MATH246 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/19/2024	Unintelligible. nice guy though
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an F Anonymous 09/07/2024	NEVER TAKE MANS, HE DOESNT EVEN DESERVE ONE STAR, MANS ENCAPSULATED EVERYTHING BAD ABOUT A PROFESSOR. RUN AWAY
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 08/28/2024	Bad, Avoid , SOS, GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN. This is a self-study course, don't expect any help from the professor, TAs are decent, but out of their league. If you can take lectures from a different section, do it. Quizzes and tests are arbitrary, teacher is bad with email, lecture slides are incomprehensible.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/24/2024	By far one of the best math teachers I've had at umd so far. He really cares about his students whenever someone had a question he'd stop and fully explain it. After he answered a question the student said "thank you" and he said "thank you" back you can really see he cares in his lecture. No quizzes in the discussions which is nice if you can't make in and the homework's are pretty straight forward especially if you work with other people. Test are also not too bad there are usually 1 or 2 tricker questions but as long as you pay attention in class and study you should be fine. He also has a huge curve to his class which was super helpful (I think an 86 was and A). I would definitely recommend taking Prof. Machedon for 246!
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/21/2024	I want to say that he is really a nice professor, but he's lectures are very confusing, I did so many self study in this class. But he's office hour is helpful and you only need to take one mid term.
Pablo Cedillos MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/09/2024	Super helpful! Provided lots of extra practice problems and posted examples from discussion. Helped a lot with exam review!
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Anonymous 06/09/2024	A catastrophically bad professor. I had to drop him within two weeks of the semester beginning because I knew it was going to be a nightmare. He 'teaches' by mumbling through pre-prepared slides where he basically just reads the equations. Long story short, it's impossible to learn anything from that. By the end of the first lecture, something like half the room had already left, and only a third were still showing up by the time I dropped the class. Do not take under any circumstances, even if you have to push the class in question back a semester.
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2024	He is alright as long as you do the Levermore practice problems and go to discussions. His exams are very similar to the practice exam he gives. Overall he's not the best in terms of teaching, a lot of this course is learned by yourself or with your friends.
Haoran Li MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/22/2024	I had him for Math246 with Justin in Fall 2023. He was a great TA! He was very nice and helpful and took his time to explain confusing concepts to me. He tried his best to teach me the material in a way that I could understand. His office hours were always consistent and he helped make this course less stressful for me. I could tell that he cared and wanted me and my classmates to succeed.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Redacted_Username 05/19/2024	Unfortunately, I can't endorse him as a professor due to his teaching style. Much of his lectures involved projecting pre-written images onto the board, but these were not shown in full screen, making his handwriting difficult to read; it was also fairly easy to lose track of where he was in the lecture as a result. The exams weren't too bad provided that you can self-study from the online textbook.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/17/2024	Pros: Good lecturer, makes material easy to understand, writes very large on chalkboard. Seems like a nice guy. Curve was VERY generous. Cons: Class taught off of very convoluted notes, hard to know what was on final
Pablo Cedillos MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2024	Pablo is a really nice man. His practice problems for the midterms were very helpful! Wish he could be my TA again.
