Elwood, Jason  

Mathematics

1.30/4.00

43 evaluations


MATH 116


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Nov 2015
Jason is hands down one of the best professors at Cal Poly! He is a grad student so he's super young, but he definitely cares about his students and their success. He is a goofy guy, but I enjoyed going to this class over my major classes because he made it so much fun. The class consists of two midterms, a final, and weekly 10 pt. quizzes on Friday. For someone like me who is not good at math, the quizzes could get difficult because there were only two questions on each, so if you missed one completely, you would fail the quiz (he drops your worst quiz grade). However, he is also very generous with extra credit! Go to his office hours!!! He is so so so helpful and accommodating. He is very funny too, so even if you aren't doing math you will hear his stories about his cats. 10/10 highly recommend


Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Dec 2015
Highly Recommend! Wonderful teacher! Presents material in a clear easy to understand way and keeps the lesson interesting. He is always willing to help! Tests are strait forward. He is a very interesting guy and tells some very funny stories.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Jan 2017
Truly an awesome guy, super easy to understand, very straight forward, relatable, (as he is a college grad. student) and he cares a lot about his students. Take this class if want a relaxing, easy way to understand math and someone who presents it in a completely fair way.


Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Mar 2017
Elwood is the most scatter brained and easily distracted professor I have had. He literally has the attention span of 7 month old carrot. This was especially annoying around the time midterms and finals..he would spend 20-30 min of our 50 min lectures talking about random unrelated shit that only a few students found funny. Getting off on tangents is always a nice break, but he would do it a distracting amount and would often not get through all the material/have time to answer any questions. Very obvious he is an inexperienced professor.


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2017
WORST TEACHER!! Doesn't know how to explain, worst way of grading.


Sophomore
C
General Ed
Oct 2017
He was not that great at explaining things in a way that a non-math person would understand but he wasn't horrible. I got a bad grade in the class but that was entirely my fault. My main problem with him was that he would do this stupid chalk throwing thing and take up an average of 10 mins per class (out of a 50 minute period) doing this pointless game. I would rather he take that time and let us go early or answer questions. It was so frustrating to sit in class and waste time watching people throw chalk into a trash can or at the board.

MATH 118


Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
Dec 2017
Honestly, this guy is great. He presents the material well, is super flexible, and is pretty comical. The things I have a problem with are how he assigns 100+ question homework assignments and gives super short notice of when they’re due. He did this in my class during a super busy week and the class literally harassed him over it. He said he thought he only assigned 90 or so questions when in reality he assigned about 130. Not to mention he doesn’t mention when he posts assignments — he literally posts them at like midnight and expects you to see it right away. On top of the ridiculous homework assignments, he takes soooo freaking long to grade his work. He’s very unorganized. He does try to do review sessions for the midterm and final, but they’re really unproductive. On a positive note, I personally struggle with math but overall I didn’t find the class all too hard. He has weekly 1-2 question quizzes that kind of suck but make sure you do well on them and the homework as well because it makes up a decently large amount of your grade. If you’re willing to put up with a teacher that procrastinates to the max and goes on pointless, directionless tangents, this class is for you.


Freshman
B
General Ed
Dec 2017
If you have Elwood as a professor be prepared to be doing hundreds of homework problems in a few days. Wayyyyy to much homework to handle and the grading scale is very unfair. You could accidently miss one of the problems which is easy to do because there are so many and get an F on the homework because that was the one he decided to grade. Go into office hours! He is sometimes helpful. Ask for him to do the hardest homework problem because that will most likely be on the weekly quiz. He is a funny prof but he grades pretty hard and the questions on the test and quizzes are difficult. Good luck!


Freshman
B
General Ed
Jan 2018
In my opinion, this guy is a shitshow. Can't present materials clearly. He just copies notes he has prewritten and rewrites them on the board for you to copy. Weekly quizzes/exams weren't necessarily easy. Literally hundreds of problems. Never shows up on time. Distracted easily. Homework grading policy isnt fair. 14/10 would not recommend.


