Calculus II

I think I would have been able to better succeed in this course under a different professor. Though Professor Olinick did his best to be helpful, there was generally a large jump over the setup of problems and an emphasis on the solving. This led to me being great at the latter, but completely lost on nearly everything conceptual. Grading also felt a little arbitrary at both on exams and overall. Homework was assigned, but had no affect on the overall grade while roughly 90% came strictly from the exams.

I think I would have been able to better succeed in this course under a different professor. Though Professor Olinick did his best to be helpful, there was generally a large jump over the setup of problems and an emphasis on the solving. This led to me being great at the latter, but completely lost on nearly everything conceptual. …Read more

The course content is pretty difficult, and it requires a lot of hard work to get an A. Office hours are extremely helpful, and TA hours were necessary to complete the homework. Professor Crodelle is great. She genuinely cared about her students and is passionate about teaching math. She was very caring and helpful to me when I was going through some personal things. In short: calc 2 is hard, but Prof Crodelle is a great professor for it!

The course content is pretty difficult, and it requires a lot of hard work to get an A. Office hours are extremely helpful, and TA hours were necessary to complete the homework. Professor Crodelle is great. She genuinely cared about her students and is passionate about teaching math. She was very caring and helpful to me when I was g …Read more

I really liked Prof Crodelle! The key to this class is going to her office hours. Calculus is really about memorizing methods for solving problems. The class definitely requires outside of class work, but if you have to take calc 2 take it with Crodelle. The homework sets were hard but prepared you well for the exams. I would say the exams were way easier than the homework sets and you are allowed a "cheat sheet" of notes.

I really liked Prof Crodelle! The key to this class is going to her office hours. Calculus is really about memorizing methods for solving problems. The class definitely requires outside of class work, but if you have to take calc 2 take it with Crodelle. The homework sets were hard but prepared you well for the exams. I would say the …Read more

This was a very difficult class, the professor went through the content very quickly and made it very hard to tackle the problems on the homework and tests. The content of the lectures was okay but the explanations on how to solve the problems were lacking immensely.

Pete is very kind and enthusiastic. There is homework due basically every class and is graded on accuracy, not just completion but the lowest 3 grades are dropped and it's overall pretty doable. There is also a quiz every week but they are not bad either.

I suffered in every language possible. I cried, I bled, I vomited. In this course, I learned how to hate myself. After I tried to finish every problem, I would pull strands of my hair out. highly recommend this class.

I took this class as a freshman just looking for the next level of math after calc 1. I forgot a lot from calc 1 coming into this as I took it junior year during covid (online) but there’s a couple week review that helped me remember a lot. Every week you’ll have an online assignment with 15-20 problems usually from the week but we only had to get 85% correct to get all points for it. There is also a feedback assignment which is like 5 questions but much more difficult and usually with multiple parts. Big benefit with Professor Crodelle (probably others too?) is you can redo Feedback assignments and quizzes within the week to try improving your grade. But it’s definitely medium/fast paced, you gotta keep up, ask questions if you don’t know something, it’s not a class you can suffer in silence on bc it’ll get a lot worse if you do. I’ve enjoyed the class overall just as it’s something to think about, but there are definitely times you might regret signing up for it bc nothing makes sense. Anyway, in summary it’s a tough course but if you’re up for it, it’s good, I liked professor Crodelle although I believe our class had mixed opinions, and if you understood calc 1 decently enough you can survive this class. Oh one other thing is you’re theoretically supposed to do readings every day in the textbook but I think I only did the first 2 or 3 because that would add so much homework time and she goes over the main points in class. just take good notes.

