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Easy the entire time until the final, and then he screws you into the ground. Watch out, because he failed half our class

He just writes on the board and never lets the class ask any questions. Stay away from this class.

Worst math teacher ever

Worst teacher I have ever had. Offered no help, and no explanation. Does not need to be teaching at all.

this guy does not know how to teach. he does not explain anything, and when you ask him to clarify he will just simply re-read the question. tests aren't too hard, but he tends to put questions on there that have never been explained before in class.

You are risking a lot by taking this class with this teacher. Teacher is definitely not his forte... and ironically he is a teacher. His tests are all problems from the book, but they're still hard. I'd recommend a tutor or another teacher for sure.

very difficult. the guy does not know how to teach, and when you ask for an explanation he just reads the problem to you. tests are difficult. the final exam is easy; it's made of questions straight from the tests and there is 10 points of bonus.

he has to be the worst teacher at auburn. Unless you speak and can understand Romanian or whatever the hell he speaks you will fail. I do not know how he is able to teach I learned nothing the entire semester. Total waste of time

biggest ****on the planet. He needs to go take basic enlgish classes before he can actually teach. This guy just sucks at life

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get into the afternoon class and go right after the morning class and get the test out of the trash can, no lie, and study the homework problems.

I have always made As in Math as far as I can remember, but Zalik Sucks...I have a D in there right now because he doesn't teach you anything. The only good thing is that whatever you make on your final, if it is higher than your class average he'll give you the Final as your grade.

worst teacher i have ever had do not advise getting him the worst calculus teacher at auburn

HE SUCKS AT LIFE! GET OUT NOW! if you must take him i highly recommend the extra credit tests at the beginning of the semester you'll need them. he would get the wrong answers on homework questions in class, we always had to correct him. might as well just teach yourself the work.

In his own little world disconnected from any practical applicaitons. This guy takes what should be an easy class and makes is unreasonably hard. Made 2 simple math errors on the first exam and made a 58. Archian theory that makes no sense that anybody except math majors. Don't take him for anything and if you have him DROP IT LIKE ITS HOT.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR! He is awful. He insults the entire class on a daily basis and generally will make your life hell. Drop this class and run for the hills!

terrible teacher. He doesn't care at all and you can't understand him. I was lost the entire semester in his class. I went to see him and he didn't care. If he is your only option wait a semester and get a different teacher, I thought I could handle it despite what other people said but no. he is that bad

HORRIBLE! he is kind of an idiot and the students spent the whole class correcting him. I couldn't really understand him when he talked and his tests were hard. Was absolutely of no help. GET OUT!

literally the WORST teacher of my whole entire life. I have made nothing but A's and B's my whole 3 years at auburn, and I got a D in his class and i had 2 different tutors! his teaching is absolutely useless, you can't understand him at all, and unless you're one of the lucky few that has his old tests, DROP IMMEDIATELY.

Worst teacher I've had at Auburn so far. The tests are 3 questions so if you don't know one of them your already screwed. Plus the final is worth 40% of your grade so if you fail you're average drops significantly. You can't hear him, and he's tenured so if you think complaining will work, get over it. BE SMART AND DROP OUT

Not very helpful, late to meetings and unreasonable... avoid taking him for linear algebra

The only teacher I ever had where he answered his cell phone in class. He seems really disinterested in the class he is teaching. He usually is a couple minutes late to every lecture, and looks at the book a couple minutes before lecturing as if he didn't prepare at all before the class. Also gets irritated when students asked him questions. Avoid

Terrible teacher. better off learning from the book. skips steps when trying to teach and gets mad when u ask how he got there. tests are only 3 questions.

Don't take him if you can help it. He is rude to students, he doesn't teach at all. Just teach yourself out of the text book and get a good tutor. He only has "office minutes" not office hours and he won't help you if you meet with him anyway. His tests are 4-5 problems long and he doesn't give any indication of what will be on them.

Answers the phone in class, and works problems so fast he does 1/2 of the examples incorrect leaving the class more confused. If you are taking Business Calc II, and he's your professor, it's best to withdrawal. Only 25% of the class gets C's and above. I got help and went to every single lecture, and I didn't even get a C-.

Do not take him!! I had a tutor and still made a D. He is the WORST teacher I have ever had at Auburn. Going to his office hours are a waste of time because he really does not care about helping his students at all. Avoid at all costs!!

The was the absolute worst class I've ever had. He didn't teach what we needed to know for the tests and couldn't even add simple math together. He had two 20, two 10, and one 40 point tests to add up to 100 points. What he taught in class was not what was on the tests that had 3 or 4 questions a test. Make sure to drop this class!

