Newman H. Fisher

I really feel terrible for Dr. Fisher after reading the first two posts because they are completely unfair. Dr. Fisher is an excellent mathematics teacher. His class is interesting and he explains math very well and gives many, many examples. His final exam was all from examples he did in class. His midterm exams are hard, because he expects you to know your algebra and trigonometry, which are PREREQUISITES for this class. I had not taken a math class for 12 years (15 since I had trigonometry) and still I followed it because he is very clear and patient. There is very little assigned homework and yet you still will learn as much from other classes with more as long as you go to class and do the homework. I agree that Dr. Fisher can space out a bit in class, but overall his lectures are relevant to the course. He loves math and that is why he tells his class about the history. I am currently taking Calculus 2 with another professor and I feel prepared because of taking Calculus I with Dr. Fisher.

I've got wierd feelings about this teacher. Yes, he IS a bit disorganized and vague in terms of homework, what's going to be on the test, and his grading policy. Sure, he does make a whole lotta mistakes with algebra and whatnot, but I mean at his age you might expect that. He's a nice guy, too. I didn't like the history of math part, either. I always sorta blanked out for 30 min during class when he went over that. His tests are hard because he'll throw in something that you SHOULD already know, like how to prove that 4 vertices are a square. Homework is kept to a minimum, which I liked a lot.

If you want to get an A via memorizing equations and using them like a robot, then don't take his class. If you have a short attention span, then don't take his class. I'm not sure if I would choose to have him as a teacher again, but I've had worse professors in my day. You could see in his class the people who actally understood how, why, and when to use something, and those who didn't.

I would have to agree with the other posting. Dr. Fisher is a "nice" guy, but better suited to retirement than to teach. He actually IS retired but does a victory lap every fall at State. He is the only professor in my life to make me cry after getting a test back. His teaching style is truly lacking in substance, but, let me explain. First of all, classes. He would often times come to class unprepared for class. The class would last about 10 minutes until he ran out of material and then he would say "well, that's about all I have for today, unless you have any questions." Unfortunately, none of us understood the subject well enough to ask any questions about anything - we were all lost, except for two international students who already had it and were forced to take it in the US. Thank goodness because they corrected his mistakes in class OVER and OVER. It was pitiful. Also, since it was my only class on certain days imagine how frustrating it was to come to school for 10 minutes!!

He also treated it like a mathematics history class - I'm sorry, but I don't care about the history of the theorem, just teach me how to use it!! Homework would be a few problems that would not be mirrored on the exams. He would NOT give practice problems for exams when asked and graded harder than my psycho pre-calc professor, taking off half credit for not putting a minus or plus sign (and when the test only has three problems on it, you can imagine why I cried). I got my first F from this guy. After the first two tests half of the class dropped out because they were all getting F's! When asked about a curve, he would spend the entire class period going over the algorithms on a bell curve.

Then, in taking a test, the homework problems assigned were much easier than the test problems and I felt unprepared. I had gone over the homework, but since he wouldn't give us study questions we were in big trouble.

Overall, a dull, dry teacher. I heard he was terrible and didn't listen either since the class fit my schedule ... from now on, trust the postings.