I took this class as a freshman just looking for the next level of math after calc 1. I forgot a lot from calc 1 coming into this as I took it junior year during covid (online) but there’s a couple week review that helped me remember a lot. Every week you’ll have an online assignment with 15-20 problems usually from the week but we o …Read more

Edit: By the end of the semester, it seemed as Bleher made a real effort to change his style of lecturing. He is a quirky, kind guy who cares about his students, I just don't think he was prepared to teach calc II. Original review: If you can, don't take this class with Professer Bleher. Class time consists of confusing, difficult to read lecture slides jam packed with formulas to memorize, only for Bleher to swiftly start solving problems on the board without much room for students to try first. There is no effort to conceptually understand any of the material, it is just a case of "memorize this, memorize that". The class is quiet and not very collaborative, and overall just seems a bit disorganized. I'm learning more from Youtube than this class, which is a shame. Unfortunately I have class that conflicts with his office hours, but one-on-one he is a fantastic explainer. I just don't think he's the best at constructing a class with 25+ students in it.

Edit: By the end of the semester, it seemed as Bleher made a real effort to change his style of lecturing. He is a quirky, kind guy who cares about his students, I just don't think he was prepared to teach calc II. Original review: If you can, don't take this class with Professer Bleher. Class time consists of confusing, difficult to …Read more

Professer Bleher is an intelligent person who has a deep excitement for Mathematics, but is not necessarily good at teaching to everyone's needs. You must go to his office hours to get the most out of this course, and while his insights are clearly rooted in excitement about math, they are often unclear and difficult to handle. Many of the students in the 8:30 section were confused initially by his 'style' which perpetuated a course that you could only be successful in by teaching yourself the content before hand. Had we followed the proposed schedule, this would have been easier to do, but because of lectures turning into unclear explanations from Bleher to his students more than teaching new content it was very difficult. His lack of teaching skill made this course hard to adjust to and prepare for. The content is easy enough, and his teaching doesn't add much. I personally disagree with his exam grading, which took significantly more points off for missed steps (even assuming correct final answers, 10 or more steps, etc) than any other professor I've worked under. This left the median final grade fairly low for how difficult the course work is.

Professer Bleher is an intelligent person who has a deep excitement for Mathematics, but is not necessarily good at teaching to everyone's needs. You must go to his office hours to get the most out of this course, and while his insights are clearly rooted in excitement about math, they are often unclear and difficult to handle. Many …Read more

This course requires a lot of dedication to succeed. There are two weekly homework assignments, one of which is an online set of questions through Edfinity and the other is a handwritten-and-scanned assignment. The latter can be resubmitted for full points, so it's not too stressful, but both combined can be time-consuming. There are also weekly quizzes that can be retaken. Jen is very kind and super passionate about teaching--the lectures are very conceptual, so going to office hours is likely necessary for full comprehension. Calculus is inherently hard, but Jen is probably the most diligent professor you could ask for.

This course requires a lot of dedication to succeed. There are two weekly homework assignments, one of which is an online set of questions through Edfinity and the other is a handwritten-and-scanned assignment. The latter can be resubmitted for full points, so it's not too stressful, but both combined can be time-consuming. There are …Read more

Professor Bleher is definitely not for everyone. His teaching is often confusing and disorganised. With the way that calculus builds on itself, many units being taught out of order was anything but helpful. Lectures mostly consist of slides being shown with formulas to take notes on and memorize, and then practice problems which everyone has no idea how to begin and simply waits until he starts solving them himself. Exams are pretty hard. He will give a practice exam the day before which helps somewhat, but never enough because a huge portion of the test will end up being a topic we looked at for half of a lecture while parts that we spent days on are not covered. The homeworks are probably the most helpful part of the course, because I will always be faced with problems that I have minimal idea on how to solve. Thus I have to figure out how to do them myself and will actually learn the topics. All that being said, he clearly loves maths, and is willing to explore many other ways to solve a problem apart from what he had prepared for class. He is also far better one on one, and is actually a very nice guy.

Professor Bleher is definitely not for everyone. His teaching is often confusing and disorganised. With the way that calculus builds on itself, many units being taught out of order was anything but helpful. Lectures mostly consist of slides being shown with formulas to take notes on and memorize, and then practice problems which ever …Read more

Olinick assigned homework 3 times a week and each one would take 2-3 hours. Nothing too hard and TAs were very helpful. 6 hours of homework and maybe 10 hours total if midterm week. But Olinick said that homeworks were optional and so literally no one did them. So if you didn't do the homeworks it's 0 hours a week. There's also no reason to do the homework because his grading structure is entirely midterms, final, and a few projects. The midterms are impossible, no curves and class average was maybe a 75. Clutch a B with Olinick and call it an A+ with anyone else.

