Hartig, Don  

I learned that if I were to take up hunting, I should shoot deer, not bears, because a bear will hunt me back if I successfully wound it. Fascinating! I didnt know that the key to production and operations management was so brutally simple!

A complete idiot with no concept of how to teach and a breath bad enough to wilt vegetation. If you ever see the words "experimental" and his name by it, steer way clear. He tried to teach math by using a computer program (Theorist), which turned out to be an exercise in futility and frusturation.

Even though at the beginning of the year I absolutely hated Professor Hartig, I began to get used to his teaching style and love it. I wish he were teaching my next math class. Yes, he does stare right at the board and mumble (he's a little old guy!), but if you ask him to clarify he will. He doesn't teach much, but almost every class he gives you (not mandatory) homework and then the next day asks if we had any questions and goes over the problems you struggled on. We took about 2 quizzes and 2 midterms and the final. That comprised the entire grade. The quizzes were heavily curved, and if you write ANYTHING on a problem he gives you points. Never leave a test problem blank. He is helpful and nice and seems to enjoy the subject. If you are good at math and are okay with learning and doing some work on your own I completely recommend him.

My grade (C+) did not affect my evaluation of Prof. Hartig, just to let you know. That is the result of my laziness. Hartig is funny at times, but overall he is not a good choice for calc 142. He speaks very quietly, forcing those interested in getting a good grade to sit in the front, where he gets in your face and lectures to the class through your face. He faces the whiteboard while talking and blocks the view from most angles. He skips too many steps, assuming everybody taking calculus already knows it or is smart enough to skip every other step. His tests aren't too bad. HW: not graded, so the lazy kids (me) don't do it and get bad grades. He spends 80% of the class reviewing HW questions, which is nice for those who didn't do any of it (me). Overall, avoid Hartig. He has his days when being in his class is fun, but it's usually because he does something stupid or corky. Sometimes he answers his cellphone in spanish. also he is really old and makes many mistakes while doing examples. hard to trust his results. good luck

Although I admit that my overall grade in this class is not entirely Professor Hartig's fault, his lecture wasn't helpful at all. He moves so quickly that in order to keep up, you pretty much have to already know the material. Also, his writing is completely illegible and he talks so quietly that you can only hear if you sit in the first 2 or 3 rows. Hartig is extremely intelligent, but he isn't very good at teaching. He often skips steps and assumes that the class understands what was skipped over. For this class I had to teach myself everything from the book, as well as attend study sessions and get extra help from a tutor. For those that are gifted in math and can think quickly, this class probably won't be too bad for you. As for me, I'm a little bit of a slow worker and I didn't have a very good foundation in calculus to begin with. This class just wasn't for me.

Hartig has a habit of making things more complicated than they are. I would understand the material before I went to class and leave the class thoroughly confused. He often has difficulties doing the problems he assigns, doing them the most complicated way possible. His tests are difficult. He speaks to the board and turns around infrequently. AVOID if you can... If you cant slader.com is your new best friend. Find your textbook and learn through those examples. Its the only way.

Hartig, at face value, would seem like a terrible professor. He speaks softly, and to the board, impresses upon points directly into students' faces , appears to scribble on the chalkboard, and skips multiple steps when solving a problem. Beyond this, however, lies a very intelligent man, perhaps one of the most well-versed of the Calculus professors. If you can take the time to decipher his scrawlings on the board, he actually makes a lot of sense, and you become quite fast at the subject of Calculus. He also is one of the few professors that I've seen that promptly answers emails with mathematical inquiries. He's also quite helpful in office hours, and can help allay difficulties in most of the mathematical problems. Definitely, he is not a professor for students looking to "just pass". Anyone taking this class should expect to clock in the recommended eight hours of studying per week, and show an actual interest in the subject matter, or else Hartig may seem indecipherable.

Dr. Hartig is by far one of the most intelligent men I have met. However, he fails to communicate clearly, and thus, just intimidates his students with his intelligence. He mumbles very quietly into the board as he does a problem, so you can never hear him. He also stands directly in front of the chalkboard when he solves a problem, so you can't see what he writes either. When I went in to office hours, I felt stupider than when I first went in. Unless you like impossible tests teaching yourself, avoid Hartig.

Very little of the homework was assigned, though problem sets were issued and expected to be done. First two tests curved, final is not. Quizzes occasionally, not curved. Overall I enjoyed this class very much. I think that Dr. Hartig is overlooked and given too much grief, not because he's a bad teacher, but because of the difficulty and complexity of the subject. As has been said before, he does tend to ramble on, mainly looking at the board where he scribbles his lesson. What was not mentioned is how Hartig does have a genuine interest in the subject and is willing to help any student who is struggling or would like to go on to more complex material. His lecture, though he does go over the chapters, was mainly to answer any homework questions. My advice to those who are about to take his class is to read the chapter before the lecture (the book does a great job of explaining the material), come prepared with questions for the lecture, and to not be afraid to ask him to speak louder. Following this advice, hopefully whoever may take his class will realize the beauty of Calculus and its applications, just as Hartig does.

Hartig is an old dude who can't seem to speak up. If you sit behind the third row in the room you won't be able to hear him. He also likes to stand in front of what he's writing and talk to the blackboard instead of the students. While I'm pretty good at math, I struggled to understand what he was doing in class and what would be on the exams. If you learn outside of class he may not be so bad, but otherwise AVOID HARTIG.

