Anyone who has taken his class knows his lectures are a waste of time. At the same time he doesn't have a clear criteria for giving points. So he ends up giving a grade based more on whether or not you have satisfied his vanity in the class rather than your true level.

Irresponsible, no syllabus or grading criteria, and unorganized lectures. You will know nothing about Jacobi fields, the index lemma, or comparison... Instead, he repeatedly talked about his three ways to define connections and his spin group construction from Clifford algebra. It's like taking dental advice from your eye doctor.

other reviews speak on how well he is respected

One of the worst professors I've had at UW-Madison. Tends to ramble on about irrelevant topics in lecture. Disorganized. Showed up more than 5 minutes late a few times. Hard to see him use his fingers to explain concepts. Once, he glossed over a topic in the last 30 seconds of lecture because he would "get in trouble without saying it."

Lecture Summary: (note we are 3 weeks behind) Prof gives (through hand movements) a question about something we never talked about, discuss with someone next to you Prof walks around and no matter your answer, you're wrong oopsies, 75 min class is over, no answer for you! and he made a (literally) impossible question on an exam :)

Genuinely the worst professor I've had here. Wastes his lectures on proofs that aren't useful and don't show up ever again, put questions on the midterm that we'd never seen and hadn't been taught how to solve, and wrote in small, messy handwriting in class. I started going to the other professor's 7:45 AM lectures because Dr. Paul made it worth it

If you take his class you have to learn most of the material on your own. He does not teach material we need to know for exams, and spends most of the time going on about very difficult and unnecessary concepts. If you are taking this class to complete a requirement, I would not take it with him

I know calc 3 is hard but sean paul did not make it any easier. His passion for the subject is evident and he seems like a cool guy, but his lectures lack structure and are hard to follow. He uses no digital aids and would wave his arms around in the air to try and explain what a graph/equation looked like which was really... not helpful.

Professor Sean Paul's lectures were a struggle. While he's a nice guy, his teaching style was ineffective - the material was tough to follow. I found Unstuck study and self-study much more helpful for succeeding in this class.

lectures are really really bad

Terrible professor, cant teach. Definitely don't take his class!

Sean is a good professor in many ways. He is good at answering questions in office hours and his lectures are typically disorganized but informative. However, he is severely lacking in empathy. He routinely treated me and others with disrespect. He is cold and aloof in his interactions with students to the point of dogma.

You can tell Professor Paul is very passionate about math so the lectures are very enticing if you share that same passion. His lectures are more conceptual and contain fewer numerical examples but this allowed me to learn the content on a much deeper level. He is very accepting of questions from students and id take a class with him again

Great guy, but man... those lectures were basically useless. Extremely hard to follow and not at all focused on topics that were tested. Realized halfway through the course that my time was better spent going to discussion and studying by myself or getting an extra hour of sleep instead of going to lecture.

I would not recommend Sean Paul. He spent nearly all of the lectures talking about the theories behind calculus, instead of calculus itself. He put extremely difficult, nearly unanswerable questions on the exams that at one point averaged a 1/10. Go to any other professors lecture. It will be night and day compared to Sean Paul.

Spent class time expressing his passion for math rather than teaching the required content...

Sean Paul is a nice guy, but just a terrible teacher. After a month of suffering through his lectures, I attended a different professors lectures and immediately the class got so much easier for me. His lectures almost never have any example problems that you could see on a test and they are so unorganized that you have no idea what is going on.

He's a good guy but man he is not clear in his teaching. The blackboard looks like someone scratched it. Many students have hinted that his handwriting is bad so him continuing to write poorly is definitley just him not caring.

The worst lectures I have ever experienced. I enter the class and leave more confused than I was when I went in every time. Get ready to teach yourself all of the material because Sean Paul is not helping. He did write "Temperature," though.

His lectures felt repetitive but not in a good way. If you have him for 234 get ready to watch the online videos and attend other lectures if you want to do well in the course! He also said his test questions keep the strong and drop the weak. INTIMIDATING!

Sean Paul is a good guy but isn't very good at teaching this course. Lectures are not focused on things you will be tested on much of the time. Wastes a lot of class time giving students problems to solve on their own. Makes it clear that he thinks the course should be more difficult, which is obvious when you see the exam questions he writes.

