1.9
Quality4.3
DifficultyN/A
Would Retake90
ReviewsN/A
Would Retake
90
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
5
4
7
3
14
2
20
1
44
What Students Say
“i have nothing to say”
MATH201 - 1.0 rating“His lectures only serve to further confuse you on whatever material he attempts to cover”
MATH201 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
91%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.03 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH428
5.0
(1)MATH228
5.0
(1)USSYXXXX
4.0
(1)MATH221
3.0
(1)FSSO109
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
MATH428
5.0
MATH328
5.0
MATH201
4.7
MATH224
4.6
MATH223
4.6
Reviews (90)
He basically made the course way too hard for us, made us fail.
No Comments
can't answer his questions cause if say something wrong he bites your head off
this guy CAN'T teach
By far the worst teacher ever: mean, unhelpful, and made the class too hard.
Leitman is awful. He's mean and screws you on tests.
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He is the suck
this little guy right here is a fiesty fellow
pretty good professor, but HUGE A**HOLE
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the first couple of exams were impossible and he expected too much
Excellent lecturer, but very un-personable; also very hard
terribly difficult to reach on a personal level....grades unfairly sometimes
Worst professor I have ever had. Insults students when they ask questions.
Knows his stuff, but the fact that he is evil overshadows that.
he's not nice. at all.
writes impossible tests, unhelpful, leaves you behind if lost, strange fellow
Avoid the drop add hastle - don't take M4 with him. Dunno why he's still here.
unhelpful, likes to see people fail
not very effective in teaching calc 3 material, has energy and you can tell he likes teaching, but he expects WAY more than another prof teaching the same course would, avoid him
He acts as if life itself depends upon mathematics. He thinks that if we don't spend 24 hours a week outside of class on his material, we will not be worthy enough to pass his class.
eratic
He is a sadistic teacher but ironically a very nice person, outside of class. He has a very clear teaching style and a is nice guy but he has a mean streak that is evident that the expected average for exams is 65 and that for most professors is a D.
Alright, don't make this mistake. Wait till next semester and take this course with George Barrick. When I took this class with Leitman, it was the hardest class I ever took. When I dropped it, and took it with Barrick, it was the easiest.
He tends to test the students with unnecessarily difficult problems. Its a nice course if you could follow his lectures. He's a very nice guy in person. Recommended for math majors and people who will take higher level math in the future.
Leitman is a really respectable professor. He might not pamper his students with easy tests and easy quizzes, he does make himself available at all times. His lectures are not clear if you dont read the book, but are utterly fascinating if you do.
not helpful, very hard tests with little preparation, boring lectures and mean
oh god.... drop out before it's too late. he's enthusiastic and tries to teach... but he just CANT. easily the absolute worst professor on campus. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!
Have you ever watch the movie, Rocky? Do you still remember the fifty years old fighter and manger Mickey who trains and manages Rocky Balboa? This prof. looks exactly like Mickey..but worse...sigh....
The tests are pretty hard, but he gives you over half of them two days in advance. The remaining part of the test is almost always theory exercises, so its not too hard. Just know the material well. And the lectures are very helpful, if you just read the section the night before.
Satanic
I don't think he likes teaching.
No Comments
I had him for two semesters. He's a smart man no doubt. He's also the meanest professor ever. If you say something wrong he will make fun of you. Soon, no one responds to his questions. In some ways he is a good teacher and in some ways he is Satan. Avoid if possible.
this guy is no good
I had him for my first SAGES. He basically would talk about cowboy movies for a little while until his wife started doing the actual "teaching" and then he would shut up until he started making fun of the people in his math classes that are really dumb. Useless as an advisor.
I had him for sages freshman year. He was very interested in the subject matter and was excited to teach the class. He was a nice guy outside of class and spent a long time helping me with schedule issues with no complaints. He can be a bit wacky but for sages I thought he was good.
Worst professor I've had at Case. Bad at teaching. We had a substitute one day - it was amazing, we actually learned things. Avoid at all costs.
I had him and his wife for sages. they have problems teaching together, will call on different people at the same time and talk over each other. his wife is nice and knows what she is talking about on the other hand he can be very arrogant and will cut you off midsentence if he doesnt feel your saying anything important.worhtless as an advisor
He is really bad. should retire. stay away. please do not subject yourself. Very high class drop rate, makes fun subject unbearable.
Prof. Leitman expects a lot out of students but you also get a lot out of his class. He took an active interest in student progress in the course and had reat office hours.
