Reviews for Douglas P. Hamilton
Average Rating:| Anonymous Course: PHYS272 Grade Expected: B December 26, 2011, 8:05 pm | He's a rather enthusiastic professor though he may not seem like it. If you ask for help, he'll always help you and try to understand your situation. His teaching skills are not excellent but he tries to make up for it by making tests doable and solvable. He'll curve according to the bell curve and adjust accordingly. Fair grader! |
| Anonymous Course: MATH141 Grade Expected: December 4, 2011, 8:44 am | Hamilton's teaching style was awful. He is a terrible teacher on most accounts, but between the amount I remembered from high school and my wonderful TA, Andrew Brandon, I was able to do well. His tests are more frequent than the other teachers' tests are, so there is less information to remember, but the tests are harder. Apparently, this will help us on the uniform final, but I have not taken it yet. He is also terribly condescending. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH140 Grade Expected: C May 9, 2011, 1:11 pm | Half decent lecturer but I got burned because I could never get used to his teaching style. Very convoluted lectures though he can be a nice guy when he wants to (blew up in our lecture a few times and yelled for seemingly small stuff). Had a friend who took him for 141 and he changed up their exams on them without much warning. Didn't care for him either way but at least he's better than Francis Gulick.... |
| Hosea Course: MATH140 Grade Expected: May 1, 2011, 4:17 pm | Hamilton was often very fast paced in his lectures. He seemed very condescending in his emails at times, but he knows what he is talking about. However, once you get lost, it's hard to get back on track. He also has this system where you get points if you correct a mistake he makes. However, when you're absorbing new information it is very confusing to have to deal with mistakes made when you're trying to learn the right way to do things. He also gave out many bonus quizzes and points which boosted your grade. However, this semester he did give a test the day after spring break and the average was like a 12/40. In the end it just comes down to intuition in my opinion. Pros: Approachable in person, easy to get points, gives out bonus quizzes Cons: Difficult to follow |
| RyH Course: PHYS272H Grade Expected: A February 17, 2011, 7:50 pm | This review is for Douglas C. Hamilton. (the physics professor!) Professor Hamilton was an excellent teacher; he clearly explained concepts and was very open to students. He encouraged class discussions & participation, and was very approachable during office hours or after class. The only reservation I have is that I took the "H" version of the phys272 class. Big mistake. There is additional homework every week (which was no big deal) but additionally, there was a 10 page paper on a physics topic of choice. It was dreadful... There are much easier H-versions, but Professor Hamilton was very good nonetheless. |
| engineeriam Course: MATH463 Grade Expected: A December 23, 2010, 7:08 pm | Dr. Hamilton is a nice, approachable person. His lectures tend to be very fast; at times, I couldn't take down all the class notes before he erased his work. I feel if you have the time to read and understand sections before they are covered in lecture, you can probably follow him better. Otherwise, he doesn't really present the information in a way that can be easily absorbed if you haven't seen the information before. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH463 Grade Expected: A December 22, 2010, 7:06 am | I thought that Hamilton was absolutely brilliant. Although some may say that his lectures are a little convoluted, they are actually quite easy to follow if you skim the appropriate book section before class. He is a genius of complex analysis and can boggle your mind with the depth of his knowledge on math and history. His midterm was so easy it was a joke, and the final ended up to be take home which was actually pretty hard. Overall this class was pretty interesting and has a lot of applications to many subjects in engineering. Another point, I do agree with what mreese has to say about Hamilton. I could tell that he gave preference to the kids who were doing well in the class, although probably not as pronounced as it would be in 246. |
| mreese Course: MATH246H Grade Expected: A December 16, 2010, 6:30 am | This review is for David Hamilton, the math professor. As much as I want to say Dr. Hamilton is an inefficient lecturer, it was probably not his fault that students in 246H had to do a lot of self-study to do well in the class, as there is no discussion and tests are biweekly. Hamilton moved fairly quickly through theory, and spent a good amount of time doing example problems which illustrated concepts well and were good practice. The reason I am rating Hamilton poorly is that he did not treat students equally with respect. I wasn't doing extremely well in the first half of the course (B exam average), and whenever I asked him a question he would dismiss it by discussing something completely unrelated as if to humiliate me. On one occasion he loudly remarked that I did "not so good" on an exam when I got 85% and the average was 50%. In the second half of the course I got perfect scores on the exams and Hamilton suddenly cared about the questions I was asking. There were a couple other students whom for whatever reasons he did not favor, which he made quite clear. I'm not sure why he disliked me, because I wasn't even doing poorly. Hamilton is a decent teacher, but I do not find his behavior towards me acceptable. About the class itself: The first three Matlab assignments are longer than the ones given to the regular sections. These Matlab assignments are not at all like those assigned in Math241 (those are trivially easy compared to these). It is also quite difficult grade-wise to get an A in the class. You can mess up on one test (of 6) since the lowest is dropped, but there is no curve otherwise, and the final is weighted heavily (40%). The class average on the final was 83%. About half the class received an A for the semester. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH140 Grade Expected: A December 14, 2010, 11:22 pm | This is a potentially easy math class compared to others, but Hamilton is an inadequate teacher! There's no webassign. He assigns problems from the book, about 20 for each section. The homework is optional, but the TAs do occasionally collect homework from a specified section and the test questions come from the homework, so it's a good idea to do the homework. Tests are fair because, like I said, problems come from the homework and examples in lecture. He also has this policy where if you answer a question in class or correct one of his mistakes, you get one bonus point. I believe that the max is 25 per semester. In addition, there's a final's option, in which your final test grade will be used to replace your final course grade if it happens to be higher. While there's plenty of opportunities for getting a high grade, I've found that Hamilton is not such a great lecturer. You're better off reading the textbook yourself. Half of the class doesn't even take notes. He jumps all over the place and doesn't stop to explain each step. Bottom line: Tests are fair. If you're willing to self-study, this course is for you. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH141 Grade Expected: C January 10, 2010, 5:20 pm | Professor Hamilton never seemed to care whether or not the class kept up with him during his lectures. He seemed to do what would have made him learn, as a mathematician, rather than what I felt I need to learn, as a science major. |
| keyoung Course: MATH410 Grade Expected: January 4, 2010, 11:46 am | Everything Musick Video has posted is a great summary of prof Hamilton and his 410. Even though his lectures were difficult to follow and he often went off on tangents his exams were so easy. The Friday review sessions were great and when prof Hamilton graded the hw he just glances and gives 10s. His grading system was also grade because you just need to secure an A before the final and only need a 50% on the final. It's very easy to get the A with the midterms and HW's and 2 bonuses. The final was a lot more difficult than the midterms, so don't plan on just getting an A on the final. Great Prof for 410 |
| MusickVideo Course: MATH410 Grade Expected: A December 18, 2009, 12:35 pm | Professor Hamilton is a genius and knows analysis like nobody's business, but he has a difficult time communicating this knowledge to his students. In class, he works proofs very quickly in an extremely convoluted fashion that is generally impossible to follow. He makes plenty of assumptions and skips many steps in his proofs that make his lectures so incoherent that you almost wish you didn't go. Although he doesn't understand that the average MATH410 student isn't a bonafine genius, he is still very nice and pretty approachable to answer questions. For Fall '09, the class was MWF at 2pm and was basically structured like this: Monday and Wednesday he would teach new material (i.e. go through proofs of basic theorums) and Friday he would go through any problems on the newest problem set that we had questions about (he would actually just do the problem for you, which was great), and that problem set would likely be due the following Monday. He does not answer many homework questions outside of class because he wants you to ask it during lecture so that everyone has a chance to hear it. The class has 2 midterms, a cumulative final, 9 homeworks (highest one counts double), and two bonus homeworks if you choose to do them. You grade is the maximum of your homeworks&midterms grade, or your final exam grade. Exams are VERY easy and test your basic understanding of the material. Homework is very challenging and you will likely need to seek help to complete it. Overall medium professor, but good enough for this class. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH141 Grade Expected: A October 29, 2009, 9:07 am | Professor Hamilton is great. Very clear with enough humor to keep things flowing. Very fair grading system which allows you to work up to an A grade. System of tests every two weeks and TA quizzes is tough but it keeps us on the ball. This paid off with a class average of 87% on the last test. |
| BetsyJ Course: MATH462 Grade Expected: A October 9, 2009, 1:19 pm | Superb teacher. Made us understand very hard material. Very fair and clear. |
| ddaily Course: MATH141 Grade Expected: B April 28, 2009, 5:08 pm | Dr. Hamilton is a decent lecturer. Easy to understand and presents the material very well. As long as you do the homework in this class you should do fine on his exams and quizzes. He also has a nice policy regarding finals that can really help your grade at the end of the year. |
| rbterp Course: PHYS121 Grade Expected: A March 7, 2009, 7:24 pm | Dr. Hamilton was a clear, fair professor for Physics 1. He was very understandable in lecture and did many demonstrations and example problems in class. Mastering physics hw was due each week. |
| Anonymous Course: PHYS121 Grade Expected: A December 27, 2008, 8:20 pm | Nice guy. Exams were fair. goes through a lot of demonstrations and example problems in class. class is curved. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH221 Grade Expected: B December 9, 2008, 5:25 pm | Not a bad teacher, have had better math teachers but he is very fair and open for questions. |
| Anonymous Course: MATH221 Grade Expected: B December 4, 2008, 1:49 pm | Dr. Hamilton is a good math teacher. I normally have a lot of trouble with math, but having Dr. Hamilton helped. He does problems on the board and takes questions, which is helpful. He moves a bit fast but as long as you can pay attention (which is hard sometimes), you can follow what he is doing. I thought he was an effective teacher with fair tests. |
| Anonymous Course: ASTR120 Grade Expected: February 21, 2008, 7:38 pm | profesor hamilton is a very good lecturer, trys to make sure every one knows whats going on. takes lots of questions and answers them during class. he is big on teaching big general concepts, but their have been times on homeworks and test that i lose points for being too specific, and times i have lost points for being too general. its rather hard to figure out what he wants work wise. claims are made of intense use of math, but their really is only light calculus, and that is rare. most of the time their is no math at all. |