2.7
Quality3.6
Difficulty38%
Would Retake91
Reviews38%
Would Retake
91
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
22
4
11
3
10
2
14
1
34
What Students Say
“The difficulty of each aspect of her class does not match up”
MATH006A - 1.0 rating“Her teaching isn't coherent and the material she teaches doesn't help with homework or tests”
MATH006B - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
69%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+1.20 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH006
5.0
(1)MATH006A
3.3
(39)MATH6A
3.1
(8)MATH6B
3.0
(4)MATH6AB
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
math007a
5.0
MATH06B
4.5
MATH031
4.5
MATH06A
4.0
math131
4.0
Reviews (91)
Sara Lapan makes the material sound more complex than it actually is and her pace while teaching is moderate. In addition, she makes learning interactive because she has us work together to solve Kahoot! problems. Overall, she is a kind professor who is always available for her students with any concerns that they have.
Either Lapan or her TAs grade incredibly difficult. You will miss points for small mistakes. She makes understanding things more difficult. Attendance is key because she takes it through Kahoot! quizzes. She made us buy a $100 online textbook which I never even opened and sadly,is mandatory in order to turn in homework. However, there is a curve.
She made everything so much more complicated that it really is. Because I knew pre-calc before this class, it helped me a lot. Get ready to watch youtube videos because she won't make sense half of the time.
What she teaches is different from what must be known for the discussion. Then all of that is different from the final. She over complicated simple ideas like completing the square.
She over complicated EVERYTHING! In my opinion although she seemed nice she was not the best math teacher I've had. The homework was completely different from her midterm and final.
In professor Lapan's class it was very confusing when it came to what was taught in class and what was expected when completing the homework. The homework often took longer than what it needed to be and was very confusing at times. Lecture became difficult to follow got dragged out.
Worst math teacher I've ever had. She does not teach anything and treats us as if we were Kindergarteners. Additionally her homework rarely corresponds with her exams. Disappointed. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE.
She's a nice person but a HORRIBLE professor. She assumed we understood everything immediately. She made everything SO complicated and was horrible at explaining. Her way of teaching is the equivalent of people who say "i require sustenance in the form of ingested nutrition" instead of "i'm hungry". Over-complicated, unnecessary, and time wasting.
Her lectures are super easy, but the online homework, discussion worksheets and exams are SIGNIFICANTLY more difficult. If it weren't for tutors and Khan academy, it would be near impossible to pass this class. The TAs aren't helpful, students are expected to use peers to teach themselves. Would not recommend.
she overcomplicated everything. she was nice but treated the class like kids, her exams were difficult so please study if you wanna pass them. Weekly "quizzes"
Ms. Lapan, as kind as she is, doesn't cover nearly enough of the material that shows up regularly in our homework. Going into her class, you are expected to already be familiar with the rapidly-changing topics. She has her own, overly-complicated way of solving problems. In short, the class is too fast-paced and confusing. Kahoot is fun, though.
it is very true, dr lapan will complicate everything but she is a research professor so she tends to overthink things if that makes sense. both the ta's and dr lapan grade very heavy, misword something and points are taken off. she posts her notes from lecture online but its pretty vague. in other words, jog for your life!
Avoid at all costs. Her teaching style is very unorganized and confusing, she treats us like children, and her TAs grade extremely hard, making it very difficult to receive a good grade. There is a LOT of HARD homework, both online and manually. I usually walk out of the lecture more confused than I was before I went to class. Worst experience ever
Sara is honestly an awful professor. She does not explain the material well and cannot elaborate on specific topics when asked. She gives little to no time to allow the students to learn the material and is always expecting the student to be on her level if not higher. If you do not get a concept quickly, good luck to you because she barely helps.
She is very kind and accessible outside of class and is good on one-on-one teaching. Her lectures are tricky and hard if you are not already familiar with the material. Way too much homework. homework becomes a task instead of a learning experience. You just have so many assignments that you have to keep going instead of learning from what you did.
