Philip Caplan

Professor Caplan was an awesome professor. He explained everything in detail and was passionate about the topic. The course overall is exam- and quiz-heavy, but he makes the standard very clear. You just need to do his practice problems.

If you have the chance, you should take Math Foundations with Caplan. I was scared of taking discrete math but this class was fairly easy. It’s like solving riddles. Caplan is an amazing instructor who is able to break down each topic in class in a way that is digestible, but not slow or boring. He is super kind and his awkward-ish sense of humor made me laugh a lot. He also wrote his own textbook for the class, complete with its problem sets for each chapter. I showed up having read/completed each assigned chapter/problem set at the start of each week and that made lectures super easy to follow. I suggest doing the extra problems he recommends before the exams, because all the exam problems will absolutely be connected to a concept learned in class— I never had to worry about curveballs or anything. As long as you think hard, and put in that little extra work to study, you are guaranteed to get the grade you want. All exams were open book which was genuinely heaven sent. Group work every Friday but it’s not too bad. Loved this class and learned a lot.

If you have the chance, you should take Math Foundations with Caplan. I was scared of taking discrete math but this class was fairly easy. It’s like solving riddles. Caplan is an amazing instructor who is able to break down each topic in class in a way that is digestible, but not slow or boring. He is super kind and his awkward-ish s …Read more

Professor Caplan is great. If you are taking this class, I strongly recommend taking it with him. If you are looking for an easy A, this course is a great choice. However, much of the material covered is not very applicable to computer science. I think the course should be optional for students who have already taken higher level math classes. Personally, I do not feel like I got much value out of this course.

Professor Caplan is great. If you are taking this class, I strongly recommend taking it with him. If you are looking for an easy A, this course is a great choice. However, much of the material covered is not very applicable to computer science. I think the course should be optional for students who have already taken higher level mat …Read more