Worst professor I've ever had. Knows nothing about how to teach: rushes through important topics, doesn't have enough time for some so entirely skips them, and gives a single exercise in class but waits for the students work on it for 25 minutes effectively wasting a third of the lecture. I had to learn everything from online sources and TAs. Awful

This is the worst professor ever. On the first day he talked about us being on a floating rock and blackholes, nothing related to the current curriculum. Sitting in a cheap desk, taking this cheap test. Get ready to be a reader, lectures are useless. Understanding was like trying to learn math with a blindfold on, I am a student, not satoru gojo!

Poses very few questions to the class, and does not solve them when asked. Skips over key topics. I've had nightmares about him.

Sean Paul is the worst professor I have ever come in contact with. He is disorganized, refuses to actually teach calc during class or help students with questions, and forces the TAs to teach us the actual math concepts. I taught myself MVC, with absolutely no help from him. Save your sanity - do not take 234 with Sean Paul.

Sean Paul does not effectively explain concepts we're supposed to learn in class. Melissa Lindsey is an awesome professor, and I learned more information from attending her lecture in one week than I did in Paul's lecture for two months.

Do not take Sean Paul. Does not cover any material during class. Almost never provides examples and simply says "read the book in advance because we can't cover it in class". Go to any of the lecture if possible instead

Sean Paul is by far the worst teacher/ professor I have ever interacted with. He is unorganized, unprepared, and has some of the worst handwriting I have seen. He fails to cover necessary class content every lecture and rambles on and on covering topics completely unrelated to what we do not need to know. Avoid calc 3 with sean paul at all costs.

His lecture is awful and disorganized, and no one attends after the first week. I had to resort to watching another professors' lectures on my own time, and hers are beautifully annotated and downloadable before her class time. He doesn't plan out his lectures, doesn't record, and should not be allowed to teach math234 anymore.

Super smart guy but he's almost too smart to teach 234. He overcomplicates everything and his lectures are confusing. Everyone stopped going to lecture because we'd rather teach ourselves than go and get more confused. I like him as a person but try to avoid him as your professor because he makes his class harder than it needs to be.

Too smart to actually teach normal people. Also incredibly arrogant

Doesn't explain content or give any examples, just does irrelevant proofs the entire lecture that don't relate to quizzes or exams. Makes content way harder to understand than it should be. I and many others stopped going to his lectures because they were not helpful what so ever. Find a way to not have him as your professor or you will regret.

Really good at getting behind after the first couple lectures. Enjoys talking about higher level math that has nothing to do with the content we need to learn. Provides little to no examples in lecture, so prepare to learn on your own!

Sean Paul sent out 90 double integral problems in an email with the message, "Have fun!" The poor TA's weren't even aware of this and when people inquired with questions, they had no answers. He also wrote one exam question on our midterm and essentially everyone I know got around 0-2 points out of 10 possible. Take this information as you will.

Professor Paul teaches straight out of the textbook. He tries to explain what the definitions of certain equations mean by drawing a picture in 3D, but it only confuses students more. There are absolutely no examples given during lecture of plugging in values or solving equations. Many of his students go to a different professors lectures instead.

The first couple of lectures seemed innocent and not too bad. I couldn't have been led on more. Sean Paul is absolutely terrible when it comes to teaching Math 234. His constant need to provide proofs and his lack of example problems prevent students from passing his class. His lecture topics are nonexistent on exams and extremely hard to follow.

If you have this professor, it is best if you skip the lecture and focus on the online textbook and the problems it gives. The textbook is much easier to understand when compared to Sean Paul. The main reason for this is because he goes into the details such as proofs for a formula. Due to this, there aren't many examples shown.

Professor Paul is very smart and very passionate about calculus. However, when it comes to explaining calculus in a way that anyone not getting a PHD in math could understand, he sucks. He will go on very long, elaborate, and confusing tangents about irrelevant theories and then breeze through the important stuff. Also, no examples :(

This class was totally fine up until the last week where he decided to cram a month's worth of graduate level math into just a few lectures and didn't have much time for examples. We were then given a final on this exam right after and everybody did very bad (average was a 40%) and he didn't curve it. Grade went from 97 to 89.

He speaks a little faster for me in class, but it is precisely because of this that I concentrate. However, his homework is difficult to write. I usually need to think for a long time and write it step by step, but not many times. I personally think his lectures are very exciting!

On the surface this dude seems nice and well-mannered, in reality he is also extremely intelligent and holds a deep love for mathematics. But I only have two questions: will he have one moment of sincerity? Does he really care about teaching an average student how to do proper math?

