Alexander Coward
Professor in the Mathematics department
at University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
are you Alexander?
Percentage excludes ratings added prior to 05/25/16.
Overall Quality
4.0
Would Take Again
N/A
Level of Difficulty
2.5
Tags for this Professor
See how other students describe this professor.
Inspirational (22)
Caring (14)
Respected (13)
Amazing lectures (8)
Tough Grader (8)
Get ready to read (7)
Hilarious (4)
Clear grading criteria (2)
Skip class? You won't pass. (2)
Participation matters (1)
GRADED BY FEW THINGS (1)
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65 Student Ratings
0 Professor Notes
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Rating: All
All Ratings
Good
Average
Poor
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Class
All Classes
MATH1A
MATH1B
MATH16A
MATH16B
MATH1A16B
16B
16A
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Comment | |
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06/24/2016
good
4.0
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH16B For Credit: Yes Attendance: N/A Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: Yes Grade Received: N/A |
CARING
INSPIRATIONAL
GRADED BY FEW THINGS
I found Coward's lectures inspiring because he wanted us to be fascinated by the beauty of math. Coward doesn't micro-manage his students, so it is your responsibility to prepare for the 2 midterms and final. He gave us practice midterms and a practice final which basically were the same as the actual ones, just w/ diff numbers. |
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05/19/2016
good
3.5
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
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16A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: A |
CARING
INSPIRATIONAL
RESPECTED
I believe Coward is a great person just perhaps not an absolutely great lecturer. He got a lot of flack this past year but when I took 16a he was very helpful and eager to help students. He cares a lot about the well being of students but when it came to grading - midterms were all over the place and not comparable from section to section. |
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05/16/2016
awesome
5.0
Overall Quality
1.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: N/A Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: A+ |
CARING
AMAZING LECTURES
INSPIRATIONAL
Great lecturer: very charismatic and good at explaining concepts. Does his best to make sure everyone understands. Puts a lot of emphasis on rigor and formal proof for a lower division class, but it's manageable. He really cares about his students. He doesn't assign official homework, but sometimes recommends exercises. |
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01/18/2016
good
3.5
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: N/A |
INSPIRATIONAL
RESPECTED
CARING
He gives out his personal cell number in case you need help. He really likes proofs, and spends a lot of time doing them. The only problem I see is his grading style. There is no homework, no assignments, and no attendance. Your grade hangs entirely on your 2 midterms and the final. Not the best class for those of us who are poor test takers. |
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01/13/2016
good
4.0
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: Yes Grade Received: A |
CARING
INSPIRATIONAL
Professor Coward was a great professor. Very inspirational and helpful. His midterms are fair, if you study the material. Final was a little bit harder but doable. He cares about your learning and encourages not to worry too much about your grade. |
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01/07/2016
good
3.5
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: B+ |
CARING
RESPECTED
The professor is very helpful. There was no homework, with the grades determined by two midterms and the final. He very much favoured proofs, but the midterms are very easy. Attending classes was not necessary as notes were uploaded online. Discussions could be mandatory depending on the GSI, so you could simply not go to class at all. |
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01/06/2016
average
2.5
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: N/A |
INSPIRATIONAL
AMAZING LECTURES
Great lecturer, terrible teacher. In other words, he's very inspiration re: life, etc, which can be appealing. However, when it comes to actually teaching the material, he is very disorganized and takes forever to explain one simple concept. You also have to have a lot of self-motivation to do problems. Material is easy, we've all taken calc before |
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01/05/2016
good
3.5
Overall Quality
4.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: A- |
CARING
TOUGH GRADER
The first two midterms were easy, but the final was difficult. If you want an A, you definitely have to work for it. No homework at all and grades are solely based on exams. I wish his class was better organized. I really enjoyed Calculus during my senior year of high school but I lost interest in it this semester. |
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01/05/2016
awesome
4.5
Overall Quality
4.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: B |
He is such a wonderful guy and he is so enthusiastic about teaching. He knows his stuff and is honest when he doesn't know. But very resourceful and really good math. He has some unconventional ways of teaching, but they work pretty well! He doesn't give homework which is good and bad at the same time, pick your poison. But overall very effective |
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12/28/2015
good
4.0
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1B For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: A |
GET READY TO READ
INSPIRATIONAL
RESPECTED
He's a very polarizing figure. If you're self-motivated and you need professors to interest you more than feed you information, he'll be your favorite professor. His lectures are very insightful, if not sometimes confusing. No homework or quizzes in his class, so you need to motivate yourself to do additional book work. If you can't, you'll fail. |
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12/20/2015
awesome
4.5
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: Not sure yet |
INSPIRATIONAL
CARING
HILARIOUS
Engaging lectures and very helpful. At the end of the semester, I found myself writing out math a lot more not because I was told to, but because it makes my thought process much more clear and precise. He showed us that math and proofs are not as difficult as we imagined and we can do anything if we set our mind to it. Awesome professor overall. |
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12/12/2015
awesome
5.0
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: Not sure yet |
CARING
AMAZING LECTURES
RESPECTED
Coward is an amazing lecturer and an inspirational teacher. Went into this class hating Calculus and came out loving it! There are very few teachers that can do that. He explains things in a very clear manner and will not hesitate to help you if you're stuck on something. Great teacher that will build you a great foundation in Math! |
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12/07/2015
awesome
4.5
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: Not sure yet |
INSPIRATIONAL
AMAZING LECTURES
CARING
Fun lectures. |
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11/04/2015
awesome
5.0
Overall Quality
1.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: Yes Grade Received: N/A |
AMAZING LECTURES
Class was easy to understand |
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10/28/2015
awesome
5.0
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
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MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: A |
RESPECTED
INSPIRATIONAL
AMAZING LECTURES
He's one of the best math teachers on campus. There's not much homework or quizzes (if any at all), since it's just 2 midterms and a final. However, the midterms lean towards the easier side. |
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10/13/2015
poor
2.0
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH16A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: A |
I took him after hearing so many good things about him but I was honestly so disappointed. He went off on so many tangents, nitpicked on random things and when it came down to it, taught the material rather poorly. I took his class with prior calculus knowledge so it was alright but for those that never had calc, it would've been so awful. |
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10/12/2015
awesome
5.0
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH16B For Credit: Yes Attendance: N/A Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: Yes Grade Received: N/A |
RESPECTED
INSPIRATIONAL
Great teacher. Taught me how to do a Lagrange multiplier. People actually show up to his class, so he must be doing something right. |
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10/12/2015
awful
1.0
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH16B For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: N/A |
Coward was an awful professor. Tries to teach math in a confusing essay format, and marks you down when you don't use his method correctly. Extremely arrogant and set on proving how his principles in teaching are the best. Class was very disorganized and grading until the very end of the course. Avoid taking a class with him if possible. |
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10/07/2015
good
3.5
Overall Quality
2.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: Yes Would Take Again: N/A Grade Received: Not sure yet |
RESPECTED
INSPIRATIONAL
He's really funny during his lectures. He's particular about punctuation, capitalization, fractions bars etc (formatting in general) for formal proofs, to the point it's downright ridiculous but fairly comical. The one thing I admire about him is how he sets up the class to be learning oriented rather than performative. It's a life learning class. |
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10/06/2015
awesome
4.5
Overall Quality
3.0
Level of Difficulty
|
MATH1A For Credit: Yes Attendance: Not Mandatory Textbook Used: No Would Take Again: Yes Grade Received: N/A |
INSPIRATIONAL
Very passionate teacher and always tries to be helpful. He was amazing in my freshman year, absolutely love him and his class. |
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