly the first time around, then the second time he oversimplifies it to the point in which he loses the focus of the class by attempting to teach them Physics convention they don't need to know about, let alone care about. If you can find that point, and ignore that portion of his lectures you'll be fine.
Avoid! He just writes notes for the whole class and barely explains what is going on!! If you do take this class, make sure you do textbook problems for the final exam-I wish I knew this.
Lectures make you feel like you've lost knowledge, as if sheer disorganization and lack of structure damage valuable neurons in your brain. The course was a gong show on an intergalactic level. His take-home quizzes are coppied and pasted onto his exams. He likes using Socrative, surprising considering his luddite qualities. Little effort for a B.
Ian is all over the place all the time, he does not explain the concepts simply at all. In fact, he makes it more confusing than just reading the textbook. I learnt everything myself, going to class was completely pointless. Every single class one of the students would end up correcting him... I do not recommend him, just made the class harder
Ian is a scatterbrained, impossible to follow prof. Unless you already know the material going into this class, don't bother.
He explains well one to one but teaching not good.
ENJOYABLE CLASS, VERY HELPFUL DURING QUIZES AND TESTS. ALL OPEN BOOK WAS GREAT
Ian is a good man, but he know a lot of material but he doesn't know how to give lectures in class. His lectures notes are very hard to understand, but he is really good at helping students individually. He is not eager to teach math. My math class was very entertaining because of his funny expressions and reaction to a question.
Very difficult class. He is not a very good teacher. He is super passionate about the material, but he is awful at conveying the material. He never updated any grades so it was impossible to know where you were at in terms of grades. Classes were often scrambled and confusing.
Ian is nice as a person but not a very good teacher. He is scattered and often messes up. He never puts any of your marks online and takes a while to hand back tests.
If you've had previous exposure to calculus, Than Ian is the proof you WANT to take! He gets straight to the point in his lectures and doesn't waste time on things that you won't be tested on. His mark breakdown is good because he takes your best 3 out of 5 tests (test questions are straight from the textbook btw). He's also a pretty funny guy.
This professor is great if you find Math easy. He does not explain concepts well and skipped many intermediate steps.
Ian is one of the worst teachers I have ever had. You can tell he does not like to teach math and makes calculus more confusing. If I did not take calculus in high school I probably would have done poorly.
Basically thinks you are stupid if you don't understand the subject, he thinks that all students are also a university professor who has seen this material before. Gets mad if he makes a mistake that we point out. Rude and marks hard, personally do not take this class if you have to take it with Ian.
Ian is a nice enough guy but unfortunately not the best instructor. His marking doesn't make any sense and when you ask him to explain his reasoning... he can't. A good thing is that his exams are all made out of textbook questions/recommended practice questions so the exams are not a surprise, and for the most part pretty easy.
worst teacher i have EVER had. gives awful examples. very boring. classes are long and he just talks about theory. makes it awful to study and hard to follow along with the textbook. final was worth 40% . if you have another option take that instead.
Good at explaining concepts, but did nothing to make the 2 hour lectures more bearable. Used textbook examples and made it pretty easy to follow along. Never felt like classes had any personal level to them, sometimes seemed like he was content to speak to an empty room. Still, was decently good at explaining concepts and presenting examples.
Doesnt know what hes doing and often makes a lot of mistakes. Lectures are extremely boring and long and looks like he could care less about teaching. His tests and quizzes although are from the textbook.
My experience with Ian taught me that Rate my professor might not be as accurate as you may think. I took math with Ian and even though his classes are not the most organized, he is so caring and helpful outside class that if you really want to learn, you will and he has the patience to help you understand. Honestly, give it a shot, RECOMMENDED!
Honestly. Ian isnt the best at teaching. went to many lectures, didnt find them useful. the textbook is your best friend for this class. Ians group quizzes and midterms were super easy. I learnt better with a small group! Exam was easy too. Take this class w/Ian if you feel you have enough time in the semester to teach yourself.
Ian means well but does not deliver. His teaching style is old and strictly on the blackboard. He expects that students are following his train of thought and does not pick up when no one is. He tries to explain things in-depth and just over-complicates simple concepts. He is a nice guy but not a great teacher. Prepare to teach yourself.
Ian is by far the worst professor I have had, his lectures are by far the most confusing thing ever. For example he will start to do an example in a textbook and halfway he will forget what he is doing and will move on to another topic. Ian can not stay on topic, do not register for his class. Your textbook will be your best friend here.
honestly just teach yourself. Basically useless. I recommend taking this course if you wanna learn from a manatee. Goodluck >:(
Ian is by far the worst prof I've ever had. He does not teach, and simply regurgitates textbook questions onto the board. He'll make mistakes and erase the entire board to start over. A complete waste of time. Expects you to be experts at the topic and berates you when you don't understand. Took the course with another prof and got an A+.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
27%
Textbook Required
93%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.40 avg changeRatings by Course
1101
4.0
(1)ASTRO2201
4.0
(1)PHYSICS2253
4.0
(1)MATH1203
3.3
(3)1700
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
PHYS2269
5.0
ASTR
5.0
ASTR1101
4.6
ASTR2203
4.5
ENGR1215
4.5