2.4
Quality3.9
Difficulty34%
Would Retake172
Reviews34%
Would Retake
172
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
47
4
7
3
11
2
10
1
97
What Students Say
“Everyone hates his horrendous grading policy but I'd contest he's a terrible professor period”
MATH10B - 1.0 rating“His homework quiz policy got me crazy”
MATH18 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
31%
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B+
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-1.53 avg changeRatings by Course
CSE20
5.0
(6)math20b
4.8
(29)CSE21
4.7
(7)MATH10A
3.4
(17)Math20A
2.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
MATH18
4.7
MATH10B
4.1
Math20A
3.5
CSE21
3.0
CSE20
3.0
Reviews (172)
Professor Briones is a fantastic professor. His lecture is clear and understandable. He uses memes in lectures and homework to make the concepts fun to learn and solve. Additionally, the best thing about him is he is active on discord to answer students' questions, so don't be afraid if you can't attend his office hour.
Stellar Professor! Made lectures, homework, and exams quite engaging and fun. Personally, I felt his grading policies were extremely fair and sometimes even generous as he does as much as he can to make sure students can have a good chance at excelling in class. He also makes it quite clear what will be on the exams in relation to the homework.
Best professor I have had! He literally dresses up as pikachu for every lecture and makes all the homework problems and lectures funny with memes. The conepts of CSE20 are very difficult and his lectures are really fast pace but he is a very good teacher. 1000% recommend
The best prof for cse 20 hands down
100% recommend taking him. CSE 20 is a difficult class however the way he teaches makes it a lot easier to understand. He gives a lot of extra credit opportunities in the homework and on the quizzes. He is very understanding and wishes the best for us all! Also his Pikachu onesie is iconic and all the pop culture and meme references are amazing.
Jor-El, commonly known as Goat-El, is the man in the Pikachu onesie is honestly a phenomenal teacher. Aside from all the times he has rick-rolled us, he made sure to make every class session as entertaining as possible despite how long or late it was.
Professor Jor-El: The Guiding Light in CSE 21 I had the pleasure of taking CSE 21 with Professor Jor-El, and I must say, it was an unforgettable experience. While the class material was undeniably challenging, Professor Jor-El's teaching style and personality made the journey enjoyable and enlightening.
Absolutely amazing professor, always accessible and very fair in the grading department. He constantly strived to make homework and lecture more interesting through comedy and working problems with the class. The only gripe you'll have with him is it takes a while to get grades back.
DO NOT TAKE during summer. Much more relaxed teaching during the school year. Great guy, not so much teaching. Goes through important topics too fast, and doesn't focus on them enough. A lot of extra-credit opportunities as well.
Made this my favorite class of the quarter. When I needed help on polar coordinates, I went to office hours and it was extremely helpful. He took time to re-explain the material, drew everything out, and checked to make sure I understood the content. Fun personality too, makes class very enjoyable.
PERFECT EXAM OUTLINES, LOVE HIM
Amazing professor, wants to make sure that everyone in the class does well. I hated math but he made this class fun and learnable. Very caring, very helpful, very responsive. Would take his class for every math class if I could. Thank you Dr. Jorel!!!!!
He is an amazing professor. His teaching style is impeccable. He makes the lectures really fun and enjoyable.
Jor-El is the GOAT. Anyone would agree. Fun and engaging lectures, very heavily weighted HW category (which carries your grade), exam grading criteria that is in favor of student success, clearly defined outlines of exams prior to exam date (study guide on steroids), and allowance of a full page cheat sheet on exams. CHOOSE HIM AS YOUR PROFESSOR!
Great professor, though his handwriting can be tough to read and sometimes he is hard to hear, but overall I understood the material very well thanks to him. Attendance is not mandatory (inc. discussions), and all lectures are podcasted. The best part is the clear outlines he provides prior to exams, which lets you know what to study in particular.
he gives very specific outlines for all exams and listens to constructive criticism (he used to rush through all the material making everything super confusing but at the end of the quarter he stopped doing that) he tries to relate to students and wants to make sure everyone does well in the class too
dr. jor-el or "pikachu guy" was awesome! I'm not the strongest at math but performed well because of the prof's clear midterm and final outlines. lecture and discussion is not mandatory and lectures are podcasted. highly recommend if you need to take this course bc it made calculus way less daunting and achievable :)
Professor Pikachu is the very best like no one ever was!
He was so so so amazing!!! His lectures were clear and engaging (and silly). The grading scale was awesome as hw was heavily weighted so there wasn't too much of a burden placed on tests. He also included a detailed outline of his tests that literally explained what each question would ask, so it made it easy to pinpoint what to study!
