3.3
Quality3.5
Difficulty50%
Would Retake121
Reviews50%
Would Retake
121
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
53
4
12
3
8
2
9
1
39
What Students Say
“His final exam was also extremely hard”
MATH300 - 3.0 rating“Notes are illegible and he never finishes his examples”
MATH115 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
36%
Textbook Required
7%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.29 avg changeRatings by Course
134DDD
5.0
(1)MATH336
5.0
(1)MATH144
4.7
(7)MATH134
4.7
(6)MATH334
4.3
(6)Difficulty by Course
MATH115
4.5
MATH146
4.3
MATH336
4.0
MATH337
3.9
MATH300
3.8
Reviews (121)
Very generous with his time. He truly cares about his students understanding the material. Keeps his promise to make sure that if you want to learn the material, you will. Notes are supplied online, and he provides plenty of practice and has lots of optional problems if you are looking to be challenged. Excellent, practical teaching.
Best prof I've ever Had, he cares about his students and is very helpful. Sometimes he gets excited and goes to fast but nobody is perfect.
Really great professor! Very generous with his time outside class, really seems to care about students getting the material. Runs an interactive class, goes back when nescessary, so less time spent guessing at the material. I found his explanations extremely clear. All in all, 5/5.
Very passionate about the course and is legitimately excited to teach it. The course is quite difficult but he genuinely cares about his students and goes above and beyond when it comes to helping them.
awesome teacher. he will ask question for everyone in the class, in case you understand the course. for Math 300, there is no other prof better than him. Good luck
Best Ever. I have never had such a helpful and enthusiastic math professor. Always available for office hours and very helpful. True to his word, he made me love math.
He was very enthusiastic and good at explaining things. He requires class participation and will ask you to solve problems in class and not move on until everyone understands. Makes sure to explain every concept in detail. He wasted a lot of time on easy stuff though and had to rush through the difficult material. Tests were fair. would recommend
he iiiissss amazing totally in love him the best prof hands down.
Really good prof who explains the material clearly. He likes answering questions though he occasionally got testy when it became clear students had forgotten everything over the weekend. He gives 2 midterms. 1st is easy, 2nd is hard and final is average. He marks rather inconsistently, giving almost random grades for incorrect answers.
Best prof ever cares a ton for his students
He knows what he's talking about when teaching, but doesn't test what he taught. Along with not giving any reference for what the tests would be he also favors certain students, and they can +30% when being graded, while anyone he doesn't know or like will get no bonus or even lose potential points.
Very subjective grader. Definitely try to participate in class if you want to have lenient marking on your papers. Midterm was quite easy but the final exam was much harder than the questions covered in lectures and assignments.
In office hours, Dr. Niksirat is very good at explaining, however in class he skips over very important steps to solve problems. In addition, his homework assignments were ridiculous, taking about 8 hours per assignment. His final exam was also extremely hard. Watch out.
In class he doesn't highlight important steps or concepts and only shows trivial examples, leaving you confused for the assignments. The assignments are extremely long (10 hours) and he doesn't give proper feedback. He takes forever to return assignments and all you get is a check and a random mark out of 50. The tests are very hard.
Worst prof at u of a. Get ready to suck up because this guy grades you by the name on the test, not by what you did. I went to all his office hours and asked questions and on Midterm questions I got 10/10 ( even though I made minor errors) where my friend (who Mohammad didn't know) made the EXACT same errors and got 3/10. Unfair rude and useless.
I got an A without going to any of his lectures. I went 2 times. They're horrible. He has an accent and his handwriting is crooked. I mean, I couldn't understand a word. I don't like everything about this guy.
Bases your mark off of how well he knows you. Tests hardly reflect the concepts learned, and the assignments are beyond long.
Definitely not taking his course. He marks you depending on ur name. He sometimes is very rude and offended. He always says I am here for helping you, but his notes is disorganized, and he always tells students to drop course if they missed one lecture. If I could get full refund, I would definitely drop the course for 100% sure. The worst pro ever
If you skip class you will NOT pass! He doesn't upload any lecture notes and you have to write fast or else you won't get them all down. He has an accent but it's not that bad. The midterm and final are made by him so DO NOT go over the worksheets! Only review what you've done in his class! He doesn't teach a lot of the material on the worksheets.
