2.3
Quality3.9
Difficulty32%
Would Retake84
Reviews32%
Would Retake
84
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
84 total ratings5
8
4
11
3
20
2
21
1
24
What Students Say
“DO NOT take photos of her in class, she WILL EXPLODE”
MATH311 - 1.0 rating“she is a good person and a terrible teacher, that's every thing”
MATH311 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
66%
Textbook Required
32%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.26 avg changeRatings by Course
PMAT471
5.0
(1)MATH205
3.7
(3)MATH273
3.3
(3)MATH271
3.2
(5)271
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
MATH213
5.0
MATH221
4.8
MATH311
4.1
271
4.0
PMAT471
4.0
Reviews (83)
She is just plain rude, She copies theorems out of the text book, when asked to do actual problems she either cant do them or she claims she doesn't have time to do them.
This is the rudest prof I have. She makes mistakes all the time and expects us to be perfect when we do our work. If you get her for anything SWITCH OUT.
The worst teacher EVER!! So rude its bothersome, and if you do not copy the textbook answers verbatim on exams, you will NOT pass. Take this from a guy who has bagged A's in 500 level and 600 level stats and Ac Sci classes. Hiring Dr. Seyffarth was a complete and utter act of contempt to the student populace conducted by the university.
Her notes were very organized and easy to follow in comparison to many other teachers. The quizzes were all relatively predictable, and before the midterm and final you were given a list of practice problems. She won't easily give out 100%, but if you could do all the practice problems well then you were guaranteed to get atleast an A-.
If you planned to take this class get your eraser ready. She makes so many mistakes you will end up erasing your notes and rewriting them. She does not know her material. Tests appear easy but she marks hard. She is very fuzzy in what she is going to test you on. Remember your theorem proofs too. They can really affect your grade.
HORRIBLE PROF. switch out if she is assigned to your lecture! online assignments are NOTHING like her exams. Exams are impossible... class average of 32% really reflects how she teaches. Worst prof ever.
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She is the worst teached i had ever had. If you want to pass your math 221, you better pick a different professor. Very rude, tests are hard, class average on the midterm is 33% :(
She is the worst professor I have ever had at the university. Completely unprofessional in dealing with students: ignores people when they raise their hand, was rude to the students and then expected respect from them, singled people out in class. Terrible professor. Make sure you don't take her and if you do have the misfortune, know your proofs!
Honestly, if you want to pass, stay out of her class. I should have listen to the advice given below. Class avg 30%.. Must rely on you textbook, which at the time, was a horrible textbook.
One of the worst professors ever... a midterm average of 32%!! she wouldn't curve it either. Low averages reflect her poor teaching ability.
really bad prof... lectures don't help at all, all you do is just copying down the examples without even knowing what is going on. She is merciless in marking
Originally took this class with seyffarth, withdrew on the last possible day due to extremely low marks and the fact that I knew absolutely nothing, I took this class the next semester with a different Prof and received a B+ with relative ease.
I took this course a few years ago and still remember her as the worst professor I've ever had.
Not a good algebra professor. Cannot answer questions or support her work at all. Also very rude to her students.
Karen...er I mean Dr. Seyffarth is at best, satisfactory teacher. She is extremely rude and condescending to the majority of the class and she found it necessary to call us all idiots after failing the midterm. The only reason I did fairly well is because of the difficulty of the assignments and having to work through and teach myself. Beware.
In class examples were cherry picked directly from the text (word for word, so when you go to confirm theory, surprise! she did all the questions with detailed solutions already),and she wrote endless amounts of notes without ever explaining (as opposed to just 'telling' us). Our class had a midterm average of ~37%, seems typical of her. Avoid.
I've never seen a prof make so many mistakes, so make sure you have tons of white out or a lot or erasers cause you will use them. Very difficult prof class average on midterm was 15/40. I highly recommend taking a profs course before taking her course cause she doesn't teach then and expects you to know them.
Very rude and unhelpful. Avoid if at all possible.
Worst Prof. Ever. She is extremely ****, rude, and useless. Boring lecture due to the fact that she has very little grasp of the materials and makes constant mistakes. She copies all questions exactly from the text book. Abandon Ship.
this prof is the worst prof ever at uni. I had her for math 311. she does not h/ve knowledge of the subject and does not convey it properly. Her avg. midterm was 37%, and her marking is tough and not consistent and accurate. AVOID HER and i hope they kick her out of teaching this class
Definitely find a friend who has done her content before. Worst prof for me and the class averages show it! I didn't want to pay to have the textbook read to me
Taking this course in the srping is better than with this prof...