This is the professor you want to take for 20B. He makes the concepts we learn extremely clear and his midterm/final reflect what we learn/cover on the homework. He also makes it clear what will be covered in the test and sometimes gives hints to what questions are similar to the exam question. Also he's the Pikachu Professor so you know he's good!
Lectures and annotated notes are posted for each lecture. Exam outlines were extremely helpful in preparing for both midterms and the final. One printer size cheat sheet and calculator allowed on each exam. Lecture material aligned with homework and exam content. Overall, manageable class with great prof!
Professor was funny (wore a Pikachu onesie to every lecture) and was very knowledgable on material. Lecture slides were messy and confusing at times, but if you follow along in class it is easy to understand. He sends out and outline of each test a week before that tells you exactly what will be on it, and tests reflect lecture material.
Great professor!! His lectures could be a bit confusing sometimes (because of his handwriting), but slides are posted and lectures are recorded so it wasn't an issue. He is very funny and has a big personality, and does a really good job of explaining specifics for exams so I never felt too confused or surprised. Definitely cares about his students
Handwriting isn't his forte but hes a really good professor. He is transparent on exams which is SUPER helpful and the lectures make sense if you follow along. His Pikachu costume and personality are a wholehearted break from the emotionally barren and demanding attitudes of other professors. I would recommend reading the textbook alongside lecture
Such a great professor! Prof Briones communicates very clearly the expectations of class and exams. If you learn what he says to learn you are sure to get As! He does not try to trick students at all and is very transparent about what is tested and what isn't. There are so many ways to get help and he responds quickly to questions.
Professor came to every single lecture wearing a Pikachu onesie. He's a true G.
Without question the best professor I've had at UCSD. His lectures make me feel like my out-of-state tuition is worth it. Math 20B is supposed to be the hardest out of the series, but he makes it feel very fun and easy.
He wears a pikachu onesie to class. Enough said.
One of the best professors I've ever had. Very sweet and easy to understand; the way the lectures are constructed are really easy to follow.
Great professor! Made the lecture materials easy to understand and provided amazing exam outlines! Very accommodating and helpful outside of class
Very very amazing math professor! I was able to understand all of his lectures and he explained new topics clearly & well, even doing short reviews of helpful prior knowledge so no one was left confused. Gives exam outline to study, and lots of office hours if you need extra help! Showed exam goals through lectures, so watch them! Take Dr. Jor-el!
Love this professor, their slides and teaching style are clear, straightforward, and easy to understand. I feared this course because it was notorious among undergraduates about it being one the worst math class that they were required to take. But with this teacher, my life has never been easier. Very sweet, unbelievably caring professor 10/10.
One of the best math professors I have ever had. Lectures are very straightforward and he made challenging Calc 2 concepts easy to understand. He gives an exam outline which makes studying for tests much more straightforward. Funny guy too. 100% recommend.
Super funny and cool, taught content very well but made tests pretty stress-free and reasonable.
One of the best math professors I've ever taken at UCSD. Failed the class FA23 (totally my fault lol), got an A taking his class again in Winter 2024. 110% recommend Dr. Jor-el, he's extremely caring and exam Q's are ALL gone over in lecture slides or discussion worksheets! Do the HW, review lecture and you'll get an A! Plenty of OH as well!
It is an easy class. The exams are straightforward, with very easy questions that are almost exactly like lecture examples. However, when I moved on to 20C, I lacked foundational knowledge on doing tough integral questions, that 20C teachers expected me to know how to do. You win some, you lose some.
Great Professor. Great teaching style. I 10/10 recommend this teacher. I notice that he is very understanding as he offers a lot of extra credit, and makes lectures interesting by adding jokes/references in the homework and lecture. He also gives test outlines so you know what to study instead of guessing what will be on the test.
Found CSE 21 to be easier than CSE 20 and I think that's because of him. The concepts were difficult to wrap your head around sometimes but he made it easier to digest and split up by giving you steps on how to do the problem instead of just throwing you into the solution. Tests were very fair, although if you get
Looking @ SETs. As of Spring 2024, he no longer allows cheat sheets or calculators on exams. That how MOST the class failed. When he used to allow cheat sheets and calculators on exams, the average grade was always a B+ in Math 20B, hardest class @ UCSD. 20A shouldn't be this hard. Pikachu evolved to a failure, literally. I don't want him anymore.
The most considerate professor I've had so far in the department. The midterm was really easy, with lots of partial credit, and the final was curved by a lot. Also, homework is worth 50% of your grade AND curved. I will say that I learned more through homework than lecture though, for sure. Recommend taking him, definitely!
