Reviews for ENEE205

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Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Anonymous 03/04/2024	His lectures are ridiculously quick. The homeworks are super difficult. There's too much work to place into the prelabs. Not even the TA's know how to solve half the homework questions. His lectures are super boring. He doesn't do a good job at explaining anything at all regarding course material. He must think the class is filled with geniuses because he says things as if it's obvious - it's not. I don't even know what grade I'm expecting from this class, because usually I'd get an A but his class is only getting harder as the semester progresses, and the class makes less and less sense.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2024	5 stars is what prof. Murphy deserves. Best for effective learning of a fundamental course of ECE. Lots of admiration for his skill Pros: - Excellent lecturer, able to explain things with analogies and from multiple angles - Personally helpful at office hours/after class, though somewhat tough to get the answer you're looking for - All work is productive, no wasting of your time happening here - Largely stayed on track with labs, though I was blessed with a great TA (also the labs are moderately annoying)
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2023	If there are two things you should know about Lawson before going in, it's that he is kind of particular about certain things, and he can have a bit of a sharp tongue in writing. For example, for quiz 6, despite the fact that the nodal analysis matrix equation is derived from KCL, you get a 0 for the quiz if you derive it from KCL. I'm not a big fan of that. For our final exam, he put it very bluntly (and with quite a disappointed tone) that no one got the extra credit, and that exam performance was... very likely worse than usual to say the least. For some other things I didn't really care for in the class, the part of his lectures where he reads off slides are dull. He doesn't really add much to them except in the rare case he uses a slide as a springboard for a solved example. Quite frankly I didn't go to a lot of lectures towards the middle, due to a combination of an unreasonably long sickness, the 9:30 start time, and the fact I didn't really get much from them. I mostly learned through the material through the TA James, who was the GOAT. Also, homeworks can be quite annoying, and the solutions he provides to TA's don't really help them help us during office hours. Finally, most things about the labs are awful, from the equipment malfunctions which are difficult to diagnose, to the boring lab procedures which get especially bad regarding the several frequency sweeps performed in the filter labs, to the tedious lab reports themselves. I believe this is a universal 205 and 245 problem, so I won't hold this against Lawson specifically. That's about it. Lawson is a good professor for 205. The use of 8 quizzes across the semester instead of midterms is really nice in reducing stress around what's typically midterm season for other classes (and one of them is dropped according to the syllabus). The worked examples in class are pretty good. There's typically a bit of looseness regarding student-professor interaction, with plenty of comedic moments to speak of in the class. I don't know what else to say. I can see why people wouldn't like Lawson, but in spite of my issues, I can't say I'm one of the haters for his teaching of 205.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2023	Lawson is an amazing professor. He does not give midterms, practically hands out answers to the quizzes in lectures, gives extra credit points for just showing up to lecture and participation, and is a pretty funny guy. I had a great time in this course and I highly recommend that you take Lawson. If you show up to lecture you are set to get an A. And if you go to a couple of office hours with a TA or Lawson, you will definitely get an A. The answers for this class are handed out in a way that pretty much guarantees you a passing grade and guarantees that you will learn something.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2023	Dr. Murphy is an incredible lecturer, he always explains all the concepts clearly and without any confusion. He boils the important concepts down to the most important points and explains the applications of what he teaches as well. The quizzes were easy, the problem set homeworks were relatively difficult, and the exams were perfectly fair. Doing the problem sets really ensured you had the concepts down and were able to apply them which made them perfect study material for the exams. Murphy was also always fair with deadlines, working with students who had scheduling issues for exams, and even split the exams into two rooms to give everyone enough space while taking the exam. He is always engaging in lecture and brings a positive attitude to class that has virtually everyone in the room paying attention instead of distracted on their phones. Could not recommend Murphy enough
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	Beyond goated tenured professor. He's been teaching the course since they invented sliced bread and knows the best way to present the content. He wrote a very good textbook on introductory circuit analysis two decades ago which serves as a good reference, but he provides everything you need to master the course through slides, homeworks, and lab assignments. Extra credit points and privileged information about quiz and exam questions are handed out like candy to those who actually bother to come to lecture. I struggled a lot with learning circuits and Lawson made the course minimally painful. He's also very funny and approachable. Five stars.
Julius Goldhar ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	Personally Goldhar is not the best at teaching, he does go fast but he does give a ton of resources for you for finals and midterms that are similar to the exam. Homework takes a long time to complete as well but there are times where studying the homework can help you a lot for the midterms and fortunately, Goldhar had an extremely goated lineup of TAs this semester (love you Justin), so going to office hours were extremely helpful for homework or any general questions you had. Goldhar himself though is very nice, its just times in lectures where he teaches the content pretty fast and then expects you to understand a lot of content that can be pretty confusing.
