Debra Lewis - University of California Santa Cruz

Professor: Debra Lewis

Department: Mathematics

College: University of California Santa Cruz

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: MATH145
• 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:

Horrible professor. Oblivious to students' other responsibilities. Assigns homework along with projects in addition to midterm, all within the same period. Mumbles to herself and makes it mandatory to go to class. Like what? Avoid her if possible

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MATH106
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Very approachable person, but an awful professor. She has this stubborn belief of a "flipped classroom" where you practically teach yourself the materials, and as a result, her lectures in class simply don't correlate to the homework or make any real sense. If you need to take her, your best bet is hope that you get a good study group or a TA.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I'm sure she knows the material she's teaching, but what she talks about in lectures most of the time doesn't seem to be about, or at least connect with the current lesson. Learned more by reading the book and going to TA's discussion sessions. If you miss class for any reason, she will not repeat anything important as in "your problem not mine"

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• 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:

Professor Lewis was by far one of the worst professors I have ever had the misfortune of having. She goes off of a "flipped classroom", which is okay, but not in the manner in which she executes it as. I learned more from the textbook than from her lectures. In fact, I didn't even bother going to class after week 6 because of how pointless it was.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Honestly speaking, she is a good mathematician, but the worst professor I have ever met. If you are going to take her class, be prepared for following things: 1. hard pre-class quiz which is due before the lecture 2. arcane lectures which you will never understand unless you learned by yourself 3. you can never hear unless you sit at front rows

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

She is the worse teacher I 've ever had. The lecture is disorderly, she jumps from one point to another in few minutes. Sometimes have a quiz on class, so you should not miss some class. The MIT lecture she provides before every class is very useful. Strongly recommend watching the MIT lecture before classes.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Her style is all about crowd sourcing everything. She started off very bad, where the lectures were essentially Q&A sessions with pop quizzes on material you were expected to teach yourself. Now in week 8, things have changed a bit and she is covering material with examples and a lower expectation of self study. Maybe better in the future.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: MATH2
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Takes too long to get her point across, often goes on tangents, & disorganized. She's a nice person but bad prof. Gave unnecessary projects that did not help me learn math. Cared more about the social issues regarding math than us actually improving our math skills. Going to class is pointless but she makes it a requirement.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: MATH3
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Lewis is definitely a really sweet teacher although she does take a while to get to the point.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: MATH2
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Often takes so long to get to the point of what she's trying to say. Requires attention while speaking and will willingly go around and slam your laptop shut. Makes us do more writing for the amount of reading than my core class. Gets too caught up in issues that should be discussed in sociology. Disorganized.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: MATH2
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

She is very unorganized and her lectures do not go with the subject at all. Its an online class so were expected to do 7 hours online also while doing pointless group projects. She spent the whole quarter teaching us about math in the outside world and non math things but not actual math. Although its an easy A if you do the work.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: MATH2
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Lewis is a nice professor for sure, but she is not a good teacher at all. She is very disorganized, and will often go on tangents that have nothing to do with the material we're studying. As for the assignments, she expects us just to put in 7 hours a week online, but also assigns the occasional "project" that feels too much like busy work.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: MATH2
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Lewis seems disorganized, her thought process is kind of all over the place. It takes her a while to make her point. Her lectures don't make sense; she keeps using bizarre examples to try to teach us instead of using actual numbers and equations, like a math teacher should. I definitely would not recommend her to anyone. She seems nice, though.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: MATH106
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Lectures don't help with reading or homework assignments.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: 117
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Hard to follow her train of thought. Be prepared to put in a lot of time an effort. She is very nice and tries to be very helpful though she isn't always the most clear lecturer. Exams are somewhat difficult but based for the most part off of hw.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MATH117
• 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:

Debra is a hit or miss with most people. Either you're able to follow her train of thought or you aren't, and there's almost no middle ground. She's a very intelligent woman, but she doesn't do a very good job communicating clearly during lectures. If you can avoid taking her class, do it. If not, try and find solid supplementary material.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: MATH117
• 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:

Deb isn't very engaging. Her lectures make me fall asleep. Even when I listen to the recordings of her lectures later, I fall asleep. She just kind of mumbles to herself very quietly and jots things down on the overhead projector. She's not very clear. Her printing is messy. She goes off on long tangents that confuse me.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I believe that Debra is a good and interesting professor, her lecture notes can be confusing because of all the symbols and definitions and some proofs, but she does show examples, which help. The midterm wasn't too bad, but her final is brutal! The best thing to do is read the book before coming to class and going to section is a must!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MATHMATH
• 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:

She was unhelpful in her lecture notes, and was difficult to make a clear connection between her notes and the assigned homework and tests. When asking questions, she was short, unyielding to different learning styles of students, and rude in a "you don't get this?" type way

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MATH21
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Textbook is a must, the homework assignments come from it. Attending section is optional but highly recommended since her lectures are practicly incomprehensible. She doesn't provide many examples using actual probems, but rather variables which leave you even more confused. Watch the online lectures by the author of the text--super helpful!