Freshman
B
General Ed
Jan 2018
repeatedly late for class because of his daily trips to chick fil a. talks about his lizard too much. will randomly talk about how he thinks there are rats in the walls behind the boards. assigns ridiculous amounts of homework - he will start the assignment off with like 15-20 problems and then will add 90+ more two days before it's due without letting you know that the homework as been updated. follows the syllabus schedule pretty well, like how there are weekly quizzes on a specific day. make sure to do all of the homework problems because he randomly picks a certain set of problems to check (like random numbers out of the set he gives you) and good homework grades can help boost your grade. anyways this man is insane so i highly recommend you look elsewhere for a math 118 professor.


Freshman
B
General Ed
Mar 2018
hahha take this class if you plan to ONLY take this class. If you have any other classes in the same quarter, don't take this class. This dude sucks ass at explaining things. Well, he doesnt explain actually. Review above is accurate, he copies prewritten notes and rewrites them on the board. HW grading was wack af. You do 100+ problems, and he randomly picks 2 to grade. If you dont do/get those 2 problems wrong, you'll get a 0 even if the other 98 are correct. Trust this review, trust others reviews, and dont put your trust in this guy. Unless you like to solve unsolvable puzzles, then take this guy. Oh and jason if you're reading this, just stick with a tshirt. The dress shirt is kinda wack on ya bud.


Sophomore
B
General Ed
Nov 2018
Jason Elwood is definitely a character. He does tell stories and ramble on about unrelated things (some people get super annoyed by this/don't take him seriously), but honestly, I found it as a nice break from learning. He presents things very clearly and is very willing to help you during office hours/after class. I am usually pretty nervous about asking professors questions but he welcomed questions and concerns after every concept he taught. I felt so comfortable asking questions or asking him to repeat something. I think the ONLY downside of this class (118) is the homework load. There are a lot of problems and he grades them pretty meticulously. You get 50% credit for completion and then 50% is made up of the accuracy of a few random (usually the hardest) problems in the homework set. DO EVERY PROBLEM. Or else you can get screwed with like a 60 or 70% grade on something you worked hours on. If you do then you will definitely be ready for the quizzes (once a week) and midterms (2 I think?), which are super fair and not out to trick you. He's a pretty big stickler about rounding but grading is very fair overall. He cares about his students and their success and he makes it very obvious. Before exams he usually holds a study session for a few hours outside of class just to go over the most important things. Don't be afraid to reach out in office hours or after class. I still email/go to his office hours for my other math classes I have to take (MATH 161/162/STATS) even though I only had him my freshman year for 118 and he is ALWAYS willing to help. Would definitely recommend him for any math class he offers.

MATH 141


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Dec 2018
Elwood is quite the character and keeps the class entertaining and engaging. He isn't as awful as some of the polyratings suggest. The homework load, though, is obscured (about 100 problems on average) and extremely time consuming, also it is not graded easily (50% completing all the problems, and yes I mean if you accidentally miss one you'll get marked down, and 50% on perfect accuracy of two random problems). As the lectures go, he tends to use extremely complicated vocabulary and explanations but the practice problems make sense. It is very important to attend as many lectures as possible! Usually in class he presents simple problems, the homework is medium, and the quizzes and tests are more difficult but doable. Going to office hours is so important, I can't emphasize that enough. The homework is 15%, Quizzes are 15%, Midterms are 40% (20 ea.), and the Final is 30%. There is no need to stress if you fail one of the Midterms because the Finals grade can replace the lowest Midterm if it is higher!! Elwood is very approachable and willing to help and it is very possible to get the grade you want!


