I had him for winter quarter of 2009 and i must say he is very dull. I could not understand him because he was very messy. He has no personality. His midterms are okay but not too hard. The first two midterms and the final all had an average of around 50 but the curve is generous. I ended up with a B in that class but that's okay for me, considering that i never went to lecture after the third week.

D

he is an awful teacher, he just stands in front of the class and whispers math things at the board, his tests are really hard, the average on the second midterm was 29%...only 4 people in a class of 38 managed to sore above a 50%. If you have a choice do not take this guy! he also has NO personality and office hours are really useless. He doesn't prepare well for class, and during lecture he just writes things of the board in a scattered oder and often has to go back and make corrections while in the middle of proving something. I would suggest dont take him, but if you do GOOD lick, you'll need it.

I don't think the previous reviews were very fair to him.
True, he's a very dull professor and it can be hard to focus while he's talking, but his lectures are actually pretty well structured and well paced. The exams were reasonable and the curve seems to be generous too.

Martin is a pretty decent prof. It's true that lectures are not very exciting and he doesn't talk loudly, but if you sit in front and can manage to stay focused, he does a pretty good job of introducing the material. Homework was always useful - I thought he did a good job of picking out relevant problems. Other reviews complain about the midterms being overly difficult, but I couldn't disagree more. The midterms were challenging (as a curve needs to be established), but definitely very fair. Many of the problems were straight out of the book and from numbers very close to problems assigned for homework.

The best way to study for this class - do problems. Do all the homework, do extra problems, do old or practice midterms. Once you've seen most problem types, you'll do well, since his tests simply have the more challenging book problems. The curve is also quite generous. I got close to 15% below the average on the first midterm, but ended up with an A in the class.

If the alternative is Mess, I would definitely recommend taking Martin.