He's not the best professor, but he's really animated about the material. He obviously cares about this and he tries to get the students interested in it too. Take advantage of his office hours- he's much better one-on-one than even with the fairly small class.
Leitman is a misunderstood professor. Yes, he is rude to and makes fun of people, but it's exclusively the idiots. He is extremely clear about his wants and expectations, so just follow them. Do the hw in the text (Strang likes to hide important facts in the hw problems). Also, I would pay good money to find out what he stores in his fanny pack.
useless while lecturing and equally useless 1 on 1. he teaches extremely obscure methods that are incomprehensible to me in a completely unorganized fashion. worst professor i have had so far.
Linear algebra is a bit tricky Very easy at the beginning, and suddenly gets complex.I would say it's a bit like computer languages-you have to know enough basic stuff before you can comprehend the interesting part of the subject.I would recommend you to finish Chapter 3 on your own asap.I mean its college, you should study by yourself.Thats the ke
believe it or not, I took my calculus and linear algebra course from this prof forty years ago. Calculus was fine but linear algebra was tough. Not because of him but it is the subject area. I am a full prof in math and engineering.
This class is the biggest struggle and the most difficult class I've ever had - he acts like he's teaching it to a bunch of math professors rather than undergraduate students and makes it so insanely difficult and proofy rather than just teaching it as a good solid intro class
He is r/a/c/i/s/t, and has an anger problem. He does not express his anger in a healthy way. Avoid at all cost.
Had he and his wife for my first sages class. Pay attention, participate, and do the work and you'll be fine. The class is easy and he and Carolyn made the class fun. Both are willing to help you out and seem like they actually care about students. Make an effort to get to know the professor, it helps so much!
Very stoic and expressionless, but he's the complete opposite from his wife whose hilariously talkative. They both teach this class and bicker back and forth for most of it. Not too hard of a class though. As long as you have some understanding of the play and spend a little bit of time on your essays you should be fine.
DON'T take this class. It will be the worst mistake ever. I pride myself on being pretty studious and quite handy at math, but he is literally the worst professor I've every had. His lec.s are vague; he goes off on tangents. The homework takes hours and tests are really hard. Half of my class dropped by the end and test avgs were in the 50's.
Hard to follow, test averages range in the 50s, very strict grader. highly recommended to choose different teacher.
Calc 3 from the textbook made perfect sense to me, however his lectures and tests are terribly confusing. 6 out of the 13 students in my Calc 3 class dropped the course because of the overwhelming difficulty and frustration.
As a SAGES teacher, he was v easy. the lectures are given by both him and his wife, so btwn the stories & squabbles, they end up pretty ok. most of your grade comes from 4-5 longish papers, but so long as you show general improvement you'll end the semester w an A. the seminar is watching movies. so long as you dont hate shakespeare youll be fine
AVOID! I took 324 with Leitman and had to withdraw. I'm now taking 324 with Langer with at least 5 other people who also had to withdraw/retake. HW is assigned but never graded - impossible to know if you're doing it correctly. Don't expect to go over any example problems during lecture. As the other reviewers have said, Leitman is a mean man.
His syllabus was rarely up to date. He would give several due dates for essays and no one was ever sure which was the correct one. He never actually read my essays, put words in my mouth, hated points in essays that weren't generic responses. Basically do not try to think outside of the box with this guy cause you'll get downgraded hard.
I took his SAGES class. If you like Shakespeare, and enjoy writing, go ahead. I didn't love the class, but I did well in it. The lectures get boring, and often go off topic. The coursework is pretty simple, just four papers.
The class was interesting but there was a lot of expected reading, also the grading criteria for the papers was unclear and often I was confused about why I received a certain grade on a paper. He is also a tough grader.
i have nothing to say. don't take his course only if u wanna learn how to draw matrix or u are a genius. the exam is extremely and unfairly difficult. 13 pages per exam in 75 min. normally, we learn a theorem and then we use it to solve problems. but in his exam, we need to use different ways to prove all the theorems. u can never follow him.
worst teacher.
His tests are absolutely unfair. They are 13 pages long and cover material not covered in the lecture. You definitely have to read the book in order to do well on the homework and exams. His lectures are not helpful and merely cover introductory material. Also, the wording he uses is confusing and unhelpful.
His lectures only serve to further confuse you on whatever material he attempts to cover. His teaching in no way prepares you for his tests, which involve material you can only teach yourself from the textbook.
