3.2
Quality4.0
Difficulty59%
Would Retake88
Reviews59%
Would Retake
88
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
24
4
19
3
14
2
16
1
15
What Students Say
“not giving out answers of hw and his lecture is totally confusing”
340 - 1.0 rating“at the start of lectures, several esoteric definitions are introduced, he just briefly mentions some examples like:"u know this from high school", "same as integers/polynomials";and while you're still trying to make sense of all the crazy terminology/notation, he proceeds with half a dozen theorems,and half way through you are lost”
MATH 340 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
34%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.20 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH340
3.5
(16)MATH242
3.3
(11)MATH152
3.2
(54)340
3.0
(2)MATH 340
2.5
(4)Difficulty by Course
MATH 340
5.0
MATH341
5.0
MATH242
4.5
MATH340
3.9
MATH152
3.9
Reviews (88)
Worst prof ever!!!! not giving out answers of hw and his lecture is totally confusing. the required textbook is useless since he is not teaching in the way that matching the book (both chapters and notations, and even concepts). So u don't know what is consider as a 'correct answer' and of course u don't know how to pass even u learnt the content.
Definitely a GPA Booster. Easiest class I've taken at SFU! Prof is super nice too and easy to understand.
I was enrolled in both of Dr. Ilten's classes in a semester, MATH 152 and MATH 340. In both classes he explained concepts very clearly, freely gave help, and his midterms were ridiculously difficult (but scaled). He loves math, he is a genius, and he is pretty funny in lectures, but you have to work hard (I mean really hard) to keep your GPA.
If you are worried about your grades, better take this class with a different professor. Ilten's homeworks are extremely difficult (expect to produce 4-5 pages of rigorous math proofs every week) and similarly with exams (all proofs). Ilten does not follow the text, but knows abstract algebra really well. Take him if you are really good in math.
there are two types of instructors: those who say "look how easy the subject is", and those who say "look how smart I am".He is the latter. Not only he does not try to make the material accessible,he takes abstract algebra,and makes it ten times more abstract. bombards u with theorem after theorem without 'properly' explaining any concrete examples
1/3 of the material is covered in the assignments, he does not provide any solutions, not even hints. no lecture notes, no worked out examples, textbook is useless, all the important theorems are left as an exercise. the order he teaches the material is in a way that you cannot follow other textbooks. he teaches as if this is a graduate course.
at the start of lectures, several esoteric definitions are introduced, he just briefly mentions some examples like:"u know this from high school", "same as integers/polynomials";and while you're still trying to make sense of all the crazy terminology/notation, he proceeds with half a dozen theorems,and half way through you are lost! WORST NIGHTMARE
Theorem: The following are logically equivalent: (1) If you are looking for a real challenge, taking MATH340 with Dr. Ilten will not leave you disappointed. (2) If you are NOT looking for a challenge, then taking MATH340 with Dr. Ilten will DEFINITELY leave you disappointed. Proof of (2): angry reviews. Proof of (1) is left as an exercise
Half his midterm was freelo. Questions were directly from lecture. Funny enough, someone got 62/40! I think he's just capping it at 40 though, so a 62/40 is equal to 40/40. Only bad part about his class is I cannot get over 100%. Very helpful in office hours and definitely someone I would take another class with.
Great teacher, I may not be doing well in his class, but honestly just study and usually he is pretty good at explaining the material. I'm most amazed at how he seems to be able to answer lots of questions in a lecture hall of like 200 people, I would definitely recommend.
Made the midterms extremely difficult compared to the material that was covered both in lecture and homework. Often doesn't know what he's writing when going over lecture material -- frequently makes mistakes about the steps/algebra and when you talk to him after to confirm he tells you he was wrong and gives a completely different answer.
Frequently skips steps while solving challenging problems and says things like "you should all be experts at this" which makes it hard to follow along. Asks proof questions on midterms/quizzes but rarely, if ever, goes over examples of them in class. He's pretty organized and posts slides which helps, but his lectures aren't very helpful.
