Professor profile for Gregory Rodin
Student reviews of Gregory Rodin
Review from a student who took em 319
decent guy, had some good lectures and bad ones as well. test are pretty tricky and there is a lot of material, but straight forward once you finish the claass.
decent guy, had some good lectures and bad ones as well. test are pretty tricky and there is a lot of material, but straight forward once you finish the claass.
Review from a student who took EM 306
Rodin's a really funny guy and keeps class fairly interesting. His teaching style is pretty much all variables and he hardly ever works out examples with actual numbers. His lectures cover the basics and don't get into any hard examples, so you pretty much have to teach yourself statics with the book. His tests are kind of rare and usually just one problem, no numbers, just variables. He gives a lot of partial credit though. The homeworks are done through a computer program and can be annoying since they are due weekly. Rodin takes no attendence, but will call you out if you try to leave early. He's a cool prof if you are willing to do a lot of the learning on your own. Not too difficult of a class.
Rodin's a really funny guy and keeps class fairly interesting. His teaching style is pretty much all variables and he hardly ever works out examples with actual numbers. His lectures cover the basics and don't get into any hard examples, so you pretty much have to teach yourself statics with the book. His tests are kind of rare and usually just one problem, no numbers, just variables. He gives a lot of partial credit though. The homeworks are done through a computer program and can be annoying since they are due weekly. Rodin takes no attendence, but will call you out if you try to leave early. He's a cool prof if you are willing to do a lot of the learning on your own. Not too difficult of a class.
Review from a student who took EM 306
The Crazy Russian, jk. He's a great professor for a class like 306. Hes got a bit of a Russian accent but its nothing that you can't understand. He works actual problems out in class and always asks if anybody has questions. There is a quiz with one question every week with the lowest 2 dropped. before each quiz, the ta goes over the material and takes questions on the hw (which is not graded) There are two midterms given during the 2 hour ta section, each test has 2 problems that are very similiar to the quiz problems. The quiz, midterm, and final questions all come from the book. The Final has 3 questions. 25% quizzes, 40% midterm, 35% final. you cant ask him about your grades though, unless its a clearly wrong or they entered it wrong into the computer becuase each unsuccesful grade negotiation results in a 20% deduction from the grade in question.
The Crazy Russian, jk. He's a great professor for a class like 306. Hes got a bit of a Russian accent but its nothing that you can't understand. He works actual problems out in class and always asks if anybody has questions. There is a quiz with one question every week with the lowest 2 dropped. before each quiz, the ta goes over the material and takes questions on the hw (which is not graded) There are two midterms given during the 2 hour ta section, each test has 2 problems that are very similiar to the quiz problems. The quiz, midterm, and final questions all come from the book. The Final has 3 questions. 25% quizzes, 40% midterm, 35% final. you cant ask him about your grades though, unless its a clearly wrong or they entered it wrong into the computer becuase each unsuccesful grade negotiation results in a 20% deduction from the grade in question.
Review from a student who took EM 306
I would very much avoid taking Rodin for statics, or for that matter any other course. I had him for the spring 06' semester. His lectures are terrible. He will often spend days on a single problem that has little or no relevance to the topic. I remember one time he spent an entire day on a problem in which at the end, he concluded that it could not be solved and that we had just spent all that time for nothing ..ha ha.. Anyways, putting aside his bad lectures which nobody attends, his exams were reasonable, and he curves on a class by class basis which is pretty nice. However, I have heard from the people taking him in the fall 06' semester that he has grown much more difficult. I saw the final exam problems that he gave, and they werent even over stuff he covered last year. Even after taking solids, I dont think I could solve those. Thank goodness I had him last year otherwise I might have failed.
I would very much avoid taking Rodin for statics, or for that matter any other course. I had him for the spring 06' semester. His lectures are terrible. He will often spend days on a single problem that has little or no relevance to the topic. I remember one time he spent an entire day on a problem in which at the end, he concluded that it could not be solved and that we had just spent all that time for nothing ..ha ha.. Anyways, putting aside his bad lectures which nobody attends, his exams were reasonable, and he curves on a class by class basis which is pretty nice. However, I have heard from the people taking him in the fall 06' semester that he has grown much more difficult. I saw the final exam problems that he gave, and they werent even over stuff he covered last year. Even after taking solids, I dont think I could solve those. Thank goodness I had him last year otherwise I might have failed.