Good luck learning anything from this guy. He explains things in a very strange way and leaves you confused. He talks and writes things down so fast that it's hard to keep up. He is behind other professors and doesn't teach you what you need to know for assignments in a timely manner, leaving you confused. His exams are also difficult. Watch out.
He's very enthusiastic with students and tries hard to engage others in solving problems along with him. Invites students up to the board to demonstrate their learning and is very cheerful in class. He would repeat the steps if you don't understand it. Exams are fair, they come in parallel with his lectures. Lecture is super entertaining to attend!
The funniest and most genuine professor, he truly cares for his students, and wants them to understand the topics.
I believe that he genuinely cares about his students. His lectures are more of performance then anything. With that being said, you won't learn much from him. The pace of his lectures will have you racing to write down his notes, with him constantly saying how easy everything is. be ready to teach yourself. (Midterm average was 51% in my class.)
His class is horribly disorganized, he followed the syllabus for about 2 weeks then completely ignored multiple aspects of it(assignment schedule, practice questions, posting notes on eclass), he claims to be open to helping you but is often rude to those who ask for help and also doesn't respond to emails.
While he seemed caring, he was not a good professor. He would not post anything on e-class, and did not follow the syllabus. Assignments were full of questions we had not and did not cover, and he was hard to follow. He would become frustrated when someone asked a question, even though he encouraged questions. Exams were difficult, examples easy.
Lecture notes were not in good structure but he was always willing to help during office hours. Easy homework and midterms but final was hard, for small class like 381 he would curve the mark so that everyone was happy. The matlab part in 381 was really helpful for future purpose.
This professor is not accommodating to students and does not seem to care whether they pass. Often tests heavily on concepts not covered in class or things he covered for a few minutes in a single lecture. Notes are illegible and he never finishes his examples. If you ask him a question he will say this is easy, you should know this. Very rude.
Mohammad seems like he's passionate about math and his students, and while that's nice, he's not good at teaching it. His examples are very simple, but his tests are very hard and often include subjects he's never covered in lecture. He also does not give outlines: Tests are simply on "Everything", so good luck figuring out what to study.
He goes over concepts so quickly I found myself scrambling to get everything down. Assignments don't really correlate to what we learn in class. But i guess that didnt matter since the final and midterm were 60% and 25%. Go over in class examples to study. The exams were fair. Just very fast and rude in office hours. I didn't like him much.
You get an extra 5% for just participating in class! He slowed down the class quite a lot to review material you've seen in first year. He gave enough examples in class and did the proofs for you to prove again on the assignments. I found that he was really nice during office hours. Just make sure you pay attention in class or he'll call you out.
If you like learning through examples only then take his class, however show up as much as you can because notes aren't posted online. He comes up with the examples on the spot and his writing can be hard to read. He does post practice if you ask for it. It'd be best to communicate with him through email. He isn't well prepared for the class.
Terrible. Exams were ridiculously hard. Mostly based on topics that he barely covered or just talked about briefly. Midterm was multiple choice but he decided to mark any work you did on the exam afterwards because the average was so low. Even after he added those marks, average was still 50%. If you have an option, don't take his course.
This prof sucks. He is so lazy that he made the tests MCQs and if you don't shade the grid properly, you lose 3 marks for the question. He doesn't give any notes and do not upload any. Thank God there was a TA who noticed and gave us his notes. You are not going to learn much from him.
This prof is so funny. He gives you practice finals without solutions. So you are supposed to know things that you don't know. :D Did I just waste an entire semester on this prof? Yes Do I regret it? Terribly What am I gonna do? Prepare to fail :)
I Laughed when i saw that he was rated at 2.8 here. He is the worst prof that you will every meet in ualberta. His accent is absolutely trash but faintly understandable. His hand writing is also bad plus he goes really fast. There are absolutely no notes what so ever. Exams are insanely hard. His class always have the lowest GPA among others.
Professor Niksirat is a fantastic speaker, with engaging lectures. However, he does change up web assign questions after having put them out, so don't start on the homework too early. His fantastic instruction has to be balanced out by his exceptionally challenging exams, so take that into consideration.