The first day of class I passed a note to my friend saying "we'll probably have to study from the book - this guy doesn't explain ANYTHING!" Wow, did I hit the nail right on the head. His lectures are worthless, if you insist on calling them lectures. He does example after example on the board, normally ver batim from the book, and always with ZERO explaination. If you ask a question, you get a completely assinine answer to a totally different question, and a funny look like you're some kind of idiot for not knowing the material before he lectures on it. The average attendence on days he wasn't collecting homework was three (and sometimes one of them is awake). If homework weren't 30% of your grade, probably nobody would come at all. But don't hold your breath homework fans, you won't get the whole 30%. He hired a grader that takes off ridiculous amounts of points for minor errors that even Hartig would make. If you miss two out of ten problems, cross your fingers for half credit on the assignment. God help you if you skip one. I got the second highest midterm grade and still ended up with a C in the class. I'll give you three guesses why. On the plus side, the tests are predictable, so if you already know the work or rarely go to class anyway, this might be your guy. I didn't sit close enough to give you an evaluation on his breath, and I didn't go to any of his office hours, but I expect everyone else's comments are pretty close to the truth.

i basically learned all the material for the class from the book. he pretty much rambled on and on, and made a mess on the board, and his explanations were hard to follow. he assigned homework to turn in and also gave suggested problems, but the ones you actually had to turn in were usually 4-8 problems. so homework load was generally not bad, but if you missed more than one assignment, the hw portion was pretty much knocked down a grade. he never gave quizzes, and his midterms were not that bad, considering you had completed most of the homework. on his midterms, he gave you several problems, and typically you had to do 2-3 specific ones, and then you were allowed to chose some from a few others he had given. so if there was one you really couldnt solve, you sometimes had the chance of skipping it(assuming it wasnt one of the mandatory ones). the lab portion, was pretty useless and felt like a waste of time, it was more about whether you knew how to use the program than whether you knew the material. so unless you like learning from the book, dont get this guy.

Tests are pretty difficult, but he lets you use calculators, integral tables, and computor program called maple. He also gives generous curves. One thing that i really didn't like about his class was that every other week or so we had to spend a day learning how to use maple. i found this to be a waste of time, but i guess it could be helpful on tests for anybody who would rather learn the program rather then calculus. lectures were O.K. and he's helpful at office hours,

Well, Dr. Hartig is undoubtedly a smart man. However, the way he presents lecture is just stupid. the guy will write out a problem or two, maybe three if you're lucky, and he'll spend the entire class standing up there trying to solve the thing with his back to the class and completely ignoring us for most of the time. he'll just mumble to himself and occasionally walk up to you and awkwardly stare at you while slowly (and i mean slowly) glide towards you while he makes his point. at the beginning of class he'll go over a couple of HW problems if you ask. he assigns hW every night, but never has you turn it in, so that you can lose all motivation to do the work. he's a real nice guy, don't get me wrong. i hate the class, just not the professor. .. oh, and the tests are a bitch

I DROPPED THE CLASS ON DAY 1 ENOUGH SAID..but if you want more, he was too boring for me to want to pay attention and I could barely understand him or his lectures..he also gives weekly quizzes..I only stayed long enough to learn that

He's nice and is understanding if you have to make up a quiz or if you want to take it early, however, he just sucks at teaching. Honestly, if you take the class, it's pointless to go to class each day. For my first midterm, I tried learning from his teaching and realized I couldn't do it and I barely got a D on it. I learned from my mistakes and learned strictly from the book on my second midterm to pull of a high B+. I currently have a 75% in the class and I'm gonna try to pull of a B. My advice, don't take him and if you absolutely have to, don't bother going to class, just read from the text and do all the homework problems. Check your answers with the solutions manual and you should be fine.

Having background on half the course from high school, this class was mostly a breeze for me. Comparing the tests and quizzes I have taken in his class to those of my friends with other teachers, they are significantly easier. His lectures are a bit dull and sometimes hard to understand, but with some self study you'll do fine. He also often makes quite few mistakes within his examples. Overall... Pros: 1) Easy tests quizzes 2) Homework isn't collected, but you are given some online homework Cons: 1) Boring class 2) Self study is pretty much required

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Lecture= pointless and too difficult to follow. If you enjoy learning an upper level calculus class by yourself, then take Hartig. The Maple "lab" is pointless, and the assignments are really hard if you have no idea how to use Maple 14...

All of my dissatisfaction with this instructor stems from the fact that the first time I asked him a question he laughed at me. From then on I had trouble relating to him. This seemed to be how he viewed all questions from the women in my class. He regularly refered us back to class notes, but if a man asked a question he was right there, with chalk in hand, at the board going over the concept again. I will avoid him at all costs in the future.

I took this class during my first quarter at Cal Poly as a transfer student, and thanks to this man, I absolutely hated it. First of all, he gets so buried in notation that he forgets what's what and starts re-labeling things. He would literally stand back and look surprised at some of the things he would derive. Secondly, he regurgitates the book in lecture. Every class example came straight from the book's examples, which I could and did read on my own. Office hour help? Well, kinda if you can stand the condescention. He scoffed at me and rolled his eyes one day when I didn't understand something he said. His favorite two sayings are "Well, clearly..." and "I'll leave it as an exercise..." ARGH!!! The only good thing about his class is that if you got an A or B on the midterm, you only had to take a non-cumulative 2nd midterm instead of a final. It's just not worth it though. I highly recommend avoiding him at all costs. Oh, by the way, the man smells like he is rotting from the inside out.

I'm bitter as hell about the labs, I just got a 4/10 on the last one and I still don't know why. As far as I can tell it was perfect yet I got a 4 with no explanation. Tests aren't bad but don't plan on him teaching the stuff to you, it's a book class. He knows the stuff and he's a nice guy he just doesn't put time into teaching and therefore sucks. Labs are rediculous, the manual sucks, and he doesn't say anything at the begining of lab class...ever. It only meets an hour a week but I would spend another 3 hours outside of class on the lab work, and end up with grades like 4's. A word of advice, if you get him for lab, bug the hell out of him to help you when he's in the lab room.

The first month of this class I had absolutely no idea what was going on. If you fall behind on the material, either drop the class, or work your butt off to catch up. Luckily our book is really good(for a calc book). Make sure you read the section and at least do a couple of problems before he talks about it, otherwise you will be lost. His quizes are just homework problems and since it is open everything, you just need to copy your answer, so get the solutions manual! His tests are pretty straight forward, he sets them up just as they are in the book, so you know exactly what is being asked for. You are allowed one sheet of paper and use of Maple for the exam. When in lab ask him questions about anything so you are sure to do well.

