The Ohlone Math department can be difficult to navigate, especially for new students looking to choose a teacher for their math classes. We have compiled a list of reviews for the most commonly taken teachers at Ohlone by Alsion students and reviewed their teaching styles.
By: Kenric Hoang and Moksh Paniker
- Elizabeth Pannell
Elizabeth Pannell primarily teaches online and hybrid classes of Pre-Calculus, Calculus, and Calculus 2, but has recently begun to teach in-person classes at a higher level than Calculus 2. Online math is particularly difficult to teach, however Pannell accomplishes this quite well. Lectures are pre-recorded videos. Depending on the class, these videos either come solely from her or from a mix of other teachers from the math department. While these lectures are useful, showing the basics of a topic, they are often too short to understand the more complicated aspects of problems that may show up in the homework. The homework for Pannell’s class is online with multiple attempts for each question and chances to reset the problem with different numbers. Most of the problems are easily understandable, however like all homework sets, there are particularly difficult problems in each week’s homework.
If you struggle with these problems, Pannell is easily accessible via email and frequent office hours. She is very open to helping with these problems and explaining concepts from lectures. Pannell’s tests are often rewrites of old homework problems. One week before the test she will post the topics that will be on it with links to specific sections in the textbook if possible. She also releases a practice test and enables redos of old homework problems to practice. In addition to all this, Pannell allows you to cross out one question from the test without losing any credit, which ensures that even if you are unsure about a problem it won’t necessarily bring down your test score.
- Kwai Ching Chan
Kwai Ching Chan teaches Calculus and Calculus 2 with occasional Pre-Calculus classes. She primarily teaches 0 period math, starting at around 7:30 and ending at 8:45. While this may seem very early, the up side is that you get it out of the way and have the rest of the day to learn the material and work on homework and other classwork.
Lectures are in-person four days a week, with no recorded lecture material. They are easy to follow with a warmup, explanation of a concept, and multiple in class practice questions. Chen’s homework is online and is fairly large with around 30-40 problems, but only one set per week. While all problems can be solved on your own, Chen records a video of herself solving each problem in the homework set. These videos are immensely helpful for learning the concepts, and seeing where you get stuck on certain problems. If you have any questions about concepts or specific homework problems, Chen stays back after class until 9:30, but she does not have official office hours.
Chen’s tests and quizzes are slightly harder versions of older homework problems. While they may be more difficult, re-doing old homework problems is a great way to study for them. She also allows for retakes of quizzes!
- Nabeel Atique
Nabeel Atique is a very fair professor. He provides a strong base for you so that you can reach a fuller understanding on your own. His class is formatted to promote students’ personal learning. He has engaging lectures Monday through Thursday so that you don’t forget the content of the previous class and everyone can pick up right where the class left off. He usually teaches a mix of 3 classes from Pre-Calculus 2 to Calculus 3. SInce his lectures are every day, they are about 1 hour and 25 minutes long and take some time slots from 9:20 to 3:00. One aspect that is a bit daunting at first is the pop quizzes, but it is supposed to be a bit intimidating. This is so that students are encouraged to study, and once they do, there is little need to worry about the quizzes. The homework is all optional, but he assigns the problems that he thinks will benefit a student’s understanding of a lecture’s material the most. He also encourages students to do any of the unassigned problems in the textbook if they need more practice. Once a student understands the concepts enough, a decent amount of practice should be sufficient to get them a good grade in the class. Professor Atique’s exams may weigh a large chunk of your grade, but if you study the concepts and practice problems, you should be set to score well. Even if you make a few mistakes, as long as you show that you understood the material, Professor Atique will award you partial credit true to your understanding.
- Andrew Bloom
Andrew Bloom mainly teaches Pre-Calculus to Calculus 1 and also Statistics. He has very informative lectures, whether in-person or online, but if you still require some more help to understand the material or problems, Professor Bloom is quite friendly and caring for his students, which is why he is so accessible. He has office hours where students can discuss their problems in greater detail, but outside of those times, he is also quick to respond to emails from students. Bloom also provides good feedback on your work, which is very helpful to increase your understanding and revisit before tests. If you work hard, Bloom will award you with good grades. Things like taking detailed notes, reviewing daily notes/problems, and doing his study guides will go a long way in his class.
This article only covers a few notable math professors based off of who a decent amount of Early College students at Alsion have taken. These professors were also chosen for their class offerings being the most general and therefore likely for current and future Early College students to take. There are still many math professors at Ohlone who did not make the list because not many have taken them or they teach the harder math subjects. Especially for you STEM majors, be sure to look out for our next article that explores more of the great math professors here at Ohlone!
(Image credit Ohlone College)