Olinick assigned homework 3 times a week and each one would take 2-3 hours. Nothing too hard and TAs were very helpful. 6 hours of homework and maybe 10 hours total if midterm week. But Olinick said that homeworks were optional and so literally no one did them. So if you didn't do the homeworks it's 0 hours a week. There's also no re …Read more

Want to preface by saying that I am not a math major. Crodelle was very effective in teaching the course. Expect weekly quizzes and problem sets. Quizzes can be retaken for full credit and problem set corrections can be done for full credit. Course is heavily weighted on psets and participation. Exams are challenging and definitely need to prepare for them thoroughly but are manageable if you've done the outside work to get ready for them.

Want to preface by saying that I am not a math major. Crodelle was very effective in teaching the course. Expect weekly quizzes and problem sets. Quizzes can be retaken for full credit and problem set corrections can be done for full credit. Course is heavily weighted on psets and participation. Exams are challenging and definitely n …Read more

Professor Schumer is extremely lively and is constantly making jokes during class. The pace of the class is fast as you learn a different section of a unit each day. There are quizzes every Thursday but they are not that bad. Good amount of homework 3 days a week

Take this class with Siegfried Bleher only if you already have some calculus background because he will assume you do. The second midterm was so hard that he had to curve it the following day. His teaching methods aren't clear so be prepared to learn most of things by yourself.

Dr. Seigfried Bleher is a great teacher. Some may not like him, simply because he teaches harder level courses. However, he makes sure too accommodate for students needs during class periods. You have to make sure to stay on top of the work and follow in class or else you'll sink and fail.

Calc II is a challenging class regardless of who the professor is; that being said, I wonder if it would have been easier with someone else. Dr. Bleher is friendly and accommodating. The class is homework-heavy, and despite the fast pace, we still ended up behind the syllabus. We also removed the weekly quizzes to accommodate the course content. If you are taking this class, be prepared to seek external help, as that ended up being the most efficient learning tactic for me.

Calc II is a challenging class regardless of who the professor is; that being said, I wonder if it would have been easier with someone else. Dr. Bleher is friendly and accommodating. The class is homework-heavy, and despite the fast pace, we still ended up behind the syllabus. We also removed the weekly quizzes to accommodate the cou …Read more

The material taught in this course if very valuable. There were 2 sets of problem sets due per week and 3 exams. The homework isn't hard. My professor also had recorded that class so that students could go back and watch the lesson. I think this helped a lot.

Prof Bleher is not as terrible as every other reviews say. He is not great, but part of the reason why students feel left behind is due to the fast pace of the course. He does assign alot of hw every week but I feel like they were helpful for me to prepare for my test.

You can tell he loves what he does, however, he does unnecessarily hard problems in class that are often something we do not need to know for homework or exams. Similarly, the practice problems are very different from those on the homework. If you seek out one-on-one help, he is helpful.

I don't think this course was necessarily terrible, but it's not set up to help you succeed. With Olinick, the worst part of the course is that the homework does not impact your grade, which meant I didn't do it, making the exams incredibly difficult. Olinick allows note sheets for his later exams, so if you don't know what's going on, I'd pack it full of as many examples as you can because the exams are very similar to his practice exams and other problems.

I don't think this course was necessarily terrible, but it's not set up to help you succeed. With Olinick, the worst part of the course is that the homework does not impact your grade, which meant I didn't do it, making the exams incredibly difficult. Olinick allows note sheets for his later exams, so if you don't know what's going o …Read more

This course was difficult, but Professor Crodelle made it bearable. She brought enthusiasm to each class and made each concept interesting. I would advise that if you are taking this course to take advantage of office hours because I found it to be most helpful!

