David, Roden Jason A. teaches at Ateneo de Manila University. Across 41 comments from students, they hold a rating of 3.6 out of 5. Of those comments, 17 read positive, 8 read mixed, 12 read neutral and 4 read negative. They are listed for 5 sections this term.
David, Roden Jason A.
Ateneo de Manila University · 41 comments
What students said
positive 17
neutral 12
mixed 8
negative 4
David, Roden Jason A.3.6
Background
Education · Career · Courses · PublicationsShowHide
PhD · Assistant Professor
Mathematics (numerical linear algebra, numerical differential equations, structured matrices)
Education
PhD Mathematics, Washington State University
Career
Assistant Professor, Ateneo de Manila University · Department of Mathematics · current
Knowledgeable and passionate, but lots of negatives
mixed
CourseMATH 71.3
Preface : I had Sir David for MATH 71.3, SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING I, for first semester 2022-2023. The course had 2 sections both under Sir David, but one was online and one was onsite; the class I was in was the onsite class.
Part 1 : Positives
To ease into the rest of this review (because I have so much more negative points to talk about), I will start with the pros of Sir David.
As a prof, it is clear that Sir David is knowledgeable and passionate (or at least, interested) in the topic of MATH 71.3. Additionally, he is also knowledgeable on the prior topics necessary for the class, such as linear algebra and differential equations (especially the former as he also taught 1 section of MATH 40.1 out of 2 in 2020-2021).
In class, he generally shows the entirety of the steps he takes to either solve a matrix equation or a differential equation. He also provided us a copy of the functions he uses (functions referring to files of Scilab code that do a specific algorithm or process), the books he refers to, and the slides he uses in his asynchronous lecture videos. He also creates other Canvas pages regarding either exercises he did/will do in class and topics he mentions additionally to the module.
Regarding the asynchronous lecture videos, we were asked to watch these before class as these covered the main topics, while onsite class was a breeze through of these followed by primarily discussion of examples and additional topics.
Part 2 : Negatives
With the positives out of the way, here are the general issues I had with Sir David.
First, regarding assessments. We were asked to do 2 long tests and 1 final project paper, each 33% of the final grade. The first issue with the long tests are that, with 2 different sections, he deliberately makes one section’s long tests harder than the other’s. I’ve heard from previous batches that the harder tests typically go to the section that takes it second; but our batch experienced something else. For us, the onsite class had the harder long tests as, I presume, he believes that “he teaches the onsite class much better” (he told this to some of the onsite students as he encouraged them to attend his onsite classes if they can). Furthermore, beyond the difficulty difference between sections, he also made the tests harder for : 1. fully online students in his online class since the onsite students of said class took the tests onsite; and 2. students taking up a makeup test. The difference of difficulty between the tests of different sections was so severe that the onsite class’s median score was failing (so at least 50% of the class failed) while the lower quartile of the online class was the median of the onsite class (so only 25% of students in the online class failed compared to 50% in the onsite class). Not only were the difficulties of the questions different, the types of questions were also not the same for both classes : the online class had a true or false type section along with the usual problem solving questions, while the onsite class only had the latter for the all 100 points of the test. While the long test for the onsite class consisted of questions similar in idea or topic to examples he covered in either the asynchronous lectures or onsite class, the questions were still first and foremost problem solving type questions — so the 1 hour 20 minutes we had always felt so short. Furthermore, he sometimes mentioned in class topics and would say that, having mentioned these, he might include it in the test; then proceed to not include it at all. And like most other professors in the Math department, he doesn’t curve nor give extra points.