She is a very hard marker and will take marks off for the smallest things. She told our class not to bother trying to answer the questions if we don't know how to because it's just wasting her time. It's pretty clear that she doesn't enjoy lecturing. Avoid if you can.
One of the worst profs I have ever had. First, she hates lecturing you can see it in the way she talks. very rude once a kid had his laptop open she cam right up to him closed his laptop and went back to lecturing. you might think that talking to her might help but it wont, she is a very hard marker. and the worst part is her exams. be smart drop o
I thought she was great. Her lectures were really clear and the tests were pretty painless. She gives a booklet of over 100 "testable questions". Do all of these during the semester and you'll be fine. She does mark hard, but everyone's in the same boat, so it doesn't affect your letter grade.
I had her for Math 211, and I can honestly give anyone this piece of advice if you have her for your term: DROP HER CLASS NOW!! She has IMHO the worst teaching skills and is very rude when you ask for help. make sure you never have her in your class. :/
WORST PROF EVER! She's so rude. Every time you ask her a question, she tells you not to ask those kind of questions but rather trust her 'coz she's been doing the material for so long.
Cannot lecture. Rude, unapproachable, unwelcoming, brutal marker.
When you ask her a question she doesn't usually answer, and when she does, she's doing you a favour. BORING!
She is extremely rude but she knows her stuff and can teach it well. She posts all her notes online which are very helpful for the assignments. The quizzes are easy and the midterm wasn't too bad.
I have to admit, she is a tad rude and intimidating to approach at times. However, as a teacher, she generally is very knoweledgable and understands the material very well. In terms of communicating with students, she isn't always successful. The textbook plus her notes together are very helpful.
Dr. Seyyfarth may seem intimidating at first, but if you go to her office hours and ask for her help she is more then happy to sit down and work out problems with you. What she teaches in class is exactly what you will see on tests.
She taught me MATH 205 and I thought she was very good. Helpful when needed (office hours) and pretty easy class, got like a 90 something. If your in education and looking for an easy math class 205 from Seyffarth is a good choice. She is a farely difficult marker, but that's if you make mistakes. Stiff about electronics in class, phones, ipod, etc
She is very knowledgeable but not very good at all at extending this knowledge to people who know nothing about this subject. I learned more from the textbook then her lectures.
Good class to sleep in. She only teaches with power point, hardly any examples. And when she does do examples its very scattered and hard to follow. Its a relatively easy course, so its not bad to learn alot of it on your own.
Horrible math teacher, does everything on power point with barely any examples, avoid her if you can, she's absolutely useless
Avoid! She does not explain at all and only reads her notes off her powerpoint slides during lectures. Asking questions is useless, as she never gives a clear answer to help you. This course is not very difficult yet this prof makes it horrible.
I'm surprised by what I see in these other comments. She wasn't rude at all in my class and gave good examples. She also seemed to be very enthusiastic with lecturing. It might be because this is an honours proofs class, and proofs might be her specialty (said she does graph theory stuff). Honours students are probably seen in a brighter light too.
Dr Seyffarth was one of the best profs I had in first year. She was super helpful and not at all rude if you approached her. Her class can be dry but only because the material is dry. She has great examples and notes, so going to class is your best chance at doing good in the class. My class was small so it was much easier to ask questions however.
She knows what she's teaching, and her examples are super helpful, but she's really monotone. Texting and sleeping in class abound.
Took her for MATH211, half way through the Semester I started to go to BOTH her lecture and ANOTHER Professor's lecture. I was going to Math211 5 times a week. I have to say, her monotone voice and methodology of teaching -READING FROM POWER POINTS -clearly PALES IN COMPARISON to 2 other professors. She is nice, but nice is just that.
I honestly don't know why some of the previous reviews are so negative. She's an awesome prof, her teaching style is CRYSTAL clear, and she does plenty of examples to make sure you understand. Skipping class is a sure way to fall behind - go to class, do the assignments and you won't even have to study too much for exams. Overall great prof!
Not very clear. Often loses track and makes mistakes. Potential to be a decent lecturer, but needs to nail down a style of teaching and stick with it. Despite not being a very good teacher she is very kind, and quite approachable, offering help when needed. Just kind of falls behind once in a while. Do all of the homework, and you should be fine.
Karen Seyffarth is a good teacher who has a great understanding of mathematics. Linear Algebra was taught well and was always clear. She definitely got better as the semester went on. Solid teacher, glad to have her again this semester.
