1.8
Quality4.0
DifficultyN/A
Would Retake102
ReviewsN/A
Would Retake
102
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
102 total ratings5
2
4
8
3
17
2
24
1
51
What Students Say
“The way to succeed in his class is to mimic his genius and work hard”
MATH222223 - 3.0 rating“Jonsson saved me money”
MATH222 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.42 avg changeRatings by Course
222
4.0
(1)ADCAL
4.0
(1)CAL
4.0
(1)MATH348
4.0
(1)236316
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
265
5.0
VECTORS
5.0
DIFFEQ
5.0
MATH111
5.0
MATH264
5.0
Reviews (101)
Yo endless CS student disses. Johnson's my homie...
I like the beard :)
he's nice but doesn't know how to teach
wilbur "god" jonsson voice is probably the most enjoyable part of attending clas
I had this prof in the 70's and he was already the worst
Not as bad as everybody makes out...
Taking this course is a big leap of faith...
No Comments
Very nice and kind! But his teaching is horrible
worst teacher I've had at mcgill, by far
Doesn't anybody notice that his class is always empty!!! Why is he teaching
If you can do the assignments you pass the course, He doesn't give good lecture (everybody's confused), but very accessible and helpful outside of class.
He confuses everyone during class and nobody can read the notes on the board but he will explain a concept until you understand it if you see him after class! Very nice man!
effective
hes not really good. kinda reminds me of moufassa from lion king. DONT take him.
santa claus, anyone? this guy would be better off handing out toys than teaching, something which he can't do. if his classes confuse the hell out of you, just read the book and skip the lectures
nothing's worse than his class @ mcgill
By far the worst class I've had in 3 years at mcgill. Combine a boring subject with an even more boring prof and you get his class. Not even remotely helpful with exam prep. either....he's totally awful.
"Evil Santa" cant do ****!!!
An incompetent lecturer. Avoid at all costs, has no interest in the class at large, but is willing to "help" outside of class. Often presents totally irrelevant, advanced material.
I've never had a teacher as bad as him! Avoid him at all costs.
This guy is simply Santa Clause! He looks funny, dresses funny and writes illegibly on the board! What a nice combination, you cannot go to class and not laugh.
No Comments
I'm sure he's a nice guy, but there is no way he should be teaching. Spends all his time scribbling proofs on the board and for more advanced topics. Doesn't follow an outline so its difficult to follow. Has no set office hours. It was a nightmare!
effective.
someone please get him fired
Very good teacher and verrrrry intelligent. You'll learn a great deal unless you're a stupid average student
such a boring teacher!
Use old exams. He copies a lot. Always around the building, you just have to look for him. He is a very personable guy. Lectures are kind of pointless.
Bad handwiting, doesnt explain anything, odd notation, little direction. Hes terrible!
Sets the "ROCK BOTTOM" for other profs. I wasnt alone in class in the 1st lecture thinking "he's kidding" until we realized he's actually lecturing!!! I IMMEDEIATELY changed course sections and understood everything.. Word of advice: g
i hate this guy
very unclear notes, disorganized assignments on things we haven't learned yet, tough to follow, but if you get him to give a tutorial before the exam, he will solve problems exactly like those on the final, all you have to do is memorize them
Sure he is very very intelligent but it has to be said that he lacks of communication... poor handwritting too(oh my god!) YET, will always be there if you need some help for assignments or do not understand well what he said in class.. So, to understand the course, surely have to do work at home
Very intelligent and personable man, but he isn't a very strong teacher. He tries to make everything more complicated than it needs to be. He is very useful if you already have a basic understanding of the material, so read the textbook before you got to class.
The worst professor I've ever had my entire life. He never comes to class with a lesson plan and does not teach material relevant to the course the majority of the time. Plus his hand writing is undecypheriable.
dear GOD, this guy is smart and nice but cannot lecture for his life. i wish i'd changed sections. i had no idea what his notes meant, or what he was talking about. i spent the entire semester reading the textbook and going to tutorials to understand the material.
This guy is the worst teach iver ever had at any level of education!
great prof! makes linear algebra easy!
No Comments
No Comments
I've had better math profs for sure... I've also had worse. Be prepared to read the book.
Very nice man, AWFUL teacher. NEVER take one of his courses, he will confuse the crap out of you, you will never learn anything properly, AND he will unteach things you already know. I took a math for Elementary school teachers class, (shouldn't be any new info in there), and we all (the 3 people left in the class), don't undersand anything.
Mathemagician. Shows you a problem, shows you the answer, won't tell you how to get it. Probably the worst teacher I'll ever meet, definately the worst i've ever had. DO NOT take his course for math 133. Its an easy course, more helpful to just read the textbook.Started with 150 kids, ended with 8. Also he wears flipflops in winter...
