Randy Pruim - Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

Professor: Randy Pruim

Department: Mathematics

College: Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: STAT343
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Prof. Pruim is an incredibly intelligent person, but a challenging professor. Rather than explain things step-by-step, he prefers to let you struggle until you figure things out-which is a great strategy unless the things you are trying to figure out are impossible except for a genius. The tests are hard, but thankfully are curved (grade saver!).

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MATH251
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Basically gives handouts and expects you to learn everything from it. He barely lectures and you gotta learn everything yourself.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: STAT145
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Very challenging prof, tons of long homework assignments, and long/brutal tests. His teaching style is basically a new handout every day that contains notes about the topic at hand, and he leaves you to figure it out on your own. There is little teaching/lecturing involved. Also, he can be a little snobbish at times, but usually a pretty nice guy.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: STATS143
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

In my bio stats, he would show up and give a handout for group projects and then leave. Very unhelpful. Never explained things and had favorite groups. Very unhelpful

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: MATH344
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Homework is very hard and time consuming. The tests take twice as long as they're supposed to plus there is always a take home portion that takes even longer. If you dare take this class, you'd better hope that the rest of your classes are easy. Pruim is a very nice guy though. He will spend hours helping you with homework until you understand.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Homework was hard, but not overloading. Pruim explained well and was interesting. Lots of work done in R statistical software, useful if you will ever use it again, but you probably wont.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Lectures were awful. Spent most of the time learning how to use R Studio and then wouldn't let us use it on tests. Doesnt give good explanations on how to do the calculations by hand so it makes the tests even harder. Doesn't give good feedback on tests and grades extremely difficult.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

TAKE AP STATS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO TAKE STATS AT CALVIN. Terrible. I had to teach myself everything in his class. The lectures were pointless and he grades everything really tough. Good luck getting a decent grade in his class.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Confusing, unhelpful lectures; some days over half of class time is wasted on R-Studio coding without a thorough explanation of the concepts behind the what we're coding. Basically taught myself the material as I suffered through the homework. Way too much work for a 2 credit engineering stats course. Particular grader when it comes to tests.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

He may know what he is saying but doesn't convey it well at all. Feels like the homework is a day behind the lectures, making what should be easy very difficult. The class doesn't even feel like it's about stats and only how to use R-Studio. Makes fun of people a lot.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Extremely unorganized, often late. Gives way too much homework-more than my engineering classes do. Not helpful at all. Lectures are confusing, boring. Comes off as kind of a jerk. Not very sympathetic to students in his class. Probably the worst professor I've had at Calvin, by a long shot. Avoid at all costs.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: MATH145
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

He was a great professor but his grading was a little confusing sometimes because the number of points on the testsquizzes were never given.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: MATH343
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Textbook is hard to follow, Homework is difficult and graded very hard, feedback is confusing, drops a test. Tests are somewhat easier than the homework. Will do anything to help his students, although most times he will make you work for the answer. Could easily be found in office and would stop whatever he was doing to assist with homework.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: STATS241
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Had to use RStudio. We spend most of the time trying to get R to work than learning stats. Seems like it should be as easy class but he isn't clear. He doesn't make connections between things like he should, so that you completely understood instead of just understanding sections.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: MATH343
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The first half of this class will lull you for the second - it gets tough. Although Pruim is always (for hours on end) willing to help his students, he spends more time making you think about the solution than helping you arrive at the solution. Be prepared to work in this class.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MATH143
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

HORRIBLE prof. His lectures are completely unclear, and if you ask him questions he humiliates you in front of the class. He's completely unorganized. He didn't even make a syllabus, and there was a huge project due at the end of the year that he said nothing about until a week before finals.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: STATS143
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I had Pruim for biology driven stats; beware there is really not much biology involved. He is a good prof and willing to help after class with questions, but the material is difficult and it takes some work. Overall I would recommend the class if you enjoy math and want a good prof.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: MATH143
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Prof Pruim was great. Ignore what you read about him "mocking people with dumb questions." He is nicest to the students who don't understand the material. He taught the subject in a way that was consistent, easy to understand, and really interesting. The homework he assigns is very relevant to course material; do it, and ask questions!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MATH232
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I was in this class the first time he taught it - very clear lessons. Easy to understand. Sometimes lengthy homework assignments; tests were difficult.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MATH344
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The Professor decided to write his own textbook which was cheap and helpful, but had ridiculously hard homework. Fortionately the professor was always willing to spend time outside of class working with students until they could do it and the test problems where most of the classe's grade came from were a lot easier.