One of those teachers who are really smart but just not the best explainers. Made topics seem harder than really are. Bought a book nearing the price of 100 and barely used it. Homework mostly online. There are worksheets due for discussion -- they grade so hard on these. So, please do your WS and show ALL your work. Group study bc it's helpful
She has a bad tendency to overcomplicate simple concepts and leaves a sizeable portion of students confused. Professor and TAs grade strictly. If there is another professor teaching, choose that one. If not, be prepared to invest alot of time into self-study, SI sessions, and office hours in order to pass this class.
Her class really isn't that bad as long as you do all the homework, attend class, and study. You get a lot of extra credit for doing KAHOOT questions and she gives extra credit on the worksheets done during discussions. She does tend to overcomplicate concepts, but the textbook helps. Midterm is curved. Final is fair.
the homework is way harder than the lectures and half of the things on the midterm are things we dont even talk about. She doesnt answer emails and the TAs sucked. Lecture is super long and you only get through like 2 examples.
Worst prof. Her teaching isn't coherent and the material she teaches doesn't help with homework or tests.
I have had Sarah Lapan for two quarters in a row, and trust me, she is horrible. Her grading is really not fair and you will do poorly in the class no matter what. Help yourself and avoid her. So many people have complained to the department but nothing is done. She is the most unfair professor ever, so please do your GPA a favor and avoid her.
Professor Lapan is great for 1 on 1. She overcomplicates some of her concepts, but if you meet with SI leaders and TAs, you'll do fine- they explain her methods. Lapan uses KAHOOT for attendance. The homework, as immense as it is, is meant to hammer-in concepts she teaches in class. Work hard, use your resources, pull through!
She may treat you like a child and acts like an bad inspirational speaker but the class is ok, she teaches the material decently. Only downside of this class was that the online homework was different and harder then what we do in class.
The difficulty of each aspect of her class does not match up. Homework is very different, much harder, confusing, and not gone over in any way during lecture. If you want to pass go to SI or office hours, discussion is not helpful either. She overcomplicates and confuses in lecture so don't expect much from that either.
Lapan offers extra credit (Kahoot) and that helps. I got an 82% on the midterm, but with the makeup I got 8 points which boosted my grade to a low A. Maker sure to get full points on the worksheets, homework, and effective failure. The final is similar to the practice final but still STUDY. I got an 93% on the final by studying. Overall, STUDY!!!!
Lapan makes things sooo much harder than it should be. She does use Kahoot as attendance (extra credit) and you do get make up two pages of questions on the midterm. Overall, I wouldnt take her again because her method of teaching is just very confusing and office hours is mostly just other students helping each other out.
Makes the class a lot harder than it really should be but the class is passable.
Her midterms are nothing like the homework or quizzes, her homework and quizzes are nothing like the lectures. Lapan barely covers the conceptual side in lectures and homework, and the second midterms come around she expects that you have mastered all aspects of the concepts, because that is what her midterms are about. Do NOT take this professor!
Doesnt explain concepts very well bc she makes it way harder than it needs to be. The material isnt even that hard but her teaching is just really confusing. It was so hard having to drag myself to class cause i knew i wasnt gonna get anything out of it.
Her methods of teaching are kind of confusing. She tends to skip steps assuming that the students already know what to do. She posts the notes online but if you didn't go to lecture you won't understand the notes. The online homework was basically what we learned in class but harder.
Many of her tests will not look like the homework. Her homework will not look like her lectures. Her homework will be more difficult than the tests, but the tests will be extremely difficult because the wording of what each problems asks for will be very vague and unspecified. It is more beneficial to learn concepts than actual application.
She makes frequent mistakes on her powerpoint slides and math. She teaches math much more complicated than it needs to be. There's always an easier solution than what she teaches. Her handwriting is illegible, makes notes difficult. Also, spelling mistakes in the homework. The math homework assignments don't even help with the tests. 0/5.
yikes... good luck if you get her.
Professor Lapan has a good start at the beginning of the quarter but once stuff gets a little tough, she makes it 10x harder. For example, when we worked on circles, she made us measure how many radii can occur in the circumference and all that stuff when in reality we never used that concept which she made seem so important.
