2.1
Quality4.2
Difficulty15%
Would Retake104
Reviews15%
Would Retake
104
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
11
4
13
3
8
2
27
1
45
What Students Say
“The quizzes were somewhat tricky and he didn't seem as friendly with partial credit compared to some of the other math teachers I had”
MA112 - 2.0 rating“Good luck on your math labs”
MA112 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
52%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.95 avg changeRatings by Course
MA315
5.0
(1)MA375
5.0
(2)MATH479
4.0
(1)CALCULUSI
4.0
(1)DISCO1
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
DE1
5.0
CRYPTO
5.0
CSSE473
5.0
MATH112
5.0
ma341
5.0
Reviews (104)
He's completely ****. He makes comments about his scrunchies during class. Very stupid. Watch out for his gateway test; it sucks.
This guy was terrible. Definitely can't teach DISCO. He got behind all the profs when I had him and then he was like, well we better speed up things so I can catch up. That's when I said see'ya and dropped the class.
No Comments
He's a pretty good teacher if you can keep up with him. His DISCO classes are proof-intensive. He can be a great guy if you give him a chance.
This man does not believe in partial credit. You can almost fail a test for making a small mistake. All he does is write proofs on the board for the whole class time every day, and he's extremely disorganized. I'm not paying $32K/year to be taught by him.
I have no doubt that he knows the material, but the way it is presented is horrible. I highly recomend against him as a teacher.
I can take DE with him, but anything more than that I'll just drop and wait until the next term to find another prof. He may try, but it just doesn't work.
Man I was enjoying my DISCO with Holden (not really enjoying, but passing) until we got to proofs. This guy then proceded to prove everything else we've ever learned using proofs. Proving the method of probability used as correct isn't helping me use it
You can see it in his eyes that he hates to answer questions. He doesn't care about his students. He even has "nap time" scheduled into his office hours and refuses to help Wednesdays.
Holden is one of the worst professors i have ever had. He does not teach, and is not willing to help students one on one at all.
He isn't a bad prof, he just doesn't do many (if any) example problems during class. He just gives general situations with variables which I find difficult to follow. He seems like he would be kinda helpful if you asked for help though.
This guy is a real jerk. He cant teach either.
Good class.
This class was really awsome - although insanely hard. I've had holden before for DISCO I. Holden should not be allowed to teach basic (aka lower level) math classes. He's way too proof and theoritcally based in his mind and his teaching. This worked ou
Wow, he sucks as a professor. He expected everyone to already know calculus in his this calc 1 class and never taught anything. He writes on the board the whole time and doesn't explain anything. Avoid him at all costs. Everyone I've talked to hates him.
hatred
What's with the scrunchy that matches his shirt everyday?
Holden is an excellent professor who is very approachable if you ever need help. I've found his lectures to be very interesting and clear. He will go over any homework problems you need help on.
His grading on tests is a ****, he gives hard quizes
decent guy, but his teching style sucks. Not the worst prof at the school, but FAR from being anywhere near the best.
Not sure what all the negative comments here are about -- I think my fellow students are just weak. Holden's Disco II class was great; although I often felt overwhelmed in class it was always possible to get back with his help and my notes. Awesome at pure math, which is really all that matters :)
He prepares for class every day, is very helpful one-on-one and takes any questions you have in class seriously.
I was very disappointed in the quality of his teaching and his teaching style. I think even I could do better.
I hate this man with all my heart.
Worst professor ever! Do not take a class from him! He does not explain things well, yet he proceeds to give ridiculously difficult tests. Then, when a couple of us actually did well, he curved the scores down! what!?! He's just a horrible person and shoul
not that bad of prof
I think he wins for being the worst prof i have ever had to experience in my whole entire life. If you want to keep your sanity run away!!!!!
Uses Maple a ton, but doesn't always explain it too well. Very interactive in class though and very friendly and available in the office.
I had already taken this class but they would not accept my credit. I got an A the first time, and Holden gave me a C+. He is very stubborn with his grading and is not consistent (sometimes work is worth more than right answer, other times visa versa). Somewhat erratic.