I'm shocked that his rating is 2.8 with his reputation. I took this 2 semesters ago and it was some of the worst instruction I've ever had. He didn't follow the syllabus, didn't post his (confusing) notes, gave practice finals without answers, and his midterm was 100% MC for a integral calculus class. Final was brutal, class average was GPA was 1.8
If you have a very strong math background , take his course! This professor won't care about details too much, but he will very care about the "math mechanism" . If he think you know the mechanism, then he will give you a good mark. At least for me it's like this. I really know something about Hilbert space, and ellptic operator after this class.
the worst ever.
BEST! B E S T! THE BEST PROFESSOR HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
HE IS ONE OF THE GREATEST PROF IN UOFA. Take his class if you can, you will not regret. It is almost like a key to success.
His lectures were interesting and he did tons of examples in class. He'd always ask if we needed more examples on a topic and would do as many as the class needed. Be prepared for him to ask random people in the class for answers. (but towards the end he started asking us if we were comfortable to answer and if not he would ask someone else.)
Was hesitant at first to take him because of his low rating. Thankfully I ignored them, and I couldn't have made a better decision. He will prepare you for the exam like no other professor. Cares about his students, always asks if something is clear, and asks if we need more examples. Sure he has an accent, but it is very easy to understand.
Worst prof Ive ever had, lectures are really unorganized and the notes dont help at all for the assignments
Usually, I don't comment but I am making an exception here. Yes, I am a science kid but this man gave me my lowest mark I have gotten in university in three years (for context, I got an A in 114). Our class average was a 1.9, enough said. Avoid!
Honestly my favourite professor. He's incredibly enthusiastic and you can tell he really cares about everyone's learning. He'll ask if you want more examples or to move on. He may go a little fast but you can ask him to go over it. He's also very helpful during office hours and will even help you with your crowdmark and webassign assignments.
Professor Niksirat is the worst prof I've had at U of A by far. He doesn't answer emails unless it directly relates to assignments. No flexibility whatsoever for assignments or quizzes. Deathly ill on the day of a quiz? Too bad. Super unclear accent as well, very hard to understand. Definitely knows his stuff but shouldn't be teaching. Awful.
Worst professor ever. Aside from his stuttering and lack of explanation in lecture, he gives terrible notes which aren't posted till after the lecture time, extremely difficult weekly assignments and quizzes that are unbearably brutal. He does not answer student emails regarding their concerns about the course. Terrible. Do not take his class!
Judging by the rest of the comments, he's probably a better prof for higher math classes. He really cares about his students, you can work around his accent but his organization is terrible. Assignments would have entire crucial parts of questions missing. Online assignments and quizzes are through eclass which auto-marks very badly.
I had a really great experience with Professor Niksirat this semester! His learning style is very example-based, which definitely helps on assignments, and he's been incredibly compassionate towards students in his lectures. He encourages asking questions when you don't understand, and just created a really caring, safe environment in his classroom
The prof cares for students, ready to help.
Prof. Niksirat was the best prof I have had ever at the university. His teaching is exemplary, based on solving examples...
Great Prof! He cares about all students.
Niksirat really cares about his students' understanding. His teaching style includes asking students questions. This is fantastic and makes his lectures less like a lecture and more like a conversation. Trouble understanding something? TELL HIM. He has an accent, but easy to understand. His MATH337 lectures were based on his free online textbook.
Friendly and hilarious Prof who is passionate about math.
His exams are very fair and straightforward since he is very clear on what material/examples are important. Don't be shy with questions, because he will always be happy to answer them. He is a great choice, especially if you're taking this in the spring/summer semester!!
Great Prof! The best prof. I have ever had in math.
Really awful prof. His notes are impossible to follow and from talking with classmates, they're really only comprehensible for those who really study pure maths. Good luck, fellow physics majors! Lectures are difficult to follow, at best, he's often yelling incomprehensibly. What a mess of a prof.
A professor that cares about the educational experience. Answers all questions no matter how long it takes. Was extremely flexible with deadlines. Wrote a textbook on the subject that is free (The text is useful too). I wish there were more profs like him. A golden standard for sure.
