1.5
Quality4.2
DifficultyN/A
Would Retake92
ReviewsN/A
Would Retake
92
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
3
4
5
3
4
2
19
1
61
What Students Say
“John is a surreal dude”
MA3160 - 1.0 rating“good luck with this one folks”
MA31603710 - 1.0 ratingGrade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A+
Grade Distribution
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.68 avg changeRatings by Course
MA4770
5.0
(1)MA4760
5.0
(1)MA3720
3.0
(1)MA321
2.0
(1)CALC2
2.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
2160
5.0
ALL
5.0
MA3160ENGSTAT
5.0
CALCULUS
5.0
MA31603710
5.0
Reviews (92)
shafts you hard on tests.
No Comments
No Comments
tests are harder than problems and all he says is that type thing
Doesnt explain anything, hope you like reading the book. Wicked hard exams
been here forever, never heard anything good about him. Puts me to sleep!
i think a goat could teach better
No Comments
No Comments
Worst teacher ever!
worst teacher ever. J.P Beckwith is the worst teacher. mine as well take ma3160 again. huge curve though. MLC is a great help with this class
When I went to ask him for help he told me that I didn't need any and being a girl that i should choose an easier major (rather than engineering)
This man is a jerk, plain and simple. He can't answer questions, but pretends he knows what's going on. HARD CLASS.
I'm a MA major, get A's in my MA classes, but this class SUCKED with Beckwith teaching it. I (or the goat) could have taught it better. On one test, I did a problem much easier than he did, but he didn't understand it. I had to explain it 3 times to him.
this dude sucks, everyone walks out of class, it teaches so agonizingly slow, and gives easy quizzes. Then he writes up tough exams, where the curve goes all the way down to like 30% for a D.
draws the same graph every day, gives a lame explanation.
This guy make the stuff way harder than it needs to be. He will confuse you more that help you, the class average is below 50%.
I had him in '98 for probability. He would show us how to do something wrong on Monday, give us a quiz on it first thing Wednesday, and then, after we turned in the quiz, he'd say "Oh, I did this wrong last time, here's how to do it."
Run away! Rearrange your schedule! Do anything to get another professor.
he sucks. do whatever you can to stay away from him.
I won't take his class anymore. He don't do example but just keep talking for the whole hour. Easy homework but terribly hard exam. Stay away from him.
WORST TEACHER EVER. SOMEONE PLEASE FIRE HIM. HE IS BRUTALLLLLLLLLLLL
Beckwith and the Devil are one and the same person. Rearrange your schedule, don't kid yourself into thinking you can handle this guy. He doesn't know what's going on and doesn't care if you do either.
Absolutely useless. Typical MTU Teacher. Cannot teach. Would just bulls*** stuff on the board in new order and expect you to already know what he is talking about. I turned in the final blank and still got a 22.5 percent with the curve. What a joke!!!!!
No Comments
Knows everything you could ever want to know about math but knows nothing about how to teach it. Goes off on topics not related to the class.
No Comments
worst teacher i've ever had by far. he doesn't know how to teach and he is the toughest grader i've ever had. he's horrible. FIRE HIS ASS.
worst teacher ever. he didnt care to try and help me until i was already failing beyond recovery. his exams are not on the material he covers in class and dont bother asking questions in class...you might confuse him!! RUN!! GET OUT OF HIS CLASS!!!
No Comments
Stay away from this prof no matter what. Take the class the next semester if you have to. He doesn't realize what he says from one day to the next
Worst math teacher I've ever taken. Had a 26% on an exam and it was a C. Impossible exams, horrible teacher. Do not take him, you will just have to re-take the class
Not a good teacher. He creates an OK atmosphere to do your homework in class, though, as it's not like he's teaching anything at the time. Just don't miss the quizzes!
I found all the other comments about Beckwith wrong. He was fairly helpful and the tests weren't as hard as the comments said. Nothing pheonomenal, but definitely not the worst course I've had.
Horrible. Don't take him for anything if you don't have to. Can't explain. Won't help. Sucks.
Didn't learn a thing in his class. Take somebody else because he's terrible.
Gotta go against the flow here too. Not amazing, but I liked his style of communicating the material. You will have to write down the in class examples and study them before the tests -- in addition to doing the homework. Tough but fair.
NEVER take class from this guy. The whole class barely passed with C at the end of the year. AVOID at all costs!!!