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	I'll star off by saying this is the first and only Math class that I've ever gotten an A in. He explains things very clearly and is super chill. He's still a young guy and is figuring things our but he's definitely one of my all time favorite professors. His practice exams are carbon copies of his actual midterms, which there are three of. I will say the problems he gives out on exams are generally the simplest/easiest form of the problem to solve which is nice. I got through the class pulling an all-nighter before each midterm without any extra studying and got a 100 on 2/3 of the exams. He's a great guy and def. the best choice to pick if he has any open seats left.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2024	Nightmare fuel. Lectures were impossible, he mumbles along and either scribbles on the chalkboard which is unreadable, or reads off his lecture notes, which are just lined paper filled with his scribbles, stuff crossed out, arrows pointing every which way. By the third week, the lecture hall was pretty much empty every class, maybe twenty people or less still hanging on, but you could see most were on their computers taking notes from the online textbook (you need to know about this if you take Jakobson, the "Levermore Notes", it's literally a collection of PDFs on the UMD website) or recordings from Professor Terrence Long which are on youtube. Exams were arguably not horribly difficult, nor were the quizzes. We had random homework which required learning MatLab which was absolutely never referenced in class except for a one-off quiz question one time, so it was a huge waste of time but worth a lot of points. Luckily the homework was group work, which made it more tolerable. Lowest homework assignment and lowest quiz grades were dropped, which was good, he one time claimed final scores could replace worst midterm score, but I don't know if he'll actually do this. The only thing that can be said is that the textbook, and Professor Long's lectures, are both quite good, so it's definitely possible to self-study. If you're someone who can't do that, then absolutely do not take Jakobson. Jakobson is just a means to an end to be in a section to take the exams.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2024	Prof. Machedon is a really nice professor and probably one of the best you can have for diff eq. He knows his material, and happily will answer questions during lecture if you have them. His TAs this semester were really excellent as well. Lectures: Not too engaging. He does have a slight accent that is not a problem understanding. They made sense, but they were hard to pay attention to for 75 minutes. He would sometimes go on theoretical tangents and proofs, which were interesting but hard to tell if it was something we were expected to know for the exam. Overall, they were slightly disorganized and many people skipped. The notes came from Dr. Levermore's diff eq online notes. These notes were very thorough and the content could be learned from reading these alone. He assigned a few optional practice problems each lecture from these notes. DO THESE! Prof. Machedon ran the class very well from a logistical standpoint. Very communicative, and kept us up to date on assignment due dates. The canvas page was run very smoothly as well. All assignments were posted promptly. If you have time, the GSS sessions were also good. Homework (HW = 20%, Matlab = 20%): Homework was given as multiple choice quizzes on Canvas -- we had a week or so to do them. There were also 2 written homeworks, graded leniently. We had 3 Matlabs that were very easy. They were Justin's projects, modified slightly. He was very conscious when we were behind in content and extended the homework/Matlabs a couple times when needed. Midterm (25%): We had one midterm. It was very straightforward, and there were no tricks. Significantly less stressful than the other professors this semester. Final (35%): It was a common final which all the professors could contribute to. It was very fair, I just didn't prepare well and therefore, didn't do well on the final. My only complaint is it felt very long and I didn't really have time to finish. Overall, 4 stars. Great communication, friendly lecture hall environment, great course organization. His generous grade brackets are also by 15 points instead of the usual 10. (i.e 85-100 is A-/A/A+ etc.) My only complaint is the content didn't quite feel paced right; we were really rushing at the end of the semester. I would recommend Machedon for sure! But, if you take 75 minute classes with, be prepared for a barrage of math!
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	This was one of the best math courses I've had at UMD so far. Francisco is super chill and a good professor. Weekly quizzes were super easy and matlabs were free points. He follows Levermore's notes almost exactly, both in lecture and exams. I thought his exams were very fair. He provides practice material that mirrors the actual exam. His lectures and exams prepared me very well for the final. He posts lecture notes and recordings which is also nice.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2024	His lectures are not very straightforward and often left me confused, however Levermore and Justin's notes help a lot in this class. His exams are fair and his grade cutoffs are nice (over an 85 is an A). I would recommend taking his class but putting in more effort to stay on top of the material. He only gave my class one midterm, so when it was time to start studying for the final, I was really behind. Going to GSS and doing the practice problems he posts are worth it.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2024	This guy is not very good at teaching math. As someone who can usually follow along in math lectures (i.e. 240 and 241), I’d say I walked out of about 80% of lectures not understanding a word he said. Justin Wyss-Galifent’s notes for this class are pretty much the only reason I was able to do well, so I strongly recommend just using those. The good things about Machedon’s class is that he gives one of the lightest workloads you can get in a math class, with only 5 homeworks and 3 of the easiest Matlabs you’ll ever do, plus just one midterm and a final (although I recommend doing some practice on top of his assignments since learning everything in the couple days before the final was not fun). He also has a pretty nice curve compared to some other teachers (88% is an A). I’m giving him 2 stars because he’s a bad lecturer, but if you want a light workload and trust yourself to learn most of the content on your own (again Justin’s notes give you almost everything you need), you’ll be ok in this class.