Professor was always late to class by 10-20 minutes and when he was on time he always rushed through lectures and didn't finish material. Got a C+ in the class with a 78% while other teachers allowed students to get a B+ with the same grade. Average on the final was a D and it wasn't curved. Hated this class every single day.
You could definitely tell the professor knew his content, but to be honest he didn't explain anything too good. He would come late 10 minutes to majority of lectures and thus have to rush. His outlines were definitely so clutch though, I recommend putting them in gpt to generate pactic test. Study you'll be good.
Lectures are recorded but discussions are mandatory - after the first week, I never went to lecture and just took notes from the uploaded podcast. You can tell he's a person before a math prof. He pauses during lecture to make sure people are done writing. Cheat sheets are allowed on the tests and I'd say they were reasonable enough - curved too!
I wasn't sure about him at first, but I ended up learning a lot and liking his teaching style. He was late to almost every single lecture lol. He gives a cheat sheet + test outline which is really useful, but the 2 midterms were easy and then the final was totally different and more conceptual than anything we'd ever done in class.
His class has a 53%. fail rate. No curves. Does not really explain or go over what he just did with the example problems.
Took him over the summer so he showed up to every class in his pikachu onesie (legend). Explained concepts pretty well, tried his best to explain things in different ways so that students would understand. Discrete math seemed really daunting, but Briones made the class generally enjoyable and included a lot of references in his lectures
THIS MAN IS GOATED! Made this subject way easier. For every exam he basically gives an outline with what types of questions you'll see on it. Very lenient w/ grading & try to give as many points as possible. Wore a Pikachu onesie to every lecture. Would highly recommend especially since a good math professor here is very far and few at this school.
Pikachu man is the goat! not only was he always willing to answer questions during lecture and on discord, and patient enough to let people write stuff down, his exams were super clear. He gave outlines for exams, which prepared us on what to expect, so we could make the most out of the double sided cheat sheets allowed on them!
I thought Dr. Jor-El was ok. He consistently showed up 10-15 mins late, and we would have to rush to cover content prior to exams because of lost time, causing unnecessary stress. However, he does post exam study outlines that are very helpful. Lecture attendance was optional but there is mandatory discussion which was more annoying than helpful.
Appreciate the pikachu onesie but I don't think he's a great lecturer. Often would show up late without notice, didn't go through many examples during lecture, and overall he just rushes through things too much for students to really comprehend concepts. A lot of lecture is just students copying down the essays he writes on the slides.
Dresses as a pikachu in class, is entertaining.
This is how class works: the professor sits at a lecture desk, reads, and adds extra notes to pre-prepared lecture slides. Nevertheless, it was great! Adequate time to take notes and ask questions. However, to do extremely well, you need to put in many hours of extra work. The final is unpredictable, and you need to know the material back to front!
weekly hw assignments, super helpful for practice. no calculators, no cheatsheet but gives formula sheets. didnt rlly like his teaching style (preference) + never went to lecture, self-taught the curricular. SI sessions were helpful as well. gives outline of what will be on exams (helpful). discussions mandatory. nice prof tho!
The final exam is the decider of whether or not you pass the class as a whole (at the time of my taking it). If you study and ask questions, get tutoring or any other sort of instructional assistance, you'll do well.
Although a lot of math classes at UCSD are very difficult this professor genuinely does everything he can to make sure you succeed. The outlines he provides before the exams are super detailed and if you follow them you will be very prepared for the midterms and finals. Keep in mind, if you fail the final you fail the class!
He's a nice and funny guy but his brutal final exam is just a dealbreaker
Prof was really really understanding and truly did everything he could to help us grasp the material. Exams were very fair and reflective of content
Dr. Briones was a great prof for MATH 10A. 2 midterms and final and gives a v clear outline abt what will be tested on each exam which was def super helpful. The final was BRUTAL, but the curve was so clutch! Would recommend taking him for 10A.
took cse 20 a few years back. i am absolutely terrible at discrete math, but i managed to receive a 78% on the final (without even a curve). just goes to show how great he is. take advantage of office hours if you need it and don't be shy to go. i went and it was great. he's amazing and does care about his students.
He just copies and pastes the text from the book onto his notes, and lecture is not helpful. Discussion questions are way easier than the actual exams. His grading is extremely harsh and he makes it impossible to get an A
I was so eager to take his class because I've heard good things about him. But I was in for a rude awakening. His lecture and grading scheme is very confusing and frustrating. Everything in his class is designed to deduct points form you. His unrealistically high demand stresses everyone out and makes it impossible for us to focus on the learning.
he has the most evil grading scheme i've ever seen. go to every discussion; fail/miss any of his pop quizzes you'll be losing 5% of your entire course grade for each, theres no partial credit or formula sheet (unlike the exams) & theyre worth 0%. he no-showed the first exam. doesnt respond to emails. gives exam outline, but not worth it imo.