Julius Goldhar ENEE205 Anonymous 05/01/2023	Goldhar is a very straightforward, nice professor. His 205 class is alright, with my complaints about the difficulty of the material more than anything specific about the Prof. Not very engaging, but his slides are good.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/15/2023	Lawson truly wants his students to succeed. Even though the lectures may seem boring, he wants students to really collaborate/participate when he asks questions. His class format is also really nice as there are only 10 quizzes in the class and a final at the end. He basically gives the question that will be on the quiz if you attend class and the topic so you don't have to study too much for those. The final he basically gave all the questions and went over them in class the week before. Just attend class even if it seems boring cause he drops hints and answers for everything he grades while lecturing.
Romel Gomez ENEE205 Anonymous 01/02/2023	Dr. Gomez is a nice dude who knows a lot. His lectures on circuits are top notch, teaching the fundamentals of circuits very well. Class assignments consist of a couple midterms and the final, as well as weekly homeworks, quizzes, and labs. Quizzes are fairly easy, as are labs (though labs can get a bit tedious). Homework sets are usually quite long and difficult. If you take this course, you should be prepared to spend a significant portion of every weekend on the problem sets. Exams are very similar to the homework, with averages generally in the 60s. The first exam was rough, the second a bit easier, and the final was hard. Exams focus heavily on recent material, and the final is not cumulative (only material from after midterm 2). The grade cutoffs in the syllabus are a bit different than usual, which makes the class a bit easier (C- was a 55% or something). If you are decent at math and want to learn a lot about circuits, I would recommend taking this class. Just be prepared to spend a lot of time on homeworks. If you only want to get 205 out of the way and never think about circuits again, you should probably look for an easier professor.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/13/2022	Chicken scratches on slides and talks like he's half asleep for the entirety of the boring lecture. Nobody can read his lousy handwriting on graded assignments, and he is exetremely bad at teaching because he mumbles his way through the lectures.
Julius Goldhar ENEE205 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/11/2022	Some people here are saying this class is straightforward and easy, however in my experience with this professor nothing was straightforward and nothing was easy. The saving grace with this class was my ta offering much easier processes on doing the difficult problems. The homework’s in this class each took easily 5-6 hours each week and were only 4 or 5 questions. If there is another professor please save yourself and take them.
Julius Goldhar ENEE205 Expecting a B xtermn8 05/14/2022	He moves through material quickly, but that's to be expected from an engineering professor. He is very accessible outside of class, and if you have questions he loves to answer them. Make it clear you want to understand more, and he'll make the concepts very clear. Also, your TA makes a huge impact on your success in this class. Overall he's a good professor, not the best, but someone who I would take again. His exams are very, very fair. The homework is a pain, but you can get by through the help of the professor and the TAs. Really the highlight of Dr. Goldhar is the fact that his exams are just like problems he gives, they're straightforward, and specifically NOT tricky. As long as you know the tools he's given you to solve problems, the exams are more than doable. Also, they're usually graded in 24-48 hours which is insane.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/05/2022	Great lecturer, homeworks are slightly challenging but fair and relate directly to lecture content. Provides pre-recorded screencasts for clarification and plenty of study materials for exams. Exams are fair. Take him if you have the option.
Julius Goldhar ENEE205 Anonymous 02/27/2022	Moves very quickly through material, doesn't give ample time for difficult concepts to really sink in, and doesn't explain things clearly enough. Maybe he's a decent professor for higher numbered courses, but for an intro to circuitry class, he's not a good professor. He is a great person and really does want to be helpful, but he is not good at bringing himself down to a level appropriate for a sophomore class where most of us are really thinking about circuits for the first time. Everything is trivial to him, so he does in general think that everything is pretty trivial to us too. This is a common issue with professors that really know their stuff, and are very intelligent, but can be very difficult in a class where there is no textbook, and self-study isn't really an option either. Also, his homework is quite heavy, and exams were weighted very heavily.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Anonymous 01/25/2022	Dr. Murphy definitely lives up to his reputation as a solid professor. To start off, he's pretty understanding and cares about his students. He's very knowledgeable of the subject and teaches the class pretty effectively. He has recordings for most/all of his lectures, and I used them often as references while I did the homework and studied. Big disclosure: this class is NOT easy. The homework assignments are slightly more difficult than the examples done during lecture, and many of them took hours to do (so definitely start them ahead of time). While tough, they are very useful practice for the concepts taught in the class. The exams are straightforward, but make sure that you understand the concepts in the class. The lab portion of the class was relatively challenging, but it didn't require much time outside of class. The TA's who run the lab/discussion sections were very good as well, and they were helpful resources for assignments. The quizzes each week were made by the TA's, so the difficulty was dependent on which TA you had. As a final note, there is no curve for this class. Exam averages were in the 80% and the final exam average was around 70%. Dr. Murphy is a great choice to take for this class. You will definitely learn a lot from this course. It might not be a walk in the park, but you can always ask him or the TA's for help.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Anonymous 05/21/2021	He is nice and a very fair grader. Has a sense of humor. Told us in advance what would be on the final, which was helpful.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/07/2021	I took Murphy's 205 over a year ago and I can easily say he has been one of the best professors I have ever had. He is an excellent instructor, whose exams, homework's, and overall class difficulty are perfectly refined. He won best teacher for a reason.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Anonymous 01/11/2021	Lectures were pretty boring, as he just read off the slides through various circuit examples. That might have been due to a lack of class participation online, but I could not remain engaged in most lectures. As for the rest of the course, Lawson made it pretty easy. Quizzes and the final were fair and the content of each assignment was clearly communicated to the class. The overall grading for the course was confusing and not clear to the class, but Lawson granted a small curve in the form of extra credit opportunities. The course material can be challenging, and you have to put in time and effort if you want to succeed in this course, but it is not too difficult. Overall, a fair professor that rewards students who are willing to put in the effort and show they want to learn.