Nice guy, easy to listen too. He even played the galactic empire theme for us before our final! however in lectures he skips "simple" steps in complex problems which makes it hard to follow along. He doesn't make the theory behind everything easy to understand. Tests are pretty tough, questions are significantly harder than examples taught.
fairly decent at explaining and very knowledgeable but i get the feeling he doesn't really care about students. Uses hard questions and proofs for exams. I found the grading to be unfair but that may be the TAs fault. I also wish he showed where marks were taken off clearly. Take if good at math as the class average for midterm 2 was 45%
Super hard midterms, but super easy final!
His jokes aren't funny. He makes many mistakes. Questions are not normally welcome. Expect proofs on exams. Some students seem to like him and I can't understand why. The final was much easier than the midterms and quizzes. Just do the questions from the textbook.
Lectures are quite clear. Would recommend to do prereading. Tries his best to answer questions. Sometimes makes mistakes then clarifies via email later. His "additional" questions on the hw assignments are brutal, I often needed help. Also, he tested a proof on one of the midterms, which caught people by surprise. Final was very fair though.
The example in clas is very IMPORTANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Know the concept!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't try to memorize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do the HW!!!!!!!!!!! And you will get good grade
He starts by covering group actions first, and then doing everything in terms of group actions. Note that most commonly, group actions are NOT taught until the Sylow theorems, which is an advanced topic covered much later. In the interest of "elegance", HE MAKES THINGS NEEDLESSLY HARD. At least he is approachable.
Nathan can be really intimidating at first, and he has some questionable policies, but he really grew on me over the semester. His assignments were really over the top difficult, but his tests were fair.
He is a great teacher, if you expect to pass a class without attending or studying, why are you in the school? Midterms are a joke compared to the assignments, think logically and do not panic and it all sorts itself out. Don't study don't pass, grow up
It's a hard class. Anyone saying otherwise would be lying. But Dr. Illten gave everyone the easiest path to a respectable grade with participation marks and very easy assessments. The homeworks are mind boggling hard but that's analysis for you.
Nathan is my favorite professor at SFU. He knows exactly what he's talking about and now's how to convey it. He's the most spread out math professor I've ever seen. His interests very and he knows so much. Would recommend going to office hours. Exam questions are like the ones from review class so go and listen and you'll do well. Enjoyable class
You're better off learning from online sources. Never finishes lecture slides, people don't even bother showing up to his lectures anymore. Midterm average was 35%. Stay away if you want to still like math after this class. This is coming from someone who studies day in, day out and keeps a high GPA. This class no learning, all pain.
very harsh on exams. The questions aren't even from homework or assignments. Very strict on late assignments, quizes and exams even if the lateness is caused by internet error
Math 152 is a tough course. I think some people are confusing that toughness for Nathan being a horrible teacher. He is only given an hour 3 times a week to teach so you need to read the textbook and do all the practice problems he provides. The tests are pretty hard, but it does prepare you for the final more. He also cares and is nice. Bow tie.
A nice person, I think. Lectures are sometimes boring but it's a zoom class what are you gonna do. Personable and patient with questions during office hours. Absolutely try to do as many "optional" assignments as you can. They may be un-graded but they are not just for fun. You will be tested. Get ready to work this ain't high school. Tough tests.
He is great, answers question and enthusiastic but the lecture is messy and short. If you don't come to class, you probably don't understand. You MUST read textbook. Mid 1's average is 35% but he give bonus point for doing again false answer in exam. Mid 2 is better and exam is fair for me. I think he curved score because I have C+ instead C-.
Going to his lectures won't prepare you enough. Read the textbook and watch Jamie or Brenda on YouTube. Class is super test heavy with homework accounting for 5% and the other 95% coming from quizzes and exams. Midterm 1 was scaled by doing corrections. Nathan is very knowledgeable but isn't a great teacher as he can skip over key steps in problems
Nathan's lecture is rudimentary and won't get you prepared for his exams. You need to finish all the homework each week preemptively and utilize office hours / Calculus workshop to succeed. His exams can spike in difficulty by a lot compared to his quizzes.