Honestly, I took this guy thinking that he wasn't going to be THAT bad. He is a very very nice man. Friendly and he does like to see students learn. However, during class he was ridiculous. He just rattles off theorems and proofs and really doesnt even look to see if anyone understands it. Nobody stopped him to clarify(except me once in a while), and honestly he would just keep going like he just needed to "get through" the lecture if you know what I mean. Avoid him. If you CAN learn from just the book, however, his tests are pretty fair, (especially the final) and you could potentially get a good grade. Good luck.

He was awful. I really tried to give him a chance, but he makes it impossible to learn anything. Really nice, but you won't learn anything and he won't be able to help.

Run away! Unless you absolutely must take his class, avoid taking Hartig at all possible costs.

Hartig is a smart guy. He knows the material very well. However, he is almost impossible to understand. The lectures are boring and just hartig rambling at the class for an hour with a half empty class of blank stares. Learning by the book makes more sense than the lectures. Avoid at all costs.

I had to teach myself all the material on my own. Just look through the book and figure out the homework and I went to a tutor. But, even if you know how to do the homework, you might do well on the quizzes but don't expect a high grade on the midterms. He curves so that is the only way I ended up not failing.

Really cool teacher. Aced all his tests. Tests were okay; he gives a lot of partial credit, so you can get the answer wrong but still get an A on the exam. I love him. He's the best.

I attended his lectures a couple times. Pretty much just him mumbling at his chalk board and scribbling out couple unrecognizable graphs. This guy is wayyyy to old to teach and moves like a tortoise. It took him 20 minutes just for him to type his password into the computer, and he eventually gave up on it. Other than that, he would make a pretty cool grandpa

The other reviews about this teacher basically have it down. He knows what he's talking about he's just way to old to do it effectively. He spends a lot of time looking and lecturing to the chalk board, he essentially lectures at a pace that makes it difficult ask questions, he asks if anyone has questions about last night's homework at the beginning of class but more than likely no one did any of it, and he often times goes on tangents about sports, usually baseball. This quarter he also had a lab section that met once a week that was just the students playing around with Canadian math software and making pretty graphs. Be prepared to do a lot of reading the book to make any sense of what he says since he usually goes through straight up theory and proofs and how one gets to the formula that's being used and not much problem application.

This professor did an awesome job at covering ALL the course information that was relevant and applicable to upper division material.

Almost every lecture he gives includes theories and proofs for equations from the book which I could see how that may be helpful for a math major but as a mechanical engineer, this is pretty much pointless and makes the class that much harder. In office hours he also tends to be intimidating and doesn't fully help.

First of all he does have bad breath, that is for sure. His lectures are extremely hard to follow and lead away from the material, but he is a nice guy and is easy to approach with questions. The class is not really good though since it seems to be "experimental" and is not like any math class that you are used to. I had no trouble with Math 141 through 241, I got an A in all of them, and it was a true struggle for a B in this class.

I thought this teacher was okay. He was clear and knew his stuff. if he didn't we would all sit through it until we all did. overall not not a bad professor.

As has been previously mentioned, Hartig really likes Maple, quizzes come direct from the homework, etc. He's not as bad as people make him out to be I think. He does expect you to have already read the chapter and tried the homework before you come to class, and I suppose that would help if you can't follow his lectures. There wasn't that much work and the tests were difficult but not impossible. He doesn't really like questions that start with "explain..." and as oft as not he'll say you should already know that from calculus/high school/kindergarten. He likes specific questions, and it's rather annoying when he only works through half of a problem because he only cares if he answered the question asked. All in all, I wouldn't mind taking him again -- there are worse Math profs out there.

I have mixed feelings about Hartig. He was incredibly nice and loved teaching but he just wasn't good at teaching. I often left the class feeling confused. However, the material learned in Differential Equations is super easy so it wasn't too bad. Also, he has insanely large curves on everything graded so if you are ahead of the curve then you're doing just fine. If you don't mind teaching yourself most topics then this class is for you.

Hartig wasn't all bad, a reasonably nice guy. He had students really confused at times but not all that often. He sometimes spent tons of time going into ridiculous detail about things unrelated to the sylabus and glossing over related material. He also has a habit of writing notes on the board while standing in front of them and never moving or writing them so low on the board you cant see them over heads in front of you, so be careful where you sit. Also do not let a cell phone go off in this guy's class. In all not a bad guy just a boring class

Syllabus stuff: HW is assigned but not collected. There are 3 hw quizzes (15%) that take problems straight from the hw and the quizzes are open book open note. Maple labs are assigned weekly (10%) (it turned out to be about 5 total

This professor is a JOKE. He is terrible, in fact he is so bad he inspired me to come here and write my first negative teacher comment ever. I have found every teacher I have had to be atlest competent and worth taking except for Hartig. Dr. Hartig is a brilliant man who has no idea why students struggle or how to help them. He actually gets angry when people ask questions in class even though we come to find out he made a mistake on the board and thats why no one understood it. He says things like this is close enough and well my answer isnt right but you get the idea. Take anyone but this man unless you can read the book well. And oh yeah Maple Sucks.

I can not stress stongly enough how worthless this professor is. There was no teaching being done what so ever. I resent paying for his salary when I taught myself the material solely from the terrible book. He provided no value to the course, except a soothing voice lulling me to sleep.

He present the material pretty ok. If you ask him, he is willing to explain the materials. I like how he allow us to bring a sheet of note to our test. He gives two mid-terms and a final, but he count homework as a part of the grade as well.

Hartig was a great teacher. He allows a cheat sheet for the midterms (2) and final. Homework is a large part of the grade, and he assigns it pretty much daily, but it is definitely a manageable amount. Hartig is somewhat of a space cadet, and tends to make alot of errors at the board during lecture. I found his quirky style to be quite endearing, and he is such a lovely man to look at....anyways, take him. You'll like him. He knows his shit.

Professor Hartig, in my oppinion, is an excellent teacher. He assigns homework regularly, which adds up to 20% of the grade. If you do the homework, there should be no problem with that. The lab section is easy, while a bit ridiculous. Most of the students don't learn how to use maple at all, because all the labs consist of is copying practically word for word from a piece of paper onto the computer. The tests are extremely straightforward, and look exactly like the homework problems. You either know the material or you dont. If you ask questions in class because you dont understand the material, sometimes the professor will respond in a way that makes you seem like its obvious, but it becomes apparent he is not doing that on purpose. So to those of you who like to complain, get over it. He isn't purposely trying to deflate your math ego. Other than that, his class was really easy.