This course was very hard. As someone who did well in BC calc in high school this class was extremely hard. the average for the class was about a 70 and nothing was graded on a scale. Also, throughout the semester you do not know at all were your grade stands other than the few grades you get back.

Calc II is an extremely difficult course with a pretty intense workload. Professor Crodelle is an excellent teacher who makes the material go from impossible to understand to pretty much able to understand. She is a very fair grader and gives partial credit, which is necessary because problems are pretty difficult. Overall, Prof. Crodelle is very passionate about math and makes the course easier to handle. I wouldn't take this course again because it required a lot of work and took time away from some of my other classes, but I would love the professor and it would be a great course for someone more interested in math.

Calc II is an extremely difficult course with a pretty intense workload. Professor Crodelle is an excellent teacher who makes the material go from impossible to understand to pretty much able to understand. She is a very fair grader and gives partial credit, which is necessary because problems are pretty difficult. Overall, Prof. Cro …Read more

Personally, this course was very tough. This has been my only extremely stressful course at Middlebury and it is definitely due to the difficulty in the grading scheme. There is zero room for error to make any mistakes on any assignment if you want an A or even an A-.

Bleher is an amazing guy. He is really passionate, funny, and understanding. His teaching style isnt for everyone (i dont even know if its for me) but its worth a little extra effort to get to spend time with that awesome dude. just reach out to him and he will acomodate.

JC is a great professor. She is very enthusiastic about math in and outside of her classes. I found going to her office hours really helpful. I found the homework to be very time consuming and long but they are not too bad. I would recommend to take calc 2 with her!

I did not like Olinick. His grading policy is completely based on 4 difficult exams over the course of the semester. We have homework due every class but it doesn't count towards your final grade. He just says "if you do it all i might raise your grade at the end." It is very hard to get an A in this class.

It was pretty bad.. We had so much homework, even when we had a midterm approaching (like the day before), and lecture was a waste of time. I find that I could have taught myself the content better than bleher (which is what I ended up doing). The first half of the semester is review from calc 1, so I was able to breeze through relatively easily, but he cant teach.. dont take a class with him.

It was pretty bad.. We had so much homework, even when we had a midterm approaching (like the day before), and lecture was a waste of time. I find that I could have taught myself the content better than bleher (which is what I ended up doing). The first half of the semester is review from calc 1, so I was able to breeze through relat …Read more

If you can, do not take this class with Professor Bleher. He is a super nice man and means very well, but his teaching style is not conducive to learning the material in this class. While the material covered in this class is not extremely complicated, the disorganization within each class creates a tremendous amount of confusion.

A hard class, but I did not try hard enough. The test were really hard and the homework was a lot but not too much. Missing a class was horrible you would just be extremely far behind. But Bleher was great!

Quizlet plus is a must for this class as the homework occasionally goes beyond what is covered in class. Pete is an enthusiastic teacher and gives clear examples in class. It's relatively tough for an intro calc class but I'd say you learn a lot.

Professor Kubacki was very helpful in explaining new concepts in this class. This class is very fast-paced, and if you want to do well on the exams: do the homework, and redo it again and again. There is a lot of homework, but it's the best and most effective way to learn. The exams are also very similar to the problems in the homework, so you should have no trouble with them if you consistently work on the problem sets every week.

Professor Kubacki was very helpful in explaining new concepts in this class. This class is very fast-paced, and if you want to do well on the exams: do the homework, and redo it again and again. There is a lot of homework, but it's the best and most effective way to learn. The exams are also very similar to the problems in the homewo …Read more

This is a hard class and requires lots of time and attention to do well. Jen is a great, positive and fun professor but the material is definitely difficult. She gives two large homework assignments per week which can be brutal;

Love prof crodelle. i took this class as a math major and she is amazing and treats students with honest care. she is always willing to help and spend time with you to make sure you understand the material.

