Larry Bates - University of Calgary, Calgary, AB

Professor: Larry Bates

Department: Mathematics

College: University of Calgary, Calgary, AB

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: MATH375
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Well lets just say, I didn't attend a single lecture because the online slides from a different prof were better at instructing.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MATH375
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Avoid getting into his class at all costs.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: MATH375
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He like to demonstrate the inner workings of math, which is good for people who like math. However, his approach isn't systematic, which makes it often confusing and hard to follow.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: AMAT415
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He's a funny guy, but he goes on a lot of tangents. If you like calculus, you'll probably like his classes. On the downside, grading took forever and the entire course was graded on 3 assignments and a term paper. Overall a good experience though

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: MATH375
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

All his lectures do is confuse you about topics you already know. The only reason I didnt fail was because the other profs for the class posted their notes online.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: MATH375
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Great professor, he will show you why the mathematics works instead of just telling you what to do. You do need to study on your own though, otherwise nothing will make sense.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Made me question all the concepts I knew well. Avoid at all costs.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: MATH377
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Bates was the first calculus prof I've had that taught the underlying concepts in math, and not just how to do them. I learned a lot on this class, and although he does spend a lot of time rambling in class I still understood lots. Assignments and the practice questions are quite difficult, but the tests are straightforward.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Most of the course material is from high school calculus but there is a handful of new material that he made very difficult to understand. You have to teach yourself as he is not helpful and goes on random tangents frequently. This course is not hard itself so take it with any other prof. Attendance in his class went from 200+ to less than 40.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: MATH377
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

I enjoyed his class, but the previous comment is true. Dr. Bates spends a lot of class time talking about things that he thinks are interesting rather than the course material. His stories are interesting but it means you have to learn on your own. Other than that he's great, tests were straightforward and we were allowed cheat sheet on the final.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: MATH377
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Honestly, if you're not someone who has time to research, and do challenging work on your own, Bates is not the guys for you. He's a decent enough guy, but fails as a prof. We'd be going over review, things I'd already learned, and understood from previous math courses and he'd somehow manage to confuse me. Just a completely awful experience.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: F
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Terrible Prof

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Definitely the most useless professor I have ever had. Never learned anything useful in his class. He talks about the most useless stuff you can ever imagine, and doesn't know how to teach at all.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: MATH377
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

LOL Bates is hilarious, I can understand why some people don't like his teaching style (becuase he makes you actually work) but I enjoy his lectures.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Bates was an amazing prof, he taught the class well by using challenging problems and theorems. His lectures are difficult to understand because of the types of problems he chooses but they are super interesting; combined with his amazing humour it makes for great lectures. If you like challenging interesting problems Bates is the prof for you!

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: AMAT433
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

This course is a little abstract just because there are no exams, we write an essay instead. The prof likes to go on tangents often but he cares about making sure we understand everything that we should have learned up to this point in our lives. He really cares about his students but can be a bit rude sometimes, which was no problem for me.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

If you have a really good understanding on calculus from a previous course, you can get by in his class. But honestly though, if you want a decent grade I strongly recommend attending Elsabrouty's class. Because Bates goes off on tangents, and there are only online assignments. Also, the textbook is quite helpful.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

If you can switch profs do it.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Made me more confused about the material than I was before the class

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MATH275
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

literally the worst Prof i had and will probably ever have. He's actually trash. Very unfair that other students gets great profs like Elsabrouty and actually learn calculus while some pay the same money and dont. If you get him for any courses, either switch out of that class or switch out of that entire block if you're in first year engineering.