If there is anyway to avoid him DO IT. I have never had a professor be so rude and care so little about their students. He is condescending to students who ask questions, usually telling them to go back to previous math courses. He does not teach either.. he usually mumbles to himself and makes ALOT of errors on the board.

He is gifted in understanding math. Teaching, not so much. He does not relate to students. Blames all problems on the student. Does not teach, he just does problems on the board without much, if any, explanation.

Misses crucial steps when teaching

90 some we assigns over the semester including quizzes and homework, very hard to understand and misses steps when explaining processes

DO NOT TAKE ZALIK UNLESS YOU KNOW PRECAL BEFORE HAND! He is an awful teacher and does not explain things well. Every time I went to class he would just confuse me more so I stopped going (attendance not required). Hw and quizzes are online and extra credit so that's nice but tests are always confusing. I only made an A because I took precal in HS.

Tests are difficult and graded strictly by his graders. He works problems on the chalkboard and they are usually wrong, and if you have a question he won't be able to answer it. Going to class has no benefit, you are going to have to teach yourself. He does give practice problems, but they don't mimic what is on your test.

Math has never been hard for me until I met this man. He cannot teach and just rambles off facing the white board. He doesn't have clue how to get the material off in a effective way. Half of my class dropped within the first one, those were the smart ones. If you love yourself do not take anyone his classes

Going to class is pointless, all he does is work problems that he can't even explain. He gets upset/rude when people ask questions and doesn't answer them. His grading system is pretty unclear since he doesn't put anything on canvas, and when I asked for clarification he just told me to look at his syllabus (which didn't help). AVOID IF YOU CAN

I took him for Pre-Calc and it was awful. I have a good grasp of the subject thanks to awesome HS math teachers & honestly I stopped & just refreshed with my tutor before tests & homework because class was useless. He talks super fast & quiet and assumes the class knows half of it already. If you actually need to learn math find someone else.

Zalik was the worst professor. He rushes through the material, and he gets mad when students ask him questions. He does everything through Webassign meaning he does not put anything on Canvas aka your grades which is a real inconvenience. There are only 3 tests throughout the semester and then a final which is 40% of your final grade. Stay away

Not a great teacher, he works problems on the board all class and doesn't explain how he go the answer. Multiple people in my class got up and left in the middle of class. I stopped going to class the last two months because its pointless. The homework and quizzes he gives out on WebAssign are super easy so you'll still make a good grade.

PreCal & trig. The class was unnecessarily difficult. I put an insane amount of work (on my own & with tutors) into this class & still ended the semester with a D.. 20 points higher than the class average. Less than 1/3rd of my class showed up any given day, & many would leave in the middle of class. Worked problems on the board but didn't explain.

HE IS THE WORST. rude, arrogant, not at all pleasant to work with. doesn't show up for office hours, was late to class. didn't even have his right office listed in his email. -200/10 would recommend taking anything from him.

One of the most rude men I have ever met. Went into his office hours one time after receiving a subpar grade on the test. I wanted him to walk me through what I did wrong. When I went to meet him in his office he was very late and by the time I finally got in there he basically just told me that I need to do homework and I won't do bad. Not helpful

do not take this class unless you already have a good understanding of all material beforehand. AVOID THIS PROFESSOR hard to understand and is annoyed if you ask questions

Terrible teacher. He talks very quietly and doesn't explain anything. Every lecture he just reads the textbook out loud from a powerpoint. You definitely have to teach yourself the material and after the tests are graded ALWAYS go to his office to look them over and if you ask him questions about problems he usually gives you some points back.

This man is extremely rude. I was late signing up for the webassign due to student loans coming in late. Having received an A in biz cal, I explained to him my confidence in being able to make up the missed assignements. He said he wouldn't allow it, claiming it was "not his problem," and then suggested I drop the course.

Richard Zalik is around 65 years old and refuses to use a microphone. You cannot read his handwriting anywhere in the classroom. For tests, he has two graders, one is really reasonable and the other gives zero partial credits.

This professor has an unfair process for grading tests and does not grade any of his own tests. He is difficult to understand and does not explain the material at all. He is unwilling to provide guidance or assistance in class or during office hours.

Worst math teacher I've had in my life. Growing up I always loved math, but this man has made it my worst subject at school. He writes everything straight out of the book at lecture, messes up often on the examples, and writes very tiny on the board. Grades are pretty much exams and the homework that you do get is graded very toughly. DO NOT TAKE!