Get out while you still can! This is the worst teacher I have had. Ever try to learn clac from a book, well you will have to if you take him. Half of the class failed. Do not take a class with him.
He's the worst teacher I've had in my life. Simply awful.
Worst teacher I've ever had, taught the material to myself.
Everyone either over exaggerates about John, or is just plain stupid. He's a tough teacher yes, but impossible, no. He makes you learn the material instead of doing it for you, which is the entire point of the class. Worst grade I got on one of his exams was an 87, and I studied for about an hour
Worst Teacher Ever! Period! Take Anyone Else But Beckwith. If there is no choice. Just skip math for a semester
Defined "radius" as the variable "d"
Cant explain anything. Doesnt explain any math, scribbles on the board and says "da da da da" (means you figure out the rest) instead of actually finishing the problem!! He's not the one who'll teach you math. Only he knows what he says and writes on the board!
An example: On one test, there was a problem which could be done multiple ways, some easier than others. Whole class took the easy way. He marked EVERYONE wrong, for not doing it how he wanted us to. The catch? He NEVER specified how we should do it. HORRIBLE teacher. All I learned I taught myself.
He is very confusing, he says "all that jazz" and "type of thing" every other sentence.
The examples he does aren't very clear, he doesn't explain things very well, and on the last test the average was 55 of 100 and he didn't seem concerned or surprised everyone did so poorly.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. EVEN IF HE'S THE LAST CHOICE TAKE A SEMESTER OFF JUST TO AVOID HAVING HIM FOR A CLASS. DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE STUDENTS AT ALL!
NEVER TAKE THIS GUY, HE IS HORRIBLE
This man is a flipping animal. I'm afraid to ask him questions and the only people who do well on his tests are repeating the class.
His tests are nothing like anything he teaches in class. Very boring and likes to say "typa-thing", "standard common typa-problem", and "typa-deal". Never take Beckwith!
Easily the worst teacher I've ever had. I taught myself everything I learned.
Bad teacher, and a terrible grading system with an overall curve at the end. You never know your grade until after the final
Worst Teacher ever
The whole curve thing is nice but it would be nicer to know if what my grade was before the final.
This semester I had the best teacher ever, and the worst teacher ever. Unfortunately, Beckwith was my worst teacher ever. He lectures constantly, trying to teach you with complicated math terms, while he scribbles and assumes you understand it. He's either careless or doesn't know he's horrible.
Take someone else if at all possible. If you're stuck with him, go to EVERY class, take down EVERYTHING he writes, and PAY FULL ATTENTION. He does lay it out for you, albeit very muddled. If you pass this clown, you can handle just about anything Tech can throw at you.
Worse Prof out there!!
I answered my final with a smiley face, needless to say I failed the class.
DONT TAKE THIS GUY. He doesn't know how to teach. He doesn't give any review before exams. and he grades on a curve. so you never know what your grade is going to be until after the final. Good Luck with this class. Try not to take this guy, i think he has his own math language with typa-thing in it
Biggest mistake of my college career, if only i had read this page. I argued with him for a half hour to get back 5 points that i deserved. Stay Away... "and all that jazz"
He's the flipping animal that wrote the book on Mathematics thats says nothing but "All that jazz" and "that/your standard typa thing".NEVER TAKE BECKWITH he's definately the WORST prof at tech.Oh yeah Mathematica SUCKS.And Exams are INSANE/out there,he can't teach worth s***.AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I think this guy gets off on killing kids GPA's, He is the most unhelpful prof. very unclear. ya never know what to expect on an exam. open book exams are nice, when the book helps you on the exam
Definitely the worst prof. at tech. DO NOT TAKE THIS GUY FOR ANY CLASS! He will not help you and his exams are nightmares.
Dr. Beckwith as an individual outside of the class is very interesting to have a conversation with, but in class, its a different story. Exams and lectures are terrible, becasue your never sure what to study, so study everything. Overall, he's difficuly and "All That Jazz".
The worst teacher forever! He even doesn't know what is math. All he did in Class was reading the examples from the book. Don't ask him question, because he will get confused by himself.
Dr. Beckwith often gets lost in what he teaches and doesn't seem to know the material. He is nice to talk to but his Exams are for the most part nightmares.
No Comments
He speaks in monotone.
No Comments
He makes random notes on board, impossible to follow what he's saying based on what he writes on the board.