You read a few shakespeare plays, talk about them, & write 4 papers that are about 4-5 pages long. He only likes ideas if he agrees with them. The essay instructions are confusing & vague & he grades randomly without any real feedback. If you go to talk to him, he will just read each line of your essay to you instead of giving a holistic review.
Class averages on tests are extremely low and because he "doesn't believe" in a grading scale, there is no way to tell what your grade is. Also, take-home quizzes are difficult and time consuming and lectures are extremely boring.
Great math class and great professor. He cares about how you're doing in his class, and is helpful during office hours. The homework is long, but he doesn't assign any problems that won't help you understand the material (Read: mindless repetition). Tests are hard, but he gives you 60% of the questions ahead of time. Difficult but rewarding class.
AVOID FSSY112 AT ALL COSTS. He and his wife 'coteach' the course, which just ends up being them bickering about how to run the course. His grading criteria was never clear, and he would up moving the date of final presentations to the next day with no warning. On top of it all, he's my advisor now and just jetted off to Italy for 10 months :(
I failed the first test (my fault), but afterwards, I had a meeting with him to discuss what I did wrong. At the meeting, he called me stupid at least 10 times during the course of an hour. So, I don't know about the other professor that teaches MATH201, but you might be safer there. (Also he consistently lectures past the end of class)
I really have nothing to say. This guy is the worst teacher that I have ever met. Never take his class please. His teaching is too confusing and his pace is too slow. Just think of that, we have been left behind by a whole chapter compared to students in other sessions. The questions in his tests are also weird. Anyway, he is too bad.
I'm just so done with this guy. He's such a terrible professor. His lectures are misleading and confusing. Also, his tests do not reflect the homework problems or the materials he "attempted" to cover in class. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS.
HOPELESS was how I felt this semester. Extremely hard quiz and tests. I couldn't understand his lectures even if I tried to and took notes. He's a good person though, very caring.
Had a take-home quiz, read the book, read more of the book, then khan academy videos, then I consulted fellow students, then I did the quiz. All said and done, five hours in KSL, maybe more. I got a 15% Had to spend an hour of the man lecture me on how what i wrote was gibberish and the answers were obvious. Avoid, even if it means not graduating.
Terrible. Never again.
I went to his office hours and he called me dumb like 10 times. He's also a bad lecturer. His tests contain stuff that is irrelevant. Avoid at all costs.
He didn't post solutions to HW or mock test so to prepare for my exam I used a similar test solution available online by a NYU course. Test day came I followed the same exact step on the NYU mock and got a spectacular 0/6 for the question. This example speaks for itself. Avoid at all cost!
4 hours' hw with 30 problems a week, but 2 points in total. If you make one slight mistake, you get 1/2. 1st quiz average 63, 2nd 48. He requested everyone to meet with him, but very few showed up. No one liked his classes or him at all. Avoid at all costs.
The single worst professor I've ever had. Exam 1 range was 18-95. Average was 44 and median was 46. Exam 2 range was 11-96. Average was 43 and median was 48. He said "exam 2 was poor. I will not be curving it." And that was all his discussion on that exam. He has his own notation of linear so you can't learn on your own or use anything new.
Updates to previous comments: 3rd test average 27. This course's title is introduction to linear algebra but it's end of linear algebra to me.
Terrible professor. His lectures make no sense. His quizzes make no sense. His tests make no sense. Imagine spending 8 hrs on a TAKE HOME quiz and getting less than a 50%. That is your reality when you take Leitman MATH 201. The averages on the tests have been 63, 48, 27. If this isn't indicative of a poor professor, I don't know what is. Good Luck
Single worst professor I've had. Teaches intro to linear algebra like it's a 400 level class. Expects you to know every bit of material top to bottom word for word. Doesnt give answers to any practice tests or HW. I wish I would have dropped this class after the first test instead of being hopefull it could change. Don't make the same mistake as me
Every! Single! Test! I got in the top 25% of class grade. For every! Single! Test! And I got a C for my final grade. Just please dodge this professor like how you dodge a giant cannon ball thrown your way!
Terrible professor, Graded extremely harsh
It is too bad that 1 is the lowest rating that I can give. I would give him a flat 0. Wait for another professor to teach this class. Otherwise, you would feel miserable.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
91%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.03 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH428
5.0
(1)MATH228
5.0
(1)USSYXXXX
4.0
(1)MATH221
3.0
(1)FSSO109
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
MATH428
5.0
MATH328
5.0
MATH201
4.7
MATH224
4.6
MATH223
4.6