Holz, Alan  

Avoid him at all costs. Thank god I took calc in high school or I would noy have survived. You teach yourself everything because he does not know how and then when it comes time for the tests, he gives you stuff not in the book that is really hard, giving the class average a 20/50. He does curve it in the end, but you are not aware because during the quarter he tells you that points are not imporant.

I took precalc in high school and I still struggled in this class. He never collected the homework and we never had quizzes, so all of our grade was based on the tests, which everyone basically failed. His tests are hand written and he made a lot of errors on them and had to correct them DURING our tests. There was really no point in doing the hw at all because he tests on the notes. Literally everything he writes on the board goes on the test. None of us were prepared for that so the entirety of the class failed the first two tests until we learned to just memorize whatever he said in our notes. I'm serious I dont even do the homework anymore because he doesnt test you on any of it. Its just what HE says in class. Be wary of that. He's a really smart guy I can tell but he's not that great of a teacher.

holtz is easily the worst teacher I have ever had in my academic career. He is way past his time and does not even use e-mail or even a computer to type out tests. The tests are more like english tests than math, as he tests you all on theory. If you can do every homework problem, you still might get a C in this class. The grading process is a complete joke, and no one in my class had ANY idea of there grade at any point through the year. He is much too out of touch/senile to be teaching and I will be filing a complaint to the school about his re-hiring (he came out of retirement).

One of the worst teachers I have ever had. Doesn't teach how problems work. Gives no examples in class. The guy loves theories!! Know your definitions for tests, trust me. There are five tests and a final. Each test is worth 100 points and the final is worth 300 points. A notebook you keep the whole quarter is worth 100 points as well. The only problem with Holz is he never tells you what your grades are. He says not to worry about them and then you find out when the quarters over. Terrible teacher and I don't recommend him at all.

Well, he doesn't really collect homework. I heard he curves a lot at the end, but i still got a D in class. It's impossible to know where you stand in class because he just says don't worry about grades, but worry about the material. I thought i was at a C range with his estimated curve, but i still got a D??? He's a decent teacher, but you should go to office hours have some talks about grades.

horrible for lower division because teaches like you should already know everything and messes up all the time when he does examples on the board...basically stay away from him

He presented material pretty clearly and he was a pretty lenient teacher..very understanding.

i took alan's class with no previous calc experience, so at times it was difficult to understand the course material because he assumes you already know a lot of things. also, his lecture generally just went over homework and a light overview of new material. since he doesnt go in much depth, i found that i had to teach myself most of the stuff from the book. IMPORTANT: expect a quiz or test every friday. this is no good if you like to go out on thursday nights! most of them are pretty difficult too, but he grades on a curve, so as long as you make sure you understand the homework you should keep up with the average. and finally, the final. i know i bombed it. i left several problems blank and bull shitted through so many of the problems that i was sure i would have to retake the course, but he passed me anyway. so as difficult as alan's class can be, he is understanding and his office hours are helpful, so take advantage of them. IN CONCLUSION, if you havent taken calc before, i would recommend another teacher because you are going to have to spend a LOT of alone time with your textbook. if you have taken calc before and feel you have a good grasp of the material, you wont have to do anything except show up every friday for the quizzes/tests.

Dr. Holz knows his material. He concentrates a lot on definitions, so if you are not good at memorizing I wouldn't recommend taking him. On the other hand, he is always willing to help you understand the material. If you take him you will learn more than if you take other professors.

After failing miserably with Gwen Fisher, and never wanting to take math again I came to Dr. Holz, and was utterly amazed at how two professors teaching the same material could be so different. I will be honest, Dr. Holz is not the most exciting, and entertaining prof. but he definately knows his stuff!! He is an awesome teacher, does not make you feel stupid for asking questions, will totally spend his whole office hour helping you. You have a quiz every Friday after learning the material all week. You will have 2 midterms, one at the 5th week and the other the 10th week. You will also have 2-3 labs which you can do on your own time. He does not grade homework, but you do need to do it because during the final he looks over everyone's notebook(50 points). The awesome part about this class is the you only have to get half of the total points in the class to pass!! I would recommend him to anyone!! I heard hes retiring soon, so take him fast!!!! I loved him so much I took him for all 327, 328, 329

Professor Holz is the worst teacher I have had so far at Cal Poly. His handwriting is really hard to read, and he doesn't type his tests/quizzes so you spend a lot of test time just trying to figure out what is written. When you get a test or quiz returned to you, it will have so many marks on it that you can't even tell what you did wrong. I had a question about a problem on the test, so I went up to him after class to ask him about it. First of all, he didn't even answer my question. He just started pointing out everything I did wrong on the other problems. When I wasn't understanding what he was saying, he started shaking the test in front of me and saying "Why don't you get this? How could you not understand this?" He has a way of making students feel extremely stupid. I am not bad at math, but he is just too hard to follow in class. He laughs at people when they ask questions, and sometimes he gets so angry with our class that he breaks his chalk from writing so hard. He should never have been hired again (he was retired).