Hartig is very confused. he has a terrible time understanding the problems with his explanations. He spends the entire class whispering at the board. the first half of the course was really tough for me but the second half was easier. his curve: one smart guy in the class gets a 48/50 on the test, so he says thats 100%. so the curve is an extra 4%. AFTER THE CURVE, 45% of the class failed the first exam. as far as the homework, its manageable. but after you spend 8 solid hours on it, he will randomly decide to not collect it. the labs were a joke. the first lab he says, "i dont really care if you understand maple, just so long as the program works." excuse me, why are we there then?? he would give us the program to write and then we were just supposed to copy it into the MAC. half the time the thing would lock up or delete your work. so if you're stuck with hartig, enjoy. i had the bright idea to take calc 4 and this class in the same quarter along with some other hard classes, that only made it worse. dont do what i did, escape while you can.

Professor Hartig does not know how to convey material to the students so they can understand it. He allows a cheat sheet on every test. And thats pretty much the only reason why I got a B. I wrote down sample problems and followed the steps. The tests are just like the homework. Whatever. I honestly never knew what he was talking about in class. Ehhh its your call...

I do admit, I had a very difficult load this quarter, and in a way.. I deserved a D for my performance. But I blame him for being horrible at teaching. He's old, boring as fuck (MORE boring that most teachers) and pretty much his whole way of teaching is out of date and useless. About 5-6 people would just drop off their homework everyday at the beginning of class and then not stay for lecture. About 5 more people would get up and leave right during the middle of class. Then about half of the rest of class would leave like as he was finishing up his last thoughts before he actually said he was done and while his back was turned. It was quite funny if I do say so myself because I did it on MANY, if not EVERY, occassion. If I had to get a D in any of the classes I took this quarter, it would be this class, and I was about 67.77% sure I was going to get about a D after I took his final. My advice for you is 1) DONT TAKE HIM, 2) DONT TAKE HIM, 3) DONT TAKE HIM. If you fail the first 3 steps for advice, you're in for a fun time. READ READ READ. READ before lecture if you decide to go so at least your have some idea what the hell he's talking about. DO THE HOMEWORK... ALL OF IT... because it's worth something, and make sure you get a hold of the PDF homework solutions with all the problem solutions, not like the stupid solution manual you can buy at the corral or whatever that gives every 3rd solutions... 3, 6, 9... EVERYTIME... ALWAYS # 3, #6, #9, ... not like 1, 4, 7 or 2, 5, 8... always 3, 6, 9... etc... what a fucking rip off. Sorry, just thought I'd make that point clear to you before you buy it. So yea, the first midterm is 10x harder than the 2nd midterm. I got a 33/60. The average: 34. So I was in ok shape. The 2nd midterm was easy... for me? I got a 51/60. The average: 45/60. Only 4 people got A's on the 2nd one (including me, D in the class though... funny?) but there were a ton of B's and C's. You get a cheat sheet on every test, which he says you can't have worked out problems on, but after the first 2 tests I realized he doesn't collect them or even really look at them as you take the test, so you could potentially put worked problems and rape the tests. Too bad I didn't realize this earlier. BUT... on the final I DID write worked problems and when I took the final... it didn't really help at all because he tested a lot on new material that we learned in between the last midterm and the final. I can't believe he taught so much after the last midterm (during week 9). I actually had a Dynamics final right after this final, and I was WAAAAAY more worried about the dynamics final because if you don't pass it you don't pass the class, and this one isn't. So I really honestly... did NOT study much for this final... maybe 3-4 hours? LAUGH OUT LOUD. So that pretty much was my downfall and the sole reason I fucked up in this class was because I decided to study more for Dynamics and sleep a little longer and just pretty much say fuck this class. So pretty much in conclusion sort of kind of, Hartig is not a good "TEACHER". He KNOWS this class like he knows his silly silky white comb-over, but he doesn't mesh well with his young victims. PLEASE avoid this professor if you can, I HAD to take him because I had 2nd to last registration and I couldn't get into some other class or something. FIND THE HOMEWORK SOLUTIONS AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, DONT GO TO CLASS BUT ONLY TO TURN IN YOUR HOMEWORK, LOOK ON HIS WEBSITE FOR THE HOMEWORK AND TO SEE WHAT SECTIONS HES GOING TO TEST ON, GO TO CLASS THE DAY BEFORE A TEST FOR REVIEW. Another thing--his labs are so stupid because he pretty much gives you a packet with step-by-step examples of how to do your assigned lab problems on MAPLE. You can actually USE MAPLE on your tests AND final, but only after half the test time is up, but by that time HE SAYS, you're screwed because if you did it wrong you won't have time to do ALL the wokr over again and it's only really there solely to see if you get it right or not and ease your worrying haha. (Oh yea I got a B in Dynamics, and I'd gladly fuck this class over again in order to get a B in Dynamics AND a B in CE 204 and a B in Chem 125. So suck it Donalddddddddddd oooh!!!) Anyways that's all I can think of... BYE.

He is old and should quit teaching. He whispers at the board and could care less if anyone else hears him. Your best bet is to sit through about half of class then leave to go sit by the pool. After class, go to his office hours and he will be happy to explain things.

THis teacher makes Math hard. He takes concepts that should be extremely easy and turns them into something like brain surgery.

Hartig was an OK teacher. In the early going, his teaching style was absurd and everything he lectured about went over my head, but at the end it isn't too bad. Hartig assigns lots of homework (every lecture), but it doesn't need to be turned in. The hw turns up on the tests and quizzes, so it would benefit you to do SOME of them, not every problem just for the discussion in lecture. Hartig's tests are decent, no curveballs, and allows a cheat sheat AND table of integrals, although I never really used either of them. The curve he gives is good, and his grading is fair; not easy but not rough either (he looks at the process mostly). I got a B in the class, and I never really studied except for the midterms and finals. MAPLE is used in his 'labs' Overall: Average, nothing amazing

The class material isn't too hard, I learned most of it from the book. Hartig is fair with grading, a higher grade would be easier but I never took any time to learn the material except for the tests. He lectures at a fast pace, lots of notes to look over, which helps.