Prof Lapan is by far the worst professor to take for the 6A/B math series. Her overexplaining and confusing way of teaching math has nothing to do with the online homework given. She poorly prepares her students for the midterm and finals, she also teaches it as if you already know the basics. I struggled even with tutoring, peer study, etc. AVOID!
Took her in fall quarter 2018 and failed with a D. Even if you do well in the homework and worksheets, she grades heavily on the final and midterm, so everything else won't matter, and that is one of the reasons on why I failed. If you absolutely have to take this professor, make sure you go to ARC or SI tutoring. Hardest class to begin with 1st yr
I had her for two quarters and I passed with an A both quarters. There is weekly homework, but you have unlimited tries and can easily get 100%. She provides study guides which are almost identical to the exams. She also gives make-up opportunities on the exams and extra credit. Honestly, she isn't that bad.
I've taken three courses with Dr. Lapan over the course of two years. She is hands down the worst professor I've had. The two earlier classes taken (pre-calc) were graded pretty easily, but Lapan still makes it her mission to make things as intentionally confusing as possible. I've had to rely on YouTube professors (shoutout Professor Leonard)
Lapan was not the best at teaching. Often she made it confusing. The class is out of 500 points. Final is 160 and midterm is 100. Make sure to go to all discussions since there are worksheets that are graded but the lowest one is dropped. The online hw is unlimited attempts but not like her lectures. Gives some extra credit. Prepare to self teach.
She uses Kahoot for attendance and is possible to earn extra credit for getting Kahoot questions right and participating. Her midterm and final is close to her study guide. Does midterm redos but you must get everything right in order to earn half the points back or else you only get a grace 2 points. The online hw is usually is more confusing.
I read the reviews going into Lapans class and was scared but after the exams it wasn't bad at all, just go to class (cahoot is extra credit) do the homework and attend office hours when you don't know what's going on. All of the content from discussion and homework is like the exams. She's super helpful and not intimidating at all.
A lot of the negative reviews are a lil misleading. Lapan is not a horrible teacher, but she can be very shy or awkward and overexplain concepts. However, she offers many ways to redeem yourself through extra credit and midterm redo to receive half the pts you missed. Take good notes and ask many questions. You got it!
She is not good at teaching, she is nice but as a person not as a professor. She gave mid term redo but barely any credit from it. Exams were too hard, not even the material she taught in class.
Super sweet person! You can tell she really cares about both her job and her students. She takes the time to explain concepts well and gives you endless amount of resources. She also gives you a lot of opportunities to raise your grade & encourages questions. I hate math with a passion but loved having her. She made it suck less. 10/10 recommend :)
Very caring and truly wants us to learn and understand not just memorize. She also is very helpful after class. A lot of people don't like her but I think it's because they just don't like math. You do have to paid for access code to do online hw just sucks.
Yes Professor Lapan isn't the best lecturer and her slides are a little confusing, but she gives you so many opportunities to succeed. She has office hours 2-3 times a week and gives unlimited tries on the online homework. She also has test redos to earn points back, kahoots for extra credit, and posts her slides so you can review them.
Really nice, but not a good teacher. Her lectures are really hard to understand and the homework online is really confusing because you just go straight to the homework & dont learn anything about it before hand.
Professor Lapan is a great professor. Her lectures are very helpful with homework. Weekly HW assignments, with quizzes and exams based on module completion. She has many days offered for office hours. Her lectures aren't mandatory and recorded, but discussions are required.
Prof. Lapan is super sweet and is willing to work with you as long as you communicate. Im bad at math and she made this class enjoyable. I recommend going to office hours if you need help.
She's a pretty chill and kind professor. Took her during all the crazy COVID stuff and honestly is an easy class to handle for an online class during a pandemic. I never found myself going to look through my textbook for this class either. I hope I am able to take her again for the second half of my math 006 class!
took her during the pandemic and she was super accommodating & kind, her cats were the cutest. you can tell that she is super passionate about what shes teaching. lectures are interesting & methods of explaining concepts are clear. hw & quizzes/tests werent too difficult.