Minimal assignments and fairly generous exams made the course more or less easy. Rather than focusing on rigor, emphasis was understanding motivations behind a few restricted topics about manifolds. A combination of poor communication, unique terminology, and divergent material from most topology courses made for a sometimes frustrating class.

What is he talking about in each lecture? It is impossible for you to learn anything with his scribbled handwriting and scarce examples!

Here is my response. School should let him teach the much harder courses for sure. I get an A but just on the threshold. His exam is not like a math 234 lecture since he prepared this course as hard as math 332, math 551, and math 234 together. I heard there areonly 3 people who go A. I am currently asking for letter from him but he never replies

Sean Paul is by far the worst professor I have had in my four years of going to UW. His lectures were the driest I've ever had, never did any practice problems and only did hour to two hour long proofs usually about concepts that didn't matter. I'm sure he would be great for PHD math students, but this is calc 3, a course he teaches regularly.

Taking MATH 234 is scary to begin with, and taking it with this Professor was definitely not the best decision. Like other reviews have said, he teaches and treats us as if we are going for a PHD in Mathematics. Never gives actual example problems , so you don't know the format of test questions. All his lectures are very dry and not helpful.

It is my pleasure to recommend Prof. Paul to you Math Ph.D. students. I have to admit that I am not qualified for such nice and academic lectures, because I am just a really bad student who got both "A" and high grades in the previous calculus courses. After this course, some of the students will get a"Math Nobel prize" while the others will get C.

A funny teacher but the class is made insanely difficult. He teaches as if all the students have a PhD in mathematics. He even admitted that he was not allowed to teach certain material to our class but he did anyway because "we're all smart to be able to do it." Take at your own risk!

One of the worst professors I've ever had. He is knowledgable but teaches like he is teaching to other professors not students. Only does proofs and never does examples. Absolutely horrible lectures. Also yells at students for asking questions he deems as stupid.

Math 234 with Sean Paul was extremely hard, not because of the difficulty of the material, but due to the complete lack of resources to learn from. There was no homework, no discussion practice problems, no piazza, and no practice tests. A lot of what he teaches and tests are not found in the textbook or online. Very rude and impossible to contact.

JUST DONT TAKE IT if you wanna get A!

Sean Paul comes across as a nice guy who really knows his field. However, his approach to teaching introductory vector calculus will probably leave you more confused than when you started. Clearly a smart dude but not a great teacher for low-level courses. Important assignments are left open-ended, and SP is intimidating so office hours a no-go....

Nothing feels worse than working through all of the assignments, readings, and lectures in addition to outside material (Khan, Paul's calculus 3) and STILL being demolished by an exam. Sean Paul's course exceeds the official course curriculum and he really shouldn't teach intro classes. Online exams were poorly administered. He's casually rude.

Why Sean Paul is still allowed to teach lower-level math courses is absolutely beyond me. I'm sure he'd be an interesting prof for math majors in higher courses, but holy cow this guy does not understand how to teach an introductory course. So glad I wasted tuition and my summer sitting through Sean Paul's obsfuscations only to see my GPA violated

He makes his exams super hard and nothing like his lectures. He wont actually show you how to do the problems, he will just write down the definition and if you dont get it then too bad. He is passive aggressive and makes you feel like its your fault for not doing well. Doesnt respond to emails. Beware he is mean and doesnt like students.

Whatever happens, dont take a Calc class taught by Sean Paul. I wish I had postponed taking the class when more professors would be available to select from.

I took this as a summer course and did all lectures, homework, and readings, but still was never prepared for the difficulty of the exams. Understanding the concepts and applying them normally is not hard, however whenever you need to apply them on the exam, it's impossible. Also really sucks that the only grades come from the 3 exams :(

Amazin professor with a real passion for his subject. Math majors will miss out by not taking calculus with him.

I don't really think Sean Paul is a 5 star professor, but his current 1.8 is criminally low. I think he got this rating because calc 2 is just a damn hard subject. He teaches it as well as anyone could and he gives you everything you could ask for to succeed in the class.

I was getting As on all math courses, but having met this professor, I had to retake math 234 (got C and A). His lecture is hard to follow and worst thing is that he teaches many things that are not even on the textbook so it is almost impossible to get aids from TAs or internet. Now, i see that he only teaches summer courses. My tuition...

Professor Sean Paul is an amazing instructor. As a second language student, I needed help in some concepts. He was staying in his office for answering questions everyday, even other than his office hours. His exams and homework are completely straightforward and much easier than what he teaches. I appreciate his passionate teaching and his kindness

Such a great professor! It's strange that most old reviews are negative. Everything in class was clear, nothing surprising in the exams, and he seems like a nice guy overall.