Always responded to my emails, which was helpful. During the lecture, he just went through examples, but I think that's normal in the U of A math department (from what I've heard). We had pre-class quizzes before every lecture, a multiple choice and a written assessment for each week, so workload was not bad at all.
Professor Niksirat is an amazing prof! He does have an accent but he cares a lot about the students. He offers a lot of part marks as well, as long as you provide enough work and show the method. He is more about the method than the answer. In his lecture, he answers EVERY SINGLE QUESTION, no matter if its a silly question. Overall a very good prof
Dr. Niksirat was a pretty solid professor; he really wants you to succeed. A word of advice though, he does not teach you everything you need to know in class. Do the practice questions, watch Youtube videos. I found the final was much harder than the class questions we did, though he said it would be easy. I had an 80 in the class before the final
He's an excellent proffesor, gives back great feedback, helps clear all doubts, gives straight and simple questions. He is an easy grader and on top of that, he cares for the students and will give extensions on assignments easily. Clearly states the objective of the class and is a great person to be with.
Niksirat is a good choice for Math134, he covers all the topics with great understanding and will not hesitate to give more examples during class time if the class asks for them. He will sometimes unintentionally make the whole class laugh with his mannerisms. He will definitely prepare you well for the final exam/quizzes/assignments. Justice!
He likes to make sure that everybody absolutely understands the topics that we're going over and always does lots of helpful reviews. He is very passionate about math and you can definitely tell by the way he gives his lectures. Never a dull moment in his classes and he makes math super engaging and digestible.
I never missed his class since I find him fun and enjoyable in class. He's great at explaining the topics and always shows some applications. His examples in class and assignments are representative of the exams. Flexible with deadlines and very "honest" and accommodating in office hours.
Prof Niksirat really wants everyone to do well! Lectures were good and engaging. The course was not too hard just a lot of work - exams + final project+ final presentation + assignments. Very hard grader though!
He really cares for the students both in and outside of class. Would always make sure if we'd thoroughly understand the idea and concepts. Tough exams though, and assignments are really long and tedious, sometimes impossible to solve within the time frame, but incredibly rewarding. However, he was very understanding with the extensions.
His notes are hard to see becasue of his handwriting style when using projectors with blank papers to teach. He didn't provide you with any other resources for preview or review and forgot to upload notes in class. He tried to engage us in every lecture, but it'll be annoying, and weird Matlab codes are required to do some meaningless assignments.
He cares about all his students, and his lecture was fun, but usually hard to follow because his logic is high-speed. He gives examples in lectures, which are useful for assignments, but not for tests. Also, his writing is hard to understand. The midterm is ok, but the FINAL is very HARD.
There are certain examples he will use near the end of the course on assessments that he never discussed. This can severely drop the GPA.
Niksirat is an amazing prof with a great sense of humour. He makes sure you understand the topics and provides lots of examples. He sometimes misses some of the specific examples that have tricks in the solutions. Having the textbook or going to another lecture help to fill in the missing gaps. Overall Great!
Professor Niksirat's lectures has been the most engaging and genuinely enjoyable lectures I've attended at U of A thus far. I am slightly biased because I do enjoy math, but his passionate approach to the topics covered in the course not only made you participate but take something away from each class. He's also unintentional hilarious.
This is an engineering course and with a shakier foundation on rigorous math, it was difficult to follow and understand the process to arrive to mathematical ideas. Niksirat's lectures and assignments focused on process, and the tests boned anyone that didn't understand it. Great lectures, amazing office hours when you prod with the right questions
Great lectures, and amazing office hours. I Altered course sequence so I could take MATH300 with him. Hard questions on assignments and tests are not covered in classes BUT if you just try shit and use the derivations in classes you'll do well. Bonus questions on assignments and extra credit assignment for those who'd like to bump up grade.
His notes are soo useless. They don't help with assignments and tests. People who go to class and people who skip classes are equally clueless.
I feel like this class would be easier with a different professor who has proper notes. Very rude in office hours if you are unsure about concepts.