This course is crazy. Midterm average was 52%. He said he would curve, but more than 20 people out of 79 people are getting lower than 30%, not sure if he would fail those 20 people or what. I would say he's a tough grader, no idea what is his standard to grade the prove. If there's other section,I wouldn't choose him.
His assignments drive me crazy. The workload was tons. Assignment are super hard. Tests are hard. The course is hard. Just got no nice things to say about him.
Good professor but insanely hard course made even harder from harsh marking on exams. If you miss one thing in a proof he will take off tons of marks. Lectures are good and he seems like a cool guy. Assignments are very hard but tutorials help and hw is marked by TA. Don't take 242 if you don't love math, but if you have to take it, take w/ Nathan.
This course is all proofs. Do not try to take it as an elective. His notes was not clear. Tough grader on the test. Kinda boring in class. Midterm average barely pass. Expect half class fail.
This course is hard in general. All proofs and memorizing theorems. Got all 0 on the proofs questions. Didnt know what did I learn thought out the semester.
He is one of my favourite profs at SFU. And the most organized prof I have ever had. His lecture is like doing a complicated puzzle with him, it is very satisfying, but you would get lost if you are not paying attention for even a second. For this reason, 242 is the only math class I never get sleepy lol. 242 is the most challenging course in LD.
he played ukelele for us to destress before a midterm so I choose to believe he at least somewhat cared about us so cheers to Nathan :)
Prof teaches different formulas in his lecture from the textbook material he assigns. Exceptionally difficult to be learning between his method of teaching and the textbook material when there are weekly quizzes on the textbook. This course is already workload HEAVY and the prof does not explain concepts clearly.
Doesnt actually do anything worth watching, go to chem tutor on youtube x10 better
His lectures are not enough he just gives the idea in general and expects you to study the rest and read the book. Lots of homework, you will have around 3-5 online assignments every week besides the quiz ecery Friday which you will have to solve from 24-30 questions since he choses 2 question directly from the questions he assigned. Hard exams.
I strongly recommend not taking Math 152 with Nathan. He gives up on examples midway and says "left to you" when we have just begun learning about the topic. He seems unprepared before coming to lecture as he often makes a mistake and then just erases all his work for the example. He is a nice guy but really needs to work on his explanations.
Do written hw for each week, quizzes take two questions from hw that are the same. The web assign questions are annoying but free marks u get 5 attempts for each question. Go to calc workshop and ask for help, go to Nathan's office hours. Midterm and final were fair make sure u do sample exams. Go to class make sure to revise and know.
Nathan seems like a genuinely good guy, but his lecturing style simply does not work for me. He simply goes through explanations too fast. Coupled with the fact he left a lot of the finer details for us to complete, it was actually very difficult to learn without outside sources. I personally used Brenda Davison's YouTube lectures as a supplement.
I recommend saving yourself and taking Calculus 2 with a different professor. Nathan doesn't make much sense/go into detail and often doesn't finish examples. His exams are hard, and you aren't well prepared for them. When you email him, he tends to be quite rude and comes off as very standoff-ish. There are definitely better profs so avoid Nathan.
Lectures were very messy but were uploaded online. Does almost no examples in class, so you have to understand all the theory before attempting a question. Only 1h of office hours per week. Free 10% doing discussion posts weekly which he frequently answered. Exams were VERY fair. This class requires the upmost of independence. Take with Nils Bruin.
This course is difficult in terms of the time it takes to comprehend the material. I found that his exams are very fair. if you understood the WebAssign, 90% of exam questions were easier. I recommend looking up Jamie or Brenda's videos because The pace of in person lecture is just too fast for me.