Second, regarding feedback and post-long test. He gave the first long test around a week to a week and a half after each section took it, but for reasons unknown, he returned the second long test 2-3 weeks after the date it was taken. The delay made it difficult for some people who needed to know their grade to make decisions that were time sensitive. After he returned the long tests, at least for the first one, he went through 3 out of 4 of the questions. Other than the time he, the person who made the test, explained the 3 questions in 45 minutes, and proceeds to say “oh look, you guys would have had 30+ minutes to do the last question. see easy,” the worse part of when he would return the long tests are the comments he would make (more so for the second long test as he did not discuss the questions anymore and went straight to a sermon). He commented regarding the different performances between the different math majors (those whose focus is data science versus finance) and the different performances of people who were in his section for a previous major (the MATH 40.1 mentioned earlier) versus those in the other section. And regarding the latter comparison, he mentioned that, not verbatim, the people in the other professor’s class for MATH 40.1 must be regretting taking the easier prof and not his class (fun fact, our batch was second year at the time so we were pre-enlisted and had no choice regarding the professors). I believe he aksi called out some students who performed not the best — in front of the entire section.
For the final project, he made us do an almost thesis level paper where we implement the numerical methods we studied. The project is done in randomized groups of 3 to 4 (ours was by last names alphabetically which he mentioned is technically random; and it is, I guess ://). One issue with the project was some groups of 3 were becoming groups of 2 as some people left the class — but he wouldn’t let some groups of 2 merge into a group of 4. So these groups had to do the same work between less people (I think I heard that some of the online class groups of 2 were allowed to merge, but the onsite ones were denied, so there’s that). He said that he generally grades these higher, and maybe he does, but he asked so much work from the groups as he said he wanted to send one of the papers to a conference in second semester. Extra work included asking some groups to revise their paper, post submission, since he wasn’t satisfied. One grudge I have with this assessment was asking for an online consultation (rather than onsite) since my group was not around campus anymore during the study days, but sir wanted us to go onsite. The consultation was only for 30 minutes, but traveling to campus was like 4 hours in total that could have been avoided. I believe he told another group who consulted on the same day that he didn’t want online since the internet on campus is wonky (but it was study days and so the wifi traffic is less??? but fine ok). Also, every consultation felt like a gamble between him being happy with our progress or him asking us to do more, so…
Third, regarding other stuff. While I do see the benefits of asking us to watch the asynchronous lectures before the classes, these videos took up so much time since they were an hour plus in length in total for each lecture topic (around 8 different topics throughout the entire semester). In any case, he also tried to make class fun through some jokes or life advice, but some of these were in poor taste (I don’t know if I can mention them here in specifics, but PM me for tsismis :>). For the onsite class, there was a good combination of both boardwork and coding — albeit the latter was more of sir showing the class what he would do and everyone else following along or copying it down (rather than him allowing us to experiment for ourselves). The Canvas pages gave exercises, but most of these weren’t used at all, as previously mentioned, as tests revolved around variations of examples he’s discussed in class prior.more
Anonymous
Hard B, avoid him at all costs
negative
CourseMATH 71.3
Retake?No
4.0 attainableNo
LeniencyNo
[Review of my experience in Math 71.3 under him]
For those that only look for short reviews: Hard B, avoid him at all costs, and save yourself
It was hard for me to learn because some of the lessons were not in the module nor int he books given in the syllabus. Even for the ones found in the book, there was no mention of which book it can be found, so there was no way for us to review the lesson outside of the classroom. He also skips through the theory for a lot of the theorems and methods, but then asks about them in the exam. This would have been more acceptable if we can find the resources from the books listed in the syllabus, but these were not shared.
In class, many important and instructive steps were left as an exercise. The examples in class went straight to more complicated examples. The codes given in class were not explained at all and it was only up to the student to figure out what is happening.
So, he doesnt provide all of the material for the course in the syllabus. Again, this was fine if he taught well, but his lectures were honestly all over the place.
Codes in class were not given, and they were also hard to follow during class themselves. He would rarely give a copy of the codes in class.
On the side of assessments, we had 3 long tests (each 1/3 of our grade) with 4 items each (25 pts each item). The classes would have had different exams (with varying difficulty). Historically, he likes to target students vying for honors with harder exams to show that he is smarter than them. Don't get me wrong, he is incredibly smart and he knows the subject matter very well, but he teaches in such a way that makes students feel stupid instead of wanting to learn.
