Originally Posted by Mowicz

To the Original Poster: Regardless of which section you are in, you will be writing the same midterm. TA's (possibly different from your 'course TA') are also most likely to be the graders of your midterms and while they may make mistakes (they're only human), you can always take any discrepancies up with your professors/course TA.

The only reason to pick one prof over another (in Math at least) is their lecturing style, or if a specific time works better for your schedule. People have been giving you some insight in this way. Myself, of the 3 mentioned, I think Yazinski and McLean are great choices because of sheer enthusiasm. I've never really interacted with Dr. Moore and so I can't really comment. To me, a prof's enthusiasm is one of the most important things since, let's face it, learning math from a stuffed-shirt Yale graduate who acts superior isn't that fun.

Also, one other thing to keep in mind is that people are opinionated (stating the obvious here). One person may love a certain professor's teaching style and another may hate the same prof's style. It's all about what you value, and so you're bound to get some conflicting answers...try not to get frustrated or impatient, everyone has a little bit to add to the topic.

Hopefully that clears things up a little!

I understand that people are opinionated.
however selecting courses is my first step. as a freshmen you know.
i really dont wanna spoil it.
i wish i could choose the one who is my style.
Thnx for your advice . It does help a lot .

i am an international student.
i am kinda math person but my english is not so good.
who u guys think i should choose?
Yazinski or Mclean?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Yazinski hates words?

Originally Posted by goodnews.inc

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Yazinski hates words?

Are you serious, Bushra? He is SO wordy, lol.

Originally Posted by Sandra Shan

i am an international student.
i am kinda math person but my english is not so good.
who u guys think i should choose?
Yazinski or Mclean?

It seems that everyone pretty much agrees about Yazinski .

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Are you serious, Bushra? He is SO wordy, lol.

I gave a guest lecture on something called the Euler Characteristic, aimed at people with little-to-no math background this past week...and one of the comments I'd received is that although I engaged the audience (I hate a nifty little interactive activity) my language was 'too scientific.' (even though upon self-reflection, the only 'big words' I used were "vertex, edge and face" which I had incorrectly assumed were common knowledge)

It's probably a similar problem to what you're saying is an issue with Yazinski...so can you clarify a bit? Like maybe give an example of something he might say, and how he could have said it to make it more accessible? I think it'd help me make my own teaching style a bit more down to earth (which is one of my teaching ideals).

Originally Posted by Mowicz

I gave a guest lecture on something called the Euler Characteristic, aimed at people with little-to-no math background this past week...and one of the comments I'd received is that although I engaged the audience (I hate a nifty little interactive activity) my language was 'too scientific.' (even though upon self-reflection, the only 'big words' I used were "vertex, edge and face" which I had incorrectly assumed were common knowledge)

It's probably a similar problem to what you're saying is an issue with Yazinski...so can you clarify a bit? Like maybe give an example of something he might say, and how he could have said it to make it more accessible? I think it'd help me make my own teaching style a bit more down to earth (which is one of my teaching ideals).

Oh geez, lol. It wasn't anything like you were saying. It's hard to remember, but when he first introduced a theory or something, he would give this huge run on sentence introducing it... It was just intimidating. It wasn't the specific words he used, it was just so long and fast. That was way back in sept/oct, sorry I can't be more specific. I can barely remember the topics we learned, let alone a specific example of how he made it seem so much harder than it was actually gonna be. XD

Heh, that's just the way he is. The guy's got a fresh Ph. D and teaching material that's only marginally ahead of what's taught in high school. He's got to keep himself entertained somehow.

Sitting in one of his 1L03 classes, I remember him working out a long and obscure proof completely verbally despite it being only marginally related to what he was teaching probably to keep himself entertained. I was following for the most part, but it seemed like he was just doing it to keep himself entertained.

...Later on in that class, someone asked what "e" was and I think I actually laughed out loud before I realized that I wasn't in a class full of engineering students anymore.

Did he ever tell you what his favourite movie was?

I also agree that he has awesome style.

Originally Posted by Entropy

Heh, that's just the way he is. The guy's got a fresh Ph. D and teaching material that's only marginally ahead of what's taught in high school. He's got to keep himself entertained somehow.

Sitting in one of his 1L03 classes, I remember him working out a long and obscure proof completely verbally despite it being only marginally related to what he was teaching probably to keep himself entertained. I was following for the most part, but it seemed like he was just doing it to keep himself entertained.

...Later on in that class, someone asked what "e" was and I think I actually laughed out loud before I realized that I wasn't in a class full of engineering students anymore.

Did he ever tell you what his favourite movie was?

I also agree that he has awesome style.

That's exactly what I mean.

Honestly, he's probably the best looking person I've ever seen at Mac.

Nope, he never did. I must email him one day and ask him. Great guy. Super passionate about his students. Lmfao; I lolled when he said "I'm so old" Class: "How old are you?" "No no..." "How old are you?" "Massive sigh. I'm 28." "WTF?"
"I know."

Really wanted all of us to do well and that's really something for a prof who could really have had a field day with that material and made sure all our dreams were crushed.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Are you serious, Bushra? He is SO wordy, lol.

I Googled him and I found this paper he wrote. Omg. I don't follow the math but I like math and Physics nonetheless. It was beautiful. I think it was about 5 pages of pure math and I tipped my imaginary hat to him. It was so elegant and clean. That could have been the formatting but I just felt happy to see it.

He does get excited and talk a lot but I believe he enjoys solving problems using minimal wording and more math or at least that's what I can remember from our class.

Yazinski is a great prof. He's confusing at times but very helpful if you go him for extra help (office hours). Me and most of my friends finished with 11s and 12s in his Stats 1L03 class. He probably wont be the one writing the tests or figuring out the grading scheme which is too bad. He's very generous when it comes to belling marks or just changing the demoninator of his tests. He also had this extra credit thing for 1L03 which I went to for some extra marks, which he may do again if he's allowed.

Moore on the other hand is boring and does an ok job teaching but its too slow. I didn't even go to class after a few weeks with him bc I was just too bored and couldn't listen.

Either way you can end up doing well. I would go for Yazinski if I had a choice.

I had Yazinski and McLean; they're both good in their own ways, but McLean is WAY better at teaching. I had McLean for 1M03. He's frequently in the Math help office, his lectures are really well paced, thorough and informative. I learned a lot in class with him and found that I only needed to do the homework a few nights before the test to grasp everything. He's always cracking bad jokes that somehow made me laugh and uses overheads for his notes. Yazinski, on the other hand, is ALWAYS available for after-class help. I had him for Stats 1L03 and found he could teach way better face-to-face than in a lecture hall full of students. His lectures were a little face paced for my liking (then again I'd never before practiced math similar to stats) and he used slides (I prefer overheads). However, he put forth a great effort to make a dry class fun, sometimes we played games and he gave ridiculous bonus marks on the final, like "draw a picture of a cat", and had group sessions for bonus marks throughout the semester. Overall, they're both really nice and helpful, but if I had to choose I'd McLean simply because I feel like his teaching methods are a little more effective. Yazinski was WAY too smart to be teaching a first year class and it seemed as though the course material was just "intuitive" for him.