I was aware this was his first quarter teaching math18 but his lectures were so poorly taught. He uses vocabulary that is difficult to understand and doesn't explain concepts throughly.
Your grade in his classes hinges on getting ALL your homework quizzes (unnanounced) 100% correct, every one you get wrong is a -5% to your full grade and even the slightest mistake can make you fail them. His slides aren't well-organized, and his explanation is hard to comprehend - using AI is recommended to self-teach the materials.
He's basing our final grade off of the homework quizzes now, so don't take him. If we don't pass a certain amount of quizzes (he said he won't tell us how many) we fail the course. However, the quizzes are either pass or fail, so you can't make any mistakes. I took him for 10A and it wasn't bad, but I don't know why he's changing his grading system
Very very very very very very very very very tough grader. hw quizes almost every week pass or fail 5% off final grade each one you fail, if you fail more than a certain amount you fail the class. final is based off midterm and final. oh and did i mention hes a tough grader.
Immensely tough grader, beware of the effectively-weekly pop homework quizzes; every one is just a single question and even the slightest error causes you to lose 5% off your entire course grade. Midterms are significantly harder than the homework and classwork and include 'mastery problems' which if you get too many wrong, you face penalties.
Worst professor/class I've EVER had it's designed to make you fail. Weekly 1-question quizzes graded pass/fail with no partial credit. Each fail is -5% of your final grade and he won't even say how many you can miss. Lectures are very confusing, you end up teaching yourself, and I literally had to BUY a tutor to help me understand. Avoid this class
His homework quiz policy got me crazy. It's really discouraging that your final grade can be dragged down by a single quiz question, no matter how hard you work on the other exams.Don't take his Math18 unless you're prepared to deal with a huge amount of stress.
Grading scheme is immensely harsh and be aware if you are an employed student DO NOT TAKE HIM. The homework quizzes are a good idea but are practiced with extreme penalties as it is 5 mins and it is pass/fail so no partial credit. If there's tiny mistake bye bye 5% of total grade. hw quizzes are poorly announced. New grading schemed ruined him.
Immensely smug and confusing lectures, weekly quizzes knock 5 percent off your final grade for any you miss. So, if you miss just 3 out of the 8 you take you're already cooked. Tests look nothing like the problems you do in class, extremely difficult tests but your grade is only based off the final and midterm. Do not take him.
Worse grading scheme ever for a course. The homework quizzes should not ever be something to be defended. The idea of them is good yet the punishments are Immensely harsh and as of right now there is no way to recover. Do not take him at all. Even if you do well on the midterms fail 2 of the hw quizzes no possibility of getting an A. Ruined prof
This professor has one of the worst grading criteria ever. Homework is worth 0% of the grade. Instead, there are weekly homework quizzes which are 1 question and 5 minutes long, which are also 0% but if you fail one, 5% of your WEIGHTED GRADE IS DEDUCTED WITH NO WAY TO MAKE IT UP. Don't be fooled by the positive reviews.
do not take this class if you care about your mental health
The professor for this course, has one of the worst syllabuses I have had to deal with. The most insane thing is the homework, you do not get anything positive from it. It is worth 0% of your grade, but if you do not do it you will fail the course.
don't listen to any good ratings or you'll regret it
Mandatory disccusions w/ quizzes and have to get 100% to get credit. If you have 99% of the problem correct, he deducts 5% off your total final grade. Deducts 2% from final grade for each discussion you miss. You could get 100% on his midterms and final exam and still fail the class in theory. His grading style does not want you to pass the class.
Grading style is insane. Only take this class if u are unemployed have no obligations and have nothing to do but prepare for his quizzes.
Lunatic grading rule and difficult quiz test makes you hard to get great grades. You have zero way to make your grade higher and there are millions way for him to minimize your grade. It is true that the initial intention is good, butter it is too hard for student to get a relative good GPA under normal circumstance.
Honestly the Pikachu Professor isn't a bad person, very kind but not a great teacher. It's his first time teaching linear algebra and it's significantly more difficult compared to other classes. Midterms are given with rubrics, but are so dissimilar to the hw that it makes it difficult to study for this class, especially with no past material. 3/10
I hope he sees this because almost all the reviews for math18 are so bad. Please change up your grading scale or curve exams because clearly no students like you. For that one review that left him a 5 for this class, we all know thats you professor
as specific as the other reviews are, nothing can perfectly articulate how hellish this class was. the amount of work and stress I had in this class was ridiculous. he treated the class like we were curing cancer even though this math isn't even for math related majors. I SUFFERED SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!!!! PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T TAKE HIM!!