I had Professor Lapan for Math6B for my first quarter at UCR. I checked her ratings on Rate My Professor here before taking the class and I was scared since they werent so positive. However, I had an amazing educational experience with her. Very sweet, and really wants you to succeed. Just take initiative! I wish i had for again for 6B.
Professor Lapa is super caring and understanding of her students. She would give extension dates on exams and quizzes and homework platform is clear and easy use!
Professor Lapan is amazing. I was very nervous because I read her ratings prior to meeting her. She is awesome and one of my favorite professors. She is straightforward with grading. All test are unproctored and given a couple of days to complete. Lowest exam is dropped. Some extra credit & extensions were given. I recommend doing the hw early!
She is really sweet and really flexible about any issues that you may have. Just be sure to let her know in advance and you will have no issues!!
Lectures are very information packed & the professor goes through lessons really fast so you have to keep up.
I had Dr. Lapan for Math 6A (PreCal) as a freshmen, during the pandemic. She teaches clearly, just when you ask for help during office hours, she doesnt help you solve the exact problem, so she makes up numbers, but sometimes they are dramatically different from the homework problem you are trying to answer. It might get confusing. I got an A+ tho
She really tries to be understanding and honestly all the material builds up on each other so as long as you can truly understand the exams if you truly understand the homework. It is not a trick in any way and she really does want you to do well in understanding the concept.
Shes really nice but very confusing her class grading is fair but the homework is sometimes unfair
I dont understand all the bad reviews about Professor Lapan. She was very understanding and willing to explain concepts further if anyone didnt understand. The peeps who are complaining probably never went to office hours. I would take her again if I had to take another math class.
She is a very understanding professor. She truly cares about her students and how well they understand the material. If you attend online lectures and keep up with the homework you should definitely pass the course.
She's a very nice and caring professor. Additionally, she really breaks down the concept to an easy-to-understand level. Her lectures weren't boring, unlike most other math professors. Overall, if you put in the effort to pass, you'll be rewarded. Lastly, she's a really lenient professor so that's another perk. Overall 10/10 would take again.
Professor Lapan was really nice and pretty lenient this quarter. I found though that her lectures can get confusing and I would have to go back to the class notes she uploads after lectures and see what I missed or was confused on. Homework and quizzes are nice since you get multiple attempts to get it right.
Professor Lapan gives lots of chances to students to get a good grade and I feel like her policy is very fair. She truly cares about student's ability to succeed and offers lots of help and resources to take advantage of if you need help. My only downside was that this class had a lot of homework compared to other classes but I feel well prepared!
Professor Lapan is really sweet and caring, but her class is really difficult to understand because the homeworks, quizzes, exams, and worksheets are all different and her lectures are nothing like the assignments and the worksheets are graded so harshly by the TAs.
I had Dr. Lapan during the pandemic and it's obvious she cares for her students. Her lectures were interesting and her notes were easy and clear to follow. I would definitely take another class with her.
i dont understand all the negative reviews on here, since professor lapan was amazing. id been apprehensive of taking math in college bc i struggled with it so much during the end of hs, but sara made it a breeze. sure, it was difficult to understand her at some parts, but she was helpful w questions. i ended w/ an A+ rather than a C like in hs !
Attendance is very important if you want to pass this class. It moves quickly, but at a really good pace. Professor Lapan is very nice, lenient, and you can tell she truly does care about teaching. Honestly, she has been the best teacher I have had for math, as she really focuses on having us understand topics rather than memorize formulas. 10/10
Professor Lapan is a great teacher & you can tell she really cares about her students' success. She is incredibly kind and lenient. There is a good amount of homework, but nothing too difficult. Attendance was mandatory, but she recorded and posted every lecture.
Explains thing VERY thoroughly.
Dr. Lapan is kind and encouraging to all students and always tells us us to never apologize for needing clarification on a topic no matter how small. she gives a ton of extra credit + has a ton of office hours. There is no way to fail her class without actively putting in ZERO effort into the class
At first I was so embarrassed after having placed in Math6A, but now I'm glad I did because Prof Lapan really reworked my attitude towards math. Lectures are great, unlimited attempts on homework questions were so helpful, quizzes + exams were fair. Did well enough on the first three exams that I didn't even have to take the final lol; great teach!