Very poor teacher. Starts explaining a topic (poorly, b/c he assumes you know terms and other related topics when you actually don't) then skips all the intermediate explanatory material and goes to the answer. Learned nothing from this class. Only passed b/c he gives "practice tests" before each test which are really the test with numbers changed.

worst professor at AU. horrible, horrible teacher. lectures completely unnecessary considering he's unclear, talks lowly, and writes small. He does almost every problem incorrectly, and is corrected by students. Every missed class is 1 point off your overall grade. final is 40% of your grade. only reason I passed is his TA and prior cal knowledge.

Worst teacher ive ever had got a great score on bc cal final in highschool and barely got an A even while perfectly knowing all the content. Garbage professor and u will not do well at all if u havent already taken the class. Also extremely rude. Went to his office hours and he told me to get out when i asked about a problem got counted off on

Dr. Zalik is the worst professor I have ever had. 1% off your final grade for ever class you miss. assigned seats. His lectures are very hard to follow because he messes them up 50% of the time. When I went to office hours for help he told me "I just had to know math." just don't take him. if you get assigned him DROP

Do not take this professor. For his online class, I thought he would post lectures for me to watch and then do the webassign for credit. Wrong!! All this man does is assign you webassign homework problems that are much easier than the actual tests and the final is 40% of your final grade. Take this class if you want to do poorly and cry excessively

His online class is solely based on Webassign. He does not teach anything or provide any help. Test make up 90% of the grade and he does not care if you are doing poorly. This is the worst online course I have ever taken!

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS OR THIS PROFESSOR. I have never had a bad experience with an online math course. This was the worst class I have ever taken. He does not give partial credit. You are either right or wrong. Half of our class is failing and it's just horrible. He doesn't seem to care about his students. Stay away if you don't want to cry a lot.

The entire online course is based on WebAssign problems and exams, which have to be proctored on campus. Showing your work on paper doesn't count towards any partial credit and he does not scale grades or give extra credit. He expects you to learn the material by watching the WebAssign videos solve a random problem. DO NOT TAKE HIM! SAVE YOUR GPA!

Dr. Zalik is a very nice person; however, he is an abysmal teacher. His 'lectures' are videos of him reading the textbook out loud and it is clear that it is the first time he has glanced at the book. If you are looking to learn something, I would recommend another teacher.

This guy is easily the worst Professor Ive ever had. Im in his online class and hes like 72 and his zoom lecture quality shows it. He also sucks at teaching the material in a way that is easily understood. He just writes stuff down expecting you to know what is going on. Youll basically have to teach yourself. Get ready for the frustration.

Dr. Zalik is by far the worst professor at Auburn. He was rude whenever I reached out for help. During his lectures he barely makes audible what he is saying and just writes on the chalkboard some freaky symbols you know are supposed to be differential equations. He also grades exams off of everything you do wrong, so prepare to fail his class.

He doesn't know how to teach. He doesn't give partial credit on your exam that much if you make some mistakes. He doesn't round up the grade or replaces the lowest grade of your exam. I would suggest you take other professors if you could. You will regret for sure.

Very hard to understand. His lectures have no structure to them and he constantly messes up when doing examples. He grades his tests very hard and is very rude when you try to ask him about your grade. Do not take him.

Please do not take this class. Lectures are slow, all over the place, and difficult to follow. Grades tests very harshly with minimal partial credit. Unapproachable and disrespectful in office hours. Does not want students to succeed.

Him for Differential Equations. His lectures are very slow and almost pointless. His canvas page is decent, with sloppy notes posted frequently. There are 2 Homework assignments every week on WebAssign, most of the tests are based on this. You have to teach yourself, but if you do the homework and spend time learning it, it's not too bad.

Avoid at all cost the class is already difficult and he is really dry when teaching If you were to put a computer and Zalik next to one another you could not tell the difference He expects you to magically know everything already and will be rude to you for asking questions prepare to sacrifice limbs and time to pass test and HW are the only grades

This dude is terrible. He lies straight to your face about what will be on the test. He is downright rude to anyone and everyone in the class. What a sad old man. He has it out for you, and does not care what happens to you. He sent 3 people in my section out of his office hours one day for asking stupid questions. He needs to be fired.

This professor seems to not like anyone of his students and is not helpful outside of class at all. His only office hours are 15 minutes before and after class, and seems unwilling to work with students. His tests do tend to be on the easier side, but please take someone else if you can.