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/11/2024	Very theory heavy which I personally favor but i know its not for everyone. He was very knowledgable and could always answer questions that people had. The practice exams were always very similar to the midterms. Weekly quizzes always helped learn concepts. Very approachable and a pretty cool guy.
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2024	Francisco is fantastic! I was worried about taking DiffEq until I got into his class and realized how much he genuinely cared about his students and ensuring they do well. His exams are pretty easy and straightforward. He doesn’t try to trip you up with fancy calculus which I appreciated; there was one problem on Exam 1 that had us working with integrals and he literally told us to use u-sub (and he provided u!!). He proves plenty of resources to do well on all of the exams and his office hours are extremely helpful. There are quizzes almost every week but they are fairly easy as long as you are keeping up with the material; the quizzes also forced me to study/understand the topics on a weekly basis which was a good review. I had Pablo Cedillos as a TA, he is also fantastic and did a great job explaining the concepts that were on the quizzes.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2024	Horrible. You cannot see what he puts on the board since it's a JPEG and a glare due to the lights in the armory. You cannot really understand what he is saying because he has a thick accent and talks relatively quietly. He does post his notes, but his handwriting is basically illegible. There is no point in even going to lecture, most of the class just learns the material on their own. There is maybe 6 people who consistently go to lecture but even then they are not paying attention. His exams and quizzes are somewhat fair I will say. The MATLAB homework is pretty difficult because we are expected to already know it. We get a book on it, but it is not taught in lecture or discussion.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2024	I think he would be a very good professor for an upper level course rather than MATH246. He taught it very much theoretical, which as this course is hard enough, that made it very difficult to understand and follow. As the semester went on I went to less and less lectures as it didn't benefit me in anyway, rather have me left in confusion as the only notes I have don't have any real useful examples to help me in practice (I was better off using Justin's online notes as they were extremely detailed with practical examples). There was only one midterm that was 25% of the grade, and the final 35%.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/09/2024	If I could leave 0 stars I would. This professor is fucking useless. Hopefully he gets removed from his job, but it has been 14 years of the same bullshit so I am sure nothing will change. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS. Save yourself the pain of teaching yourself all of Diff eq.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/05/2024	Never went to lecture, he is not the best at explaining at all. He only goes through Levermore's notes and it doesn't make any sense in class. To catch up, please watch Terrance Long's dfq videos on YouTube, although the videos were taken as the class was over the summer, you will have all the necessary notes. He only has one midterm and a final along with matlabs and homework! The Matlab and homework are pretty easy, make sure to utilize those for your grade. The midterm was pretty similar to the practice exam he gave, just know the important things from each chapter and practice. His curve is crazy, a 55 was a C-, if you put in the effort you will do amazing in this class!
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/03/2024	Machedon is not a bad teacher- his lectures just seem to go in one ear and out the other because of the monotone voice. That being said- everything in this class can be learned online or with the notes and the tests and quizzes are very fair. I would take this class if you enjoy self-studying more than going to class itself.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/03/2024	I love this man. He explains things so well, is always open to questions, and his practice exams with answers are godly. Also has a youtube channel where he posts how to do problems we did in class. He really cares about his students and wil even have "dinner office hours" in the y where people can come and chat with him. Highly recommend!