Prof Ilten is clearly a very smart dude and knows his calculus well. That said, myself not being a math genius, found it very hard to follow him sometimes. He does not make the course easy. He does clearly care about the students and was an alright prof overall.
lectures are just ok, homework can be absurdly hard, tests are based off of hw and alike(overall fair... if you knew how to do the homework)
This is my second time retaking Calc 2 and I thought my old professor was terrible but Ilten is worse. He doesn't explain things well and goes too quickly assuming you can keep up with all the steps. I had to watch other resources and study A LOT.
He was fair, and was excited to teach our class. He inspired and was excited to teach us, that is what made his lectures enjoyable.
If you want to maintain GPA, plz choose another prof. If you are very good at math, you can.
Good lecturer but very tough grader. Averages on assignments are ~ 50% give or take. Midterm was marked harshly with most of the class scoring low. His lectures are quite clear and enthusiastic, but the course is just hard. Really really hard. Good luck to you.
The class itself is easy. It just requires a lot of work because the homeworks are quite long. You have to pass 4 CCEs which should be quite easy if you read and understand the definitions before taking them. The midterm was fair. Overall I really liked the class but wish the workload was a little lower.
Nathan was a great prof, but MATH340 just wasn't my cup of tea lol. I personally found it very challenging, as it's by far the most proof-heavy course I've taken, and I definitely took the course too early! Definitely recommend several other MATH courses before taking on 340. But when you do take 340, take it with Nathan, he's great.
this class was challenging to say the least. ilten's lectures were alright, you really have to focus to understand the concepts he's explaining, but connecting it to the homework was very difficult and took me hours. exams were fair though and he did give extra credit so all in all, not bad
Lectures are pretty much useless since he teaches very fast and skips examples very often. He also assumes you know everything so don't go to his lectures expecting to learn anything. While giving worthless lectures, his exams are very difficult and unfair. Even the quizzes are hard. Highly recommend taking calc 2 with another prof.
He is enthusiastic about teaching and the quizzes are from the assigned written homework.. (usually the harder ones) separate from the 3 WebAssign. If you have more than 3 classes finishing all of those questions for a chance they might show up is not possible. 2 harder end questions for quiz, there is no time to think, better chance to remember Qs
Meh, he was alright. I found that he comes across as a nice guy, but doesn't make this course very accessible for students. He caps marks at a C+ if you don't score high enough on the CCE quizzes, which I didn't like very much. Nice guy, very tough grader, very difficult course. HIGHLY recommend taking Math 242 and 342 before this.
You can tell he actually puts in a little effort in teaching during his lectures since he goes through some examples. However, a lot of the time he expects us to already know everything so he speeds through important examples and just tells us to do it ourselves on our own time. His exams are unfairly difficult and are nothing like what he teaches
the most boring, unenthusiastic prof ever + he skips over complex steps like they're no big deal. pretty sure he's a bit of a genius if you check out his page so it makes sense why he seems so depressed to teach calc 2.
got out of the midterm thinking i did a great job. got my result back and was unimpressed. the marking was very nit picky and extremely unfair. His lectures are very boring and unengaging. He picks the hardest questions for the weekly quiz and exams. During lectures he likes to "leave it up to you" to solve the rest of the problem.
He may be more engaging in his other classes, but not in Calc 2. He goes over minor details and leaves important steps to the students to ‘figure it out'. Not worth paying to be in this class if its outside your major. Questions on his quizzes/tests are theoretical; you don't exercise what you learned. Frustrating for calculus students.
just stay away
I'll admit that his grading is a bit tougher than other professors'. His midterm 1 was fair and not too challenging. His quizzes are usually easy, as they get picked straight from the homework, so as long as you do them, you're fine. Students give him a bad rating cause they don't do the homework and blame him since he marks a bit harder.
He's fair. You just have to keep up with the material, as calc 2 can be very heavy on concepts. Study and review frequently. Exams aren't too challenging
He is decent and his tests and quizzes are fair. Definitely nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews might make him out to be. Explanations can be a bit rushed at times, but he's approachable in my experience. Overall pretty decent.