Lecture notes were okay, I stopped showing up after the 2nd lecture because I found his teaching style to be a bit 'aggressive', he walks around the classroom (even to the back) and yells really loudly. Homework was EXTREMELY HARD, opens up homework when he just starts teaching the concept so its really hard to understand the advanced questions.
I DO NOT CARE WHO YOUR PROF IS OR HOW GOOD YOUR PROF IS. DROP THEM RIGHT NOW AND COME TO NIKSIRAT'S LECTURES INSTEAD. SERIOUSLY, THIS MAN IS THE GREATEST PROF OF ALL TIME HIS LECTURES ARE SO AMAZING HE ALWAYS YELLS AND SHOUTS (BUT IN A LOVING, GENTLE, KIND WAY) AND DOES TONS OF EXAMPLES AND ALWAYS ASKS IF EVERYONE UNDERSTANDS AND IS VERY FUNNY
In the realm of math, a luminary we've got, Professor Niksirat, with a voice so loud, but soft. The best in the world, without a single doubt, With math's magic, he turns every class inside out. So here's to the professor, whose teaching's a delight, With a voice like music, he lets math take flight. The world's best math prof, we all can agree.
Each term test got increasingly harder. What stump students was the fact that he told us the final was going to be easy and straight forward, boy was it not. It was much worse. He also picks on students sitting at the front, so beware.
By far the best professor ever. He is very passionate about the material and makes things very easy to understand.
The written assignments for this class (which Niksirat designed) were incredibly complicated, long-winded, and often tested very specific applications of what was taught in lecture. I needed get help for every assignment, as they were near impossible to complete on my own. They were incredibly frustrating, and took up so much of my time.
It's hard to explain his classes, but lectures are energetic, fun, and insightful. He focuses mostly on the theory and applications of the theory. He will explain complex topics simply so everyone can understand, and will not move on until everyone understands. Prof. Niksirat is easily the best professor that I've had.
This is the only professor you should be considering for 136
Has a very skewed idea of difficulty. Only does the easiest examples in class, and assignments and exams are both the same difficulty as one another, and much harder than the in-class examples. Also blatantly disrespects students who ask questions, despite telling them to feel free to ask questions. The 60% final was a slap in the face.
He is the kind of professor that you either love or hate. He has a unique teaching style with lots of passion that some people learn well from and enjoy while others may find him intimidating. He is the course coordinator and clearly understands the material he's teaching very well, but teaching style was not it for me.
No. Stay away.
Will never be able to sleep in one of his lectures. Always an honour to be asked "do you understand lady??" Breaks everything down to the very basics so you fully understand the topics before advancing. Makes lots of time for questions ensuring every single student in the room understands. Amazing prof who cares about his students. 100% recommend.
Niksirat is a true gentleman. He cares so deeply about his students that he is willing to spend hours beyond the designated office hours to explain and re-explain concepts to different students. As long as you want to learn, he will not give up on you. His lectures are full of passion, and if you can understand his accent you'll love every second.
His teaching style is not for everyone. He is very passionate about math and talks quite loud during lecture. He will pick people out from the class to answer questions and if you don't get something, he will go over as many examples as needed until you get it. Although, his notes are hard to understand if you weren't there for the lecture.
Mohammad is the best teacher I have ever had. I was never amazing at math but he made it so much easier to understand and made sure that no one was left behind while doing it. His office is always open even outside of office hours as long as he can hear you knocking at the door. As long as you pay attention in his classes you will excel.
Great professor as his lectures show his passion and devotion to the art of maths. If you pay attention to him and take everything he says by word, you will pass the course, even ace it. One of the best lectures I have attended in the university, biggest energy even for 9 AM classes. He will wake you up, interested in solving differential eqns!!
Doesn't teach anything. Never had a prof overcomplicate the content as much as this guy. I dropped it halfway through and took the class in the summer with a different prof and the class became 10 times easier.
