Houde is the most insincere Professor you'll ever meet. Never trust him in anything that he says. Or you will end up compromising your career and grades. As far as possible, avoid him being your teacher or PhD research guide (based on reviews from PhD students at UW Madison). He says something else, does something else. Never true to his words.

Awful lectures, problem sets and exams. Does not do practice problems that relate to homework or exams in class. The things he does talk about he does not explain very well. Makes the exams/problem sets incredibly difficult

Houde is the most disorganized professor I've seen in my life. And it is outrageous to cancel the lecture one hour before the lecture. It seems that he does not like teaching.

Material itself was challenging, but Houde did a good job of taking time to explain it. One very annoying student made class unbearable. I studied the notes a ton to do well. The "D-day" analogy is right on. I would almost break-down in tears during the exam, then find out my 65% was an A!

First exam average was 43/100. Second: 76/100. He curves so that average is a B so he is not sadistic. Exams are like the D-day beach assault, many die but you end up winning. His accent and hand writing make lecture sometimes hard to follow. Pray for a good TA because they are in charge of a large portion of the class. Textbook was GREAT!Good luck

He is very separated from the TA in teaching this class. He leaves topics very vague. Also his lectures are intolerable(and I am an Econ major). The math is very easy, however, and he does a good job of explaining it.