Dr. Seyffarth is a great person. She is however, not a good professor. She stumbles and bumbles her way through dry power point presentations. She is clearly a very intelligent woman, but teaching is certainly not her forte. We had a different prof fill in one day. That was the best learning day of 311 I had this semester. She makes math boring :(
Her lectures seemed to drag on and on and this was the case for every single lecture. Her examples are somewhat useless in that they do not provide much help when the time comes to study for a quiz or do an assignment. She also generates plenty of mistakes in class, and confuses herself quite often, resulting in boring and confusing lectures
she is a good person and a terrible teacher, that's every thing.
Her classes: Is prone to confusing herself and erases lots of lines of notes to replace with something she thinks is better. Most examples were from the textbook. Assignments: Her notes give almost no hints to the assignment questions (other lectures examples were similar to the assignment questions). I suggest taking the other lecture.
Prof Seyffarth seems like a really nice person, but she isn't a great teacher. The course was probably the toughest course I've ever taken, but I didn't like her style of simply copying examples she had from her notebook onto the blackboard. She hasn't taught the course in a long time, so I don't want to be to critical, go to Dinh's class instead!!
Really nice person but she's an incredibly picky grader especially considering the tests do not contain multiple choice questions and can be quite tricky. She is also an absolutely terrible teacher, no direction in her lectures (aimlessly giving examples), frequently makes mistakes and struggles to recover from them. TAKE DINH's CLASS INSTEAD !!!
Absolutely terrible. I hate to be blunt, but in this case I have to be. The class midterm average was 35% and majority of us didn't stand a chance. I am going into my fourth year, and was very interested and did very well in math 211 with another prof. But, her class was almost impossible. Lectures are just random examples. No actual teaching done
I thought Dr Seyffarth was very helpful, kind, knowledgable and approachable. I would take another class with her.
People who didn't do well in this class are blaming their own incompetence on the teacher. (However, I would be wary about taking Lin Alg with her.) She stumbles a lot, but is clear and knows what she's talking about. Super helpful. Really nice woman. Easy A+.
Shes a friendly person. A lot of people say shes a bad teacher but shes mostly just picky with her answers and wants you to do things properly. If you're good at doing proofs exactly like told then its fine, but personally i am not so i might try to avoid her. Some students would get visibly frustrated during her lectures which was funny.
Very good prof. Lectures are very productive and well paced. Concepts are taught well and her examples make it clear how to solve the problem. Doesn't put many notes online so either show up to class or borrow someone else's notes. Homework is easy but tedious. The Midterm is an easy A but the Final is pretty tough.
Lectures were pretty clear and straightforward. She seems a little nervous or unsure but she obviously knows what she's talking about. Lots of useful examples in class, though she doesn't have much in the way of online notes. Attendance is definitely mandatory if you're not math oriented. Midterm was fair but the final was very difficult.
Extremely easy class honestly. Understand though that all examples that will be on the midterm will be done in class- so make you sure you go! She writes the textbook herself, and although a lot of the examples are posted on the online textbook, there are a variety that aren't and are only completed in class. You could easily teach yourself math211
Extremely easy class honestly. Understand though that all examples that will be on the midterm will be done in class- so make you sure you go! She writes the textbook herself, and although a lot of the examples are posted on the online textbook, there are a variety that aren't and are only completed in class.
If you've taken a previous course in proofs you might do well in this class. She is the type of person who gets mad if you take photos of her lecture notes or if you address her in email too casually. Everyone I've talked to is struggling and its not due to lack of effort.
Dr. Seyffarth is unable to control the flow of class. We fell two weeks behind class syllabus in the first month and never recovered. Marking was extremely unjustified and she did not make her expectations for tests clear. There was a heavy focus on tests on memorization, not understanding, and steep penalties for informal syntax. Horrible prof.
The course itself is straight forward, material isn't too difficult. However Seyffarth is an extremely harsh marker, she very particular about the way you justify your answers. Note, she doesn't like to answer questions in class, she'd refer to a certain section in the lecture notes instead. DO NOT take photos of her in class, she WILL EXPLODE!
This Professor is going through some major life crises. Very bad person, you will see that by the way she treats her students. She demands respect with out earning it. She makes a lot of mistakes during lectures, laughs about it, and it is not even funny. She looks annoyed when students asks her questions. Average for mt was 24%. mAJ GOT 1 /45.
she does not take into account of what you retain from this class but overwhelms you with theory. Not A FAN
I had her for math 213 which is known to be a very difficult course and I understood that when taking it, but Karen just made the class so much worse, really bad lectures and starts randomly laughing when she makes a mistake which is so annoying, not helpful at all asked her for help once and she laughed and said this was meant to be easy, bad prof
Tough grader especially when it comes to syntax. She expects you to remember dozens of definitions verbatim. Definitely take Discrete Math before taking this class with her, it will help a lot. The only thing you'll learn from the lectures aside from the online notes are minor syntactical errors that students often make.
