Polyratings.com: Riley, Adrienne

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Riley, Adrienne

Cumulative GPA: 2.49/4.00 with 41 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.56
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.44

Mathematics Department, Cal Poly, SLO
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MATH 161 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 4:39 pm, Mar 27, 2013 Report Evaluation		I thought professor Riley was overall a good teacher. If you do the homework every night and get the help you need as you go through, you will do fine. What others are referring to as far as her mistakes- she will do a problem and leave out a minus sign or something small. Yes it does happen often, but she still was able to explain the concept and would quickly fix the minor mistake. The class is: 10% homework, 2 midterms 26%, and a final 38%. For those struggling in the class she made deals such that the final could be worth more and the midterms less or if they could earn a B on the final they would pass the class despite 2 Fs on the midterms. If you have a background in calculus this class is very doable, and if not you may struggle a bit more.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 10:58 pm, Dec 2, 2012 Report Evaluation		I had a background in calculus before taking her class, so I'm somewhat objective, but overall I though she was a good teacher. Willing to help, would go over homework questions everyday for the first 10mins of class. She has daily quizes, but all you do is copy down a homework problem - they're just to make sure you do the homework. And sometimes she goes deeper into concepts, but then doesn't expect you to memorize them for a test, which is nice. Overall a good teacher.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 1:25 pm, Oct 18, 2012 Report Evaluation		Reading some of these reviews puzzles me, I have found that Professor Riley is a phenomenal instructor. Her lectures are always so clear and she spends a great deal of time answering questions about how to do the homework. She also provides worksheets that supplement the homework and are extremely useful as references. I feel like we receive an email from her almost every day with tips for the homework and reminders for test dates and tutoring programs. Her lectures were nothing less than stelar and her approach was very conducive to my learning style.

MATH 161 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 10:47 pm, Jun 17, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley, has trouble doing simple problems in class. You come into class with a question, and end up leaving having even more questions. She will go through a whole problem, and then realize she did something absolutely wrong. Do not take this teacher.

MATH 161 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 1:39 am, Jun 12, 2012 Report Evaluation		Mmkay, so it seems like a lot of people hate Riley and a lot of people love her. Well, I had mixed feelings about her too. She seems really nice and sweet, but sometimes she does talk to you like you are a little kid and it can seem condescending. But I think she means well. There are 2 midterms and a final, as well as daily quizzes. For the quizzes, she'll just pick a random problem from the homework and you just copy it down and turn it in. You really need to do the homework to succeed in this class. The midterms aren't that hard, but she takes off for tiny mistakes, which is really annoying because even if it's obvious you understand the material, you still get docked for stupid shit. The tests are usually 10-12 long problems and she makes the tests out of however many problems there are (e.g. 12). This is really annoying because she'll take off like 1/3 of a point for a stupid mistake (like if you don't simplify all the way) and it reallllllly adds up! I ended up with a B on both midterms because of that. But the final wasn't bad at all. I got an A on it and ended up with an A in the class. So anyway, as long as you do all the homework, ask questions, and go to most lectures, you should be fine. She also gives out 'brownie points' occasionally, which help a tiny bit.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 10:52 pm, May 7, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley is a great math teacher and is pretty reasonable on grading. If you pay attention in class you will do fine. Quizes are open homework so if you done your homework your fine and she picks the easier problems to quiz on. She gives a lot of partial credit and doesn't take off lots of points for minor mistakes on tests. She is also helpful during office hours and gives useful worksheets to do in class.

MATH 161 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 12:30 am, Mar 21, 2012 Report Evaluation		By all means do not take this teacher. First off if you ask her to do a hard example in class (which by the way she will; ask on the exam) most of the time she either gets confused and cannot figure it out or says she will get back to it. Second off her quizzes have absolutely nothing to do with the exams. For the first exam I thought that it would be fairly similar to the quizzes (which is a pretty good indicator for exams for 99.9% of classes that you take at cal poly), but this was totally wrong. Her quizzes are based on the easiest problems that we do in homework, while her exams are based on the hardest homework problems which she even herself cannot solve. After the first exam she would not even tell us the average, after multiple students asked her. She simply said that "she did not know" , which is a complete lie, what teacher does not know the average of an exam to her own test? Basically she tries to dumb down the information to make it easier but in the end screws you over on exams when the problems are much tougher than the information that she teaches in class.