In terms of grading, I would say its a mixed bag. If he knows you are smart, then he would give you the benefit of the doubt and give u higher partial points. From what I know, if you are a girl, then you would also get a few more partial points. Aside from that, he checks very quickly, but he is also prone to making mistakes whem checking. If he sees a solution or answer that he hasnt thought of (even if it is mathematically sound), he will mark it wrong. Make sure to 2x check and fight for your answers. I heard he checks differently if you have projects instead of exams, so your mileage might vary.
Consultations are also hit or miss. If you ask him questions that he thinks are easy (even if they aren't) he will just leave it to you, and won't offer any help. You can try to consult with him, and he can definitely give insights, but he will probably beat around the bush and give tangentially useful things before getting to what u actually need.
On a side note, he was making some of my classmates uncomfortable (all of them were girls). He made a lot of side comments that were distracting and not conducive to learning. He also mentioned that he "destroys the QPI of his students" which he seems to enjoy.more
Happy Yak
mixed
[continuation because FB is rant-phobic]
Part 3 : Conclusion
Usually, the class Sir David taught us isn’t the hardest of the majors we take at this point in time, but for some unknown reason, he was the reason that it was the hardest for half of our batch. With only 3 assessments
all of equal weight, messing up one is a big big cause for concern. While it seems that he does grade the final project fairly high and does give a few partial points for writing things down in the long test, the main irk with him is his deliberate choice in making one class’s assessments much harder and chalking it up to teaching the class better. Perhaps he could make the argument that he does teach the onsite class better if it wasn’t for the fact that the online class had free cuts when they finished the topic early while the onsite class typically got extra topics instead. Furthermore, his comments and remarks in class and after tests are just DRAINING. Never more have I felt my blood pressure rise than after listening to the sermon he had after the second long test.
If you wanna maybe 50:50 between having a manageable math class or one where you might end up dropping it midway, take sir David.more
All comments
Anonymous
positive
the man made me love what i was learning 😫🤚 his vids were insanely organized and he's very approachable if you have questions regarding the topics. very prompt replies and really encourages you to learn imomore
Anonymous
positive
Had him for 30.14 online! So i dont know how much my reviews will help! But his modules are very detailed n helped a lot he takes u step by step with examples but for practice problems u have to use the book. He also does sync every session not requirwd but it helped! And his jokes were sure fun too!! He's really into witty jokes gotta laugh to be on his good side haha LTs are multiple choice for us. So super nice naman. Overall A/B+ with some effort is possiblemore
Lively Jay
Sit in front and laugh at the corny jokes
positive
To add, he rlly loves making jokes so make sure to sit in front and laugh (even if sometimes it is corny lmao). He’ll rlly appreciate it and imo makes his class feel lighter despite how hard math is lolmore
Lively Heron
real talk: very traditional, strict, and yes the other comments are right he does hold grudges haha lol. but if ever you do end up in his class, pls practice as he says: 1 hour of calculus everyday will really help you be prepared for his surprise quizzes. as for his teaching style, he tends to explain the more comprehensive solution to any problem, but if you have a simpler alternative he will really appreciate it if you bring it up in class. he grades fairly. protip: show interest in math, take notes, answer ALL the practice exercises, and express your need to improve and do better and he will be very nice about it and even cheer u on 🙂 but pls dont piss him off or else haha that’s all more
Rapid Viper
John Evertt give ur experience bro
Earnest Crane
positive
wtf he’s nicer na
Swift Jay
🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮
🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮
Vivid Urchin
Lecture videos are super clear, 1 day of study still got B+
positive
His lecture videos are super clear lmao, I remember I used to study 1 day before the quizzes and still got B+.