THe only reason I passed this class was because everyone else was failing with me. He is an aweful teacher and his teaching comes straight out of the book which does not help because both are extremely confusing. Also he makes numerous caculating mistakes, but is hard to figure out because it is hard to follow his logic. If at all possible do not take him if you need to learn something.

OK, I put N/A as the grade I got because it's still in the middle of the quarter. Hope is grim. I'll probably get a C, but I'm really hoping for a B-. HE SUCKS!!! He doesn't explain ANYTHING. He just goes to the board and does random theorems and stuff from the book. Also the book for linear analysis really really sucks so it's very hard to learn from it yourself, but I'm doing my best. He basically teaches exactly the way the book teaches, so it's impossible to learn anything from his lectures. With a book you can at least read and reread and look at the solutions manual until you get it. Solutions manual also blows. All the essential steps are skipped. I stare at it for like 20 minutes before I figure out how to do a problem sometimes. Also for whatever reason, he decided that it would be a good idea to have a lab in a math class. I'm a computer science major so I'm very used to labs and learning from them. But this lab sucks. IDK why there even is a lab in a math class. We learn how to use Maple which is kinda cool in a way but he just gives us a handout with exactly what to type, except we just change the numbers a little. I learned like nothing from this. His midterms are really weird though, he lets us use Maple and notes on the midterms, which sounds like it might help, but not really since you have to understand the material really well in the first place. You can't just blindly go into it and have Maple do it all for you. And the tests suck because theyre designed to not be finished. That's horrible, what if some guy does finish and the whole test is curved in his favor. In fact I'm not even sure there is a curve. All in all, PLEASE DON'T TAKE HIM!!!! I only took him because he was the only open class and I was on waiting lists for the other classes, and I got the last possible registration date. It was horrible...

OMG!!!! It's me again and I ended up getting a B!!! Basically study the shit out of this class. And also there is a curve. I thought I was getting a low C in the class and then I asked what my grade was and it was 79. So I went into the final with a 79% and now in the end I got a B. So if you HAVE to take this class, get into a study session because that is the only way to actually get help in this class. When you go up to him and ask him a question it's the same BS as when listening to lecture, only this time he's like, "Wait how do you not understand this when I just went over it?"

Professor Hartig is a nice guy and I enjoyed using the software program MAPLE for 1 day/week instead of chugging through another day of lecture. Lecture is pretty boring unless you've read the textbook beforehand and actually understand what's going on. By November I couldn't pay attention what with the stress from other classes, so I just chilled and read the Mustand Daily. Hah. My only complaint is that he taught new material via rapidly scribbling complex variables on the board. Examples with numbers would have helped greatly. If you have to take Hartig, he's not bad, but there are more enjoyable mathematical experiences with other teaachers. Your life may be more "cheesey-cakey" that way...!

Wow. I'll try to present this mans strengths and weaknesses as clearly as possible. Strengths: -none Weaknesses: -reeks like old man -reeks like b.o. -breath is rank beyond belief -you have to hold your breath in office hours -office hours dont help -low self esteem -can NOT do his job (teach) -goes on tangents on everything -randomly yells with enthusiasm in someones face when nobody has a clue what he is talking about. -usually talks to the board and always ends up mumbling. -stands directly in front of the board so you cant see anything -writes 110 mph Quotes -"I'm not going to do [the problem] right now because I am tired" -"check my math" (countless times) -"did I do that right?" (countless times) -"Dont you see?!" (hell no) Advice from me to you: -dont take hartig -if someone says something remotely decent about him on this page, dont believe it. It's his mother. -if you are already in the class.... -sucks for you -look strictly for IMPORTANT equations and dont try to understand it. seriously, this guy throws a lot of B.S. your way. -know how to do the hw problems -good luck. your on your own. Random information -book sucks as much as hartig -worse class ive ever taken -only polyrating Ive ever been motivated to do -Ive heard the whole department is bad, but hartig is the worst of them all. -hartigs hair is white, but under a light it looks like pee! check it out. its the most entertaining thing in the class.

AVOID HIM AT ALL COST. I took him for 244 and I didn't learn anything. I got a C and I didn't let the door hit me. He takes what is supposed to be an easy math class and made it impossible and a waste of time. I took this as a sophomore, and at present I am taking CE 251 a whole year and a quarter later, and we need this information now and it makes it super evident that in spite of my best attempts to learn even something. I didn't get anything out of his Maple sections, and I really would've liked to, because the software is great when used correctly. He talks quietly and faces the board so you won't be able to hear him. He writes quickly and illegibly, and if you ask him what his own writing says, he often cannot remember. DO NOT TAKE HIM. THERE IS A REASON HIS SECTIONS ARE OPEN WHEN OTHER PROFESSORS HAVE 10 PERSON WAIT-LISTS. I had intended on switching to ME but I could only get 344 with him so I dropped that class and scrapped those plans. He's a really nice guy, he's just terrible as a professor.

haha.wow..i dont even know what to say..office hours i guess might be the only thing hes good at..he knows his stuff but cant convey it to the students..hardly ever does examples in class. actually extremely easy class..tests are easy because he doesnt really teach anything..basically that feeling of never learning anything

If you don\'t want to teach yourself from the book, don\'t take 244 with Hartig. He\'s completely unorganized and scattered. Everyone is lost in class. Long story short, he makes a class that should be straightforward for engineers confusing and time consuming. Save yourself and wait to take 244 another time if your going to have him.

Avoid Hartig! He is a joke and can\'t teach. He curves a lot though. Going to lectures are pointless and most of the class had to teach themselves linear. The midterms were crazy and long. Final was okay but not really straight forward. Just avoid this guy. Just bad overall. Only reason why I took him was because polyratings was not running. But after classes start I saw his shittiness and wanted out but too late.