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/28/2024	Great professor! Considering how terrible diff eq professors have been historically, Herrera is fantastic. On a personal level, he is very nice and very understanding. On a teaching level, he does an excellent good job explaining the content in a way that cuts 80% of the BS. Lectures for the most part are easy to follow (occasionally there are derivations and technicalities which can be a pain to sit through). The class is mostly theory, so plan on studying a lot of the class outside lecture (practice problems on levermore's website is great). He records lectures (absolutely godsent). Weekly discussion quizzes are fair and easy for the most part, good to keep you up to pace with the class. The exams have been decently fair, he doesn't throw in any curveballs (no weird identities for integrals, no integration by part). He provides practice midterms, which were super helpful and mirrored exam structure. The second exam killed everyone in the class (some people only were able to attempt 2/5 problems), but he's receptive to these things and had exams graded very generously (I had two incomplete problems and still got a 91% on the exam). Overall, good professor, exams are fair game, receptive to class performance, genuinely nice guy. I would strongly recommend him! Additionally TAs (especially Pablo) have been great
Matei Machedon MATH246 Anonymous 04/28/2024	Dr.Machedon is very nice, if you come to his office hour, he will help you to do the homework and explain everything you don't understand. The only thing bad is sometimes he pay to much attention on the stuff that we don't need to know in the exam. But the boundary is nice, you need an 88% to get A.
Noah Chrein MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/24/2024	If you have the opportunity to get Noah as your TA absolutely go for it - i know multiple people who switched into his section during the first week of classes or attend his discussion section despite having the other TA. During every discussion, he gives a recap of relevant concepts from class (ie. what will actually be tested) and also frequently goes over problems that are very similar to the graded homework questions. Also never takes off unnecessary points! Great teacher
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/17/2024	Some reviews have said that he drops the lowest test score or curves, and I’m here to tell you that he does neither! The grade that you have all semester will be the grade that ends up on your transcript! He does not curve, even fractions of a point. His lectures are probably one of the best for MATH246, but he leaves most of his problems unfinished. He does not provide any answers for practice problems because he says learning the process is more important than getting the answer (but that doesn’t seem to apply on exams..) You HAVE to do the suggested problems to get a feel for the test, reading the textbook, taking notes in every class, or watching YouTube videos is not enough. I put in the work and even got a tutor, but I’m still fractions of a point away from a B(ended up getting a C in the class). In class make sure to take very detailed notes because some small details about situations will show up. Good luck for this class, you’ll need it
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/25/2024	3 stars is what prof. Grillakis deserves. Not too high or low Pros: - Lenient grading - simplified midterm and final with copycat samples available - no homework except the MATLABs (largely completion grade), which tbf are quite stressful - covers less material than other teachers Cons: - will have to self teach, though there is less to self teach because he doesn't go as in depth on late topics - Not a great lecturer -- too theoretical, not enough practice problems especially considering its a "for eng/sci" course
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A BlueSyncer 01/07/2024	OK, everyone saying things on here that are pushing the rating to the 3-star region are being very unfair IMO. There are no quizzes in M246 with Williams, and the discussion is basically optional so only go if you feel it is necessary (I personally found my TAs unhelpful too which was another thing but that wasn't really Williams' fault). That being said, the lectures feel very "engineering course"-y in the context that there is NO justification of anything being done. In DiffEq, the opportunity to explain at least some of the logical things in the course (integrating factor, method of undetermined coefficients, hamiltonian functions, greens function, etc) was there, but it felt like Williams just chose not to because there wasn't enough time and he thought people wouldn't have interest. Not only would people have interest (at least I did), I think it would've helped made some of the concepts easier to understand (since there are a lot of non-logical concepts in DiffEq like Variation of Parameters, Local Linearization, etc). In terms of what you learn in the course though, you definitely will learn the appropriate content and he gives you enough of a basis to go out and justify some of the things he talks about in class should you feel that is necessary (like I did). Very approachable during office hours, and an overall really fun person to be around (not to mention he's super built and will talk about non-Math things as well). Cool guy overall, definitely knowledgeable... I'd definitely take Williams for M246 if you get the opportunity.