Avoid this man like the plague. His class was ridiculous. As the poster below me says, his tests are ridiculously hard (and he doesn't care. He honestly thinks its our fault for the terrible performance on tests. Class average was in the 40s, FORTIES!, for tests. No curve. He had no problem with it. And i took calc II previously). AVOID HIM!
this man is the goofiest teacher i've ever had...if you value your grades stay away from him and don't ever take a class with him
Worst teacher! I wanted to cry like everyday! He doesn't teach he just shows you what Maple said about the problem then assumes you understand. We had a sub one day and it was amazing to actually be TAUGHT for a change. Avoid his class like your life depends on it!!!
I thought he was a good prof. Helpful nice guy, used good examples
Not impressed with this professor. I got a B by teaching myself from the book but his lectures were reliability useless. The contrast between the teaching skill this professor and Dr. Holder who subbed for a class could not be clearer.
Cross listed with MA473. Most worthless prof. ever. I wouldn't take him again if you paid me. He assigned hw due the day of the final, which is pointless, and got angry and frustrated when asked to work examples in class, then would assign it as hw instead of finishing it (after not explaining).
He moves VERY fast, teaching off slides. I found it difficult to keep up with him often having gaps in my notes. He was also very hard to learn from. He did not seem to teach in a very clear way. On the positive side, he was willing to do examples for us and help outside of class. Overall I would recommend avoiding Holden.
The quizzes were somewhat tricky and he didn't seem as friendly with partial credit compared to some of the other math teachers I had. To be honest, I couldn't really learn well with his learning style and had to mostly self-learn everything.
I don't know why everybody else hated Holden, but I thought he was pretty funny, and really helped a lot when I had problems on assignments. He also uses a curve on his tests, which more Rose profs really need to do.
I really like Dr. Holden. You can tell that he really enjoys teaching and I definitely learned a lot. He lets students take notes on tablets on powerpoint-like slides that he presents during class, which I did end up liking. His tests were not too bad if you studied. I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews.
Dr. Holden is very passionate about teaching his students. He loves math and shows that to his students. I enjoyed having him as a professor, but you have to put the work in to get a good grade.
I've taken calc 3 with him and it was the hardest class I've ever taken at rose. He is willing to work with you, but will only answer the exact question asked. He doesn't elaborate and uses tablet notes which are terrible. I would advise not taking any of his classes.
Dr. Holden is overall a very good professor. He is always available and very helpful in his office hours. He is even willing to help with issues outside of the course or in another course. All of his notes are online using DyKnow, and he's big on Maple and Moodle, so if you don't like a technology-based learning environment, don't take his class.
Rushes through things in class, only uses DyKnow and Maple to explain. His test were horrible due to the fact they weren't anything like the homework or the problems we did in class. Would not recommend him.
Holden used DyKnow and Maple a lot for lecture, and I didn't like it. He went through things really quickly. He does whatever he can to help you, but he isn't very effective in office hours. I would not recommend.
Notes were taken on tablets, which is nice because you don't need a notebook but you also don't learn as deeply in class so if you can't handle learning outside of class then don't take his class. He will help you if you ask, even through email. He has labs for MA113 while other professors don't. They help you learn but it's still lost class time
I thought Dr. Holden was very fair and not a terribly tough professor. He was more than willing to help any student. If there were lots of questions in a lecture he'd slow down for us. But for the most part he speeds through notes with few and poor notes. His tests are straight forward, no tricks but not easy. Felt extremely prepared for the final
If you're not already good at math, I wouldn't recommend taking a class with Holden. However, he is very good at helping if you go to his office or shoot him an email. He's very laid back (he'll even let you call him Josh). There was always a bonus question on his test, but don't expect extra credit for anything.
Go through notes too fast. Dyknow isn't the best for a math class. Also loves to "check" maple to prove something but doesn't ever show clear work. Most of the time have no clue what to expect on the tests cause the hw is no where near related to the tests . If you get him good luck.
His hand writing is horrible and it's almost impossible to learn. He's really smart, practically a genius, and he's really friendly. But when it comes to teaching, he goes far too fast and doesn't do things in an not understandable way.
