David Ellis

I am a returing student after working for 5 years. As a junior in high school I got a C- in precalculus. After 6 years of not doing math, I thought I'd have alot of trouble learning calculus. Dr Ellis is the best math teacher I have ever had. Period. He is tougher than most (no formula sheet for the test) but you really learn the material and he cares that everyone understands. His lecture style is a little millitant, he raises his voice sometimes, but it forces you to pay close attention. He goes over a large amount of material each lecture, gives plenty of examples of the concepts and answers any questions. My one complaint is that he can be insensitive and overly critical if you miss something "obvious", he will treat you like you're in 4th grade, or you should be anyway. I learned more from him than any other teacher at SFSU. He puts an enormous amount of energy into his teaching and it shows.

Dr. Ellis is the bomb, especially for students who are seriously studying math. I took him for as many math classes that I possibly could. He 's real practical in his teaching methodology; he doesn't get too abstract, only when necessary, and for all the smart ass grad students sneaking into undergrad classes trying to get easy A's, be prepared, he knows how to dent your ego's.

i especially recommend him for minority students pursuing science degrees, as he's one of the only minority professors in the math department. I took him for Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Differential Equations, Analysis, and Senior Project. I worked my ass off, but I've learned a lot. Be sure to go to his office hours too.

I was excited to start the semester since this professor is also my advisor as a math major. BIG MISTAKE. I walked into the first week of class and everything was ok. I started working on the homework and found the book was incomplete as to its descriptions and preparation for the problems AND Dr. Ellis hadn't prepared us for these problems at all. I cross referenced another ODE book to do the homework and completed it on my own. When people asked him to do problems in class he mislead them and was completely inconsistent in his explanations. He wouldn't even finish the problem. I'm not even sure he knew how to do the problems himself. I am great at teaching myself, but at the upper division level we need teachers to put aside their egos and really dig into this stuff. Very disappointing for math majors and a terrible advisor. If you can, find a way around him, I have.

do not take this man. i found dr. ellis to be a very biased teacher. he only payed attention to a select few favorites in the class and held himself too high on a pedestal for anybody to reach. he is way to arrogant and likes to put down students in his calculated ways. he is way to strict on the homework and does not leave you a clue how to do the problem. he speaks to the class as if the class were made up of 2-year olds. i felt he did explain problems pretty good but would not answer the questions of the students enough, but many times would reply asking the students a question. he is the first teacher that i had ever had that told me to drop his class at the bottom of my first test. take it from me, he is not worth your time unless you read the math book like its your personal bible.

I was very disappointed after reading most of the other student reviews. I took Dr. Ellis' "Partial Differential Equations" upper division class. I found Dr. Ellis to be one of the best and caring instructors at SFSU. His exams are not difficult at all if you put the effort and time in doing homework. In fact, most if not all the exam questions are similar to those assigned for homework, so if you understand and do the assignments you WILL do fine. Dr. Ellis will also give extra credit problems (somewhat harder than regular problems, but manageable). Dr. Ellis will help IF YOU ASK, BUT IF YOU DON'T ASK ---HOW WOULD HE KNOW WHEN YOU NEED HELP?--- If you really want someone who cares about his students....If you really need help to learn "MATHEMATICS"....TAKE Dr. Ellis classes.

I had him my first year in college. I had to end up withdrawling from the class because he was a pretty bad professor. Just like the other reviews, do not take this professor. He is a mean guy that only helps math majors that are worth his time. He gives no half credits if you got the steps right on the homeworks or exams. I heard a lot of people failed his class. It was a bad first semester college experience. He is very detailed, such as, he wants the directions written out for each question you are answering and all the steps to finding the solution.

Having read some of Dr. Ellis' other reviews I feel that perhaps I am a little crazy for thinking the way I do, but I have to say that Professor Ellis is by far one of the best math teachers I have ever had. His energy level is high, he obviously enjoys what he teaches. His lectures are clear and to the point. He takes pauses during lectures to make sure everyone is following him. Truly if you don't speak up and ask him to explain again, which he always seemed perfectly willing to do, then the blame for you not understanding can only fall on your shoulders. He was always approachable outside of class. Yes, he does give lots of homework, but if you can do the homework with no problem then you will have no problem on his tests. His exams are very straight forward. He made math interesting to me what can I say.

As an African-American student, it did me proud to see one of my own kind being in the vanguard of Mathematics and possessing such an impressive amount of knowledge in that field. Unfortunately, Dr. Ellis is not humble about his knowledge and is quite the contrary, arrogant and seeing himself in some kind of infantile way better than everyone else, meaning they must bow down to him,etc. With this attitude how can one feel comfortable learning from him. He needs to see, that no one is better than anyone else nor is anyone more privileged than anyone else. Dr. Ellis is in the position to make a real difference, but what he needs now as a starter is to throw his over inflated ego out the window and hopefully grow up and be a real teacher!

The best thing about Professor Ellis is that he often gives clear explanations of the concepts under study (though not always--there was one important operation that he never explained fully until just before the final). He also seems to like the subject and its applications. But he also has what can only be called a pervasive contempt for the students. Examples: He gave a midterm with an error in the first problem; after most of the students had completed work on the problem, he corrected the error and told them to redo it, with no additional time allowed. He spent 20 or 30 minutes at the beginning of a final exam in conversation at the front of the classroom with a student who was not taking the final. He argued with a student about the best way to approach a problem, and finally told the student to leave if he wanted to discuss it further (Ellis' further work on the problem showed that the student had been right and he had been wrong). He did apologize for that incident, but the apology was a one-time event. He indulged in elaborate insults when students made algebra mistakes in class, though he routinely made such mistakes himself. During office hours, he was condescending and impatient. The final exam prominently featured a type of problem that he lectured on only briefly and which he had not previously tested on. What I would have liked to know about Ellis before taking the class is this: Don't take it with him.

Some other matters: there were two midterms and one comprehensive final. No notes allowed for any of the exams. Homework is usually due once a week (it is collected and graded) and is extremely time-consuming. The book (Boyce and Di Prima, Elementary D.E.) was marginal--it had more mistakes than any other math text I've seen, and some of its explanations left a lot to be desired.