Everyone hates his horrendous grading policy but I'd contest he's a terrible professor period. Bad lecturer, shows up late and doesn't cover all the material for the HW. Super passive aggressive when answering questions in lecture/OH to make you feel stupid. Exams/Quizzes harder than the HW. He didn't show up for a midterm, but you can't slip up!
he literally wrote his midterms the day before it happened
Extremely convoluted grading scheme designed to punish you for the slightest mistake. Weekly homework quizzes with a single problem, where if you get it wrong, you get -5% to your entire grade. Professor reliably shows up late to lectures and didn't even show up to the first midterm exam. Midterms are different from the hw. No practice exams.
There isn't a single positive thing I can say about this class.
Lectures were screenshots from the textbook, over complicates concepts(Organic Chem Tutor and AI were better imo).Rubric is designed to take away as many points as possible which stresses everyone out and makes earning an A impossible unless ur unemployed with 0 obligations.HW quiz explained in other student reviews.Avoid him for your mental health
insane syllabus, lectures hard to comprehend…
this class is designed to make you fail. he can't explain very difficult concepts in ways that are easy to comprehend and has no mercy when it comes to grading. homework quiz policy is also so unforgiving and i'm so sad i didn't drop this class sooner.
Pikachu man is a nice person but this class was way harder than it should have been.
The good reviews about him on rmp and reddit are all lies! He's a terrible prof who doesn't know how or even want to teach. His syllabus is designed to fail you. If you can't get perfect score on a quiz, then you lose 5% of the total percentage. Like wtf? He seem to enjoy watching students all stressed out due to his evil grading scheme.
i lost my will to live taking this class, please choose another professor. The homework was worth nothing but it still bounded your final grade. if you failed a homework quiz it was a 5% deduction on your final grade, for each quiz. To make that up, you needed to present a power point on a topic not covered in lecture(& he would quiz you on it).
Will report to the university.
Complete disregard for any sort of humanity. 90% of the grade is tests with uncertain grading rubrics. "Mastery" points you need, which are insanely hard, and if you don't get them, you can't get an A in the class. HW Quizzes (worth "0%" of your grade)1 point if you get it right if you get it wrong 5% off your ENTIRE grade.
This class genuinely made my mental health so bad I can't believe he is not fired yet he is quite literally cruel and so unfair. I study so much for this class and get extra help and it's still not enough
HW quizzes, though surprises aren't that bad because they're just HW. The difficulties of the test is unreasonable and you can not study for it with the given resources. His lectures are straight from the textbook which doesn't explain the concepts well, and the lack of past tests or even example tests makes this class impossible to do well in.
如果你看到这个老师 请转头就跑 别犹豫 真搞不懂这上面给他打5分的学生都是怎么想的。。。至少他教math18是烂到没边了 天天上课迟到不说 ppt就是直接照搬textbook 基本没什么利用价值 TA讲的都比他好1000000倍 他的评分标准也极其不合理 错一次hw quiz要扣总成绩的分 而且他评分巨巨巨慢 我就是一个例子 因为他midterm1的分数在能drop期限后才出所以完美错过不上这门课的机会。其次这个老师考试跟作业基本就是两码事情 能考上他的高分简直就是一种奢侈。。 法，我一直在哭。。。
rubric was legit made by the devil. for the love of your mental health and grades do not take his class.
HW quiz policy is horrendous, way to make it up is even worse (you have to make some ppt on sm NOT EVEN on the syllabus). HW is worth 0% but final grade's bounded by it (still have no idea how that works til this day). Criteria makes no sene and average is lowkey failing (so am I). Could be a nice guy but DONT take 18 with him for ur mental health.
This guy is genuinely evil. His homework quiz policy is so strict and absurd. One mistake it costs 5% of your grade. I have never despised a teacher in my entire life. Even though my midterm scores were way above the average, I am probably getting a low score or possibly fail due to the homework quizzes. If your taking math18 DO NOT CHOOSE STAFF.
This guy has to be one of the most cruel professors on campus Homework quizzes with each one being worth -5% off of your final grade if you fail, with no positive benefit for passing them besides keeping your original 5%. Condescending, inappropriate and has a power/god complex that shows in every meeting. Avoid at all costs for your own sake.
A totally devil with extremely hard standard on HW quiz, a fail in HW quiz could cause a 5% lost in final grade, and the only way to get back is to have a presentation on the content that we've never learned. For classes always being late, and the lecture is awful.