Gimmicky. We do things such as "Mind Dump Monday" and listen to his "Tell me Tuesday". These do not help with comprehension of calculus, or anything at all. DyKnow is disengaging; it creates a barrier between him and his students. Not very good at explaining things in class. Often takes a very long time to grade assignments. Not a good teacher.
He is a little bit different than most professors. His lectures are very fast paced, but he likes to use a ton of visuals which made material easy to learn. His exams were difficult because they required a good understanding of the material. If you can do the homework problems without any help then you can get an A on the exam. Very picky grader.
Dr. Holden is a good professor. His teaching style is slightly unorthodox because students take notes on a tablet and do things such as mind-dump mondays and tell me tuesdays. However, he does these things so students can succeed and feel comfortable in his class. His tests are relatively straightforward with a few difficult questions.
Dr. Holden is a really good professor. Calc 2 was described to me as being the hardest class you take freshmen year but I actually enjoyed it with Holden. Projects are challenging but do-able. Tests can be challenging but not impossible. He is friendly and willing to help with questions. I learned a lot in his class and was prepared for the final.
I had Dr. Holden for Calc 3, and while the subject material wasn't terribly difficult, I thought he made it confusing. I found it difficult to nearly impossible to follow along with the notes through DyKnow, and I didn't think the labs helped me absorb the material any more than regular homework would have. He was friendly though
Avoid his theory of computation at all cost. It took a long time for him to grade your homework and quiz so that I didn't know whether my answer was correct before exams. So, I made the same mistake in the exam and lost half points of that question.
Had him for MA375 and the lectures were pretty solid. He used something called DyKnow which is weird and complicated at first but after you get used to it its pretty useful and interactive. HW can be pretty hard sometimes but he's always willing to help and tests arent that bad if you understand the hw.
Dyknow was used very poorly and created an unhealthy learning environment.
Goes through notes way too fast, every example has something to do with maple and he doesn't explain what he did in maple to get it. Uses a program called DyKnow it can be troublesome and the tablets used in class can randomly shut down which you lose your notes. Doesn't work through examples just shows you maple and moves on.
Holden is a very good person. If you ask for something you're likely to get it. But under no circumstances should you opt to take this class. He uses DyKnow and forces you to take notes on Surface Pros. He's not a good teacher and expects you to know things he hardly teaches.
Holden was one of the WORST profs I've ever had. Not only did he grade with an iron fist, he also showed a general lack of ability to communicate the material in an effective way. Additionally, when I approached him for help I was told to "study more" because clearly I had never thought to try that. If you have can take someone else, do it.
Marginally average is the best way I can put this. He does seem interested in the content and helping students learn, but on the same page he doesn't hold very many office hours and it sometimes takes him three weeks to grade exams.
Despite what a lot of students say about Dr. Holden, I have had a diverse range of Rose math profs and thought Dr. Holden was one of the best. His guided notes make following lecture easy and allow for easy reference when studying outside of class. His lectures are engaging and he offers plenty of redemption opportunities
Dr. Holden is smart and knows the material very well.
Does not give specific grading requirements on tests
Such a classic man. He is passionate about disco and his lectures are fun and engaging. He is so nice and will help you as much as you need. If you fail, it is you're fault. Do NOT take him for calc 2 though. He teaches that class in a very unconventional way that does not really work. But for all other classes, try to get him.
I wouldn't take this class for calculus. His lectures are more confusing than helpful, he takes forever to grade anything, and overall he is not that helpful, even if you attend his office hours. Congratulations if you have survived this class with higher than a C
His lectures are very confusing and repetitive. He is a very tough grader and takes until the last day to grade. He gives a lot of extra credit which is needed for how challenging he is. He is very accessible outside of class but his accosting demeanor makes it challenging to go and want his help. Would not recommend to anybody.
Was normally available for office hours. Very confusing lectures that are not detailed and are hard to follow - he uses large packets for every lecture. Not very good at explaining things. Takes a while to grade labs and quizzes. Not a consistent grader. Overall, had a very bad experience and almost ended up having to retake the class.