Romel Gomez ENEE205 Anonymous 12/27/2020	Dr. Gomez is an extremely friendly teacher that definitely seems to care about his students mastering the material. One thing to note is that he is giving students the opportunity to do extra work over winter break in order to raise their grades, which is very admirable. However, I do not believe that Dr. Gomez has adjusted well to online learning. His lectures would likely be 10x more effective if taught in a classroom, but I cannot really blame him. His homework assignments are MUCH longer than stated on the syllabus, so be prepared to have a heavy weekly workload. Labs can often have confusing instructions but do not take too much time. The exams are mostly fair albeit having somewhat low averages. He does curve the exams sometimes, and has a generous curve at the end of the course. I would recommend Dr. Gomez if you feel confident in your circuit abilities, but the class can be rough at times.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/05/2019	Great guy, when I first learned about circuits in Physics 260, I was worried about my major Electrical Engineering because it's all about circuits, but as soon as I was Prof Murphy's class learning about circuits and how to solve them, everything made sense, I had gained more confidence and was sure this major is right for me. Amazing guy, it's crazy how much of a difference a good professor can make. There's weekly problem sets, which are meant to me hard and great practice of the materials, fair exams - prof provides a lot of practice exams, no curve but you won't need it because you will do well. Just practice and ask him for help if needed.
Romel Gomez ENEE205 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2018	Gomez is a really good lecturer but is really unprepared for class , as he often goes overtime. His homework assignments are really difficult and take several hours to complete. This semester Gomez made the class difficult as compared to previous semester, exam averages were in the 60s, even with the amount of leniency he gives in grading. No curve beyond the one mentioned in the syllabus, as the expected class average at the end was around a B/B-.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2018	Lawson is a pretty great professor. I thought his lectures were strong and the homework was challenging just enough to make you learn. Exams were pretty reasonable. My enjoyment of the class inspired me to pursue micro as one of my specializations.
Romel Gomez ENEE205 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/31/2018	Gomez is a guy that is as passionate about teaching as he is about circuits. He puts so much energy into his lectures that it makes me feel out of breath by the time his lecture is over. He cares about his students learning, and is a great help in office hours. He also holds extensive office hours (something like 6 hours a week when I took his class). That said, sometimes he'll just forget to show up to his office hours, so it's good to send him an email if you're going to go. I do highly recommend going to his office though, as it can be a great help. Homeworks are difficult, but are good at reinforcing what is done in lecture, and are only worth 5% of your grade, so they are much more for you as a tool to learn, and you'll essentially get out of them what you put into them. There are also occasionally a couple challenge questions that aren't graded, but can sometimes sneak their way into an exam. (More on that later, but he does release homework solutions before the exams). Exams are difficult but fair for the most part. Our first exam he did pull out this question involving a random talyor series expansion that we never talked about, but in his defense the question was straight off the homework, it just caught everyone off guard because it was one of those challenge questions, and we never covered anything like it in class, so no one saw it coming and everyone got it wrong (But partial credit was clutch so it was aight). Speaking of partial credit, he is the most extraordinarily generous teacher with partial credit I've ever had in my life, up to and including preschool. In the taylor series problem I mentioned before, I literally just wrote the initial equation and left it there because I had no clue what to do and he gave me 15/20 on that question. He also gave me full credit for a question I didn't even get the right answer on because he spotted an algebra mistake I made and decided that I actually knew how to do the problem (LOL). He also has this great rule with exams that if your second midterm is better than your first, he'll REPLACE YOUR FIRST MIDTERM SCORE WITH YOUR SECOND. The dude is honestly a legend. He also has a rule that if you get an A on the final you get an A in the class, period. This is because in his mind, since the final is cumulative, if you ace the final, then that means you managed to understand what the class was designed to teach you by the end of the semester so therefore you should get an A (Sounds pretty reasonable to me). Regardless of who you take, 205 is going to be a challenging course that requires some level of effort and enthusiasm to succeed in. That said, Gomez does a fantastic job of getting you excited about the topic, and as long as you put in the effort, you will learn a great deal from him. 10/10 would take again.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/18/2018	Best professor for 205. Take him above everyone. All the other reviews are excellent. Only reason I'm reviewing is so people know that even in 2018 his teaching ability is still the best lol.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/15/2014	Ok professor, He tends to change every semester; one semester he may be a dick and give hard exams, and other semesters he is sane. Lectures vary in usefulness; they were mostly useful in the beginning but started making no sense near the end. I don't think he is as sarcastic as other people make him out to be. Exams were very unpredictable; the midterm was okay but the final had a circuit that counted for 50% of the grade, and if you get part one wrong you got the other two parts wrong. He is really soft spoken and apparently really smart.
