Polyratings.com: Farrell, Gerald

Home Professor Search Professor List Evaluate a Professor About Us Contact Us

Farrell, Gerald

Cumulative GPA: 2.67/4.00 with 16 evaluations
Presents Material Clearly: 2.92
Recognizes Student Difficulties: 2.08

Mathematics Department, Cal Poly, SLO
Full Statistical Analysis
Evaluate This Professor

MATH 143 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 6:07 pm, Aug 3, 2002 Report Evaluation		I thought he went over information well, but he would not recognize peoples inability to understand. He made you feel quite stupid for asking a question sometimes. He is okay but I wouldn't take him if I didn't have to.

MATH 143 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 6:44 pm, Nov 4, 2001 Report Evaluation		I wouldnt recommend him but hes not that bad of a prof. His tests werent bad if you do your hw. I worked my ass of in this class and got A's on all my exams and he still gave me a B. Dont waste youre time going to his office hours even though you should meet him so he knows youre name at least. If you ask him a hw question he'll just say "we already went over that." And he if he grades something wrong he will be too prideful to admit he was wrong and wont give you the points you deserve. Overall not that bad of a prof.

MATH 242 Junior Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		I give him an above average rating compared to other math teachers. He doesn't have a whole lot of personality and he pretty much sticks to getting through the material, but I felt he presented it clearly and thoroughly. He demonstrated mastery of the material by answering any and all homework problems we wanted to go over without needing any preparation. Grading was fair, with weekly quizzes and then a final instead of midterms. He is probably one of the better math teachers I've had, but I know some people don't like his style. I also had him for MATH 143, which I got a B in.

MATH 242 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Professor Farrel isn't much of a conversationalist or a "people person", but I think he does a great job teaching the material. I had him for Diff Eqs and he did a good job of teaching us what we needed to know. He was concise, clear and "cuts to the chase". I think he has a great command of the subject. He would assign about 5 or so problems a night, but he was also flexible and gave some time to relax. On a few occasions he would say, "Tonight is Monday night football, no homework.", or "there's a game this weekend, no homework." It was nice to get a break every once in awhile. His exams are fair and not super hard. He is one of the better math instructors that I have had. Some people don't like his style, but as an ME, I liked the fact that he taught us the essential concepts.

MATH 142 Junior Grade Earned: B Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		FEAR HIM!!!

MATH 142 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Major) 8:42 pm, Aug 1, 2001 Report Evaluation		Not the most exciting professor to have, and he's not much of a people person, but he does know the material and you do learn in his class.

MATH 143 Freshman Grade Earned: B General Ed 11:54 am, Apr 24, 2001 Report Evaluation		This professor is a very good professor, by far the best I have taken. He presented the material clearly, and the homework and tests reflected the lectures. His grading was very fair, and being able to use notecards and calculators helped. Take this professor if you have the opportunity and dont mind not using office hours.



MATH 142 Freshman Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 11:24 pm, Feb 15, 2001 Report Evaluation		I learned a lot from Farrell in this class. Many of my friends had other teachers and didn't learn nearly as much as I did in this class. He lets you use a note card on the tests and drops the lowest score. He also gives a good review which really helps you learn the material.

MATH 142 Freshman Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 9:48 pm, Jan 6, 2001 Report Evaluation		Well, Farrell isn't too bad a teacher. He teaches STRAIGHT out of the book. I was able to miss a week's worth of classes and study myself and got the same results. He collects homework everyday and it's graded like a freakin test, 10 pts. possible, and even numbered problems are graded, which sucks cause you gotta do em right. One of the cool things about Farrell is that he doesn't always assign homework, but he does for the monday after a test. He does give review sheets before tests, and they are a lot like test questions, but the test questions are harder versions of the same problems. He would curve the test grading but i had a bunch of smart asses in my class that either retook the class or were just plain smart, so the got 99's so he couldn't curve the grades. The final's a definite pain in the ass, much harder than the review sheet he made for it. The major plus to this class is that he will let you drop one test grade or your entire homework grade, or half the final grade, so you should really take the homework seriously. All in all, Farrell is a nice, goofy guy, just laugh at his jokes and say hi to him when he passes out the homework and you'll be fine.

MATH 143 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 3:53 pm, Dec 18, 2000 Report Evaluation		Farrell was the best Math teacher I have had so far. All of his tests were very simple, all of the questions came straight from the homework and he allows the use notecards on each midterm and the final. After each test he would give us the answer key and explain how to solve each problem. If someone had a question about a homework problem he would work it out on the board at the beginning of class. I recommend taking this teacher because he is fair and his tests actually cover problems that you know how to solve.

MATH 142 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 12:21 pm, Mar 10, 2000 Report Evaluation		He is basically a good teacher, teaching you exactly what you need to know. The assignments are easy and tests are fair, he drops you lowest test score and homework scores. His method of teaching is a little tedious at times, though. overall, a decent teacher.

MATH 142 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 9:45 am, Mar 2, 2000 Report Evaluation		This class was a textbook math class. Dr. Farrell teaches straight out of the book. There is a normal amount of homework but most of the problems are very difficult and it takes some time to do them. The homework is corrected and counts for about twenty percent of your grade. It is important to understand the homework and get good scores on it. Compared to the homework the midterm problems were easy for the most part. Still, if you miss one small thing or make a small error on each midterm, you can kiss your A in this class goodbye. The final was very tough. Farrell

MATH 142 Freshman Grade Earned: A Elective 9:34 pm, Dec 26, 1999 Report Evaluation		Prof. Farrell was a great teacher. He presented material very clearly and was always willing to stop to explain further when students did not understand. He tries to lighten the class up by making jokes from time to time. What I liked most was that his tests were very fair and reflected what was taught in class or learned from homework. I'd strongly recommend him for math.



MATH 143 Sophomore Grade Earned: C Required (Support) 4:44 pm, Nov 4, 1999 Report Evaluation		What are all these people talking about? Farrell is not a good teacher! Maybe it was because I had it early in the morning, but nobody asked questions in class. He didn't explain anything. He trys to trick you on the tests. He scares me.

MATH 143 Freshman Grade Earned: B Required (Support) 1:59 am, Nov 3, 1999 Report Evaluation		Well what can I say about this guy. He doesn't have much of a personality, but he does look like Roy Biggons from the show WINGS. His tests are fair and his lectures are straight from the book. So if you miss class don't worry just study the examples in the beggining of the sections. Overall he was a good professor and better than most on this campus. Also his grading is fair and reflects well on how hard you tried.

MATH 143 Sophomore Grade Earned: A Required (Support) 10:09 am, Aug 3, 1999 Report Evaluation		In my opinion, Dr. Farrell was a great teacher. He moved relatively slowly and explained the info well. He assigned homework, but it was not bad at all. Tests actually covered familiar material -they weren't introductions of new & challenging problems (which, in my opinion, is the problem with just about every other professor in the math dept.) The nickname "Flunking Farrell" has stuck with him, but it's not true at all. I saw more students get good grades in his class than I have seen in any math class so far. I would definitely reccommend taking a math course from Dr. Farrell.

	Home Go Back Professor List Professor Search