If Professor Leonard snorted a bunch of coke, you'd be left with Mohammed Ali Niksirat. He is a legend at explaining things, but his assignments are very time consuming (but are rewarding to finish) and the exams are hard as balls. You HAVE to know your fundamentals from the beginning to do well. I recommend going to office hours frequently.
not my cup of tea
BEST PROF EVER!!!!!! VERRY FUN TO GO TO HIS CLASS
Energetic and passionate professor who obviously cares about math and his students. Makes math a class to look forward too. Be prepared to take your own notes, and he can move fast at times, but he will stop and explain further if requested.
goat prof very engaging in lectures, he doesn't have the greatest notes but he's the best lectures to attend to understand the material
Niksirat is my GOAT prof. Best lectures in the game
Very funny, nice guy. Terrible teacher though.
Mohammed was great at teaching this class. His lectures were very engaging and he is amazing in his office hours to get extra help
Very nice, funny, and really puts effort into being engaging. He also wrote and shares his textbook for free. Obvious passion for mathematics which he tries his best to share, although his style doesn't work for everyone. Course was very difficult with absurd assignments and brutal exams, but it's consolidated so not up to the prof.
Very energetic and makes sure his students understand everything. But the assignments are such a pain to go through as he is the one who creates them. While you may understand what's going on in the lectures, the assignments will definitely make you question your competency in the course
Bad bad bad, dropped
Horrible professor. Seems like a very funny, knowledgeable guy but is the absolute worst at explaining concepts clearly. Messy handwriting and downright EXCRUCIATING assignments of which you must sift through a plethora of convoluted information to reach the actual question. He makes calculus 3 much harder than it needs to be. Avoid at all costs.
Ridiculously weighted final exam. He constantly edits and/or corrects assignments without notifying the class, so you could do a completely different assignment than required if you downloaded it before the due date. Incredibly inconsistent. However, he is energetic. He is nice, but I should not recommend him if you can avoid......
He needs to get fired
Professor Niksirat's lectures are engaging, though his teaching style may not suit everyone. Stay focused, use resources like Unstuck ai, and you'll ace this challenging, but rewarding, course.
A disgrace to math and this university
Genuinely one of the worst profs I've come across in uofa. Notes are literally his rough work and are of no use. Goes really fast in lectures and skips a lot of steps because he thinks all of us remember 100% of everything from previous math courses.
Nope 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎👎
Had his 9am class and never missed a lecture—he explains everything so clearly and encourages questions. You barely need to study outside class since assignments build directly on examples. He's super approachable, even helped during the exam. Made me love math again. Would 100% take him again!
The review below this is a LIE
Have no class note and teaching terrible
Super funny and nice guy, but you need to attend lectures and participate as he doesn't provide online notes (he writes by hand). The only thing is that the examples he does are usually easier than the assignment and test questions, so it is important to study properly using assignments. Can't find his email anywhere, but you could probably ask.
Niksirat is a very polarizing prof. This guy probably does a line of coke before every lecture, and it kicks in about 20 minutes into the lecture. It is the most entertaining lecture I've ever been too, and his passion really shows. He can be a little intense for some people, especially those in the front, but he genuinely cares about his students.
Genuinely the most compassionate professor I've ever had. He's excited about math. He believes in "no student left behind," and would have us do practice during class to make sure we got it, and wouldn't move on until we were confident. Amazing energy at 9:00 AM as well. I wish he'd post his lecture notes, no complaints otherwise.
He is a very energetic guy and his lectures are interesting, but if you struggle with math you will struggle with his teaching style. The only people I knew who really liked him were amazing at math and since I am not his lack of examples and confusing note taking style made it hard to keep up. Also he does call on people in class.
Niksirat's teaching style works for some students, and not for others. His lectures are very engaging and enthusiastic, but his hand written notes are not the best. He often went on tangents during lecture which resulted in his section falling behind schedule.
Made me hate calculus. Lectures go over surface level examples that don't translate to half the level of difficulty to exams. Yells during lectures with a microphone with no compression so ur ears gets violated. Very thick accent and bad handwriting so it's hard to follow along during lectures. Quite mean when asking for help outside of class.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
36%
Textbook Required
7%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.29 avg changeRatings by Course
134DDD
5.0
(1)MATH336
5.0
(1)MATH144
4.7
(7)MATH134
4.7
(6)MATH334
4.3
(6)Difficulty by Course
MATH115
4.5
MATH146
4.3
MATH336
4.0
MATH337
3.9
MATH300
3.8