Nice guy, but cannot teach that well. I can usually deal with bad teachers to some extent. But he mumbled and was very difficult to hear. His writing mimicked his speaking. Hard to read, not very clear. It was even more difficult because he assigned seating, and I was in the back of his class. I was only able to understand certain concepts by asking a lot of questions to get to the point where it made sense. Doesn\'t collect homework, and I ended up not doing any of it. Have to be very self-motivated to do well and understand the material. It didn\'t help that the book was almost as bad as he was. If you can, I\'m sorry, but you should try to avoid having hartig as a teacher.

This is a hard-core instructor who believes every section in every chapter to be extremely important so he will assign basically every section in every chapter rather than just those that are important to the class. Homework is suggested, not assigned, but the tests are made up of very similar questions so that you have to do the homework problems anyway. The lab part is very easy, just follow the directions on the handouts and ask the professor whenever something does not work. Hartig is very knowledgeable but wants the students to be so, as well.

Hartig knows his stuff - the problem is that he can\'t communicate it to the class. Lecture was hit and miss; sometimes he\'d go over examples that would end up on the test, but most of the time we just sat there blankly while he got lost in his own work. Exams were average and curved (which helped alot). If you can make sense of the stupid textbook and do some homework problems, you\'ll do fine. Just don\'t expect to learn everything you need to from lecture!

He doesn't teach at all. When you walk into the classroom, he just asks the class if they have any questions from the homework. He ends up working through 1-2 homework problems and ends up telling students to read the book so they can ask more homework questions the next day. He doesn't even answer the homework questions completely. He starts it and tells you to finish the question yourself. A lot of the time, he is confused about the homework problem too. He would then spend about 20 minutes murmuring to himself up on the board and then telling us that we will figure it out more in the book. During the first week of school, the class size went from 35 to 25 students. Half of the class doesn't even show up to his class. Some students ts end up leaving halfway through his class. Take him if you like to self study.

Prof. Hartig is an excellent lecturer. While he writes quickly, he gives plenty of examples. He is flexible with his office hours and is both helpful and patient while working with those who attend his office hours. One warning: Prof. Hartig does use the chalkboard on the side of the room. Sit so you can see it.

He is quite possibly the worst professor ive ever had. He talks to the board, writes sloppily and doesnt make any sense. As the quarter goes on, he starts showing up later and later to class. We even started taking bets on how many minutes late he'd show up. His homework is lengthy, unnecessary, graded way too hard and about 30% of your final grade. Riddiculous. Avoid this professor like the plage.

After reading the reviews on Polyratings, I expected Dr. Hartig to have horns, or at least be about as useful as some slime mold. This was not the case. He presents the material, he identifies exactly what he expects you to do, and if you do it, you get a fairly good grade. I'm not trying to say that he's the ideal professor: His speaking volume can be problematic (but if you ask him to repeat himself, he does), his board work can be messy, but again, if you get lost, he's happy to clarify. There were a few times when he powered through some material but for the most part, pacing was reasonable. He tends to speak in somewhat of a monotone, but he interjects humor that you catch if you're paying attention. He is visibly bored when presenting some material, but he is also quite animated with some of the more interesting material. Grading: He is incredibly generous with partial credit, and clearly presents his expectations in class and on the course syllabus. The tests deemphasized computational problems, and tended toward straight forward proofs. The midterms and final were largely consistent with the assigned homework, which was optional. I enjoyed the class. In summary: A reasonable instructor, if you are a self-motivated learner. He (to paraphrase him) is not a performing monkey, so if you're looking for that sort of experience, look elsewhere.

I took 304 in order to review Calculus since the last Calculus class I took was 1.5 years ago. I also thought a 300 level class would be taught at a higher level than the lower division calculus track. However, 304 is nearly an exact repeat of the multi variable calculus class I took at JC, so transfer students beware. Hartig presented the material so poorly that I couldn't recognize what I already knew! I finally stopped going to class completely, preferring to focus on the text, which I understood readily having taken essentially the same class before. He mumbles into the board and blocks his own figures. He often erases parts of figures and write on top of them, sometimes without ever revealing the original figure. He seems to hate teaching calculus. The only spark of life I saw in him was the last week when we got to some more advanced material. Either he was happy to not teach calculus or that the quarter was almost over. His redeeming value is a tender personality that peeks out sometimes from the miserable teaching. He's probably a fine gentleman.

This guys is hands down the worst professor I've ever come across. He mumbles and draws pathetic attempts at diagrams that are poorly explained, and rarely gets to any relevant material that you might see on the tests. His tests are bullshit, he will have not prepared you for them in the least. He rarely attempts examples, which isn't surprising because the ones he attempted he failed to correctly complete. On a side note, he is a terrible person. And the fact that after numerous, assumable poor teacher evaluations, he still shamelessly continues to teach in this substandard fashion supports that he is absolutely apathetic to the needs of the students. This is why tenure can be bad.

This is the worst teacher i've had at Cal Poly ever. Avoid him at all costs. He mumbles and writes on the board like a 1st grader (maybe worse), his examples are irrelevant to anything you will do in the HW, quizes or tests. He is completely unwilling to help students either in class or in office hours and makes them feel unintelligent for asking questions about material he failed to explain in lecture. ... Honestly the hygiene problem cannot be overstated, it is insulting that his lack of personal maintenance has gotten to the point where it is near unbearable to have a conversation with him.

Hartig was by far the worst lecturer I have ever had. His lectures usually had mistakes, and he only ever did elaborate proofs, some which would take the whole class. I always, always, always attend class every week usually. However, there was NOTHING I got from the lectures. I never once references my notes, and after I realized this, I essentially stopped going to class and just read the book to learn the material... which was hard, but I survived Soooo yeah, if you take Hartig, expect that you will teach yourself the majority of the material

Mr. Hartig is a man who knows his stuff when it comes to mathematical concepts. Unfortunately he tends to teach material thinking you understand every concept clearly and grasp everything he is saying. This would be fine if he would actually make it so we could understand. Many times he would be explaining an \"example\" and get so lost in his own notation that only he could ever understand it. Don\'t get me wrong, this is by default a hard course, but I got no help in it from the teacher at all. He is honestly one of the worst teachers I\'ve had here at Cal Poly and it is a shame. When people go to his office hours it doesn\'t help them at all and the only reason I would is to try and get answers for homework the way he wanted them. If you ask a question in class that he answered for someone in office hours, he will tell you to ask them about it, but every time that was the case, that person had no idea how to explain it. If I could give you a piece of advice if you are ever forced to take one of Hartig\'s classes its this: Don\'t bother forcing yourself to understand the lecture, it wont happen; instead, focus on the book and hope he is reasonable on his tests.

