Chris French - Grinnell College

Professor: Chris French

Department: TBD

College: Grinnell College

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: MAT200ISH
• 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:

In this class there are no answer sheets. You have to go to his office to get answers. There are 3 assignments a week and for someone who is bad at math, each take me around 8 hours. If you dont do a hw, you wont learn the material. Late HW is not accepted so after missing 1 HW, catching up becomes impossible considering the time commitment per hw

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: MAT133
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor French gives clear lectures, is helpful in office hours, posts detailed study guides before exams, and has weekly quizzes. Also, he really emphasizes concepts and theories in lectures and expect you to reconstruct them closely in exams.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: MAT131
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Clearly explains complex theory. He gave me a complete understanding of the underlying reasons why Calculus works. Extensive office hours, very helpful for homework and exam prep. Posts useful study guides. Exams are theory-heavy but easy to get a good grade if you understand the concepts.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: MAT131
• 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:

Most of the grade is based on exams. His exams are very theory loaded. If you mess up one, good luck getting a good grade. He is prepared for lessons though he always practices his jokes and expects everyone to laugh at his bad puns. He tries to be inclusive. He's okay. I just don't think much is done in class besides taking exams...

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: MAT131
• 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:

Professor French is a super nice guy, but very difficult to understand - assumes students understand certain concepts and does not explain his steps. He is not great at explaining highly technical and complicated concepts like optimization.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: MAT133MAT218
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Brilliant brilliant professor and really kind/caring person. His explanations are profoundly clear, and he'll work soooo hard to make sure you get the material. Also he clearly loves math and its so much fun to watch.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: MAT218
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He is an exceptionally hard grader and an exceptionally good lecturer. His lectures are very clear and concise and going in to his office hours helps a lot. There is a lot of homework assigned but most of it is graded by a grader so not that many points are lost. His tests are based a lot on the homeworks.

Rating # 8

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

This man was born to teach. Had him for Calc II and he made it far easier to understand than Calc I with a difference prof. Every word he says is deliberate and he makes sure to explain difficult concepts clearly. That being said, homeworks were hard but not unreasonable and tests were fair. He often quizzes on proofs that you have to memorize.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: MAT133
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

WOW WELL. I really enjoyed lectures and I thought in general the class was very clear - computations make sense, and he explains not only HOW to do things but WHY. However, he gave essay quizzes, and God forbid you write anything besides exactly what he said in the videos they covered.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: 133
• 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: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Brilliant mathematician, but terrible teacher. French lectures at a fast pace, but doesn't care if you are getting the material or not. More likely, he just wants to show you how much he loves math. Honestly, everyone taking a class like this has to love math to some degree. Regardless, the lectures don't help you on the homework.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: MAT133
• 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:

Multiple hours on homework nightly. You have to memorize the proofs you do in class and regurgitate them on tests. But the way he gets excited about math really made my day and was relatively contagious.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: MAT133
• Grade Received: C+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

French requires students to spit back on tests in detail the proofs he taught in class, which take up a lot of class time. Do not take this class with this professor if your goal is to eventually apply calculus to other fields. It will be agony for you.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: MAT246
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He's a brilliant man who brings his enthusiasm for math into the classroom. Number Theory with him was a ton of work (20+ hours a week), but I certainly came out of that class ready for Foundations courses. I wouldn't recommend him to non-math people, but taking Number Theory (or probably Combo) with him will teach you how to write strong proofs.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: MAT218
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Combinatorics! It's fun, but very time consuming. Make sure you go to his office hours. He is extremely helpful.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CALC133
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

French is one of the best and most difficult teachers I have ever had. His lectures are crystal clear, he builds step by step, and he writes everything you need to know on the board. On the other hand he does not go over homework which takes on average 3 hours a night and his test grading is unbelievably harsh. Hardest I ever worked for a B.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: MAT218
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Your worst nightmare in terms of work. VERY CHALLENGING COURSE, but he's very good at explaining. His expectations of students are unreasonable. Don't recommend this professor unless you like spending 3 hours on HW everyday...

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: MAT133
• 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:

Professor French is challenging but not unreasonable. Lectures moved fast because he truly enjoys math, but he ALWAYS slowed down when you asked him and realized he'd move too fast due to his excitement. He was EXTREMELY helpful in office hours in helping me with my test-taking challenges and as a result more generous in grading. I learned a ton!!!

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: MAT321
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He said once that "If you are having fun in my class, then I have failed as a teacher." He moves very quickly in lectures and I often only had time to uncomprehendingly copy down what he was saying. Assignments were overly long, as if he thought this was the only class you were taking. Take him if you are really good at math. Otherwise, don't.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: MAT316
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Awesome Class

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: MAT131
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Many people seem to find Professor French hard. It's not him that's hard but the subject. Unfortunately, a number of morons in class disagree. His lectures are clear and concise. Writes everything down on the board. Great in class, great in office hours. Gives more importance to conceptual understanding than computational ability, which is good.