Can't teach - horrible exam
horrible, doesnt know hwo to teach, thinks everything is trivial, and makes a horrible final exam worth 85%
Horrible teacher. Hard to understand and exceptionally difficult blackboard writing. Does not give a clear outline of learning material. The only thing he has going for him is his huge beard
This professor is completely unclear in his ways of teaching, his answers to questions are not worth being listened to, he talks about mathematics as if he's coming from another planet. Prepares no outline, no webct usage, no website, no answer to any assignment, worst handwriting i've ever seen (including kids) AVOID AT ANY COST. i said AVOID !
reasons not to take this class: horrible writing, totally unstructured class (no titles, no indications that you're writing a theorem/a proof/a definition). You could be doing an exercise and suddenly blend a proof and not know it (of course this isn't indicated). Avoid.
Horrible horrible horibble. Seems like a nice enoguh guy but he really shouldn't be teaching, and a 90% final!! Whats up with that?
Honestly you can't understand anything he does in class ( wether it's writting on the board explaining a question or lecturing ). Doesn't correct typos mystake CRUCIAL to the understanding of the assignment ( on 1 assignment of 4 questions 2 were not possible because of typos ). Worst teacher i've ever had AVOID AT ALL COST i'm serious
The most horrible experience i've ever had in a classroom. horrible writing, no explanations, no webct, awful structure, basically anything that could be bad about this man teaching in a classroom is a reality. do yourself a favor, avoid this character at all costs, you'll save yourself frustration and you might actually learn the required materia
Terrible.
No Comments
math 133 is a useless course and professor jonsson is terrible. His teaching style is just writing problems on the board and doing them without any explanation at all. Avoid this class, but more so, avoid this teacher
Poor teacher. No good examples. Avoid at all costs, and try to get Roth.
didn't understand anything during his class...
Don't let his appearance as Santa Clause fool you. His classes are not as fun as christmas. They're painfully frustrating as you struggle to understand anything he is teaching. I left for another section after 2 weeks.
I left for another section after 2 weeks. Started my first semester of McGill with him as my teacher for 263 and 133.. Scary. I switched out of both. And everything clicked. His y's and z's look the same. as do his a,b,c,d and everything. Illegible and incomprehensible. Just derives things from textbook without much explanation
Though this teacher is bad at teaching.. at least he tries to help the students. Compared to other teachers, the only thing u need to do is put in more work with this one. Instead of relying on notes, just read the book, it teaches u everything u need to know.
My first lecture in McGill was with him, I'll never forget it he totally freaked me out, at first I didn't realize he was a very bad teacher, I thought I was just too stupid to be in McGill. As other comments say: Unreadable board, full of mistakes, bad examples, bad explanation, never on WebCT, you must do everything on your own!
Good mathematician, nice guy, but AWFUL teacher. All he does is solve problems on the board without much explanations. Sometimes he turns seemingly easy problems into a complicated mess full of errors. It's impossible to follow his derivations and proofs. If you cannot avoid him, I'd suggest you get very friendly with your textbook.
One of the worst professors I've ever had. Try to avoid him and rather take the class in summer. This class could have been so easy, without his messed up blackboard writing and weird expressions. "Why easy, when you can make it so complicated?" must be his attitude for teaching.
I had a 50 minutes lecture with this guy and it was my worst 50 minutes yet at mcgill. This guy's textbook requirement is just any textbook that relates to this course, and he doesnt even know the course name. Avoid at all costs.
No Comments
Thank god I took this class in CEGEP first.
Professor Jonsson routinely came to class late, was unclear in explaining what he was trying to teach, and clearly did not have well thought-out examples prepared for class. I used Wikipedia and MIT lectures to learn the material instead.
Nice guy. Horrible teacher. Comes in late, writes a bunch of stuff on the board that you cannot read at all. Doesnt say anything, no explanation and most of what hes teaching is above and beyond the curriculum. No course schedule or outline so you will struggle to even learn from the book. Makes a ton of mistakes and usually wont even catch them.
He might be competent many years ago,but now,he is certainly not a qualified professor.He doesn't plan anything for the class,come to the lecture late,grap a student's notebook,read for a a few minutes,gather some old info in his brain,then start to teach. Seriously,I don't see why he still stays in McGill at his age,ruing mcgill's reputation.
Dreadful professor! His class lacks basic structure, so most of the time it consists of him solving problems in the board without explaining what he is doing. If you've read the textbook (extensively) before coming to class, you can attempt to follow his operations. However, don't expect for him to actually teach you any of the material.
Horrible!!!!!!!I never saw such a horrible teacher before! I don't understand how McGill does not have good math teachers! Just like anyone else said, if you have choice, AVOID, but if you do not have choice, then rely on your textbook, and learn everything from the book. Good luck!~
He is very intelligent and knows the material very well, but he can't explain it all. No email, WebCT, or any office hours. Final was pretty easy though if you studied.
So it is true, all these people aren't lying...He is terrible.But this class is very easy to do well in if you do all the assignments and learn the material from other sources like the textbook,paul's online math notes,etc...The final is VERY similar to the pass finals or to the assignment questions.Not the end of the world if he's your prof.
Horrible teacher but the final was questions taken exactly from our assignments so basically you have an entire semester to do 6 assignments and you should be prepared for the final
Not the best teacher, but really what math professor is? Although he may not have explained every concept perfectly in class, as long as you get down all of his notes and review them after and do every problem in the book, the assignments and final were pretty easy. He's also really nice if that helps.