He is not very good a teaching. His knowledge of differential equations is good but not great. He makes frequent mistakes so be prepared to catch them. You have got to spend a lot of time outside of class to get an A. His lectures are virtually incomprehensible, so if you get stuck with him you have to learn the content before coming to class.

Do not take Richard Zalik by any means. I took this class because I was told his practice tests were exactly like his actual tests, but he stopped giving us practice exams after the first test. His lectures are incomprehensible and for the final he told us to "know everything" instead of giving us topics to review.

Richard Malik is probably the worst professor I have ever had in my whole academic career. He is rude and old and bitter and genuinely does not care about his students. The averages on his exams were all F's or below, and he barely gives any partial credit. He yells at his students who come into office hours because they made "elementary mistakes."

I had a hard time grasping the concepts and his teaching style of grabbing the textbook and fumbling around for examples while trying to work them out did not help. I failed the first exam, instead of helping me after going to him in office hours, he questioned my work ethic and called me a waste of tax payer money for being an in-state student.

Zalik is around 80 years old and his teaching shows it. He will randomly stop teaching because he is so confused with the math. He also never really knows what he is doing. This is Calc III; one time he forgot how to plot (1,-4) on a regular elementary school graph. He seems sweet but if you ask questions he will judge you and be rude to you.

the only thing saving me is recitation. don't bother going to lectures fr. webassign weekly-ish and 3 exams and final. a nice guy but had to teach myself everything and think everyone else in this course had to do the same.

Lectures were so unhelpful. Even if you try to pay attention, you feel like you're absorbing nothing. Good luck if you take this class, and if you do, just make sure to go to recitation and reach out to your TAs!

His exams are fair if you know the material, but he is a terrible lecturer. He will make exams harder if most of the class is not attending lecture.

He made lectures very tough to learn anything from, so I stopped going around halfway through. The recitation sessions are where I was actually able to learn and ask questions. He drops one test which is nice, but the final is a large portion of the grade.

No offense to Dr. Zalik but this class is pretty rough and him teaching it doesn't help. I would recommend taking a different professor for sure but I don't know if there are many better options lol. His lectures are AWFUL and I was taught 100% by my TA. Only redeeming factor is that Homework is 28% of your grade. Final exam is brutal! Good luck!!!

Zalik starts class with a full page of notes which he prepared beforehand. He would try to walk through his steps, but his train of thought is impossible to follow between his mumbling, trailing off sentences, and skipping steps. I attended every lecture and tried my best to take notes, but YouTube tutorials taught me more than his class.

Avoid this professor. He's a senile man who needs to retire. I honestly believe he enjoys watching students suffer. 72% of your grade is taken from tests, including a whopping 36% for the final alone. His lectures are incredibly slow and he reads straight from the textbook. My only saving grace was my awesome TA in recitation.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. I read the ratings on him before registering for his class last semester, so I knew that he was a tough one. But there is NOTHING that could have prepared me for how awful his class is. Lectures aren't mandatory so not many people go because they are very pointless. TAs were my saving grace, but guy just needs to retire.

Took his Linear Algebra class this spring based on previous reviews of him teaching this class. Do not refer to those reviews anymore! He has made his class significantly harder than in the past. Homework is only 10% of your grade the rest is exams. Both the homework and lectures do not prepare you at all for whatever he decides to put o the tests.

his study guides/practice tests were helpful and very similar to tests, but tests make up 90% of grade, so you have to do well on them :/ You can't really understand him in lectures, and he teaches from screenshots of the book, so its more beneficial to just read the textbook and go find a math tutor to teach it to you.

Dr. Zalik is terrible. He prints off copies of the textbook and spends 30 minutes of class reading straight off the page. You do get out of class 30 minutes early, but you have to completely teach yourself everything. Tests are 90% of your grade, yet the average for test 2 was a 50. I made As on 3/4 tests, including the final, and only made a B.

Genuinely the worst math professor I have ever had at Auburn. In class he sits at the front of the big room in ACLC and quietly reads off the textbook without working problems. He does make study guides for every exam which is nice. But be aware, Webassign is mandatory and accounts for 10% of final grade, which he never announced to the class.

Mumbles and refuses to use mic. Gets confused and makes mistakes while working problems. Angry and demeaning to anyone who asks questions. Review guides only help if prof has taught the material. This guy doesn't. He reads from the book then gets %review probs wrong. It's past time to retire. Take someone else or suffer.

If linear algebra is important for your career, you have to take someone else. This guy couldn't teach a fish to swim. He has zero interest in teaching or students and will make dedicated effort to ruin people's chances of learning the material. He reads outloud and rarely works a single problem. When he does he gets them wrong.