Notes are extremely difficult to follow. Youll have better luck trying to break codes
Super tough grader. Lectures are not helpful to prepare you for the exams/quizzes. Prepare to learn by yourself. If you expect an B or higher, avoid him. The exams are very time constraint. The super hard exams will account for 56% of the grade, while tricky quizzes will be around 15%. He will assign long homework on Tuesday but due on Wednesday
After homework 8 is due in the 9th week, he finally graded homework 3. The grading is super tough, the exam average is about 60. What he taught during lecture just does not make any sense. Prepare for learning on YouTube by yourself! Also, prepare for those hard questions in weekly quizzes.
He seems like a nice guy and he is very patient, but the online structure is really bad. Very few examples were given and most lectures described proofs and theory, rather than application. Very little learning happened in this course.
If you wish to tank your grade, take Dr. Holden's CSSE474. Without **ANY** focus on application for an CSSE course. For exams, no points given for correct/almost correct steps. If you got just a single step wrong, you lost the entire score on that question.
Lots of homework given almost right before the due date. Lectures were unclear and hard to follow. He took forever to grade stuff (quizzes and homework) so you have no idea whether you got them wrong or not
I would not reccomend taking him if you want grades back at a reasonable time. Homework is okay. but his labs were awful. They were a lot of work and he graded them extremely hard. His quizzes are somewhat based off of homework but are more trick question type of questions. He is in his office during office hours but seems somewhat unapproachable.
(the math course is not listed: this should be engineering stats) AVOID THIS TEACHER LIKE THE PLAGUE. absolutely horrible lecturer, grader, teacher. Going into every test, quiz, homework, and lab, you will literally have no clue what he is wanting, even if you know what's going on, he will mark you off for something he has literally never taught.
His tests are extremely hard and for what?. Has cute cats tho. Class average on the last test was a 57%.
I'll rather jump off the Academic Buildings then take a class hosted by this man again. Loads of homework, vague lectures, and tough grader. Would usually upload homework the day that it's due.
Terrible, he is a tough grader and gives back graded work extremely late. His lectures are confusing with terrible handwriting.
Very unclear in lecture and made lots of mistakes in lecture. Assigned homework that nobody in the class could do and about half the class dropped the class. He was about a month late in grading so nobody knew their grade. Super harsh grader (no partial credit on incorrect work) and extremely unclear and harsh grading projects.
Avoid at all costs. Even if you work your butt off, he will still find ways to mark you down and getting an A is almost impossible. I went into the online final with a solid A, but he gave me a 40% on one part of the final even though I spent hours on it because he takes points off for the most ridiculous things.
If you get him, drop the class and take it next quarter. He teaches Calc 2 starting from sequences and series and assumes students know some concepts that are on the test. He doesn't make his grading criteria clear and although he is welcoming during his office hours, he is not helpful.
He is teaching the class in a very weird way, the whole class seems to struggle and be overwhelmed on the tests and quizzes, but if your grade is struggling he will help you bring it up and gives lots of opportunities to do so. Difficult class but definitely passable.
Genuinely the worst teacher/prof I've ever had. Seeing his face in class ruined my day. If I have to take a class taught by him again I would consider dropping out of school. Very tough grader, I've taken Calc 2 before, understood what was going on and did very well, but was only able to manage a C+. Final is 25% while remaining exams are 36%.
It was a very difficult class and was very intimidating at the start of the quarter. As the quarter went on he gave many opportunities to improve grades and get extra help when needed. Lots of work but definitely possible to succeed.
Dr Holden expects students to catch his mistakes for him. If you don't, you might get points off. If a question looks impossible, it probably is. Don't assume you misunderstood it, even thought they are often vaguely worded. He "apologizes" for these mistakes, but hasn't gotten better at proofreading his exams and quizzes. Study and memorize hard.
The highlight of this quarter was when Dr. Holden penalized students for an error that he made on a quiz problem. When a student asked about the typo, he said something along the lines of "when you're out in the real world, your boss will make mistakes, and you will have to find those mistakes." Truly one of the moments of all time.
Terrible teacher, the course is almost entirely self taught. Don't ask him for help because you won't get it. It will be necessary to utilize the learning center. Don't do it.