Do not take Math311 with this prof. She will ruin your life. I am not a lazy student. I studied hard and did a lots of practice questions. But still have to retake the course. She's tests you on definitions and proofs, if they are not word for word how she has them in her notes then you get a zero even though the concept is correct.
The actual content for Math311 is manageable. I went into this course very interested the content but ended up dreading going to lectures towards the end of the semester. This prof is just awful. You can tell she doesn't want to be there. She's a very unfair grader. This class ruined my GPA and now I have to retake it.
Do yourself a favour and avoid taking Math311 with her. She is an extremely unfair grader. The class average for the midterm was less than 50%. This is a class full of second/third year math and physics majors. We're not dumb and know how to study. She basically tests you on how well you can memorize her power point slides. AVOID.
Math 273 is a demanding class, and so is Proffesor Seyfarth. If you are up for a challenge go for this course. If you are taking any course with her though, be sure to contact her outside classes or speak with the TA's. They may help you greatly during the class. I am a computer science mayor and i do not recommend this class if not necessary.
I felt that her notes were quite scattered and that some proofs felt unfinished. Even though she warned us that the class was going to be very fast paced lectures felt rushed to the point of neglecting some topics. In class "assignments" (open book quizzes) were marked very toughly and were hard to finish in the given time. Needed more time tothink
Our midterm grade was less than 50%, hated her. She's a horrible prof, didn't seem like she cared about the students, only marked right if you memorize her definitions down to every single word. The only thing she "provides" are her lecture notes, which are not even that well made. AWFUL.
Ay no, I got my 211 Final tomorrow and I ended up looking at the lectures of other 211 proffs, but I wont pass it. :(
Dr. Seyffarth is an extremely kind professor, and is very open to answering questions in her office hours. Her lectures are clear, and she knows the material (combinatorics and graph theory) extremely well. This was my favourite class this semester.
Karen is a very genuine prof who really cares about her students succeeding and her lecture notes are detailed. That being said, her lectures were not great. Many times she would read off her notes and get lost while doing an example and students would correct her. My friends and I went to Gour's lecture instead (highly recommend)
She's a sweet professor who cares about her students and is great 1:1, but when it comes to class lectures, she has notes that she reads off of, and doesn't explain material too well, rather just does examples in class. The class itself makes you work for it - you need to understand concepts thoroughly for the exams so do your practice questions!!
Seyffarth's probably one of the sweetest professors on campus, but when it comes to lectures, that's no longer relevant. She makes mistakes too often when solving examples and isn't too effective at getting concepts across. It's my understanding that others were able to understand one-on-one, but I wouldn't know. Best bet is probs a lot of practice
Not a great prof. Makes tons of mistakes during lecture and flies through concepts. For some reason she would get very angry when people tried snapping a picture of her slides or were just on their phone. Practice tests completely skipped one area so had to guess on 3-4 questions on the final, and another I studied for HOURS I think had 2 questions
Shes a unique character, but knows what shes doing. If you pay attention during lecture, youll be fine.
Horrible, expects students to know everything after briefly going over the material in a rushed manner. Would not recommend taking her class in the slightest bit. Did not prepare any students for the final hence why many will need to retake this class. Teaching style is almost like she is talking to a group of students who have already taken 211.
Dr. Seyffarth is extremely kind and wants all her students to succeed. She comes to class prepared and is open to taking questions during lecture and in her office hours. Content of the course is very challenging, but she taught it well. Dont blame the prof for the content...
The content was difficult but she explained it well. We didn't need a textbook but I bought one anyways and would recommend doing the same. She's a great teacher, had many examples to walk us through and responded well to student questions. I believe she's one of the best profs to teach 211.
Awful prof one of the worst I have ever had, she rushes through notes and content which is very difficult, doesnt explain herself and is very rude. The tests are nothing compared to what you learn in lectures, very difficult. Would not recommend taking her class.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
66%
Textbook Required
32%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.26 avg changeRatings by Course
PMAT471
5.0
(1)MATH205
3.7
(3)MATH273
3.3
(3)MATH271
3.2
(5)271
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
MATH213
5.0
MATH221
4.8
MATH311
4.1
271
4.0
PMAT471
4.0