If you want to see the light of day next quarter do not take this class. Lectures are so unnecessarily confusing and one mistake on a homework quiz will tank your grade. Homework's are crazy long and are worth a whopping 0%. Even if you are unemployed and have infinite time on your hands I guarantee you will still struggle.
unprofessional and way to harsh on grading. always late to lecture and his explanations are so convoluted. grading was a nightmare and doesn't allow for any mistakes or bad days, or else -5% on the final grade. avoid him at all costs
He genuinely wants to break down your mental health brick by brick. His malice far surpasses any evil dictator in history, yes ANY. If you are not religious, find a religion or a god to pray to before you take this course.
Take this class if you have no life.
天生魔丸 喜欢上他课的同学有福了。。
Horrible syllabus, if you wanna a healthy mental DONT CHOOSE THIS CLASS!!!!! You will suffer from him all quarter from week 1 to 10
This class is very exam-heavy, and your GPA depends almost entirely on test performance. Homework is long and required but not graded, so it doesn't meaningfully help your score or provide feedback before exams. Many students found it hard to gauge their understanding, and the lack of graded practice made the high-stakes tests feel stressful.
Don't know where to start. Weekly homework quizzes that take 5 percent off your whole grade if you get the question wrong and no credit if you get it right. Tests look nothing like anything you've done in class. Lectures are always overcomplicated and he is extremely condescending when responding to questions. Do anything but take him.
The worst professor I've EVER had at UCSD. Not only was his class difficult himself as a professor is not understanding, embarrassed me/called me out for a misunderstanding he made in front of the whole class, extremely difficult to reach, unprofessional and late to lectures/meetings, does not try to make his material understanding to all.
Hopefully I can save someones gpa with this review LOL. In general, not a great lecturer, you have to guide yourself for the homework, the homework quizzes in themself are their own thing, and incredibly standoffish. DONT take class if you're full time student &have priorties outside of school. great example of classic man in stem LOL
The syllabus is a monster & unlike anything I've ever seen here. I felt like he wouldn't explain the methods we were supposed to be using and just did problems non-stop, so that was unhelpful. I always had to get outside help from different studying websites in order to even understand the homework, which did not help much during class.Don't take!!
TAs are much better in teaching than the Pikachu professor. I don't know why he is not fired.
I HATE HIS HOMEWORK QUIZ !!!!!
I have never written a rate my professor review. But holy moly this guy is something else. He grades so harshly it like he's offended that you listened to his lectures. At the beginning of the year, he said he wears the pikachu costume to appear not intimidating....haha.....after this class, I am going to have PTSD towards anything pokemon related.
If he redirected his energy into making better lectures rather than defending himself on r/UCSD maybe he'd have better ratings. His pass rate is alarmingly low and he will blame you for it all, not the horrid grading system, disorganized lectures, or consistent pattern of his TA's teaching better than him. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROF
Peeef of a professor. Living L
Just don't.
The syllabus was actually terrifying. I had high hopes for this professor because he was recommended to me by a lot of people, but it seems something has snapped in him. I wonder if there was some sort of pressure put on him with the recent news about UCSD math testing or something else, but he has made it everyone's problem.
Failing a quiz (which is almost weekly) constitute as a 5 percent deducted to your weighted grade. Constantly late to class. Reads off PowerPoint. Definitely consider other professors.
With all due respect, Professor Jor-El strives to foster fear through his teaching through a 37 page syllabus (I pasted it from Canvas to Docs to measure how long it was) that is filled with caveats in his grading policy. Managing this class with other STEM (Especially Engineering) course load is extremely mentally challenging. Avoid this course.
This professor literally has a strict homework quiz policy. Pass or fail, one question. Get it wrong, 5% off your grade. Ridiculous. Shows up late to every lecture and enjoys "fighting" with students on reddit r/ucsd. Discord as a main source of communication? He wears a Pikachu onesie and never show up on time. 0/5 if I could rate him.
I understand when a course is difficult, but the format of this class is unnecessarily difficult. The syllabus is insanely long for no reason. If you fail the quizzes, you fail the class. It felt demoralizing that even before taking the final, I had lost 5% from each quiz. Do not take this course!
I hate him.I hate him.I hate him.An absolute loathe in the bottom of my soul, & this is coming from someone who has passed every midterm & quiz,threatens to fail bc someone disagreed with his unfair line of action, embodiment of satan, literally sadistic, weird, doesn't know how to teach, I've spent all afternoons watching yt vids & reading txtbook
Questionable idea of having single question 5% worth of your grade if you get it wrong quizzes every week but otherwise he was still hot ass.
I signed up his class after hearing great things about him but they were all lies. His class is sloppy. He frequently shows up late and lecture is incoherent. Class policy is too strict with no room for error. One small mistake and 5% of your grade is gone. He also addresses students with a very condescending manner.