MATH 161 Freshman Grade Earned: F Required (Support) 8:18 pm, Mar 20, 2012 Report Evaluation		She is easily one of the worst math teachers I have ever had. She treats her students like 5 year olds and cannot competently do the problems we ask her to do for us. There have been times in class where she literally could not figure out how to do the homework problems she assigned us, and one day when someone asked her to work out a problem she said "I hope I can do it!" I NEVER want to hear that from a math teacher. I never took calculus in high school, but she acts like we all have and doesn't go in depth enough and skims along everything. Her entire class is based off of two midterms, a final, and homework quizes worth one point each and ten percent of your grade. Her midterms were worth twelve points, which is an awful way to grade since she would take off 3/4 a point and so forth. I would not recommend her on any level, try to get someone else.

MATH 161 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 4:43 pm, Mar 20, 2012 Report Evaluation		Her test are fair if you do the homework. Definitely make those flashcards she tells you to make and just do some randomly throughout the course of the week before a midterm. Her questions come almost straight out of the book (almost) so if you do the homework you'll at least past the test with a B. The only things is that her exams are quite long for a one hour course, so if you don't know the material well, there's no way you'll finish it by trying to figure out how to solve it on the actual test.

MATH 161 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 12:42 pm, Mar 17, 2012 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley was a great teacher!! She was super nice and always willing to help. She is great in office hours. Her tests are 12 questions and only worth 12 points so that was bad. But overall she is incredibly nice and I would definitely recommend taking her class.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 9:25 pm, Mar 10, 2012 Report Evaluation		Easily one of the absolute worst teachers I've ever had in my entire life. Looks at the board for the majority of the class. Her "quizzes" consist of a problem on your homework which you just copy right off your homework. The quizzes are worth 1 point. You dont turn in your homework, which sounds awesome but you basically have no incentive to do your homework so then you fail the majority of your quizzes. She spends most of the class just going over homework problems and doesnt really explain the new material. She also talks to us like we're children. Which gets pretty annoying. Just do not take this class. I am not a terrible student, I took pre-calculus the quarter before i took this class and got an A. Again, do not take this class.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:28 am, Dec 26, 2011 Report Evaluation		I did really well in Riley's class. She was good at teaching the material and if you take good notes and pay attention, you'll do fine. Write down all homework problems because some of the test questions are straight from the lectures. Also, do ALL the homework because she let's you use them on the test. She is a very nice grader and only takes off 1/2 or 1/4 points if you get a questions wrong but she understands that you know how to do the problem and made a small error. There's only 2 midterms and a final that really count for your grade, so make sure you do well on them all!

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 12:54 am, Dec 8, 2011 Report Evaluation		Adrienne Riley is an exceptional professor!! She did her very best to explain the material in a coherent fashion and I personally believe she succeeded in doing so. Riley is very knowledgeable and will do just about anything to help you succeed! What to expect from the class: 1) There is a lot of homework but it's never due. 2) There is a quiz every Friday, and it's about five question long. One of the questions is directly from the homework and the other four are homework questions she just changed up the numbers. Every quiz is open notes and homework - Do the homework!!! 3) There are two midterms [WHICH ARE NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT] if you keep up with the class and do the homework you will get at least a B on these two tests. Her problems are very similar to the medium difficulty ones you find on the homework. If you can do the last few questions on each homework assignment you will honestly laugh at her tests. 4) THE FINAL: the longest freaking test of your life. I am just a freshman (1st quarter) so I'm not used to these 3 hour finals. It took me a good two hours and I got a 101 on (midterm 1) and a 100 on (midterm 2). Overall her final is quite a bit harder than her midterms because her problems are way more tedious and really test your algebra skills. Make sure you understand the main topics of the course REALLY WELL, don't waste your time on the little stuff. STUDY a little bit every day and you'll be fine... best of luck!



MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:44 am, Dec 5, 2011 Report Evaluation		She was a pretty good teacher and knew her stuff but she had a hard time teaching it and keeping everything clear and organized on the board. Sometimes I didn't go to class because I figured I could teach certain sections to myself more clearly. If I hadn't taken AP cal in high School I would have definitely struggled in this class. The GOOD parts of this class was that you didn't turn in your homework but the quizzes on Fridays were open note/homework and the problems always came straight from the homework and the problems on the final and midterms were really simple.