Julius Goldhar ENEE205 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/11/2013	Goldhar was a very poor professor. His lectures were poorly put together, he was too scatterbrained to follow, and often made mistakes which he would not correct. His homework assignments were too long, and were much more intensive than what we "learned" in class, making them impossible without office hours. Labs were long and poorly put together; even the TA's didn't always know what was going on or understand why he put things a certain way. Exams were doable but frustrating nonetheless. He walked into our second exam and said "I think I made this too easy." The average for this exam was a 67%. In general, you can understand nothing that is going on in the class and cram for the exam and still do decent. That being said, Goldhar is not the worst teacher at the University of Maryland, and his class is curved so that an 86% is a guaranteed A- (unless he curves more). I would not recommend Goldhar to a friend, nor would I take a class with him again.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 Expecting an A+ dfarias 10/17/2013	Dr. Murphy is the best professor I have had here at UMD. The other reviews have it just right; he is quite literally the ideal professor. He put in a tremendous amount of effort into the class. He created weekly screencasts of the material in an extremely clear and informative manner. He was exceptional at teaching in class, and in office hours. He is so good at teaching that the averages were quite high (despite medium difficulty tests) simply because people learned very well from him. He is extremely approachable in office hours, regardless of whether you need help in the class or just advice in general. He wants students to go to office hours. He truly cares about his students' success. I wish I could take another class with Murphy, but it's unlikely given he only teaches ENEEE205 now it seems. If you have the opportunity to take him; TAKE HIM!
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Anonymous 02/02/2013	He speaks softly and does not articulate sentences well. I am not a native speaker of English and at times I had problems hearing him even though I sat very close to the front row (read: one of the front rows). His lectures were not well organized and not well-paced. He seemed to like to talk about things that were not related to the class during some lectures. However, during other lecture he rushed to cover material that he needed to cover. Dr. Lawson was late to 90% of his lectures (5-7 minutes), which I did not like since I used my own money to pay for the class and I paid in full (100%).
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/27/2012	Knows the material really well and communicates it in an understandable way. He is very sarcastic which I found funny and helpful to shut up the kids who ask too many questions to show off their knowledge. I've heard complaints that he doesn't teach all the material but his exams are pretty much the same as examples he does in class. So far has been my favorite EE professor. People hate on Lawson and say he's rude and unhelpful but those are usually the people who don't put forth their best effort and don't go to his office hours. Lawson is a great teacher especially if you take advantage of his office hours for one on one teaching. Great guy who wants you to get out of UMD with a actual knowledge as opposed to the ability to just pass classes.
Thomas Murphy ENEE205 bigbabby 05/15/2012	One of the best professors in the ECE department. Lectures are actually interesting, with a good amount of focus on examples. There are homeworks every week which take a good amount of time, but they help to learn the material. Quizzes about every other week but those are created by the TFs and usually not too hard. Labs, on the other hand, are annoying and vague, and lab reports are due weekly. They aren't worth too much, though. There is absolutely no curve in the class, which sounds terrible, but test averages are usually in the mid 80s because everyone more or less understands the material. Tests are fair and similar to samples he posts online. Take him for 205.
Wesley Lawson ENEE205 Expecting an A T3rp 12/24/2011	Very sarcastic, yet he WILL teach you the material. Most of the complaints I heard from my peers was how he didn't teach us anything, but in my opinion, those same students were pretty lazy. If you're not willing to do the HW, don't expect a good grade on exams or quizzes. It's common sense. Overall, he was unprepared at most times, yet I felt like I learned alot about basic circuitry this semester. If you're thick skinned and you're willing to work hard, expect an A