Susan Szczepanski - Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Professor: Susan Szczepanski

Department: Mathematics

College: Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CALC021
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Awful, terribly ineffective at teaching and proceeded to get her own example problems wrong consistently. Had a tendency to get very defensive when you called her out on her issues. Would recommend going to other sections of Math021 but she takes attendance during lecture so that is off limits. Avoid at all costs or zone in class and teach yourself

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MATH021
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

She's absolutely horrible. She will literally try to explain a problem but then get it wrong midway and someone will have to correct her so you're just confused. She tried to explain a topic a million times but I still didn't understand. Lectures are pointless but she collects homework and takes attendance. Recitation was very helpful.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CALC021
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Horrible math professor who can't be bothered to properly teach the material because of her tenure. Pulls algebra out of thin air, has no idea what she is teaching, and spends all of lecture incorrectly solving an example problem. Listening to her is pointless and leaves you more confused about how to do math than when you started

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CALC021
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Awful math teacher. Has no idea what she is teaching and you have to completely rely on yourself and your TA to teach you material. Also extremely disrespectful and not kind to her students, especially during one-on-one meetings. Very often confuses herself and students have to correct her. Is extremely hard to follow and does not understand calc.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CALC21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

She does not know how to teach calc, she constantly messes up the problems. If you call her out for messing up she gets very defensive and will yell at you.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I retook calc this spring with her and it was awful. At the beginning I tried paying attention but she just made topics that I actually understood more confusing and eventually I gave up on listening to her. Attendance was mandatory for no reason at all as she was never helpful. Only reason I did well was studying on my own.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Prof Szcz DOES not teach. She grades exams harshly; if you do a pblm different then she wants, you get 2 points. Yells at students; condescending, nasty, rude and crude. TA is just as bad. Some of us never had Calculus before and she teaches and grades as if all of us had AP or IB Calc in hs. AVOID @ ALL COST. Terrible on all fronts.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CALC021
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Took this course twice with two different professors. I took it with her the second time and she managed to make things I already understood very confusing. Tests & homework are very easy (in comparison)with her, but if you actually want to learn, do not take her course.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CALC023
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor Szczepanski was not all that bad. She was very confusing and difficult to understand at first but you get used to her lecture style. You definitely need to read the textbook to do well though because she doesn't always explain all things that you need to know for exams.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CALC51
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

For calc-51: If you have any history in calculus from high school this class should be an easy A. The 4 oclocksfinal are just the same type of problems as the suggested problems she assigns so if you look over that then your set. The class itself was super boring as everything was just a review from high school and she makes reviewing it confusing

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: MATH023
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

At the start of the semester she was pretty solid. She was clear and gave a small review at the beginning of class to recap. By the end of the semester her lectures became 20 min of review and then cramming the rest of the new lecture. This made her lecture non-directional and confusing. Test were easy though.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: MATH051
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

She's probably the worst math teacher I've ever had. I seriously thought I got a 100 on our first exam and it turns out I got 11 points of scattered throughout the exam for not answering the questions the way she does even though I got it right! Very confusing and inconsistent in her lectures, she only shows examples and doesn't actually "teach"!

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CALC023
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Not a good teacher at all. Very boring to listen to during lectures, yet requires attendance. Makes everything more confusing than it has to be, and I'm usually a good calc student. The ONLY reason I got the grade that I did was I spent hours reading the textbook.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Similar to below, I also took her during the summer to improve my grade. Her teaching style is incredibly effective in a small classroom setting. Gave fantastic reviews and answered questions thoroughly. It wasn't an easy A, but it was the only class at Lehigh where I felt prepared for the test prior to the cram session the night before. Recommend.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• 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:

took this class for the second time to just get a better grade and ended up doing worse. She is the worst professor I have ever had. Her grading is unfair, her lectures are confusing, and she is nuts. Switch professors immediately if you can.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MATH22
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

She was helpful in office hours, but the lectures were really hard to follow. She is a native speaker, though so that is helpful.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: MATH242
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

In this class you are graded on concepts, methods, and notation, leaving it very subjective. Subjectivity and math do not mix very well. This is virtually the same material as MATH205, yet I got a far worse grade. She is very disorganized, a very harsh grader (loves partial credit for not putting it "her" way), and attending class serves no use

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: MATH205
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Knows the material well, but lectures are often nondirectional and confusing, and the class ends up feeling harder than it should be/really is. You should go to class so you don't have to rely on using the confusing textbook to teach yourself everything the night before each exam. Not the best 205 teacher (Coll), but also not the worst (Dodson).

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MATH22
• 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:

This teacher is crazy. Although she Has a playful personality, she is not very good in low level classes. She was better in calculus 1. She letctures as if you have read the text before class. She is really confusing and yells at students when they ask questions. If you think like her, you will love her. Too bad most of us don't.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MATH33
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Those people who said she is horrible is just not fair. It takes a while to understand her teaching style. She really is trying to teach you mathematical thinking! I took honors cal and loved it. Great personality too.