I took this course as it is required by the graduate schools I will be applying to. I enjoy math a lot, but I would not be disappointed if this were the last math course I ever have to take, as it was incredibly mentally and emotionally draining, even if I did learn a lot. I definitely enjoyed the projects the professor assigned - they were all incredibly well thought out and enjoyable to complete, either with a group or as an individual. The final project was focused on fractals, which was a fun divergence from the regular material of the course (mostly on integrals and derivatives.) That said, I would not encourage a friend (or even my worst enemy) to take this course for fun, especially if they value their gpa. If you're a math major you can take all this with a grain of salt, as I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg for the math department.

I took this course as it is required by the graduate schools I will be applying to. I enjoy math a lot, but I would not be disappointed if this were the last math course I ever have to take, as it was incredibly mentally and emotionally draining, even if I did learn a lot. I definitely enjoyed the projects the professor assigned - th …Read more

Professor Olinick is a straight shooter. No funny business. He gets into course material as soon as class starts, no greetings or anything. I think this is because he is a self-proclaimed "night-owl" and it is a crime that Middlebury has this man teaching Calculus II at 8 A.M. in the morning. As for the course itself, Professor Olinick divides the grading into four exams + a cumulative project grade (we had two this semester). The first exam you take raw, while the last three you are allowed to have a page (front-side and back) of notes. He gives a sample exam a few days before the actual exam. I would recommend paying lots of attention to the sample exam, since they come very close to mimicking the actual one. If you really wanted to, you could write the process of solving the sample exam on the page of notes, since they follow a similar process for the exam. The tests are also untimed, which is surprisingly a plus. As for the style of teaching, he sometimes gets into tangents about unimportant things that have little relevance to what is actually being studied, so sometimes it gets difficult to filter what you should be writing down or not. He relies a lot on class participation, and unfortunately since this course starts at 8:40, many of us are too tired to participate and there is this air of dead silence when he asks a question --- which he always says something like "my granddaughter in middle school has already learned this." Professor Olinick is a good dude and deserves better, so please participate. The homeworks are "optional" and due at the end of class. Its a few questions from the textbook and honestly they're pretty difficult, so do as you please (I would recommend still doing all of them just because he can boost your grade at the end of the semester). In conclusion, I don't think anyone really can enjoy Calc II so he does his best at making this class serviceable. Again, he's a good, wholesome guy and I would recommend studying the most for the sequence and series exam.

Professor Olinick is a straight shooter. No funny business. He gets into course material as soon as class starts, no greetings or anything. I think this is because he is a self-proclaimed "night-owl" and it is a crime that Middlebury has this man teaching Calculus II at 8 A.M. in the morning. As for the course itself, Professor Olini …Read more

Professor Crodelle is great, her teaching style makes learning the material easy. Calc is hard, that's just how it is, nothing can make it completely easy. However, prof Crodelle is just about the best you can get for calc.

Professor Bleher has a teaching style that is definitely not conductive to all students' learning. I didn't like how he would consistently target specific students (ones that were obviously struggling more) by cold calling them and forcing them to answer when it was clear they didn't know how to. That being said, you can tell he really loves math and is very passionate about the subject. He also tried his best to accommodate students in my class when they expressed specific confusion on a concept- or an issue with grading. He's a good guy, but I think many students experience frustration from his way of teaching.

Professor Bleher has a teaching style that is definitely not conductive to all students' learning. I didn't like how he would consistently target specific students (ones that were obviously struggling more) by cold calling them and forcing them to answer when it was clear they didn't know how to. That being said, you can tell he real …Read more

Very friendly and enthusiastic professor. He explains everything clearly and with effective examples. However the lack of resources, canvas, practice, and review options for the class really threw me off.

Schumer's teaching style is effective, making complex concepts accessible. His fair grading system and reasonable exams create a supportive learning environment, ensuring students grasp the material thoroughly. Highly recommended for a solid understanding of calculus.

The exams were especially difficult and although Siegfried Bleher is passionate about what he's teaching, it was difficult to keep up with the fast-pace of the class and the concepts. There were a lot of graded homework assignments which at times felt to be taking a long time. I do think I learned a lot however it was a very challenging class and very time committing.