This class has to be one of my favorites! She truly love teaching and teaching others. This class was online yet it was extremely interactive, she really cares about her students and wants you to learn the subject rather then memorize the answers. Really good professor
When it comes to her class, just prepare yourself. The homework is nothing like the lectures, and the lectures just teach the most basic concept of the material while the homework goes super in depth. I had always liked math before this, but after this class I am never taking math again. The only reason I passed was because of my math group.
requires a lot more work than other professors offering the same course. participation is very important
Her classes are online. She lectures VERY slowly. You can chegg/symbolab everything to figure it out.
The class isn't challenging, but it is not easy. Her teaching style can be pretty slow and tedious. She assigns assignments that are just not needed and not helpful at all. TAs had to carry the class and teach extra during the discussion to help us understand the concepts. Quizzes and tests are similar to the homework, but the tests are harder.
Lapan is a fine teacher, but her assignments does not correlate to the tests. Which I think is really dumb, so you going in blind for tests, overall easy class though.
don't take her ever terrible professor
Sara Lapan is great professor overall, she does as much as she can for students to pass or get an A. The only problem I have is that she is very slow during lecture and its so hard to stay on track. Sometimes the homework is different than what we learned. The material is not too hard to understand.
Hard to access her during office hours, too many people w/ long questions. Lectures were necessary but did NOT help for homework. Homework gets frustrating. Lots of homework, don't fall behind. Late passes available. Accessible via email. Go to lectures for participation, in class polls. Very kind. 3/4 tests online, cheating lead to in person exam.
An okay professor. Many people cheated their way in this class which was simply unfair. Lectures and hw do not correspond with each other.
She is an Academic Terrorist! Do everything in your power to avoid her. Her Lectures are uninformational. You're better off just reading the textbook, but that's horrible as it has no correlation to any other respected Lin Alg Professor. Be prepared for exams with no partial credit and unclear grading criteria. She appears to want students to fail!
Very unprofessional, lectures uninformative, not much help when it comes to exams and homework , horrible and communicating , and no clear outline of grading
This is the first class Ive taken in college that feels like high school over again. She teaches the class like its every student's core/most important class and assigns so much homework. Lectures are absolutely useless cuz she writes down definitions for like 80% of the lecture. No structure. Avoid at all costs if you wanna stay sane
Unclear grading criteria, last-minute announcements about quizzes and presentations which results in so much stress. Assigns so much homework and gives unclear answers about the course outline, do NOT get her as a professor! Presentations were a waste of time; we could have used discussion time for something actually helpful. TA was super helpful!
One of the worst math professors ive had. Unclear, lots of homework, and harsh grading. Avoid at all costs.
Course structuring is poor, doesn't really cover in lecture what's on the homework (which itself is vague and hard to understand) and has to rush at the end of the quarter to cover important topics, then loads lots of homework with that right before finals. Don't recommend at all
Someone is spamming bad reviews. She was not even that bad. True, the scheduling got a little tight towards the end and found it to be too demanding as it was finals week. Overall, she did a great job going through the material while NOT holding your hands. If you take her, know that you have to self study and be able do hold your own.
She rushed us through 3 chapters in 2 weeks before the final, giving us little time to adequately study for the exams. Her lectures rarely ever covered what was on the homework and exams. Exam questions were always vague, leading to harsh grading. Would not take again.
She did not like to give examples whenever students asked how to solve a particular problem in her course. The concepts were unbased theories that it did not relate to linear algebra at all. She was also very condescending and impatient when students did not understand what she was teaching.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
69%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+1.20 avg changeRatings by Course
MATH006
5.0
(1)MATH006A
3.3
(39)MATH6A
3.1
(8)MATH6B
3.0
(4)MATH6AB
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
math007a
5.0
MATH06B
4.5
MATH031
4.5
MATH06A
4.0
math131
4.0