Just do yourself a favor and avoid Zalik at all costs. His lectures are awful- filled with unintelligible mumbling, skipping steps, doing problems completely wrong, and blaming bad test averages on the students. If you have to take him, be prepared to teach yourself everything. I know people whose advisors told them to avoid this professor.

Lectures were horrible and not worth going to if I wanted to learn anything. There is a lot of HW (2 10ish-problem assn/wk), But they are very important so you know the material, you NEED to do the work on your own. For exam grades, you better pray the TA grades the exams instead of you, otherwise you will only get credit for fully correct answers.

DO NOT TAKE HE MAKES SIMPLY THINGS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE. Horrible grader takes of wayyyy more than necessary. Lecture style is so bad, he copies from the text book and mumbles.

Barring physical violence, I cannot think of a single bad thing a professor could do that Zalik does not do. -He is hard to follow, between mumbling and backtracking through problems (BUT you better not skip lecture because he tests on things not in the textbook) -His grading is completely unforgiving and refuses to curve or give partial credit

he does not know how to demonstrate the math problems and he constantly doing the work wrong (we would check during lectures)

Do NOT take this professor under ANY circumstances. I only got the grade I did because I had a good GTA, but I spent a large amount of time teaching myself the content. Unless you LOVE math and love being berated by your professor for asking a question, do NOT take him under ANY circumstances. It is NOT worth it.

The absolute worst professor I have ever had in my life. He does not know what he is talking about and makes so many errors in his math. He grades very tough and is unkind. He does not know how to work technology and gets frustrated by students questions. Try to switch professors if you can, and if not wait another semester to take his class.

This man needs to retire. He makes tests really hard and sometimes puts questions that we cover once in class on tests. He struggles to solve the problems that he gives us. He's a hard grader and lectures are a waste of time. AVIOD TAKING HIM if you can.

AVOID HIM AT ALL COSTS! I knew the content and would study way too much. The tests were too difficult and he grades with very little intention of giving you full points. Also, if he says he will drop a quiz, beware of him taking it back. He said he would drop two quizzes and took it back the last month of school. Pray you get a good GTA.

DO NOT TAKE HIM. Worst professor at auburn. He is hard to understand, and not very good at actually explaining the material. He would have pre-written notes and just put them on the screen and directly read them. Don't even bother going to the lectures - they are pointless. You will end up learning the material through the recitations and youtube.

When I enrolled in this class, I saw Professor Zalik's reviews and simply thought I could handle it because I loved Honors Calc I. I was wrong. He is incoherent, writes out his notes beforehand, and does not explain the methods he uses that are not outlined in the book. A good TA makes this class survivable, but avoid at all costs.

A disgrace that the institution keeps him employed. He is the antithesis of a teacher, he mumbles in his lectures, recites the textbook with little consideration for details. Do not make the naive mistake of assuming that his class be will only just a little bit tougher. Save yourself before you also rethink your life choices too.

Dr.Zalik is not fit to be teaching. He seems very interesting and he is very smart, however his accent makes him very hard to understand. His handwriting is just as bad as his speaking. The examples in class are very hard to follow and the lectures are pointless. I only learned through online resources and my awesome recitation teacher.

I do not know what to say. He called me ignorant over a live microphone. He is older and does not always remember the steps to the problems. I would not take him if I chose to take his class again or change to my least favorite major; I would probably think long and hard about changing.

Very sweet man but so bad at lecturing. used class time to watch videos on my own for notes. The recitation leaders were a huge help. At least he sometimes posted practice tests so I could prepare more for the exams. tests were challenging but fitting for the class, prepared me for the final. did really well in class thanks to youtube and my TA.

Avoid this class at all costs. Professor Zalik is very difficult to understand and the lectures are useless. Rely on online resources and a good TA to survive this course. unstuckstudy could be a helpful study tool alongside traditional resources.

Cannot get through a single example question without messing something up. Try to avoid him if you can. I only knew what I was doing because I had taken cal before.

might be the absolute worst professor I have ever seen or heard in my life. Reads off of piece of paper with notes from the book, and does not work anything out at all. And when he does write something down, you can not read the bs he has written down because it is horrible. I would really recommend you stay the heck away from this guy at all cost.

Zalik struggles to teach. Notes are hard to read. He makes mistakes on examples (and test questions) more often than not. Tests have very few questions, meaning a single mistake affects your grade heavily. Bonus quizzes don't truly reflect attendance. Word is that this class's structure is changing next semester, so some of this could not apply.