He is the WORST professor at Mcgill. They should fire him and replace him with Professor Steele.
Brilliant prof, but has trouble being clear and getting concepts across to students. Students rarely ask questions so he cant really know any better...
Very, very nice professor that is unfortunately not suited for teaching. Examples are riddled with mistakes, topics jump enough to keep a kid with ADD entertained, and his handwriting rivals those of most physicians (except most physicians don't use obscure greek letters). Got an A in the course only because I read the textbook during his lectures.
Stop the madness, this man needs to retire. Though mildly approachable, he makes you feel like an idiot in class if you ask a question. Jonsson cannot teach a lecture: you just sit there blindly looking at his archaic symbols and illegible handwriting wondering why you took the course.
I hate this professor. I personally love math, but i failed this class. He doesnt teach anything in class just wonders around and makes a hard final. the class average was a C, and he didnt curve anything.
SO bad. can't understand a word he says, doesn't have webct setup hence no discussion board. You don't even know what your mark is. delay taking this course by a semester if you're gonna have to have him as a prof.
He was horrible honestly. I attended every class and still learnt nothing!! AVOID!!
Man this guy's bad. This semester we had no idea what was coming on the exam, with the end result of people seeing stuff they'd never heard of before! Its better to graduate late than to get stuck with him in a class, just how he still is in the job is a mystery. Doesn't care about the students one bit
Stay away. Class was pointless, he kept going on tangents related to his other class, or spending the entire hour on some illegible proof before realizing he had made a mistake. If you're stuck with this class, the textbook is your best friend. Also do the assignments, for us he repeated 2 questions verbatum on our final.
Oh God, I regret the day I registered for his class. Terrible terrible prof. You'd have more luck learning something from your pet cat. It's impossible to read his handwriting, might as well be writing in ancient cavemen language for all we know. You'd be better of taking this course in another semester or not at all, just stay away from him.
Friendly, approachable prof who clearly has a very good understanding of the material he's teaching... unfortunately, he doesn't know how to get that understanding across to the class! His assignments and tests are fair enough, so the course (Calc 3) is still doable -- however, be prepared to rely on the textbook.
Jonsson saved me money!!! I used to go rent a good horror movie every week. Instead, I can now just go to math class. Same effect.
PLEASE do not make the same mistake I did. I went into this class despite the horrible things I heard thinking to myself "I can do this," but no..unless you're having a really light workload such as to permit enough time for you to teach yourself calculus 3 out of a textbook then don't take his class. His lectures are almost impossible to follow.
Awful, awful prof. Fantastic mathematician, I'm sure... but absolutely terrible teacher. Doesn't speak in class, just writes formulas with no explanations. He doesn't write linearly, but all over the place. This is a self-teach class. He doesn't know how to write an exam - one semester, it's super easy, the next, it's really tough. Stay away.
One class was enough to prove the rumors true. Illegible scribbles on the board, with no explanation whatsoever, and no book nor coursepack to follow. It was such a relief to drop the class!!!
Relatively chill guy... unless he's your math teacher. Lacks communication abilities and explains cal 3 in terms of math that one hasn't encountered yet. Extremely poor teacher, so much so that all learning on my part was done using the textbook. AVOID.
Writes and speaks in a made up language. Makes mistakes every day, doesn't realize til end of class. Explains things by saying "it is self evident by the theorem." Worst teacher in the universe.
Can't follow his lectures, I walk out of class stressed and confused without learning anything.
Horrible, horrible proff. Incoherent, unhelpful, unorganized... Nothing much more to say except stay away.
Avoid at all cost.
Not the greatest, but certainly not as bad as people make him out to be. If you speak up and get him to clarify things, he can be pretty good. Assignments and final are very similar. Nice guy if you talk to him
Nice person, but makes too many mistakes in class, which add up to a huge confusion after class.
A great person, but not so great professor. His knowledge of math is so advanced and he doesn't quite remember how to explain math concepts in a way that is simple and easy to follow. Don't be scared away, if you like math and self-teaching Ad Cal is a great class.
This man is a legend. He is a fighter, a warrior, a mark of true genius, who lives in a dystopian society where Mathematics has gone to ruin. He communicates in a strange language which only the chosen ones can understand, and does not mess around by setting an easy course. The way to succeed in his class is to mimic his genius and work hard.
Amazing professor! Pure genius. His exams are always fair. Love WJ <3
He was always available every afternoon to answer questions. If you do the work and come prepared with meaningful questions he was extremely generous and helpful. If nobody asks questions in class he assumes everything is clear therefore he can proceed at a fast pace.
Class Info
Attendance Mandatory
100%
Textbook Required
100%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.42 avg changeRatings by Course
222
4.0
(1)ADCAL
4.0
(1)CAL
4.0
(1)MATH348
4.0
(1)236316
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
265
5.0
VECTORS
5.0
DIFFEQ
5.0
MATH111
5.0
MATH264
5.0