Historical instructor

TRAVIS OLSON

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.43/5 from 42 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

What students say

Original student reviews · all captured dates

MATH 222
Quality 2/5Difficulty 3/5
He was an ok teacher the problem was the grading. He would take points off for formatting errors that weren't even in the rubric and when you would ask about it he would say that he couldn't change it even though in the rubric you would hit all of the criteria. Also he would have office hours maybe once a month as he was never there.
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MATH 222
Quality 5/5Difficulty 1/5
Professor Travis Olson is one of the best teachers I have ever had in my life. People throw shade on him purely because Calculus 2 is a hard class to teach, but in my experience, he is a great teacher. He is very good at teaching and is able to simplify EVERY topic in Calculus 2, so much so that anyone can understand.
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MATH 222
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Olson is great at explaining and working through long problems. The class is SO exam heavy. Practice tests are a must, and I took more than 5 for each exam. Lecture attendance is important but if you miss a few and stay on schedule you'll be fine. Discussion did not help me at all in this class, but I image it helps for some people.
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MATH 222
Quality 5/5Difficulty 4/5
Travis is a really great professor and explains things very well. He is super fun and makes math lectures fun to go to. It is a really difficult class and that is the nature of calculus but he made it doable. Most of the TAs are not very helpful but Dhruv is the best TA ever! You have to teach yourself a lot of things but do lots of practice.
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MATH 141
Quality 5/5Difficulty 3/5
I do not like math at all and still managed to get a good grade in this. The math is very rudimentary and he explains it in very accessible ways. Very laid-back. Lots of tests, but they're easy and he drops a lot of them. No final unless you bombed a previous test and want to retake. Highly recommend as a basic math class for non-STEM majors.
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Personal experiences, not a representative survey. Profile matching and captured coverage are shown in the source details.

Classes with TRAVIS OLSON

MATH 222

Calculus and Analytic Geometry 2

4 credits

MATH 222 covers integration, ODEs, series, and vector geometry.

No offering record · Spring 2026

with this instructor · course overall, matching historical terms

Janine JanoskiTravis Olson

historical GPA · grades

Fall 2021–Spring 2026

Recorded teaching history

Distinct courses recorded per term

Explore courses taught by this instructor →
Browse recorded courses
TermCourseTitle
Spring 2026MATH 222Calculus and Analytic Geometry 2
Fall 2025MATH 141Quantitative Reasoning and Problem Solving
Spring 2025MATH 222Calculus and Analytic Geometry 2
Fall 2024MATH 141Quantitative Reasoning and Problem Solving
Spring 2024MATH 221Calculus and Analytic Geometry 1
Fall 2023MATH 112College Algebra
Spring 2023MATH 221Calculus and Analytic Geometry 1

Teaching history may be incomplete. Course pages contain course-specific feedback and citations.

Instructor identity & provenance 
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