Clearly Dr. Holz is a nice man and presents material in class in an interesting way. However, when it comes to his tests LOOK OUT! He purposely gives hard quizzes exams to challenge, and then lowers the grading policy so that 50% is a "C". He is a definition freak...be prepared to memorize proofs, axioms, and theorums throughout the qtr...they will be on ALL of his tests!! He LOVES Jenn Diagrams and the labeling of them, along with their shapes. He is good for giving new material the day before the quiz, and then it being 1/3-1/2 of the points on the quiz or exam! You will not be able to figure out his grading policy as his percentages are confusing. He looks for "natural breaks" on the classes overall performance. Never have I sweated so much in a math class! He grades on a notebook to be turned in at the end, with the homework assignments, lecture notes, quizzes/exams, and handouts. I believe that THIS WAS my saving grace! So IF you have a hard time in Math.....have a complete notebook...and add stuff to it! This class is required for LS majors (credential) and you have to get a C to pass. Do not expect that you will be taught HOW to teach elementary students within his class.....it seems that that is not the focus... I know I am not a rocket-scientist, but I have never felt so stupid in a math class before....therefore....I thank God I am over with his class...

I had Dr. Holz for three quarters and he is a really great teacher. I have always struggled with math and Dr. Holz was very approachable and would always respond to any questions. He is very good at making sure your questions are answered and he takes the time to help his students. Even though I got a C in this class, I have learned more about the subject than any other math class I had ever taken. I highly recommend him because he is very knowledgable about the material and gives every student an equal opportunity to do their best in the course.

Basically professor Holz was an okay teacher. He was not as bad as everyone made him out to be. Memorizing the definitions and thereoms are not all that difficult and that is mainly where I did the best on all of his tests. Holz will have test questions where he expects you to already know how to do it, even if he did not go over it in the class and it is not explained in the book. Other than these things, I would definately take Holz over Fisher and Kennedy. Also, no matter how bad you do on his tests and quizzes, he will try to make you pass the class with at least a C. *This class also helps prepare you for Section 2 of the CSET*

This course is extremely difficult in that it involves mostly filling in skipped steps by both the professor and the text and rote memorization. You're never quite sure if the solution is "good enough". There is little homework in the text and none of it had anything to do with the tests. The tests consisted of regurgitating definitions EXACTLY, stating and proving "important" theorems, explaining WHY this or that was important or named the way it was and proving something you'd never seen before. Most people do not finish the midterms within the alloted time. There were three midterms, one of which was take-home and took 15-30 hours to do the majority of. Many people were unable to finish. It consisted of constructions, their steps and proving that what you constructed worked. We also turned in a notebook which was a worth the same as a midterm. It had all class notes, homework, previous midterms and corrections. Almost everyone gets a 95 on it and the requirements are vague. Grading is strange. The "curve" is all grades are written vertically and "obvious breaks" determine the letter grade. Even if you know where you fell in the "obvious breaks", your final grade is not an average of the midterms etc., but is rather the total points each student received and the "obvious breaks" method applied again. You have no real idea where you'll end up unless you are the top student in the class all quarter. The professor says things like "that's easy", "that's obvious" or "you can clearly see" when you have no idea what's going on. In office hours he's either very helpful or clearly frustrated by you lack of understanding depending on his mood. This is High School geometry in depth and he expects you to remember that stuff from 10 or more years ago. Because homework isn't graded until you turn in the notebook, it's easy to put geometry off. DON'T DO IT. You have to memorize every "important proof" and their constructions. Practice every day!!! AND get a good, reliable study group going. If you don't understand in lecture, ask him to EXPLAIN it. He will usually humour you in this area. The final was long and difficult, but he focused mainly on the last section for proofs and the overall for explain why kinds of questions. Since Dr. Holtz is the only professor who teaches this course, buckle down and study hard. This stuff seems easy but has funky twists and turns to it. Also, try not to let his "this stuff isn't useful" comments get you down.

This course is in three parts: Hyperbolic, Transformation and Projection. There were basically three midterms and no final, but the last midterm though weighted equal to the other two, was as long as a final. We also turned in a notebook for a test grade. No "homework" was collected, but it was to be in the notebook. If it had not been for my study partner, I would not have passed this class. It is very difficult for non-visual people. There is a lot of memorization of strange definitions and models. The cool thing was that the professor read us two stories related to the class. THE LINE AND THE DOT, AND IT'S SEQUEL WHICH HE WROTE, THE DOT AND THE LINE.

What else is there to say? Fine person, nothing interesting. Class was meh... Blah, blah, blah... Fine person.