Professor
Jose Ramon Madrid Padilla
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I thought he was okay. I could feel that he tries to explain things, but a lot of the time unsuccessfully. He always posts hw late which makes it difficult to plan ahead. Apparently he never responds to emails as well. And if it hadn't been for recorded lectures, my ESL skills wouldn't have been able to understand his accent (which is my fault, but look out for that). Personally I didn't find his test to be that difficult, but he does shove in one question (or two in the final) where you can't solve it straightforwardly and need to do some shit to it first. The grading was also quite annoying, you could clearly show that you understand the materials (and have the correct answer) but still get a B or lower because you failed to clarify your steps. I figured that out after the first midterm so just adapt to that and it'd be good. I think personally I understood the materials well enough that none of these things were really deal breaker for me. But I thought the final was much more difficult than the midterms unlike the majority, so there's that.
Winter 2021 - I thought he was okay. I could feel that he tries to explain things, but a lot of the time unsuccessfully. He always posts hw late which makes it difficult to plan ahead. Apparently he never responds to emails as well. And if it hadn't been for recorded lectures, my ESL skills wouldn't have been able to understand his accent (which is my fault, but look out for that). Personally I didn't find his test to be that difficult, but he does shove in one question (or two in the final) where you can't solve it straightforwardly and need to do some shit to it first. The grading was also quite annoying, you could clearly show that you understand the materials (and have the correct answer) but still get a B or lower because you failed to clarify your steps. I figured that out after the first midterm so just adapt to that and it'd be good. I think personally I understood the materials well enough that none of these things were really deal breaker for me. But I thought the final was much more difficult than the midterms unlike the majority, so there's that.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - I started with the class during the COVID epidemic, so perhaps the lectures are different in real life. However he zoomed through classes, speed-running through his own notes leaving the students in the dust. While an accent shouldn't affect one's judgement of a professor, he does have a heavy accent and by the time I could figure out what he said he was 3 pages ahead in his notes. This class is one that will be useful for a long time and I would rather not take it for an entire quarter than to take it with a professor wherein my concepts would remain broken. He takes doubts happily and maintains a cheery mood, but asking for reiteration of a topic would remain to be useless since he would end up skimming through it again. He is a great person with a passion for math however his teaching as a professor could have some major improvement! Despite knowing the starting of the class decently well, his explanation counterintuitively shattered them!
Spring 2020 - I started with the class during the COVID epidemic, so perhaps the lectures are different in real life. However he zoomed through classes, speed-running through his own notes leaving the students in the dust. While an accent shouldn't affect one's judgement of a professor, he does have a heavy accent and by the time I could figure out what he said he was 3 pages ahead in his notes. This class is one that will be useful for a long time and I would rather not take it for an entire quarter than to take it with a professor wherein my concepts would remain broken. He takes doubts happily and maintains a cheery mood, but asking for reiteration of a topic would remain to be useless since he would end up skimming through it again. He is a great person with a passion for math however his teaching as a professor could have some major improvement! Despite knowing the starting of the class decently well, his explanation counterintuitively shattered them!
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2019 - Madrid is the best professor I've ever taken, probably my favorite. He is really engaging and funny and occasionally roasts people during class. he is realllllly nice and laidback. You can tell he really cares about his students' learning and is very passionate about teaching. He's also really helpful and patient during office hours and makes sure that students fully understand everything there is to know. His midterms are slightly harder than the homework but I've heard he curves generously. Overall 10/10 I would take him again.
Winter 2019 - Madrid is the best professor I've ever taken, probably my favorite. He is really engaging and funny and occasionally roasts people during class. he is realllllly nice and laidback. You can tell he really cares about his students' learning and is very passionate about teaching. He's also really helpful and patient during office hours and makes sure that students fully understand everything there is to know. His midterms are slightly harder than the homework but I've heard he curves generously. Overall 10/10 I would take him again.
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - 131B is definitely not an easy class. However, Padilla cared about out learning and he reminded us that he's not going to fail anyone. He curves the class to where most people will get A's and B's, and only a few will get C's. He told us that he will not fail anyone so he really cares about our learning. He lectures with Apple Notes, which is quite odd and inefficient since he sometimes struggles to erase something from his notes. His lectures are pretty slow, and he does go overtime by 10 minutes often. He goes slow because he really wants us to learn and he doesn't want to rush any topics. Because of this, we didn't cover all the topics that we were supposed to cover so weeks 9-10 felt a little rushed. He does have an accent and his handwriting is a little sloppy but you get used to it. Aside from this, I think his lectures were pretty good. He tends to remind us every 10 minutes that if anything is unclear, then come to office hours, but he does that because he cares about us :] The exams are tough, but that's to be expected with real analysis. There are 3 questions in each midterm. The first midterm had an average of 18.58/25 (74%) with a 18% standard deviation, but the second midterm was better with an average of 20.23/25 (81%) with a 12% standard deviation. Not sure what the final exam average was but he curved this class a lot. I got a B- with a 60% in the class. We had 6 homeworks this quarter. The homework is difficult but our TA Raymond saved me this quarter. His discussions were helpful because he did some of the homework problems, and also he'll walk you through the homework solutions during his office hours. He hosted extra review sessions too! Overall I would recommend this class. It's not easy but he won't fail anyone as long as you're trying. And if anything is unclear, then we can discuss this during office hours.
Spring 2021 - 131B is definitely not an easy class. However, Padilla cared about out learning and he reminded us that he's not going to fail anyone. He curves the class to where most people will get A's and B's, and only a few will get C's. He told us that he will not fail anyone so he really cares about our learning. He lectures with Apple Notes, which is quite odd and inefficient since he sometimes struggles to erase something from his notes. His lectures are pretty slow, and he does go overtime by 10 minutes often. He goes slow because he really wants us to learn and he doesn't want to rush any topics. Because of this, we didn't cover all the topics that we were supposed to cover so weeks 9-10 felt a little rushed. He does have an accent and his handwriting is a little sloppy but you get used to it. Aside from this, I think his lectures were pretty good. He tends to remind us every 10 minutes that if anything is unclear, then come to office hours, but he does that because he cares about us :] The exams are tough, but that's to be expected with real analysis. There are 3 questions in each midterm. The first midterm had an average of 18.58/25 (74%) with a 18% standard deviation, but the second midterm was better with an average of 20.23/25 (81%) with a 12% standard deviation. Not sure what the final exam average was but he curved this class a lot. I got a B- with a 60% in the class. We had 6 homeworks this quarter. The homework is difficult but our TA Raymond saved me this quarter. His discussions were helpful because he did some of the homework problems, and also he'll walk you through the homework solutions during his office hours. He hosted extra review sessions too! Overall I would recommend this class. It's not easy but he won't fail anyone as long as you're trying. And if anything is unclear, then we can discuss this during office hours.
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