天生魔丸史上rubric和评分最严格，恶心的教授，能跑多远跑多远，一定要上的话希望每天向god祈祷12个小时
first time teaching math18 and it should be his last…literally such a bad professor with the most strict and unforgiving grading. if u mess up on one hw quiz it takes off 5% of your total grade?? he always shows up 10-15 mins late to lecture and doesn't explain anything well, his grading rubrics are way too strict and makes it impossible to do well
i hate him. his course is awful. worst prof ever. i hate him. don't take his class. that onesie smells
Glad to see the people on reddit are finally waking up to realize he is a horrible professor. There is absolutely no reason for a class GPA to be as low as it was for our class (1.33). All the other people giving him good reviews are just comp sci nerds who had him for discrete math, there is no substance to their reviews. Stay away from this prof.
Although Briones has the toughest grading scale ever, that doesn't prevent you from getting an A. His lectures are vivid, and I can tell he is a professor who masters the course content extremely well. You will get clear, constructive, and timely responses in class. Taking his course is stressful, but your abilities will improve tremendously.
TEST HEAVY and HW IS ZERO% of the GRADE and NO PAST PAPER. HW determines the max score of final and penalties from failing pop quiz. LATE everytime. USE POORLY EXPLAINED CONCEPT to explain new definitions, PATHETIC explanation skill. Always fails to finish the truly helpful EXAMPLES. I will bet 10$ that the positive views are fake.
This class was harder than it should have been, but I'm sure professor will curve grades accounting for both the test heavy rubric, and the hw quiz failing.
Lectures were convoluted and overcomplicated things. Quizzes take 5% of your weighted grade per failed quiz, but you can prepare for them by redoing certain questions from the homework. However, midterms are way harder, different from the homework, and have harsh grading. Do not take if you value your GPA and your mental health.
shoutout to Matthew Cho I learned infinitely more in the discussions that I did in lecture because of him goated TA.
Man look at all of you A-kissers in the reddit defending him. Newsflash, I went to office hours and studied, and STILL his midterms are horrible. It is not wrong to say that. Defending a professor that does not care if you fail or pass, meanwhile all of my engineering professors have told me that the goal is for all students to do well. What a joke
Spends time on his ipad watching youtube and pokemon videos, always late to lecture, hmm let's see, spends entirely too much time arguing with students on reddit. Just highly unprofessional and gets off on the fact that he has power to fail students. Stay away from this professor at all costs. I recommend prof. Chou, Bowers, hell even Eggers.
Recently, there has been lots voice about Pikachu. I have seen reddit, his web and many comments on rmf and I can see he was a great prof before. His policy for grading was better, he cared students, but now the situation is totally different. He might have experienced sth and become what he is now, so dont insult him but criticize his policy.
Terrible. Lectures are so confusing it might as well not be in English. He has a horrendous grading policy where he quizzes you on the homework every week and if you get one wrong it's 5% off your CUMULATIVE grade, for each problem you miss. Spends his free time being rude to students on reddit and discord. Don't let his pikachu onesie fool you.
Dr. Briones is an exceptional educator who strives to uphold the high academic integrity standard of our school. Even though he's exhausted from teaching all across campus, he is always energetic and delivers his lecture in an inspirational manner. He dedicatedly guides me through the intricate concepts of linear algebra to become a better student.
Prof gets criticism for his hw and grading policies but they are all outlined in the syllabus beforehand and he makes his testing very transparent. He makes it fair to do well in the course but expect to put in work to pass weekly quiz's and get passing grades. Not my favorite or the most efficient lecturer, but he is straightforward and kind.
This is my first math class here at UCSD and I swear I rather take the AP calc BC exam again for the rest of my life than go to his lectures which he late for every. Single. Day. By the way he has a "professionalism" grade, ironic given he didn't even show up to first midterm and he wears a Pikachu onesie. Harsh grader, avoid at all costs please 🙏
Like most here I had his math 18 class and the best way I can explain his main issue (though far from the only one) here is that his syllabus is needlessly difficult and vague. Everything in it is designed to either punish you for not understanding the material fast enough or vague enough to have you stressing out what material to prioritize.
I wont take his class again 100%.
Where do i start. I took him because he had good ratings. Ofc I had to be nerfed. This is hell. Homework i'm pretty sure is 0% of our grade. He was late to every lecture and complained when students would get up when class ended. The 5% quiz deduction is diabolical. I hope and pray the final is going to be curved.
just dont.
Switched out of 20B thinking 10B would be easier. im sure it is with a different professor. the whole quiz grading policy is just cruel. wish i dropped the class or switched back after reading that long, overly complicated syllabus. avoid at all cost. never felt worse taking a class.. and i thought i was strong in math.