WOW. Can't believe that hard earned tution money pays for this flipping animal that says nothing but "all that jazz" to not teach and fail students because of his insane exams. good luck with this one folks.
He is the biggest moron ever. He knows calc 3 but teaches lika an idiot. You have to go to every class to understand what is going to be on the tests. You can do fine in the class but if you need help he won't help you. He thinks he is better then everyone. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!
He is a terrible prof. He doesn’t know what he is talking about and constantly says "that type of thing" and "ummmmmmmm". I've never seen a person stand at the board and say "um" for 30 seconds because he gets lost. His exams are also very difficult. Defiantly avoid this one!
Doesn't help you understand, bad examples and notes that go no where. Should not be a teacher in any respect!
Avoid at all costs. A complete ****. Can't teach a damn thing and then exams are harder then hell. He tells you he curves at the end but I can't understand how he does it when percentage wise I have one thing and then I get one grade lower. Holds grudges if you don't have a perfect attendance record even though he donesn't teach anything.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!! This professor is a bad one. His examples and notes are useless, and he has actually gotten confused by his own examples numerous times in class. His exams are hard, and he doesn't offer review. He taught 2 sections of Calc 3 in Fall '05. We were the only sections that were unable to take the university Calc 3 exam.
beckwith: "so as you can see... type of thing...okay?" beckwith: "so does that make sense?" student: "what are you talking about ?!?!?" beckwith: "ummmmm...."
statistics is boring, but probably not beckwith's fault. exam questions are difficult, partial credit and grading are more than fair.
One thing people need to learn is that this is college. You can't expect your professors to spoon feed you everything. Beckwith puts the material in his own words, which makes class a lot of fun. He only puts the basics on his tests. Most of the people who are unhappy with him are people who need someone to blame for not doing well in a class.
If you like classes where the material is covered slower than a glaciers movement then you'll really enjoy this class. "Do you understand that type of thing"
He has a very nice curve for the class. Guarantee at least %50 on each exam and only basic questions were on it not to mention he curved our final grade also. All you had to do was to study the old exams and you're good to go. No homework was required to do for this class but if you want to get a decent grade then do it.
I took this class and did just fine in it, but his teaching style was subpar. "Just crank and grind and you will get this answer" If you like learning an entire chapter from 1 proof this is for you. Exams curved, final grades were not. 1 person in my class got an A on the final exam (out of 60)
Worst math teacher at tech yet. Rambles on and randomly switches to other questions without telling you. Does not realize that the blank stares on students faces means they dont know what he is talking about. Avoid his classes if you want a teacher who teaches
John's a good guy. At first, it may not seem like you're grasping a single word he says. Looking back, I realized that I really did learn a lot. His tests are the best I've ever had! They're fair and to the point. Don't stress after the first week. Sit there and try your best and you will surpass the others in the class and get a nice A or B.
Oh my...90% of the time I'm not sure if he's covering the material in the book or off on his own little tangent, makes learning a lot of the material very difficult as the book doesn't have great examples (if any at all). Does grade very fairly on tests however. Wouldn't recommend him, even if you do understand math easily
Worthless. I can't believe he's paid! Trails on about one problem for an hour, which doesn't teach you anything. Only method of teaching is solving problems, but teaching nothing. I'm not saying he's hard, because he will curve, but only to pass students so he feels like a teacher. You'll prolly pass, but IT WILL screw you for future classes!
Beckwith is a great teacher. If you honestly go to class and do your homework he basically hands you an A. Unfortunately, homework is optional so you need to motivate yourself to do it and do it well, but doing that and going to class will likely earn you an A.
John is a surreal dude. I still can't get over how many times I heard "type of thing" during this class. Looking back, the class was kind of fun and just bizarre to think about. Taking John's class will severely improve your opinion of every other professor, teacher, instructor, person, and human being you've ever dealt with.
explains the material well in steps that can lose some students, but was a good fit for me.
when he does algebra he sometimes does more than one step at a time. this may make it difficult for some but he was a good professor for me.
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A+
Grade Distribution
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.68 avg changeRatings by Course
MA4770
5.0
(1)MA4760
5.0
(1)MA3720
3.0
(1)MA321
2.0
(1)CALC2
2.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
2160
5.0
ALL
5.0
MA3160ENGSTAT
5.0
CALCULUS
5.0
MA31603710
5.0