MATH 116 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 1:10 pm, Oct 25, 2011 Report Evaluation		worst teacher I have had at Cal Poly, talked to us like we were 5 years old and didnt teach us anything. More than half my class failed. Her final was information that we didnt even go over. All she talked about was her cats. DONT TAKE

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Major) 5:15 pm, Dec 10, 2010 Report Evaluation		The bottom line is Riley\'s class for calc 1 is taught towards students with previous calc 1 experience. If you did not take calculus in high school you will most likely fail. She goes really fast, expects you to know randoms stuff, and skips crucial steps and doesn\'t explain. Not very helpful in office hours.

MATH 221 Senior Grade Earned: F Required (Major) 12:32 pm, Aug 21, 2010 Report Evaluation		Piss on this class! I hate calc just as much as the next person, Riley made me loath it. She is horrible at presenting material! I Took this class again in the summer (8 weeks)and got an A! Just goes to show how bad of a teacher she is. Especially since i took that class again and with less time to learn the material and got an A with Prof. Kaul. DO NOT TAKE RILEY!

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 6:49 pm, Apr 7, 2010 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley is a good teacher. If you are good at Calc, the class is very easy. She is a pretty easy grader (gives partial credit and is understanding of certain dumb mistakes). She is very nice and presents the material well, but the class can be boring if your brain is moving at a faster pace than her teaching. The way she teaches is geared more towards students who have a lot of trouble with Calc. She doesn\'t present many through provoking, challenging problems, which is what made the class boring for me. Overall, I would recommend this professor to students struggling with calculus, but probably not the best professor (although it will be an easy A) if you are already good at calculus or a math major or something like that.

MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: C General Ed 1:11 pm, Mar 25, 2010 Report Evaluation		Shes not a horrible teacher, the way she grades is though. There was a good amount of hw that is due once a week and a quiz on the day she collects the hw. The quizzes arent too hard it just sucks because they are out of 3 or 4 points so if you get 2 wrong you fail. she does this weird thing where she takes 1 third or even 1 tenth of a point off, which doesnt sound bad, but shes a picky grader so all those add up. The 2 midterms werent too hard but there were both out of like 16 points so getting a decent grade was kind of hard. overall, i didnt try very hard and passed, but i was also familiar with the material so i didnt have to pay too much attention. she has to teach fast because theres more material than time but as long as you go to class and do your hw you should be fine. she is also really nice and its funny when she tells a joke because she laughs at herself.



MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: D General Ed 9:44 pm, Mar 17, 2010 Report Evaluation		shes not a bad teacher, she moves quickly but its only because theres more material then time. she does a pretty good job of giving you opportunities to ask questions but she does grade quizes and test harshly. I personally think its pretty nit pickey but im not very good at math so maybe thats just cus she took so many points off of my tests...good luck, shes not too bad.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:02 am, Mar 4, 2010 Report Evaluation		i took calc 1 in high school but chose to take it over this quarter. i found that she cleared up alot of the things i was confused about from the past. she definitely presented the big ideas very well but didnt always explain in the best details. but with no required HW the class wasnt too hard over all.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:16 am, Mar 2, 2010 Report Evaluation		She\'s not that exiting a professor, but she presents the material clearly.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 8:15 pm, Dec 21, 2009 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley is a good overall teacher, but she makes a ton of mistakes going over problems so its hard to understand. If your a student that needs to go over problems slowly, beware. She moves really fast through the lecture. I ended up goin to most of her office hours because i missed doing problems in class. She is always there for office hours and always makes space for you if you need it.

MATH 161 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 2:08 pm, Sep 1, 2009 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley tries her best to make the class easy, but i found her to be more annoying than helpful. She's definitely one of those teachers that treats her students like four year-olds. She used stupid skits and hand motions to explain ideas that really did not need that much explaining. It's my own fault i got a C in the class, but i just had a really hard time listening to her.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 9:58 pm, Apr 13, 2009 Report Evaluation		Dr. RIley was a decent teacher; she made tons of mistakes doing problems, and didn't know what she was doing half of the time. She always made excuses for her mistakes and did stupid little actions to describe stuff. If you do the homework, you shouldn't have any problems with the midterms. I, however, had a 93 average on the midterms and 100% on the homework/query thing but got an 80% on the final and therefore got a B in the class, even though I had a very high B. She doesn't use the +/- system which is very annoying. She's nice, but definitely not the best calculus teacher ever. I would only consider taking here, another teacher would definitely be better.



MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 6:59 pm, Mar 31, 2009 Report Evaluation		she is a very nice lady and does what she can to make the class interesting and easy. i found her midterms very easy. she tests on whether or not you know the material and doesn't give you super hard problems. she explains everything slowly so the class can pick up on the harder stuff. good teacher. if you're good at math or to calc in hs, it's an easy A

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 9:45 pm, Mar 28, 2009 Report Evaluation		Overall, Professor Riley is a good teacher. The homework was reasonable and the exam questions were straight from the homework and the examples she did on the board. Most of the final was very similar to the midterms. She was very accessible during office hours and really made an effort to help us when we asked.

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Elective 5:34 pm, Mar 24, 2009 Report Evaluation		She made mistakes in her explanations of problems on a daily basis, often failing to complete a problem because she didn't know how to do it without her book. Many kids in this class were confused but didn't know how to ask for help because she herself could not explain the material clearly. Her emphasis on minutia and definitions she herself could not fully explain was a little over the top. She seemed to take pride in her poor handwriting and the fact that she struggled with introductory calculus for a long time in her own education. I would rather have been taught this subject again by my high school teacher (whom I despised, but at least he could teach).

MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: D Required (Support) 11:30 am, Mar 1, 2009 Report Evaluation		Okay so here's the thing, math is never really easy, Professor Riley is the kind of teacher who explains how to do problems step by step on the board with homework problems out of the book. If you can learn from that CONGRATS you WILL almost defiantly pass this class, HOWEVER if you're the type of person who needs more in depth study and analysis the you either want a different teacher, or if your stuck with her, go to all her office hours. They we're right after the section I was in, so i just sat in her office doing homework. My grade doesn't reflect that cause I hate math, and it's the first time I've done calculus ever, but you know the teacher is biased when she tells her D student that he only needs a 70% to pass her class on the final, DESPITE terrible grades on the midterms.

MATH 221 Junior Grade Earned: C General Ed 3:02 pm, Feb 24, 2009 Report Evaluation		I will make this short and to the point. I hate math as much as the next person, im your average student just trying to get by in a math class. I listened to the rest of these comments about Mrs.Riley...I couldn't have made a worse decision in my college career! One of, if not the worst teacher (not person ) i have ever had in my life! Last time i checked, teaching isn't writing a brand new problem out of the book onto the board and then moving on. Also, when more than half the homeworkd problems are on the board for you to go over, dont ask the class if we understand the information because we obviously dont! Lastly, if the last two midterms never got above a 65% dont say "we need to study more" maybe you need to look in the mirror and come to terms that you should retire and let someone who is more dedicated, younger, and not completely oblivious to her own faults as a teacher. All your doing is hurting others college career. I did pass the class (barely), with absolutely no help from Mrs.Riley, i had to spend my own money on tutors outside of class and they had to fill the large gaps of information that Mrs.Riley's elderly mind. missed. For everything that is holy do not take her class. And to Mrs.Riley, some times you only have to look as far as yourself to see the real problem

MATH 221 Sophomore Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 7:59 pm, Feb 22, 2009 Report Evaluation		I dreaded taking Calculus until I got to class. Professor Riley was so great at explaining the material. I think I have had a bad experience with math because it used to be my absolute least favorite subject.. now I don't mind calculus. Professor Riley helped explain the math in a manner that relates to the business student. I would recommend taking Riley, especially if you are like me and need a little extra help when it comes down to derivatives. :)



MATH 141 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 11:16 am, Apr 3, 2008 Report Evaluation		Easily the best math teacher I have ever had. Explains the material slowly, throughly, and efficiently. Her grading system is very fair. She will pause to answer every students questions and is very helpful in office hours. You will not be sorry if you take her.

MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: A General Ed 9:42 am, Dec 12, 2007 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley isn't the very best at explaining the material. Also, she rushes and does everything very quickly. Other than that, the class was very easy. There wasn't any homework to be turned in, only weekly quizzes based on the homework problems. The midterm and final weren't that bad, but she doesn't give you any study guides. Honestly, if i hadn't taken this class in high school, i don't think i would have done so well in it. The only reason i knew what she was talking about was because i had already done it before.