Hartig is a bit of a strange fellow. He injects some humor in his lessons now and then, but sometimes it was hard to follow his train of thought. Sometimes he would work backwards from the conclusion to the steps in getting there, which made for a little confusion. He stresses use of MAPLE, which I actually enjoyed. 317 is a class that would be exceedingly tedious if I had to do it all by hand. His tests were a little harder than expected, but not unreasonable. From what I know, he is the best to take for 317.

Don can be a tough instructor. His lectures can be very difficult to understand. His midterm is 2 hours of work crammed into 1 hour, but he did give extra time on the final. Try to sit up front in class because his handwriting can be small and hard to read. Try not to fall asleep in class, and try to come to class prepared for the lecture. Don is very much into Maple, so expect to use it a lot. Remember to talk to him via office hours or email if you feel like you're falling behind.

Be prepared to learn from your book. If you get caught off guard, his test might suprise you, otherwise they are fairly decent. Nice guy and helpful, especially with the labs.

After reading Prof. Hartig's reviews and hearing about him from fellow EE's at the beginning of this quarter, needless to say I nearly soiled myself. Sitting in class, you can really tell that Hartig enjoys math, and because he knows so much, it is sometimes a hard to follow his lectures. The lectures can be very intimidating, as I often found myself clueless. In this class it is extremely important to do your homework and do very well on the quizes. If you do well on the quizes and homework, it will pay off on the midterm and final. I also suggest that you find another student to study with. Also Hartig loves to use Maple because it saves time and simplfies things. DO NOT get attached to this program, it will be your end if you do. Overall I would say that Hartig is a decent professor, he is pretty hard, but if you act like a real student you will do fine in the class.

Hartig was a pretty good professor, he really loves the material and it shows when he lectures. He recognizes his own mistakes (which some professors refuse to acknowledge), and is helpful during his office hours. Maple is a useful program, I just wish it could be run on some faster computers than those iMacs. I recommend finding it for your home computer, take the labs home and do them there. The midterm is tough because you have no clue what is going to be tested on. When the final rolls around, make sure you understand the midterm material because it is very relevent to the final.

Professor Hartig is really hard to get used to in the beginning of the quarter. Everything that he taught basically went over my head. I was completely lost by his lectures and had to refer to the book for better understanding...hell, I even checked out books from the library for more help. His method of teaching is just really hard to get used to--but you eventually get used to it. The midterm was a mind-blower..I couldn't even finish it(I don't think anyone did). The final was not so bad just study the midterm and all the new stuff. The rumor, that he doesn't like to fail anyone that he sees improving throughout the quarter, is true...I passed.

The teacher did a total of 4 very very simple examples before the midterm leaving us to learn how to do all the problems ourselves. On quizzes he only wants the final answer so there is no partial credit. The same went for most of the midterm and final itself. He also taught the class using maple and made mistakes in his manual then marked us off for repeating the mistakes in our assignments. All he does in class is proofs to the fourier analysis. For the second half of the class which is probabilies he wrote the material himself and photocopied them for the class. When we asked for the answers to the questions in his photo copies he said he didn't know them that he had not done the problems himself. He said he grades the problem based on who he thinks is doing the best in the class and uses there answers.

I know a lot of people who did NOT enjoy this professor for 317. I'm one of them. The course is demanding in itself, and on top of that, his lectures were very hard to learn from. He jumps into the material right away and concentrates on showing derivations of formulas instead of giving examples (already mentioned in previous posts). You have to really study the text on your own, from the VERY BEGINNING. The textbook was unfortunately hard to follow too, so try looking for other sources of information (also mentioned in a previous post). Hint: the current EE212 textbook has a chapter on Fourier analysis. Best advice: don't get behind. Do the required reading and do the homework. Make friends with peole in your class and do homework together. He doesn't collect it, but his quizzes WERE homework problems, and they were open book, open notes. I actually enjoyed learning to use Maple (he LOVES Maple). Get a copy of it to use at home. He lets you use Maple on the midterm in addition to any old Maple labs or template files you created for yourself. HOWEVER, don't waste your time making huge template files as cheat sheets. I actually finished the miderm because I tried to just do everything by hand and only used maple to graph a function real quick or to integrate something. It was tough and you had to work fast, but if you really put in the time to studying and practicing problems, it's not impossiple. The final was the same kinda deal. This class is a real ass-kicker. Don't get your ass kicked. Don't forget it all either because you WILL see it again (EE301...)

First of all, he DOES have bad breath. He fails to answer questions clearly and does not lecture the information well. More examles would help but he just ramlbles sometimes. Grading is a break though. A lot of yuour points come from HW so you just need to put in the work. The test are too hard to be done in a normal period. It is curved however. In the end I did not learn much but Im done with math and that is all I care about. He still has bad breath.

Don't get me started with this one. He answers questions in a condescending manner. He taught the class by reading his web page off the overhead. I went to his class everyday and I slept in his class everyday. Calling all insomniacs! I've found the cure!

This guy has really bad breath. Hartig, if you are reading this, SERIOUSLY buy some mints and USE them. No student wants to be near a teacher with rank breath.

Save yourself while you still can. This is a horrible professor. He flies through his lecture so fast you can't tell what he is talking about and makes mistakes like crazy. Not to mention you can't read half of what he outs on the board. Don't bother going to his office hours he will just get impatient, solve half the problem and tell you to finish it on your own. If he does take the time to completly work out a problem, don't trust it if he didn't check it on Maple it is probably wrong and he will even tell you this himself.

