Professor profile for William Beckner
Student reviews of William Beckner
Review from a student who took M 427K
Well I would say his lectures are difficult to follow in class. However once you get an understanding of the topic and review over the notes again they are helpful. The exams were not that bad except for the PDE on the final. He tells you at the beginning of class 30%A's, 30%B's, etc. So I think anyone can take those odds. He is a really good professor and I give him a definite recommendation. I would recomend finding his old exams and reviewing them before the exams.
Well I would say his lectures are difficult to follow in class. However once you get an understanding of the topic and review over the notes again they are helpful. The exams were not that bad except for the PDE on the final. He tells you at the beginning of class 30%A's, 30%B's, etc. So I think anyone can take those odds. He is a really good professor and I give him a definite recommendation. I would recomend finding his old exams and reviewing them before the exams.
Review from a student who took M 427K
Beckner is one of the best if not the best maths profs here. take him if you can. it's not super easy as some would say, but easier than other professors. homeworks are very doable and test are pretty good. if you show up, take notes, and do homework...you should do well in this class
Beckner is one of the best if not the best maths profs here. take him if you can. it's not super easy as some would say, but easier than other professors. homeworks are very doable and test are pretty good. if you show up, take notes, and do homework...you should do well in this class
Review from a student who took M 365D
Dr. Beckner's 365D is, without a doubt, the worst class I've ever had the displeasure of taking. His lectures are pointless: there's no cohesion to them whatsoever, as he jumps from one random topic to the other, rarely if ever treating the course material or anything covering the homework. Beckner is frequently late for class (10:30 to the 10:00 class more than once), which is extremely annoying when I make the effort to arrive on time (I don't do mornings well). The homework is massive, probably three to four times the homework I've had in other classes of similar rigor. I'm in graduate classes with less work!! Even the text (Spivak's "Calculus on Manifolds") is terrible: the typesetting is pathetically bad, and the author treats topics so rapidly that his treatment is essentially useless. I can't complain about the grading except that, um, I DON'T KNOW HOW IT WORKS (if you've had Dr. Guy, Dr. Beckner has sort of the same hands-off, no idea what your grade is approach). M 365D, I believe, alternates between Dr. Beckner and Dr. Caffarelli. You'd be best off to take the latter if you actually want to learn something instead of doing three classes worth of homework.
Dr. Beckner's 365D is, without a doubt, the worst class I've ever had the displeasure of taking. His lectures are pointless: there's no cohesion to them whatsoever, as he jumps from one random topic to the other, rarely if ever treating the course material or anything covering the homework. Beckner is frequently late for class (10:30 to the 10:00 class more than once), which is extremely annoying when I make the effort to arrive on time (I don't do mornings well). The homework is massive, probably three to four times the homework I've had in other classes of similar rigor. I'm in graduate classes with less work!! Even the text (Spivak's "Calculus on Manifolds") is terrible: the typesetting is pathetically bad, and the author treats topics so rapidly that his treatment is essentially useless. I can't complain about the grading except that, um, I DON'T KNOW HOW IT WORKS (if you've had Dr. Guy, Dr. Beckner has sort of the same hands-off, no idea what your grade is approach). M 365D, I believe, alternates between Dr. Beckner and Dr. Caffarelli. You'd be best off to take the latter if you actually want to learn something instead of doing three classes worth of homework.
Review from a student who took M 340L
I took M340L, over Summer II with Beckner. It's VERY easy, the tests were pretty simple, he's an ok professor, never at his office hours though. But, its so easy, there's really no point in going to his office hours! An EASY A!
I took M340L, over Summer II with Beckner. It's VERY easy, the tests were pretty simple, he's an ok professor, never at his office hours though. But, its so easy, there's really no point in going to his office hours! An EASY A!
Review from a student who took m 427k
ok, the first and last tests were rape since he really didn't explain anything. He did a better job with the second and third tests, and supposedly no final, but that might have changed. word on the street is if you read the book, and avoid class since his lectures are confusing as hell, you'll do fine. But the book didn't help me either. a Bunch of equations. took it fall 2003
ok, the first and last tests were rape since he really didn't explain anything. He did a better job with the second and third tests, and supposedly no final, but that might have changed. word on the street is if you read the book, and avoid class since his lectures are confusing as hell, you'll do fine. But the book didn't help me either. a Bunch of equations. took it fall 2003
Review from a student who took M 365C
cons: prof. beckner has a habit of straying off topic. he doesn't outline the grading scheme at the beginning of class so you're not always aware of how you stand. especially in this class with only 10 students, it was frustrating at times. he would start proofs on the board he wasn't sure how to solve.. so although he had the knowledge to solve them, as with any other proofs, there was trial and error. but that doesnt help when you have students trying to follow what you're doing.. and you keep changing your mind about what is right/wrong. pros: we had homework due and a quiz every friday. if you followed the class and did the homework, you would do well on the quiz... 80% of the quiz was something that you had already seen solved either in class, in the book or in the homework. we had a final but im not sure how i did in that, although he had told us what to concentrate on, and the final was representative of that.
cons: prof. beckner has a habit of straying off topic. he doesn't outline the grading scheme at the beginning of class so you're not always aware of how you stand. especially in this class with only 10 students, it was frustrating at times. he would start proofs on the board he wasn't sure how to solve.. so although he had the knowledge to solve them, as with any other proofs, there was trial and error. but that doesnt help when you have students trying to follow what you're doing.. and you keep changing your mind about what is right/wrong. pros: we had homework due and a quiz every friday. if you followed the class and did the homework, you would do well on the quiz... 80% of the quiz was something that you had already seen solved either in class, in the book or in the homework. we had a final but im not sure how i did in that, although he had told us what to concentrate on, and the final was representative of that.