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Jan 2019
Direct quotes from Elwood: "I chalked it up to a chalkupational hazard..." (after getting chalk all over himself) "Is that a rock? Ha , no, it's AROC" "The Starbucks, basic b**ch of math... the parabola" "Now here we have the redneck h, way down south" "W-T-F, you haven't met Moby?!" *whips out a white stapler he named Moby* "What kind of sewer did you crawl out of?" "That water bottle was very dramatic" "Should have covered myself in numbers for halloween... could have been a guy you can count on. HA" "What's the land of the mormons again? Oh yeah, Utah" "I love that movie, the Aristocats!!" *proceeds to quote movie with sound effects* "Have you ever tried one of those charcoal face masks...?" "They laughed at my cow, I couldn't draw a cow" "Traffic looked terrible this morning, I had to change lanes quite a few times" *looks directly at a girl named Lainey and laughs at his own pun* "The answer is in the words of rafiki... it doesn't matter" "I got shocked by a potato in a grocery store" "dx is back for round 3, we didn't kill it the first two times" "Oh my god, I found my berries" (quoting the vine in character) "One of those moments, we found our berries" (quoting the same vine, weeks later) ...and last but not least, we got to hear this at the start of every. single. class. "heLLOOO and WELCOME BACK to math 141 at 8am on a Monday morning. Yaaaay" He's odd, doesn't know how to lecture well, gives too much homework to be effective, and gets very distracted in class, but at least he really loves math and will never say no to answering a student question. If you aren't good at math, the supplemental workshop and office hours will be necessary to pass this class.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
May 2019
Elwood's alright. If you want to get on his good side talk pretend to be interested in his pet bearded dragon named Mr.Smee. Elwood kind of acts like a child at times but he still can present material pretty decently. What I don't understand is how is tiny little head fits on his giant ass body. It's wack but regardless he's eh. Could be better but also could be worse. (He low-key a thot)


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Apr 2020
Elwood is a really interesting guy and keeps the class involved with all the weird stuff he talks about. You will laugh a lot in this class. If you do the work (which is a LOT) you'll do good. Hard teacher, but you will learn a lot about calculus fundamentals if you're taking more calc after this.

MATH 142


Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Oct 2017
Elwood is the man. Yeah, he comes in 3-5 minutes late every day. So what. But he's a really good teacher and he has a LOT of patience when you don't understand something. His office hours are also super productive. Cool guy. He only wears like 5 different shirts which is p funny. Fun fact: he works out at the rec like every night SUPER late. So maybe that's why he's late to 11am class. Too busy getting some late night swole? TAKE ELWOOD.