Hes a chud
Man what can I say about this guy. He wears a pikachu onesie to class everyday and is late to every lecture. I have gotten a high B on both midterms, but this guys homework quiz policy might have me end up failing the class. -5% for each homework quiz you fail and if you fail a certain amount you fail the entire course!!!
Professor Briones is nice, don't get me wrong. I just wouldn't take him again to save myself a lot of stress.
please don't take him, he is very rude and started scaring students when the department chair started investigating his class, look on reddit for more detailed reviews, exams are extremely difficult and longer than they should be, always something wrong with exams printing or him being late, class should be worth 12 units at least
Prof Pikachu is a really caring teacher. He's always there to help you if you genuinely want to learn the content. Just make sure you actually study the materials and do the hwk on your own, instead of relying on genAI for help. Exams and quizzes are exactly like what he's teaching. He doesn't deserve the hates!
prof is always late and the tests material were not in lecture or in HW. Spent 2-3 hours on computational problems in the HW when 90% of the test was conceptual. Lectures were overly confusing Fails at preparing students properly. the math dept had to step in and change his rubric and final test. Do not trust the 5 scores, it the prof own review.
Maybe if the professor stopped trying to debate people online via *THAT* website, he would have actually finished grading on time.
This professor has a 37 page long syllabus to scare students. He does too much in general.
most unprofessional prof. had a finals seating chart, for some reason, and we were supposed to take finals at 6th or at WLH, which is a ~12 min walk. didn't released it until 5 minutes before the test. Never knew a prof could be so unprepared for FINALS.
I wish he had made the changes to his grading syllabus at the start of the semester instead at the end less than 24 hours before the final. I overstudied for his class because I legit might have gotten a C if I hadn't studied and instead I get cooked in my other STEM classes
Don't take this class if ur new-ish to calc. Took calc AB (got a 3) and BC (2), so this class was somewhat review, but he is not a good lecturer. Always late, anxiety-prone (postponed MT1 cuz of stress), and wears a Pikachu suit to lecture every day. Changed the syllabus a day before the final and was under investigation by the math dept.
always late, tests were conceptual instead of computational questions. He's very irresponsible and does not deliver lectures well (complicated sentences, which are hard to understand, and are accessible from textbooks). The instructions for making up quizzes were very strict, and he had lots of restrictions on grading and completing assignments.
One time we asked him if we had a homework quiz and he went "I'll airdrop it to you" and never did so we literally found out 1 hour before our discussion so thanks
BEFORE the math department changed his syllabus it was hellish. Quizzes docked grade by 5% for each failed. Had to study incredibly hard to stay ahead of the curve. Lectures are solid, hes not really a bad professor just harsh policy to counter AI but imo went too far. NOW his grading policy is more fair, unsure which grading policy he keeps.
I don't think Prof Briones is a bad professor like everyone is saying. I think he can sometimes explain concepts decently and his syllabus although harsh motivates me to study as hard as possible to fully understand everything that is going on in the class. His slides are slop but his TAs are amazing enough to cover for it.
Be prepared! Originally HW was worth 0% , HW quizzes were brutal weekly occurrences that were pass or fail (a pass does not help your grade, just saves it), and he came to every lecture late dressed in a pikachu onesie. However, he is an excellent and forgiving grader, just study a lot and you will be fine. It won't be fun but it will be rewarding.
Lectures are funny, hard to understand, 10 mins late for every class. His ppt summarizes the key info from the textbook. Test questions are mostly theory-based, similar to "logically completes the text" in SAT. Need logic & long explanations otherwise you won't get full points. Math dept interferes to make sure we survive. Pressure!
I do not recommend taking Math 10B with Professor Briones. Lectures & homework often did not align with midterms, and homework was extremely difficult with little guidance. Office hours and discussion were not helpful, as even the TA struggled with worksheets. This lack of support made the course very frustrating.
never in class on time always spend more time end of class. HW is harder than anything
Pre-syllabus change, he's a 2. Post-syllabus change, he's a 3. You probably know the negatives so let me list the positives: LENIENT exam rubrics (the main reason I got an A+) and helpful exam outlines. I took AP Calc AB, barely scored a 3, and I consider myself a calculus hater. This class only solidified my hate, but you might prob do fine idk.
Do not take his classes
Can pass with hard word. Good lecturer giving time to ask questions and take notes. Tough grader but changed syllabus to be easier. Exams straightforward and based off homework. Homework can be difficult though because it's from the book, he doesn't make them.
Thought he was good. Showed up 20 minutes late to the final exam, though.
Didnt know the location of my final until 10 minutes beforehand. Boring lectures where he just read off of the slides that were to be posted anyways. Midterms were slightly difficult but not unreasonable and final was really easy
Class Info
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31%
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