Professor Paul was super straightforward, his exams were really fair, and he got right to the point. I was pretty nervous taking him for 234 because his reviews werent the best but I learned a lot from him. I feel like I know why Im using certain formulas, and that he didnt waste my time. I had a great experience and would recommend him 100%.

I took 234 as a summer class and I was not optimistic going into it due to his past reviews but was surprised by how well the class went. His exams count for pretty much your whole grade, but they were VERY fair and graded easily. Go to class you will be fine. You barely need to practice outside of class tbh. He must have changed or something.

I REALLY DO NOT LIKE this professor. His lecture is so unorganized. I am really confusing what he says. The worst thing is that the homework does not match the things he talks about in the class. You cannot do more practice beyond his class. It seems like he requires you to understand things immediately and then do them in the exam without practice

He attains a great knowledge base in the field of advanced level mathematics, whereas his rather messy teaching style makes the already dull lectures even more confusing. The only advantage of his class one might seek is that the answers to his homework problems are right in the back of the poorly written textbook.

He is pretty straightforward. Not a bad choice, just sit in the front and do your homework and you will do good on the tests! Trust me, there are worse professors out there for this course.

He's notorious for his bad teaching in Math 234, but I thought he would do a better job at a higher level. However, I change my thought after taking his class. Even though he's very enthusiastic, his lecture is the most unorganized lecture I've ever seen, and there is no lecture note. But his exams are pretty easy. Literally learn nothing from him.

Sean Paul is not a good instructor. He always goes beyond what is necessary to teach and even skips the necessary things. If you read the textbook's examples and do his homework, the exams will be easy, as they are pretty straight forward.

Please don't take his classes. I worked so hard and I don't know if I will pass or not. This guy is too tough and to into math. Just don't take it!

Sean Paul is very enthusiastic about math, but just a little too enthusiastic. He spends too much time explaining proofs over taking the time for examples. His style of teaching is made for much higher theoretical math, not Calc 3

He is the worst. He would make up his own formulas and notations and expect you to understand what he was talking about. For the final, he had us solve a packet of 82 questions in advance and then he picked 6 or so to be on the test itself, which was ridiculous. The TAs were great though and explained everything a lot more clearly.

Ridiculously difficult. Is overly aggressive and accusatory in class. Straight up mean. Does not teach. Lectures are essential to maybe on a good day glean a tiny but of useful knowledge to help you on the brutal homework. Definitely seek outside help, but good luck because many tutors will turn you away due his work being too difficult for them.

Textbook is good. Homework is ok. Lectures are useless and he can be rude and condescending... spent half a lecture defending his poor rating on this site... Just read the textbook and do all the practice problems. Hope to get a good TA or attend multiple discussions and figure out which one is best for you then go to that TA discussion and office

Sean Paul gives great lectures, however they are beyond the scope of the class for those taking it the first time. If you have taken calc 3 before you may find them interesting. If you have not you might not understand anything at all.

Absolutely terrible. Only taught proofs in lecture that we didn't need to know. Didn't respond to a single one of my emails. Condescending to students. Only grades were 3 tests and weekly homework so if you bombed a test, you're pretty much screwed.

Lectures-Unnecessarily complex and deviated from actual 234 material Homework-Long but worth doing b/c worth 25% of grade. One grad flow assignment was super hard but a TA posted solutions the day before it was due Demeanor-Condescending Discussions>Lectures if you really want to learn I'm pretty good at math but Sean really made me work for my A

No cumulative final and missing the first two weeks of class were the only benefits. Awful at communicating. Go to TA office hours if you actually want to learn anything. Tests are right from the homework so if you understand how to do that, they are pretty easy.

Awful. Condescending. Rude. Somehow found time to spend a month on vectors (the most simplistic part of calc 3), but crammed the most important/challenging topics into last three weeks, and did not even get to cover other topics. Terrible lectures, I mostly learned from my TA. Luckily, the tests are straightforward, so it is not difficult to do wel

Although you arent required to use and prove the theorems or concepts, he spends much of lecture doing proofs. Much of what he taught wasnt typical Calc 3 material but was still interesting if you paid attention and understood. The class can be frustrating but if you play by his rules you can get a decent grade.

Rants on and on about things that you will NEVER need to know, and neglects to teach real examples of things that you DO need to know.