Freshman
D
Required (Support)
Dec 2017
Honestly, this class wasn't a hard class, Elwood just made it extremely hard. He always shows up to class late. When he assigns homework it is always a big load and when he gives a test, the test or quiz questions are 10X harder than any of the homework or practice problems. His office hours are helpful but I had class during most of them so I couldn't attend. He always has a weird problem with the last question on midterms. He doesn't bump grades or give any attention to how to better your grade. He thinks that he gives enough opportunities to pass the class but not really. He is a nice person outside of class I just think that he has a hard time getting his point across in class. He skips a lot of steps on notes and you kinda have to figure it out by yourself. When he assigns homework the 25-35 doesn't apply, it's closer to 45-55 because he adds a ton of problems and sometimes expects them to be done the next day. He seems to jump off topic constantly and talk about his pet lizard. He grades with partial credit. Most other professors let the students use notes on quizzes, not Elwood. All in all, if given the opportunity I would choose another professor over Elwood if you want to pass.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2017
Unlike most of these other comments which have been saying what a terrible professor Elwood, I have to disagree. Now I'm not a student who sucked up to the teacher or was a natural born prodigy, I'm just an average student. The class may seem really tough because according to the extremely low rating Elwood has been given, however that isn't really the case. If you studied hard enough and did all the homework you could do well on the tests. Each midterm and the final had plenty of chances to get extra credit, albeit it was a bit tedious due to them all being brain teasers, but hey it's extra credit and most teachers don't even give any opportunities. Now here's what you all really want to know the pros and cons. The cons: First of all, he comes to class on average of 7 minutes late, taking away from some valuable class time. Secondly, he teaches STRAIGHT from the book. All the example and the reasonings are straight from the textbook with near copies of what is written. He does explain it a bit better but they're all mirror images. Third, he posts homework really late-a Thursday at 10 pm when it's due on Monday. Fourth, he sometimes spends too much time in class talking about his life and whatnot resulting in the cramming of a lesson on limit tests in our last two days of class causing the whole class to have no understanding. Finally, he takes quite a while to grade and return past assignments and what not. I believe it took him almost three weeks to grade a quiz for the class. That's it for the cons. Now onto the pros: While he does almost strictly teach from the book he offers explanations that are more helpful from solely reading the book itself. Also since he teaches this way it's easy to look back onto examples and see how they're solved. His homework is graded and has many problems so you always have enough problems to do however it's not like just doing the homework is enough to get an A in the class, this is COLLEGE, more effort is needed. All his homework is posted on poly learn so you have access to it wherever. Additionally, he also posts original problems he makes himself on poly learn, they're usually decently tough. If you have trouble understanding anything, go to his office hours! He's very helpful and understanding. Near the end of the course he held a study session where we could ask him any questions we had on any of the lessons, he even did homework problems for us. This really helped prepare for the finals. Finally the fun stuff: Jason Elwood is a very nice guy and is very easy to talk to. He gets personal with his students and even let a few call him by his first name. He's a very swoll guy, whose biceps are as big as most of our heads. My friend thought he was an Olympic athlete on his first day in class. He's insanely ripped and breaks a lot of chalk due to his overwhelming strength. His fashion taste, however, isn't quite as good as his physique. He only wears like 5 shirts to class. Sometimes he came to class with a random shirt and dress slacks. He's pretty young so he may not be rid of the college fashion yet but sometimes it gets weird. On top of this, he once brought his lizard Mr. Schmee to class because students wanted him to. He got very offended when some people called it fat. Basically, he's a very easygoing guy with a great personality. I'd recommend him to anyone, I love this guy. I can't understand why people bash on him so hard I mean the guy replaces our lowest midterm with our final if we do better. That's it for my review, I hope you take it with a grain of salt when deciding on who to take for your math courses.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Apr 2018
Elwood is not the most clear teacher but he tries. He copies sentences down on the board straight from the book and often skips steps in example problems because he thinks we understand. However he is very helpful during office hours. He takes a long time to grade and my biggest complaint was him assigning us homework during finals week due the day of the final. He often assigns homework and keeps adding to it up until the day before its due so keep checking assignments to see if they change. The only reason I got a B instead of a C was because I got the extra credit problem on the final (which is not calc related but is completely logic) and it meant I got a ton of extra points.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Aug 2019
This guy was the worst professor I've ever had in my entire life. His idea of a "lecture" is him standing at the chalkboard writing down paragraphs from a notebook. It isn't interactive with the students whatsoever. Instead of answering questions, Elwood will make you feel like an idiot for not understanding a concept. It isn't conducive to a good learning environment, and it doesn't make students feel welcome in the classroom. Not only this, but Elwood would, almost every day, waste between 10 and 15 minutes of precious class time talking about long-dead memes from the abyss that do little more than cause the class to emit a sigh of discomfort. The only reason I got a decent grade in Elwood's class was that I was in the workshop, and my workshop leader essentially taught me the whole course. tl;dr Do not take Mr. Elwood if you value learning.


Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
Feb 2020
this man gives me anxiety


Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
Mar 2020
I used to like math...


Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Mar 2020
If you are taking Elwood, you should read this. I would describe myself as very, very average when it comes to math. I got a 4 on the AP calc test, and I have to work VERY hard when it comes to math (my major has a lot of math in it), but I would not say I'm bad at/struggle with math. Some pros about Elwood: he is engaging. Some math teachers at poly just drone on and on for 50 minutes about a topic and it makes you want to fall asleep in class. Not Elwood. this man is loud, he is very descriptive when going through problems, and he engages the class and makes essentially everyone participate. Cons (there are many): he shows up late to class and spends the first 5-10 minutes telling random stories about things in his life: shave soap, his lizard, his weightlifting...the list goes on, it's truly bizarre. It seems entertaining at first but as the quarter goes on it becomes REALLY unprofessional and honestly annoying as grade stress beings to hit. He assigns a TON of homework, more math homework than I have ever experienced, and does NOT collect it. Doesn't even check it in for points. You have to do it on your own. This makes office hours hard because everyone has lots of questions because there are so many problems. Furthermore, there are two types of problems on the homework: book problems and problems of Elwood's own creation. I have gone into office hours before with questions on Elwood's on problems and he has not known how to answer them. They are EXTREMELY challenging. Going off of this point, the problems that we cover in class are extremely basic, bare-bones sort of problems. The homework problems are 100% a step above of whatever easy stuff we do in class, and then the test questions are a million times harder. Something important to note: the only grades Elwood collects are weekly quizzes (two questions that are always pulled from the homework, that's why you have to do all of the homework), midterms (which, if you don't study for, will screw you over), and the Final. Elwood takes like a million years to grade things and hand them back, especially midterms. Our class asked him what our midterm average was and he had no idea. Overall, I would not take Elwood if you want your life to be less stressful as his homework load is absolutely insane, his test questions aren't fair, and he can just be unprofessional in coming in late, not knowing the answers to his questions, etc. He is a nice man, but thank god I never have to take this class again.

MATH 143


Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Jun 2017
I would not recommend Elwood as a Professor for this class. He showed up 10-15 minutes late to every single class, including the first day and the final. Added up this resulted in way more than a week of lost instruction time resulting in the end of the class feeling very rushed and us spending an entire extra week on series. He also wasted a massive amount of class time with personal stories, annoying chalk throws for extra credit, and tales of how Erin Pearse, was a way more difficult professor than he was and that the class shouldn't be complaining about the difficulty of the homework because it could be worse. The homework itself rarely consists of problems from the book (he doesn't seem to like the book very much) and is mainly made up of ridiculously hard proof problems that he came up with. The notes do not cover how to do these problems as he only passively mentions that certain "facts" used to derive functions in the notes will have to be proven by you in the homework with no real context or knowledge of how to do so. This was frustrating since the homework was assigned infrequently and almost as a surprise. Out of the 10 week quarter, we received only 4 assignments, which wouldn't have been bad if we had 2 weeks for each, but instead, he would post late Thursday night or early Friday morning and have it be due by the following Tuesday. Meaning your weekend would be gone. He was not helpful in office hours only pulling examples straight from the book and only reciting the text. Lectures are also straight from the book with the exact same problems, diagrams, and numbers. It would have been a better learning experience to just use text to speech on the textbook's pdf. In addition to this, the lectures rarely included practical examples that represented the homework, exams, or quizzes. Instead, exams would be exceedingly difficult problems with one weird and ill-planned extra credit problem at the end that relies on everyone in the class being able to coordinate answers without being able to communicate. On the second midterm, he realized while grading that the integral on one part of the exam was really difficult, took him an entire weekend and two pages to solve, and relied on math he hadn't shown us yet. Instead of removing the problem from the exam, curving it, or even giving and extra bump to those who managed to do something with the integral he just left it. In the end, I only got the grade I have because he must have curved the final by a ridiculous amount since it was 10% higher than one exam and nearly double the other. Unless he seriously changes some of the ways that he conducts class time, plans lectures, and approaches exams I would not recommend Professor Elwood for 143.


Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
Feb 2019
Worst teacher I have ever had


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Mar 2019
Elwood is a very smart man who is able to thoroughly answer any questions students have. He sticks to the book religiously during his lectures. This is nice because there is a similar resource to fall back on if something was unclear. He also drops a whole midterm which gives a huge grade boost. Elwood isn't a life changing professor, but he is entertaining in class with personal stories and clearly lays out the material.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2019
Elwood has a good sense of humor but that's pretty much his only redeeming quality as a teacher. Elwood writes his own homework assignments and then takes the quiz questions off of the homework. The only problem with this concept is that the homework assignments are full of proofs that you can't find answers for unless you show up to his very busy office hours. Additionally, Elwood will include proofs and introduce new concepts on midterms to confuse students. In our class, Elwood replaced a midterm with the final grade, but never offered a curve on any quizzes or tests. Some of the other evaluations mention that Elwood will habitually show up late to class, but it seems he has corrected this tendency.


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Apr 2019
Doesn't present most of the material clearly, doesn't prepare you at all for tests, wastes class time, etc. Take the workshop if you want to increase your chances at passing this class


Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Dec 2019
I had Elwood on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours each day. He held quizzes on Tuesday at the end of class and assigned homework Thursday after class. First, my gripes: He had no office hours on Monday or Tuesday before class. As a student who doesn't start the homework early, this sucks because he only picks the gimmicky questions from the homework to be on the quiz so it becomes more of a memorization and guessing game than a learning opportunity. Another gripe I had was his teaching style, he was literally a walking textbook. If you compared his fill-in notes (which were a good thing) with the text book, they were the exact thing word for word, example for example. If you are good at learning on your own, there isn't much purpose in attending his classes besides taking the quizzes. Here's the best tip you're going to get: his midterm and final were the exact same across classes (at least during my quarter), so find someone in an earlier class to guide you in the right direction for these big things.


Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Jan 2020
The one positive thing I can say about Mr. Elwood is his personality. He usually fills his class with weird, quirky jokes which I personally found funny. However, that is the only good thing I can say about his Calc 3 class. The main complaint I and everyone else in my class had is his unreasonable difficulty. Elwood prides himself on having "the most difficult Calc 3 section." He did not keep this attitude a secret, and actually joked about it several times.The format of the course when I had him is weekly quizzes made up of copy-pasted homework questions, most of which he writes up himself. This may sound like the quizzes are easy, just memorize the answers on the homework. However, the homework (and thus the quizzes) are ridiculously hard. Do not expect help from the free COSAM tutoring, Elwood knows that he makes questions hard enough that the tutors are unable to do a significant number of the questions. Office hours were my only saving grace, but he made also made these unnecessarily difficult, either because of overcrowding which did not allow students to get their questions answered, or by posting the homework between 11pm-1am the night before the only day with office hours before a quiz. Do not expect any helpful grading policies. There is no curve, no rounding, and no opportunity for extra credit. The only policy he has is raising your midterm grade to the grade you got on the final exam if it helps you. However, don't count on this to save you, both tests are still extremely difficult. Elwood's lectures are alright if you are able to follow mathematical jargon. He takes most definitions and examples directly from the textbook, but often spends time lecturing and quizzing on irrelevant concepts that other Calc 3 teachers skip. Swap out of this class if possible.

MATH 162


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Jun 2017
It feels like he doesn't care that know one understands the material. He acts as though that because he has office hours, he's doing all that he can to help. In reality, he just doesn't know how to teach at all. The content he presents is confusing, and he claims that the homework will help. It actually just serves to confuse us more. He also didn't care for how much we tried to express our concerns with his teaching. The best part of all of it is that he shows up late to every class and spends a significant portion of lecture telling anecdotes no one cares for. Just take Jenkins over this piece of trash


Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
Jun 2017
I'm personally doing fine in the class but he has assigned multiple homework a couple days before they're due with an unreasonable amount of problems. Also on multiple occasions he tried teaching a lesson in the homework with a paragraph a couple days before the midterm or final. The worst part is that he assigned a homework assignment the Monday of finals week, due right before the final and again tried teaching a hard lesson in the homework.