Review from a student who took M 340L
I did not like this course or this professor at all. His lectures are hard to follow and he tends to write fairly small, so if you do take his class sit near the front. I might be alone in this but I also feel the definitions he gave were circular. I also still have no idea what the purpose is to any my calculations.
I did not like this course or this professor at all. His lectures are hard to follow and he tends to write fairly small, so if you do take his class sit near the front. I might be alone in this but I also feel the definitions he gave were circular. I also still have no idea what the purpose is to any my calculations.
Review from a student who took M 341L
I am a straight A, 3rd year student and I have absolutely confirmed that Professor Beckner is the worst professor I have ever seen. I am a student who does not believe in being spoon fed the material for a course; however, I do expect my professor to do his job. I apologize for the lack of grammar but I believe a bullet point list of the things he has done will suffice: 1. It took him 3 weeks to create a syllabus that simply has "topics" on it. He has told us, the students before, that he cannot create tentative syllabus because sometimes he goes out of town. This dumbfounded me, because I, as a college student also have other obligations I must tend to and I cannot imply live day by day based on what Mr. Beckner feels like doing that day. 2. This professor has repeatedly admitted that he hasn't taught this specific course in quite sometime; but, yet, he will also admit that he doesn't go by the book. His lecture if very indicative of this fact. His lectures are not coherent, nor do they make any sense to a student who has not seen any of the material before. But, he assures us by saying he is just "winging it". I find this highly disrespectful because I come to class to learn and instead I watch a professor have a conversation with himself at the blackboard and never does he look back, ask us questions and bother to see if we as a class are even still breathing. Not only that but every time we interrupt his murmuring to ask a question he always says "well, I'm stumped". 3. In addition, we were given a test 5 weeks ago, I repeat 5 weeks ago and he still comes to class everyday saying "I still haven't graded the test yet I am still trying to figure out how to grade proofs again". Note that this test was again given out 5 weeks ago (still haven't received a grade for it and exam 2 is next week, November 2), but this exam 1 was only 5 questions and only ONE was a proof. There is absolutely no reason for this delay in doing his job. As a student I am expected to juggle all my classes and extracurricular activities promptly; thus, I am confused as to why Beckner gets an excuse to this law of life. 4. Many people have expressed their discontent with his class. In fact I am also in the course M 427J with professor Wolensensky, who is absolutely amazing, and I noticed some new faces a few weeks ago in Wolesensky's class. I happened to have spoken with some of them and it turns out they're actually students in the same course however, the instructor is Beckner. They frustratingly admitted that Beckner is awful in teaching and thus they have to sit in on Wolesensky's lecture to actually understand the material. I recommend having someone sit in Beckner's class for one day and you will see exactly what I am talking about. I am honestly really aggravated that I pay tuition and get this sub par learning experience in this course. I know that I will eventually have to apply knowledge from this course on day and I am honestly going to struggle with that because I honestly, along with other, simply do not understand the material or the structure of this class. Please help us.
I am a straight A, 3rd year student and I have absolutely confirmed that Professor Beckner is the worst professor I have ever seen. I am a student who does not believe in being spoon fed the material for a course; however, I do expect my professor to do his job. I apologize for the lack of grammar but I believe a bullet point list of the things he has done will suffice: 1. It took him 3 weeks to create a syllabus that simply has "topics" on it. He has told us, the students before, that he cannot create tentative syllabus because sometimes he goes out of town. This dumbfounded me, because I, as a college student also have other obligations I must tend to and I cannot imply live day by day based on what Mr. Beckner feels like doing that day. 2. This professor has repeatedly admitted that he hasn't taught this specific course in quite sometime; but, yet, he will also admit that he doesn't go by the book. His lecture if very indicative of this fact. His lectures are not coherent, nor do they make any sense to a student who has not seen any of the material before. But, he assures us by saying he is just "winging it". I find this highly disrespectful because I come to class to learn and instead I watch a professor have a conversation with himself at the blackboard and never does he look back, ask us questions and bother to see if we as a class are even still breathing. Not only that but every time we interrupt his murmuring to ask a question he always says "well, I'm stumped". 3. In addition, we were given a test 5 weeks ago, I repeat 5 weeks ago and he still comes to class everyday saying "I still haven't graded the test yet I am still trying to figure out how to grade proofs again". Note that this test was again given out 5 weeks ago (still haven't received a grade for it and exam 2 is next week, November 2), but this exam 1 was only 5 questions and only ONE was a proof. There is absolutely no reason for this delay in doing his job. As a student I am expected to juggle all my classes and extracurricular activities promptly; thus, I am confused as to why Beckner gets an excuse to this law of life. 4. Many people have expressed their discontent with his class. In fact I am also in the course M 427J with professor Wolensensky, who is absolutely amazing, and I noticed some new faces a few weeks ago in Wolesensky's class. I happened to have spoken with some of them and it turns out they're actually students in the same course however, the instructor is Beckner. They frustratingly admitted that Beckner is awful in teaching and thus they have to sit in on Wolesensky's lecture to actually understand the material. I recommend having someone sit in Beckner's class for one day and you will see exactly what I am talking about. I am honestly really aggravated that I pay tuition and get this sub par learning experience in this course. I know that I will eventually have to apply knowledge from this course on day and I am honestly going to struggle with that because I honestly, along with other, simply do not understand the material or the structure of this class. Please help us.