Enthusiastic and caring teacher - I agree he can be a harsh marker at times and sometimes goes through notes fast, but he definitely seems to care. His exams are pretty fair too.
This was my first upper division math course. Nathan did a great job teaching this course, although I will say that the content itself was quite hard to grasp. You definitely have to stay on top of definitions and theorems (I did not) to get a decent grade.
Great professor, fair tests and enthusiastic lectures. He does rush a bit, but he uploads materials promptly and is a nice guy overall. Id recommend him tbh
Look, this is Calc 2. Anyone acting blindsided doesn't realize that the course will be a challenge no matter who the prof is. Nathan gets unfair criticism over this, when in reality, he's a great lecturer and a genuinely helpful prof who cares about his students. Is the course difficult, yes! But with Nathan, you're in decent hands
Prof Nathan Ilten is great!
Nice professor for Ring theory
At first I felt overwhelmed with his lectures and exams for him, my quizs are not perfect and the 1st midterm I had in calc 2 was around 70s, but if you genuinely try to understand the material and pay attention in class, you will strive at it, as I pumped my 2nd midterm up to 90s, so don't judge him unfairly as he is respectable and very caring
He goes at a fast pace. Best to learn stuff before hand.
Make sure to keep up with content, final exam was a bit tough but still a very decent professor overall.
Nathan is a very chill prof, seems nice and enthusiastic. Final was a bit tricky, but for the most part he was quite fair.
Great prof, sometimes a tough grader, but really good at explaining concepts. If you put in the work, you'll be fine
Good, very approachable, can be a bit too fast in explanations sometimes. Fair exams
Lectures feel rushed. He goes over the topics much faster than we can comprehend. Make sure you do extra reading outside of classes. Actually work on your WebAssigns. His tests and quizzes are on the difficult side. This is a hard course and requires lots of effort.
A fair prof who sometimes goes too fast, but you get used to the style, exams are a bit tough but a lot of practice is provided, so if you keep it up I think you'll do fine
Nathan was a good prof who was genuinely interested in the material. His explanations were great and the exams were very fair as long as you did the homework.
Tends to skip over steps while doing notes and rushes through examples or skips them entirely. Otherwise pretty good at teaching and explaining concepts. Midterms are fairly straight forward but final exam was difficult. Final marks ended up not getting curved despite a lower average.
A super nice guy who is also really good at math, you can tell he knows his stuff not just in calculus, but way higher than that (look at his website). Lectures are a bit rushed and messy, but he definitely cares, and his exams aren't too bad.
I took this class quite a while ago but if you put in the work, study in advance (1-2 lectures), and practice often, this class is great. Not sure if it was the effort I started putting in to understand Calc (I've never taken Calculus in my life), but I actually found his classes fun. The midterms and finals were tough, but fair so practice!
Absolutely not. Worst math prof I've ever had. Comes across as nice, but it's a facade. He WILL gatekeep the course. Not designed to pass, policies that auto fail students (concept comprehension exams). Insanely difficult assignments. His class made me think math wasn't for me, but having taken other upper year math courses, Nathan is just bad lol
Please avoid this course with Nathan. The concepts in 340 CAN be fun, but Nathan seems to make the course more about flexing his math knowledge than actually walking students through abstract concepts. Docks marks like crazy rather than actually helping students learn from mistakes. Wouldn't recommend him for any proof-based course.
He is quite good at explaining concepts and his exam questions are much easier than his homework questions. But he's a harsh marker, so keep that in mind.
No just no no nonono
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
34%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.20 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH340
3.5
(16)MATH242
3.3
(11)MATH152
3.2
(54)340
3.0
(2)MATH 340
2.5
(4)Difficulty by Course
MATH 340
5.0
MATH341
5.0
MATH242
4.5
MATH340
3.9
MATH152
3.9