All the other evaluations are pretty much right on the money. I usually don't have enough motivation to evaluate professors, but this guy is so worthless I just had to do it. This guy knows the subject well but it doesn't matter because he can't communicate it at all. He lectures very fast, skipping steps without mentioning them, and making a ton of mistakes along the way even with the general formulas. On top of that he writes really messy and small and talks quietly. You'd think a professor who has been teaching for 30 years would learn how to speak and write clearly. You'd also think that he would learn even a little bit about recognizing student difficulties. This guy is worthless as a teacher, and you WILL have to teach it to yourself, completely. There is no point to even go to class, which is pretty sad.

This guy said it the best so I must repeat: Save yourself while you still can. This is a horrible professor. He flies through his lecture so fast you can't tell what he is talking about and makes mistakes like crazy. Not to mention you can't read half of what he outs on the board. Don't bother going to his office hours he will just get impatient, solve half the problem and tell you to finish it on your own. If he does take the time to completly work out a problem, don't trust it if he didn't check it on Maple it is probably wrong and he will even tell you this himself. In addition I will give him a little credit. The second midterm was take home, as were two quizes, and he lets you replace the first midterm with part of the final. Which is good, beacuse you need about 2-3 hours to do a decent job on his one hour tests.

Horrible lecturer. Does NOT prepare you for the homework. You need to go to office hours often if you want to have any idea of whats going on. Once again. Horrible teacher. Nice guy though.

DO NOT TAKE HIM. He is the most confusing teacher that I have had at Cal Poly. I basically taught myself everything the whole quarter. He makes a lot of mistakes in class and seems to pull equations out of nowhere. The only good thing about him is that he gives you a one page, two sided cheat sheet for every exam. That was the only thing that saved me from failing his horrible class. Labs are lame. There was really no point in having them for this class.

I have hartig for linear two right now and since im an engineer, im luckily pretty good at math. in all my 6 quarters at poly, this is the first math class i didnt receive an A in. HARTIG CANNOT TEACH. Luckily, his tests are not difficult so I was able to read the book before the tests, do the HW and i didnt do too shabbily, But unless youre willing to put the time in yourself... stay away

Worst teacher I have every had in the last 3 and a half years. Cannot teach and doesn't care about his students. All I know is he loves maple (very much). Do not take him even if you will graduate late, he make me want to drop out of school. Cal poly should do surveys on their teachers and get rid of the waste.

For the hardest class in the math major (IMHO) I am so glad I had Hartig. Compared to Richert, who "taught" it the previous quarter, this man is a GOD. His lectures move very quickly, but there really is a ton of material to cover. Besides, I'd rather have more notes to go over later than not have any examples of certain topics because we spent more time on other things. Homework was assigned about once a week, and it was always straight-forward and reasonable. The midterms and final were just what was to be expected, no surprises. In fact, he'll usually tell you in advance a couple of the problems. What a guy! Ask a question and you'll get an answer, simple as that. He seems very gruff, but he genuinely wants you to pass, so take advantage of it...and even though there's nothing to stop you from stressing and freaking out for an entire quarter, due to the nature of the course, take heart in knowing that he curves generously. I would take Hartig again in a heartbeat, especially for difficult math classes.

Before I started taking this class, I was nervous because of his 1.xx rating on here. However, I am stunned at how many people have disliked his teaching style. Yes, his handwriting is pretty terrible, but the man knows his stuff. He is extremely helpful during office hours, and does a good job at presenting the material. It is easily noticeable he wants his students to do well, and I believe he deserves a much higher rating.

People over exaggerate in here... Well, at least for Math 412, he was not as bad as they say in here. He provides many different ways for student to do well in his class, including bonus test questions, bonus presentations, and really reasonable curves for each exam. His exam are very fair... most, if not all, of the exam questions come from homework and discussion problems (Do the Discussion problems he assigns, those would most likely be on the exam). I'll recommend him for math 412, can't talk about any other class though.

Dr. Hartig was an excellent teacher for this class. He was always very prepared, and it was clearly evident that he put a lot of effort into this class. We had 2-3 HW assignments due per week, and he had clearly typed out solutions for us right when he turned it in. The HW was very difficult, but he was always willing to help in office hours. I would highly recommend him for any upper division math class, and he deserves much higher than a score range in the 1-2 region. I am happy to have taken his classes for the Analysis series.

By far, the worse professor I've ever had. This is the first time I've ever had a such a horrible professor in the math department, where I learn practically nothing from him. Although he is old and has probably taught for a while, his handwriting is one of the worst I've ever seen. Sometimes his x's looks like y's, his y's looks like an unclosed b or a greatly slanted h, his lambdas look like Pi and so on. He also writes small, practically never turns around and lectures at the board. I've timed and seen him lecture at the board without turning around for thirty minutes. If you cannot learn on your own from your own resources, do not take him unless you have to. The book we were assigned was too technical/badly written to learn from, but that's practically the only resource we had. 1/3 of the class was not there on a daily basis. The things I liked about the class is that his tests/quizzes are fair. He let us have a full sheet back front for the midterm/final and open note quizzes. If possible do not take Hartig, by far the worse professor I've ever had while attending Cal Poly.

I have no idea how I got a B in his class. Seems like there's a lot of miscommunication between him and the students. When I go over homework with him, it looks as if he thinks I'm more intelligent and knowledgeable than I really am. The running gag in his classes are that he covers the board as he talks, sometimes he talks at one side of the class, and you'll have to write every single thing he writes because you can't tell which is important and which is not. Also his capital letters look like squashed spiders. I don't know what I just learned.

Hartig is a very nice guy, and an okay professor, nothing more. Homework was assigned every day, but only certain problems were corrected. The original grader was biased and extremely inconsistent, but Hartig took over the grading as soon as he realized this fact, and things went much more smoothly. The tests were difficult, but look at the level of the class -- by this point no math class should be a piece of cake. The final was awfully unreasonable, I think -- he lies when he says it's cumulative, so be prepared. His redeeming quality is his absolute fairness and generosity. WE LOVE THE CURVE! On a personal note: don't sit in the front or else you'll be bombarded by his monstrous bad breath.