Prof. Paul randomly missed the first two weeks of lectures, and only let us know days beforehand that he was going to be gone. He is constantly condescending to students instead of helpful, and it is impossible to learn from his teaching style. Avoid if possible but if you're stuck with him, watch Khan Academy and hope for the best.

In order to get the most out of lectures, it is essential to read ahead otherwise you will be completely lost. Almost all exams were very fairly prepared directly from homework content. My best advise is to find the best TA in your lecture and go to their office hours as much as possible. Always complete homework assignments! (25% of total grade)

Sean Paul is the worst professor I have ever had. You get more out of 10 minute online videos than going to actual lecture. He will tell you "this is not a proofs based course", but then proceed to prove everything. He never shows you concrete examples on how to do anything. He is condescending and arrogant in lectures. I would NOT take his class.

He's a nice guy, but you learn very little by going to lecture. I've gone to all of the lectures and I go in confused, and leave even more confused. Take a different professor if at all possible. He makes the content seem harder than it really is when he teaches it, and explains it too much to the point where you don't understand.

Extremely rude, and doesn't explain concepts well at all. Definitely avoid

I got nothing out of lecture

He expects totally different things from you. Seems like he assumes you know the topic well already when he's teaching. He also used different textbooks than other professors. His lectures are boring. AVOID AT ALL COST.

It is very difficult to teach multi variable calc poorly, yet Sean Paul somehow manages to do so. Calc 3 is not a terribly difficult class, and I had taken it prior to attending UW Madison and had a good grasp of the concepts, however nothing I learned helped me understand what he talks about in lecture. Its like its a completely different class.

Sean Pauls makes even the most simplest things way too complex. He made topics that I already knew confusing. I thought I was good at math until I met Sean Paul. His handwriting is illegible, he is mean and berates students and makes them feel dumb. He often goes off topic and his lectures are incredibly disorganized.

Lectures are basically nonsense, be prepared to learn everything from other sources. Luckily, the material isn't too bad. If you're decent at math it will be frustrating but fine, if not do not take Sean Paul or it will go badly. His weekly homework sets are long but not that bad either.

Sean Paul is the worst professor at UW. A good grade isn't too difficult because his exams are straightforward. However, you won't learn anything from him. The textbook is extremely useful resource so read it and do all the practice examples. Make sure you go to class though because he announces random changes only in lecture. Doesn't answer emails

Pros: Recommends good textbook. Tests are straightforward Cons: Doesnt reply to email. Skips office hours. Doesnt explain concepts well. Condesending, rude, and generally unapproachable. Randomly changes due dates and creates assignments. Doesnt give meaningful feedback. Uses non-standard terminology and notation

I will give credit where credit is due, Sean Paul is a nice guy and tries his best. That being said, I took 234 with him over the summer and it was the hardest thing ive ever taken. Its a 3D math class but not once did he use a 3D grapher and instead waved his hands around for the most part. He also did way more proofs than what was necessary.

Professor spends a whole lecture going over a concept that can be explained in 10 minutes. Even though we are not given analysis credit for the class, the professor spends most of the lecture proving concepts. If you have a good TA you will be good for exams.

Very passionate, but not good at teaching. Explains better in office hours. Taught many useless topics, so we didn't have time for skills for E&M Physics. Doesn't use tech very will Room had large screen, but he would rather spend 10 minutes abstractly showing a 3D graph with his hands instead of pulling up a 3D grapher. Big grade curve though

Sean Paul's so bad at lecturing and known to be such an awful teacher that multiple times when I have told a tutor at drop in or an advisor that I have him as a professor, they literally laugh and say, "I'm sorry". This man is late 50% of the time, granted usually it is only by a minute or two but it's still unacceptable for it to occur that often.

Sean Paul is a nice guy. It's just that his lectures can become convoluted sometimes, especially in the middle of the semester. At the end, I think he made a conscious effort to try and improve and it showed in class. If you study for the tests and do your homework well you will get an A or AB no sweat.

Professor Paul is not terrible as they said. Admittedly, his class is really difficult. But if you can really listen carefully and understand what he talks about, you will feel all the math problems are very very easy. Also, he is a really great person if you go to his office and talk with him face to face. I definitely want to take his class again

Sean Paul moves excruciatingly slow through the material while somehow not actually teaching you how to understand or solve any problems. Homework is ridiculously long. He seems more interested in finding the Michael Faradays of the class than actually teaching. The only reason I got an A is because he basically recycles tests from previous years.