He won't teach you. In this class you teach yourself. Hw assignments are always on topic we haven't learned yet. He is a harsh grader. He makes it seem like it should be a very comfortable environment to ask questions, and yet no one in his class asks questions because he has an unbelievable talent for making you feel stupid for asking a question.
In class, the numbers twist and twine, his voice, a drone, steals all the time. Equations dance, but my mind's in flight, Math's a maze, and he dims the light. P.s. Good luck on your math labs.
(MA276) Josh is a great guy and is very resourceful in helping students to understand the material during office hours. He makes his lectures interactive with frequent oral questions and "concept questions" where the class submits an MCQ answer online and we discuss it, but the grading is insanely slow and the content of the course is really hard.
Dr. Holden's teaching style didn't really work for me, it was a lot of going over practice problems and examples and not really understanding the material. Homeworks stepped up the game on the easy practice problems we had in class and were very hard to do without getting help from others. gives a lot of extra credit opportunities- you will need em
All I have to say is good luck.
You are forced against your will to wear a mask, even those who suffer from asthma. Don't expect to receive any grades for your assignments, quizzes, or tests, until weeks or sometimes months after the due date. The next quarter has already begun and I'm still getting grade notifications from things we completed halfway through the quarter.
Professor Holden is a very kind person and does his best to help his students to understand the material. Never the less I walked out of that room to many times not having any idea what was going on and ended up having to teach myself the material. everything moves so fast and once your behind you don't even know what questions to ask.
Dr. Holden is a genuinely nice person, but I felt like the class was unnecessarily hard, and his lectures were often difficult to follow. His test were very difficult, but he gave quite a bit of extra credit at least. It felt like he didn't understand that MA112 could be a difficult subject for us. I would still give him another chance though.
Saying that this guy grades harshly is a light way of putting it—if your work isn't the way he imagined it, you would just get a zero, no partial credits. He would even take points off despite the rubric. Weekly assignments combined with labs/projects take over 20 hrs/week. Spent more time for this class than my other classes combined—still failed.
Homework: 6-12 hr/wk Projects/Labs 7-15 hr/wk 1+ months to return feedback (Got project grades after the course ended) Unaware of the concept of partial credit and instead grades like he was freshly divorced or some shit At least he is a nice person but truly he should never teach anyone More work than CSSE304, -10/10 would rather drown in my tears
Honestly, its pretty infuriating reading all the stuff about Dr. Holden over here. To be really simple, if you wanna learn something and make sure that the prof actually cares that you are learning, take a class with Dr. Holden. You wont regret it! 2 HWs a week with roughly 5-6 questions each. Really easy exams + note packets are helpful.
Going into week 8 he hadn't graded 75% of the total amount of homework assigned and our overall grade in the class is worth 50%. When I asked he hadn't even started grading some of our homework from week 2. Also still mandates masks.
Had specs grading this quarter. Has said on numerous occasions that he stops reading students solutions once they are wrong. There are "revisions" on topics but if you are a bit off, you fail the topic. Homework's are often posted last minute. Needs constant reminders about accommodations. Lack of feedback. Example problems are obscure and useless.
Holden is a nice person but his class was a nightmare I could never wake up from. Notes were example after example with little to no explanation on how to do anything; it felt like we had to teach ourselves. Grades insanely slow, the quarter is over and he is still grading stuff. He did offer a lot of extra credit which is essential to save grades.
Would start new notes 5 minutes before class ends. References in the notes are just crazy stupid for no reason and will often call back to a question you did on a notes packet days ago and stall class until someone answers his wack questions. Holden was a living nightmare, nice guy just hell of a class. Would take if you hate yourself
I mean, he's a good professor, but his grading style is a bit strange.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
52%
Textbook Required
33%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.95 avg changeRatings by Course
MA315
5.0
(1)MA375
5.0
(2)MATH479
4.0
(1)CALCULUSI
4.0
(1)DISCO1
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
DE1
5.0
CRYPTO
5.0
CSSE473
5.0
MATH112
5.0
ma341
5.0