Review from a student who took EM 319
Dr. Rodin is a very intelligent man and provides decent lectures, which cover the basic material. However his exams and grading policy are terrible. His exams are usually one question, all symbolic and are a lot harder than the Homework/Lecture material. In fact sometimes they are completely irrelevant. The worst part is that you never really know why you got points off and he is nit picky way of grading. For example, its typical to lose 10-30 points if you don't draw a ton of Free Body Diagrams. You never know why you were penalized and he has a policy that negotiating grades with him will cause a 20% grade deduction. Grade wise-- its not to hard to pass. You'll think you are going to fail the class hard but as long as you are near the class average you'll end up with a C. To earn an A however you must be in the top 3% of the class and therefore its VERY hard to get an A. My advice is to avoid taking him if you can. I took him in the summer which made it a lot more difficult. If you do have to take him, make sure you can devote plenty of time to review the material and self study.
Dr. Rodin is a very intelligent man and provides decent lectures, which cover the basic material. However his exams and grading policy are terrible. His exams are usually one question, all symbolic and are a lot harder than the Homework/Lecture material. In fact sometimes they are completely irrelevant. The worst part is that you never really know why you got points off and he is nit picky way of grading. For example, its typical to lose 10-30 points if you don't draw a ton of Free Body Diagrams. You never know why you were penalized and he has a policy that negotiating grades with him will cause a 20% grade deduction. Grade wise-- its not to hard to pass. You'll think you are going to fail the class hard but as long as you are near the class average you'll end up with a C. To earn an A however you must be in the top 3% of the class and therefore its VERY hard to get an A. My advice is to avoid taking him if you can. I took him in the summer which made it a lot more difficult. If you do have to take him, make sure you can devote plenty of time to review the material and self study.
Review from a student who took EM306
I really liked taking Statics with Rodin. He hadn't taught it in years when I had him but he picked up quickly. His class is pretty easy if you listen to him lecture. Why? Because EVERY weekly quiz problem and test problem and even the final was taken straight from problems he did on the board during class. They may have different numbers or be slightly different, but it's the same principle and applications style. They're always the easiest problems that he does on the board and usually assigned a couple days before the TA sessions start. Most of the time, they're the first problems he does on a section. His grading system is really lenient too, although it's your TA that's doing the grading. For weekly quizzes (your TA period), it's 5 points for a free body diagram (forces acting on the object, don't make this more difficult than it is, it's an easy thing to do.) 4 points for work, and 1 point for the right answer. That's right. 1 point for actually doing your math correctly. There's a quiz every week and 3 tests plus a final. Quizzes are one problem, Tests are 2, final's 3. It takes you the whole time to do the problems, so be glad you don't have more. He likes to have a certain number of B's and C's so he curves based on how the class is doing (always up). This guy is accessible during office hours. He covers 9-10 chapters of your book. The book is crap. Unfortunately, he likes to assign problems from it. The problems compared to the problems he went over are as clear as mud and nearly impossible. Half of them require some upper-division math you've never heard of but he never assigns those for a grade. This teacher is overall great for this course. He's very intelligent and will spend a lot of time helping you with problems. He doesn't want to hear you complain about how hard the class is and will tell you so. He's very approachable but he does have an accent. This can make him hard to understand but he will answer questions. Take good notes and you'll do fine.
I really liked taking Statics with Rodin. He hadn't taught it in years when I had him but he picked up quickly. His class is pretty easy if you listen to him lecture. Why? Because EVERY weekly quiz problem and test problem and even the final was taken straight from problems he did on the board during class. They may have different numbers or be slightly different, but it's the same principle and applications style. They're always the easiest problems that he does on the board and usually assigned a couple days before the TA sessions start. Most of the time, they're the first problems he does on a section. His grading system is really lenient too, although it's your TA that's doing the grading. For weekly quizzes (your TA period), it's 5 points for a free body diagram (forces acting on the object, don't make this more difficult than it is, it's an easy thing to do.) 4 points for work, and 1 point for the right answer. That's right. 1 point for actually doing your math correctly. There's a quiz every week and 3 tests plus a final. Quizzes are one problem, Tests are 2, final's 3. It takes you the whole time to do the problems, so be glad you don't have more. He likes to have a certain number of B's and C's so he curves based on how the class is doing (always up). This guy is accessible during office hours. He covers 9-10 chapters of your book. The book is crap. Unfortunately, he likes to assign problems from it. The problems compared to the problems he went over are as clear as mud and nearly impossible. Half of them require some upper-division math you've never heard of but he never assigns those for a grade. This teacher is overall great for this course. He's very intelligent and will spend a lot of time helping you with problems. He doesn't want to hear you complain about how hard the class is and will tell you so. He's very approachable but he does have an accent. This can make him hard to understand but he will answer questions. Take good notes and you'll do fine.
Review from a student who took em306
Review from a student who took EM 319
It's a really hard class, but the guy is fairly interesting and very helpful in office hours.
It's a really hard class, but the guy is fairly interesting and very helpful in office hours.
Review from a student who took zkgDxUsnZr
XKrLri My brother recommended I might like this blog. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann at imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
XKrLri My brother recommended I might like this blog. He was totally right. This post actually made my day. You cann at imagine simply how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!