So I am thinking of taking MA 341 next semester. I would really like to take it with Alina Duca, but her time slot creates a scheduling conflict. Hoon Hong has the best time for me (6:00pm EST), but I have no idea whether he is a good teacher (his grade distribution stats seem repsectable, about 33+% get As).

Has anyone taken him before?
Is he any good?
Any info would be much appreciated.

10/5/2009 2:51:38 PM

He's funny and I learned the material pretty easily, even without the book

his tests can be overwhelming, though, because they have quite a number of problems

if you do the homework and know the example problems he does in class, his tests are managable

it's just a matter of making sure you can solve the problems quickly

10/5/2009 2:58:48 PM

Easily the funniest teacher I've ever had.

10/5/2009 3:30:23 PM

Easy A, but you won't learn DIF EQ at all.

[Edited on October 5, 2009 at 3:41 PM. Reason : ]

10/5/2009 3:39:16 PM

^ Why not?

10/5/2009 3:45:25 PM

he teaches patterns. it's great if you just want to get through the class, but when you get to any other class the relies on you having a strong understanding on why you did what you did in diffy q you are fucked.

10/5/2009 3:52:37 PM

^ and ^^^ are spot on.

I got an A- in that class. I know nothing about solving differential equations.

If you're going to need to solve differential equations at any point in your career, don't take his class.

10/5/2009 4:31:11 PM

dang, that worries me. Chances are I will eventually need this stuff and besides that I ussually have a harder time in classes where I don't understand the material. I might need to just adjust my schedule to make way for Duca.

Is there anyone else anyone would like to recommend?

10/5/2009 5:02:14 PM

just take him and relearn it when it comes. When you do encounter DiffEQ later in your classes, you really only need to understand fundamentals. You can relearn everything you need to know for each hw assignment or test pretty easily.

Trust me.

I took the ECE Diff EQ class and got a 55 curved to a 78. Terrible teacher, learned only the fundamentals, and I'm still truckin'.

10/5/2009 5:50:14 PM

he is a really funny professor & and he cares about his students, too.

maybe he'll draw a "guilty box" on the board for your class haha.

10/5/2009 6:36:44 PM

Quote :

"If you're going to need to solve differential equations at any point in your career, don't take his class."

I haven't had any trouble

but if you're seriously into math theory or something, I suppose he's not for you

10/5/2009 7:09:11 PM

^I think that's exactly it

He doesn't really teach theory at all, just applications. He shows you how to put equations into recognizable patterns and how to solve them once you've reached that point.

For most people, that's all they'll ever need to know about diff eq.

10/5/2009 9:00:21 PM

obligatory "he's friends with John Nash, the guy A Beautiful Mind was based on"

10/5/2009 9:52:04 PM

hmmm, nice guy that teaches an application oriented class that is an "easy A". That sounds good. Maybe I will flip flop and take this guy. ahah hard choices.

10/5/2009 10:02:32 PM

is he the guy that tells kids he'll kill them w/ his bare hands and such? jokingly, of course.

10/5/2009 10:21:42 PM

this class was easy as shit

but i never took anything higher, so i dont know if i learned anything

10/5/2009 11:06:04 PM

i took it in my sophomore year back in 03-04, and the classes thereafter rarely even dealt with differential equations...and when they did the teacher was like "this involves using differential equations, but you don't have to get bogged down with that" on formula derivations and stuff

10/6/2009 1:45:23 AM

Quote :

"is he the guy that tells kids he'll kill them w/ his bare hands and such? jokingly, of course."

i believe you're thinking of Dr. Moody T. Chu

10/6/2009 1:39:18 PM

moody chu always said he'd kick us

10/6/2009 2:41:21 PM

he was going over some core calculus concept and he told us "you don't know this, i kill you!"

[Edited on October 6, 2009 at 7:31 PM. Reason : but he was actually a decent teacher and a nice guy if you talked to him imo]

10/6/2009 7:31:18 PM

his tests were very similar to his practice tests

10/7/2009 5:40:38 PM

Quote :

"is he the guy that tells kids he'll kill them w/ his bare hands and such? jokingly, of course."

i believe you're thinking of Dr. Moody T. Chu

In my class, he said that if one of us became President and wasn't able to answer correctly when he asked what the fundamental theory of calculus was, he hoped we had really good security

10/8/2009 6:52:45 PM

Quote :

"he was going over some core calculus concept and he told us "you don't know this, i kill you!""

lol, that's the guy i heard about for sure.

i should've gone out of my way to take his course.

10/8/2009 11:03:47 PM

I had Hong for Calc 3 (I don't know how differently his teaching style is for diff eq) but he was great. Class was fun, I learned all the crap I needed for the class, and he was an awesome professor. A++++++ would take class with him again.

10/9/2009 9:07:59 AM

i took his class, got an a, and have regretted it ever since. I learned jack shit about diff equations and it has really screwed me in higher level engineering classes.

10/11/2009 7:42:06 PM

take it with whoever you can, but for fuck's sake do not get Fauntleroy

10/17/2009 10:36:46 AM

TAKE DIFF EQ WITH CHUCKWU!!!!!!!!!!!!

YOU WILL LEARN NOTHING BUT YOU WILL GET AN A

10/25/2009 9:24:06 AM

Was easy, except the final was really long

10/26/2009 5:48:57 PM

^^ is chukwu even still around? I had a math class with him my first year at State. He gave us some final project and nobody could figure out what the fuck he wanted us to do. So nobody did it. He ended up not even grading it. It was something about GDP and the sun. That was as far as any of us got.

12/7/2009 3:01:38 AM

Dr. Duca is awesome. I would absolutely take her if you have a chance.

12/7/2009 11:57:37 PM

I had Hong for differential. A lot of the tests and homeworks could be completed successfully via memorization of notes and old hw/tests, but all in all I think he was a good professor. He does care a lot about students. It's just the students who don't force themselves to look past the patterns and memorization that don't retain any knowledge afterwards.
Take Hong, but try to really understand the theories.

12/9/2009 8:25:07 AM

Take Duca or Hong

12/13/2009 9:17:31 AM