Leslie Vaaler

The University of Texas at Austin

Grade Distributions

M 408C, Spring 1999

M 328K, Spring 1999

ACF 309, Spring 2000

Professor Reviews

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took ACF 329
It is a hard class - don't go blaming it on Prof.Vaaler. On the upside, if you pass/do well in the class then you actually learned something. And I've heard this class prepares you really well for the FM exam. Vaaler is very approachable and extremely reasonable. For example, she always reserves the right to reward a strong final exam. My tip to you is to read the book (authored by Vaaler), it helps.

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took ACF 309
You're poop out of luck if you have to take this course, because there is no other option.

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took M 362k
Dr. Vaaler was nice enough, but if you have to take Probability I would suggest taking it with another professor. One homework set a week, sometimes due the same day as a test. First test, the average was in the 50s. If no one got above an 80 on the test then there are no A's...

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took ACF 309
this class is the reason why so few people do the actuarial option of math. her lectures are easy enough to understand, but her homework and test are much much harder than what she teaches. in my class about half the students dropped by Q-drop time, and probably only half the class who stayed passed.

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took M 408C
If you are going to take M408C... straight out... don't take it with her. Her lectures are good... but once the test come up... they are freaking hard. Also she doesn't leeacture about half of the tests contents... which forces you to read the book by yourself and teach yourself... nothing bad about it but just the fact that it frustrated me that some problems she just never went over and they didn't appear on the homework. And the curve is really small... in conclusion: Don't take M408C with her.

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took M408C
I admit, I took calculus last year so this class was not too terribly difficult for me. It definitely covered less material than in high school but it does it rather quickly. If you haven't taken calculus before, this class will be pretty hard for you. Professor Vaaler is pretty nice though and curves decently well. She's curved the first two tests and tries to keep people from getting Ds and lower. There are a lot of quizzes in the class but she drops the lowest 3 and there's sometimes opportunity for extra credit on them. So don't be too discouraged from taking with her. There are worse teachers out there.

	Overall Opinion
	Lecture Quality
	Personality
	Grading Fairness

By a student who took M 408C
Only covers 1/4 of the tests contents in homeworks or the leactures, she makes constant mistakes very which is annoying. But something good about her... Good lecturing... but honestly... don't take 408C with her... only if you want to get a C or worst.