Who is Miroslav "Mira" Orna? He is the man that is currently making my Calculus III class a living hell. How bad is it? I can teach myself Calculus III better than he does. I learn more from my classmates than from Mira. In class, I find doodling more productive than taking notes.

So how is Mira still a teacher? To be honest, I don't have any logical answer. This man should not be a calculus teacher. He can't even finish integrals! On the plus side, he doesn't make us complete the integrals, but only because he couldn't grade it.

But wait, that's not all. One of my mathematically-astute classmates is constantly correcting Mira's teaching mistakes. On top of that, Mira will say that my classmate's answers are incorrect, then proceed to write exactly what my classmate said on the board. There is something wrong about a teacher who denies a student's intelligence. Aren't teachers supposed to accept and encourage intelligence? Apparently Mira forgot about that part.

You might already think "damn, this guy's a bad teacher", but I am NOT DONE! We have yet to explore his grading policy. During the course, we take five tests and do homework for each section we go over in class. The tests are 75% (15% each) of our overall grade , and the homework constitutes the remaining 25%. Not bad, right? What if I told you that he puts material on the test that he did not cover in class? The only way you can know how to do it is to teach yourself by using the text book and the review questions he hands out several days before the test.

Everybody knows that questions involving math aren't exactly fair to grade as 100% right or 100% wrong. If you can set up the problem correctly, but you do not find the correct answer, you should get partial credit, correct? Mira is probably the ONLY teacher who does not allow partial credit in a mathematics class. This alone will probably make 10% of the class who would otherwise pass fail.

I have no explanation for Mira's atrocious teaching skills. He is by far the worst teacher I have ever had. There is no way for me to get out of his class because it is crucial that I pass calculus THIS semester, otherwise I will fall a year behind in classes. I can only hope to survive the remaining 12 weeks by studying my ass of every day until the final just so I can get a "B".

Good luck to everyone who must suffer by attending Mira's classes.

EDIT (12/29/06): I did in fact get a "B" in the course, and yes, I studied my ass off. I never have to see that man again, and I am overjoyed by that knowledge.