Brave Finch
ok lang sya for MA 21, hard work and a little talino
neutral
CourseMA 21
ok lang sya for MA 21... hard work lang nga and a little talino :)
Anonymous
Teaches well, lame jokes, ton of HW with no extra credit
mixed
WorkloadHeavy
Had him for Ma19. He tries to crack really lame jokes and when the class doesn't laugh his mood turns sour. As a prof, he teaches well naman and his lts for Ma19 were okay, but he gives a ton of hw that people don't even do because there is no extra credit given to those who do the hw or recite in class. Overall rating: meh.more
Dapper Robin
Listen to every word, he teaches fast, be ready for sex jokes
try to listen to every word he says because he tends to teach fast.
also, be ready for his sex jokes.
Clever Lynx
tricky lang kasi ng mga tanong nya
tricky lang kasi ng mga tanong nya...
Anonymous
Mahilig siya sa "Virginity"
Mahilig siya sa "Virginity"
Calm Gecko
He's a good prof. His exams are a challenge tho.
positive
He's a good prof. His exams are a challenge tho.
Anonymous
good anger management class, kept myself from squaring up
good anger management class!! I was able to keep myself from squaring up 🥊🙂
Jolly Dove
Nice and considerate, open-notes MC quizzes, not strict
positive
CourseMATH 30.14
WorkloadLight
Hello :) i took him last sem for Math 30.14. Sir is super nice and considerate. His modules were easy to understand and very detailed that is why it was okay for us even though there were no prerecorded lectures. We would have synchronous sessions every Wednesday and Friday, and he would use this time to explain the modules and entertain our questions (Monday is quiz day so you could use sat and sun to study for it :>):) His quizzes are all multiple choice that is why it is easier. :) we were also allowed to open our notes/browse our modules during quiz time. We only had 4 quizzes i think + 1 problem set project (all of us got a 100 for this project because sir was kinda lazy to check everything and he trusted our work daw hahah) he is not that strict last sem. You should just open your cam at first so he can see your face but you can turn it off naman after 5 minutes. Easy A/B+ :)
No surprise quizzes for us, no recitation :) just respond whenever he asks questions para sure siya na may kausap pa siya and dont sleep hahahamore
Anonymous
Study the modules and all practice exercises, tests are manageable
positive
CourseMATH 30.14
Retake?Yes
4.0 attainableYes
WorkloadLight
Math 30.14 [ONLINE CLASSES]
Took him last semester and it was honestly way better than expected! I noticed that for as long as you study the modules (which were structured really well) and do the practice exercises he gives, you’re good to go for his tests! For requirements, we were initially supposed to have 5 but he cut it down to 4 nalang (3 100 pt quizzes and 1 problem set). His tests were pretty manageable for as long as you study. For consultation, he responds naman agad basta don’t email him 5 pm onwards and during the weekends. Overall, I think I had a good experience with sir David! I’d say it’s A-able as well. 🙂
Biggest tip is to study the module well & do ALL practice exercises!more
Dapper Kite
Laugh at his jokes, especially when you're seated in front
Laugh at his jokes, especially when you’re seated in front :))
Golden Wolf
Teaches fast and had surprise quizzes for MA21
teaches fast and had surprise quizzes for ma21, might be different for math70
Witty Egret
By the book, grades fairly, mean if you look uninterested
CourseMATH 61.2
LeniencyYes
Had him for MATH 61.2 (Ma 151).
He’s a traditional math teacher. By the book and likes proving theorems in class to explain lessons. He’s not the type to slow down and he grades fairly.
I think a big hurdle for David is that he’s very passionate about Math and about teaching Math. If you show even a bit of you not being interested, such as spacing out or yawning, he might hold grudges against you. Make sure you show him an interest in Math, especially at the start, by participating and consulting with him.
He’s super nice if he picks up on your interest, but he can be mean if he picks up on disinterest. He’s by the book, has high standards, and grades fairly. Overall I liked him naman. He gave examples that helped me prepare well for the batch-wide LTs. Good luck!more