MATH 119 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A Required (Support) 8:31 pm, Apr 26, 2007 Report Evaluation		She is very dedicated to her teaching. Organized and approachable. Recommend her highly.

MATH 119 Freshman Grade Earned: C Elective 10:30 pm, Mar 15, 2007 Report Evaluation		She hands out the homework every week printed out so thats good. She's also a nice person overall. Other than that she made it awful and snoozing sounded like a better and better idea every minute that you were awake in that class. She is talented in the way that she takes a truly dull subject like trig and makes it that much more mundane and uninteresting. Her GPA on ratings is a 3.6 or so, but I don't understand why anyone would actually like think so highly of her, maybe they passed the easy quizes and were stoked or something, but if you have a choice, take someone else.

MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 11:24 am, Feb 23, 2007 Report Evaluation		She would have been an ok teacher except she makes a LOT of mistakes while lecturing (doing problems on the board). It can be very confusing to have copied down notes and not know whether you are studying a problem that has been done wrong. She is not exceedingly nice, and it began to bug me that she had about 3 outfits and that was it. Seriously, if I see another pair of brown pants like hers ai may just lose it. Overall, fairly boring, many times confusing, her quizzes are INCREDIBLY easy and then her tests are pretty hard, which is kind of misleading. I took her because she got a good rating on polyratings but now I don't really feel she deserves it.

MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:50 pm, Jan 31, 2007 Report Evaluation		Adrienne teaches precalculous in a very slow and comprehensive way that makes this material easier to learn. Adrienne is always there to help out and she is just a nice person in general. The tests were a little hard but if you do all your homework, alright on the quizzes and the tests then you will pass. I didnt know anyone who didnt pass her class, and there was some people who I am sure were on the verge.



MATH 104 Freshman Grade Earned: Credit General Ed 5:00 pm, Dec 7, 2006 Report Evaluation		Professor Riley is an outstanding Math teacher! Math 104 sucks! But take it with her, and you'll fly by. Math 104 is all on the computer which really sucks! Not to mention, you are required to spend 6 hours logged time of outside class work on the computer! Do your work, and it'll pay off! Riley is so sweet and totally willing to help...she'll do anything for her students especially so that they can succeed. Take her!!

MATH 118 Senior Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:48 am, Jun 6, 2003 Report Evaluation		THIS IS MY THIRD TIME TAKING MATH 118! BELIEVE ME IF THERE IS ANYONE WHO HAS HAD TROUBLE WITH MATH IT IS ME. IF YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT PASSING MATH 118 THEN TAKE PROFESSOR RILEY. SHE IS SO NICE AND EXPLAINS THINGS BETTER THAN ANY MATH TEACHER I HAVE EVER HAD. YOU WILL DEFINETLY HAVE TO DO YOUR PART BY ALWAYS GOING TO CLASS, DOING THE HOMEWORK, AND STUDYING...BUT IF YOU DO THESE THINGS YOU WILL PASS AND UNDERSTAND THINGS WITH EXTREME CLARITY. TAKE MY ADVISE AND TAKE HER!!!

MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: N/A General Ed 11:01 pm, Feb 25, 2003 Report Evaluation		i am in math 118 right now and she does an excellent job presenting the material. their isn't really a need to go to class except that she gives quizes and collects homework on tuesdays. it is just like high school math but if you know the material you will do very well. she is better than most the professors i have had thus far.

MATH 118 Freshman Grade Earned: F General Ed 4:22 pm, Feb 19, 2003 Report Evaluation		Riley is a good teacher. I have always been mathematically stupid, but she tried to help me understand math a lot better. She is always willing to help you out if you go to her office hours also. In the classroom, she does move a little fast, but needs to in order to complete the curriculum. I would recommend Riley, but if you can find a more experienced professor then take it because she's still a little new to teaching college (hasn't quite dropped the high school style yet). As far as homework, she collects it about once a week on average, so you can't really procrastinate too much because sometimes she'll throw in a "homework quiz" (yes, just like in high school) instead of collecting the hw. Even though I have failed every test so far, I can't bitch too much because, like I said i'm just not into math, but the tests really dont ask for too much out of you (it is only pre-calc). Just do the crap and you'll be fine. Good luck.

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