I took this class because I am thinking about being a math major so it was required. I have been relatively good at math in the past so the course was not the hardest but the instructors teaching style was not great. It was understandable that many people did not do well as we did not receive much help from him. With a different professor this class shouldn't be too hard if you give enough effort.

I took this class because I am thinking about being a math major so it was required. I have been relatively good at math in the past so the course was not the hardest but the instructors teaching style was not great. It was understandable that many people did not do well as we did not receive much help from him. With a different prof …Read more

Prof Crodelle was extremely enthusiastic about the material. Her lectures were very organized and structured. There was a lot of homework but it was manageable and the exams were very fair and related to the material seen in class. I really enjoyed the points-based system since it made exams seem less intimidating and allowed me to focus on actually learning the material.

Professor Crodelle lead a very structured and helpful lecture. All material was well organized and made clear through canvas. While there was a lot of homework, it was manageable and could get done ahead of time. There were lots of opportunities to gain points back and mastery of the material was prioritized over getting everything exactly perfect. The points-based system made exams seem less intimidating and allowed me to focus on actually learning the material

Professor Crodelle lead a very structured and helpful lecture. All material was well organized and made clear through canvas. While there was a lot of homework, it was manageable and could get done ahead of time. There were lots of opportunities to gain points back and mastery of the material was prioritized over getting everything e …Read more

This course is pretty hard. Took it not coming from a strong math background and it takes a lot of work. It is important stuff, but in class we mainly went over theory instead of examples. I recommend if you want to go into math, but if you're just looking for a math class to fulfill a requirement, this one is not it. It will take a lot of work outside of class. Fast-paced as well.

This course is pretty hard. Took it not coming from a strong math background and it takes a lot of work. It is important stuff, but in class we mainly went over theory instead of examples. I recommend if you want to go into math, but if you're just looking for a math class to fulfill a requirement, this one is not it. It will take a …Read more

This class was pretty good. Prof. Crodelle's homework and grading methods are really nice. We had two assignments a week that could usually be done within three hours. Most weeks I had to get help from a tutor on one or two questions but they were easy to find and Crodelle had usually given them the answers.

The class was slightly challenging at times, but the grading was fair, and there were extra credit opportunities. The professor was also really helpful during office hours and helped me understand concepts I didn't grasp during class.

Prof Crodelle was extremely enthuastic and presented the material in a way that made sense to me. While there was a lot of course work, I felt that the workload forced me to understand the material. Favorite math class at Midd thus far! Would highly recommend taking a class with Prof Crodelle!

Professor Jen is willing to provide help at any time, even when her office hours have not started. You must complete the readings before class to understand what you are learning, and this can be difficult because of other assignments for this class on top of it.

The course material was fast paced and slightly unorganized. But exams were very fair and homework problems were very helpful in understanding the key concepts. Most exams we were allowed to bring a sheet of paper on test day with information on it.

The class was very fast-paced. The grades were based on weekly assignments, 3 exams and a few projects. If you're not intending to be a math major, I would advice to take this class only of you have a strong calculus foundation.

I don't know if I'm just bad at math, but this was the hardest class I've ever taken. The homework was impossible (took hours and was graded for completion), and there was a problem set due every class. I took it for the DED credit, and I enjoyed calc I in highschool, but this was a different level. If you don't need to, don't take this class.

Jen is great- her grading is easy to understand and designed to make you learn from your mistakes. Exams are not insane but difficult enough, but not weighted super highly. The course material can be challenging, but \grading is extremely fair.

Crodelle is super sweet. The class is just on a difficult topic and you need to be able to put in the time and effort to learn the material. She has a nice grading and point distribution system that makes grading pretty fair.

I took this class as a part of the Math major/minor. I had already taken Calc2 in high school and wanted a bit of a refresher to learn the material again. I found the class had more work than I was hoping as well as a lot of class time. It is a helpful class however.

To be fair, I am not good at math so it's no wonder this class was really hard for me. I took Calc 1 in high school during covid, and simply didn't know enough to do Calc 2 here. If you are good at math i'm sure it would be fine!