Freshman
A
Required (Support)
Jun 2017
hello well to say the least elwood was one of the worst professors i have had. I usually give professors a real open mind and understand that teaching college students is difficult but he is very scattered minded and would come into class about 10-15 minutes late EVERY SINGLE DAY which 1) rude to the students that are there on time and 2) a waste of our precious class time that we paid for. He would never give examples in class and the lectures were just read out of the book essentially. We would ask questions in class and his answers would lead us in the wrong direction or wouldn't even be helpful. In office hours he wouldn't help answer questions but made other students explain answers to you. He taught more than the necessary curriculum so we were never able to apply the math that we learned to actual biological situations. Overall, the only reason i succeeded in this class is because i had previous experience with calculus.

MATH 221


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2017
Does not use class time fully. Shows up late. Wastes time in class. Unreasonable grading and timeliness of assigning and grading assignments. Would not recommend for Jason to teach.


Sophomore
B
Required (Support)
Mar 2017
He's a horrible professor. He always shows up 10 minutes late and doesn't use class time to the fullest. He tries to be cool by doing chalk throws for extra credit, but don't be fooled. The grading, especially homework, is very harsh and he just assumes that we know how to solve the hardest problems because he can do them. The midterms are impossible to do well on because he takes the weirdest and most difficult problems. If you are an attractive girl, take this class. If not, pray for a C.


Sophomore
D
Required (Support)
Mar 2017
Shows up late to every class and office hours and uses the exact same examples from the book. Very dry lectures and 2 question quizzes worth 10 points once a week so if you get one problem wrong, you receive an F. In class examples are 2 step problems and then midterm questions are completely different and much harder. He also grades VERY harsh on the homework. Can be funny on occasion though which makes class slightly bearable.


Sophomore
A
Required (Major)
Mar 2017
Harsh grader, problems on the midterm go from like 0 to 100 compared to the homework, everyone in my class currently is looking at almost failing (he spent 15 minutes persuading the class not to drop the course and showing us we could still barely pass), examples straight out of the book. However you do get out of every class 30-45 minutes early so thats chill


Sophomore
D
Required (Support)
May 2017
The actual worst teacher I have ever had. The main problem I had with him is that he would give us in class examples that were quite easy but then the homework would feature hard problems and then the tests would have even harder problems! Literally, the tests would be so unreasonably hard and ended up not testing our abilities on what we had learned but rather our math skills in general. Just everything about this class was a mess. Oh, and he was absolutely no help in office hours, usually answering your questions with "figure it out." Basically the opposite of a professor.


Sophomore
N/A
Required (Support)
Feb 2018
Jason is the WORST math teacher at Cal Poly. He assigns hundreds of homework problems due in a week (he usually posts the homework late too so you only get about 4 days). I remember he assigned us 125 calculus problems due the same days as a midterm; not sure which went worse between the homework and the midterm. Overall, Jason needs to calm his ass down with the homework problems and start helping us actually learn the material. Assigning 150 problems on a topic I already struggle with just makes me chegg the homework instead of trying to actually learn it. Also, he always shows up to class late, lectures incredibly fast (hard to even take notes), cancels office hours ALL the time, and grades hard as a mofo. DO NOT TAKE THIS TEACHER! THIS POLYRATING WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE, TRUST!!


Junior
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2018
DO NOT TAKE ELWOOD!!!!! His teaching style is terrible because he assumes you know everything he does so he flies through the examples and doesn’t clarify anything. He also assigns over 150 homework problems and often assigns these on new material before the quizzes/ midterm. The work load is redicous and if you want to have fun in college, do not ever take him as a professor. The only way to be successful in this class is to be an attractive girl, in which case he will extend homework and quiz dates for you and offer extra help. His homework problems are hard enough and then when it comes to the midterm/ final, it’s even harder. Do not take Professor Elwood.


Sophomore
D
Required (Major)
Apr 2018
He is not a great teacher, take it with Gervoski or however u spell his name... Jason is funny but he's hella good at math. Midterm replaces your final.

EHS 905


Junior
B
Elective
Nov 2016
What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.