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/24/2023	As a person, he's a really nice and chill guy who does care about your learning. However, his lectures tend to just be him copying off Levermore's notes and only going into theory. He rarely goes through example problems with real numbers in class, which make it more difficult to prepare for exams. However, he does give good practice for his exams. My advice is to go through all the problems in Levermore's notes because many times, he simply copies problems from there and puts them in his exams.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2023	Hanson truly wants every student in his class to do well. He takes time to meaningfully answer every single question during lecture, no matter how stupid it may sound. He also stays after lecture to clarify confusions and makes himself available through email and office hours. His lectures can occasionally be a bit hard to follow since he is scatter-brained and jumps around a lot, but he teaches straight from Levermore's notes so you can always reference those notes if you get lost or miss class. He also does a generally good job of getting through all the content and does a lot of example problems on the board which helps make things clearer. Before exams he also makes it very clear what will be tested on the exams and what won't be so you always know what to expect. He grades EXTREMELY generously so exam averages are quite high and the weekly workload from problem sets is very light. Overall a nice guy and good professor who will help you get the grade you want in diff eq
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2023	Overall, I think Francisco was a decent professor for MATH246, but I did have some issues with how this class was managed. His lectures placed a large emphasis on theory. But he would give a practice midterm before every exam, which really helped. It usually reflected the layout of the actual exam. I spent most of my time for this class self-studying and doing practice problems from Levermore's website, and that alongside the practice midterms helped me prepare well for exams. Francisco dropped the ball quite a bit near the end of the semester. He didn't teach the last unit very well (Systems of ODEs) and went at a poor pace. There were also concepts in class that he didn't teach at all (eigenvalues with higher multiplicities) that ended up on the exam. Also, he was lenient on his exam grading for most of the semester but for some reason, he decided to make a 180-degree u-turn on this last unit midterm. He deducted a whopping 10% for each small mistake on this exam rather than 2% like he did for the rest of the exams. The averages for that unit's midterm were 15% lower than the rest of the midterms. As I stated earlier, his pacing was quite poor for the last unit. As a result, he dumped a boatload of new content (very difficult content, that too) on us on the very last day of class, which he stated was going to be on the final. Because of this, I had to spend many, many hours across a mere few days just to learn and understand this new content. This made it way harder for me to study for not just for MATH246 in general, but all my other finals too. This gave me an extraordinary amount of stress going into finals week. However, despite all these issues, I felt Francisco was very understanding throughout the semester. He cancelled quizzes when it was not appropriate, such as right before/after an exam, or right after Thanksgiving break. He also entirely cut out a Matlab as we were short on time, instead of blindly stuffing it in on the last week like many other professors would do. He was also super chill, friendly and open to answering any questions in class or in office hours. I think he truly wanted us to succeed. Also, his TA, Dmitrii Gudin, was awesome. I've never had a more lenient grader than Dmitrii. About MATH246 in general - this is quite a difficult course. I know others who took this class with different professors and had it way worse. In general, it seems most MATH246 professors are terrible. In light of this, Francisco is definitely on the better end of MATH246 professors. I recommend taking this class with him if you can.
Francisco Arana Herrera MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2023	He's a good lecturer but spends a lot of time on theory. Not his fault, it's how the course is designed. The quizzes are decent and the exams are really fair. The practice midterms he posted were what was put on the exam with different numbers, etc. The final was much harder but that was common across all diff eq sections. The matlabs were terrible to do but the ta wasn't too harsh in grading. They did take a crazy amount of time. If I had to redo this class, i would spend more time understanding the theory and being able know how to do different types of problems intuitively.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2023	Dr. Williams is a very good lecturer, he writes clearly on the chalkboard and makes sure to repeat important information. He does a good job explaining things in a simple and easy to understand way and he usually doesn't go too fast during lectures which is generally good, but sometimes that means we don't finish a topic and have to stop in a weird place which can be confusing at first when we come back to it next lecture. He is fairly approachable during office hours, the only thing is usually there are a lot of students there so you end up relying more on other students for help than the professor, but if other students can't help you he is willing to answer your questions. There were only 3 matlab assignments and the first one had lots of examples in the textbook to guide you through it which was good because I had never used matlab before and it helped me understand how to use it. The other two matlab assignments were group assignments which is a good or bad thing depending on your opinion of group work. The homeworks weren't that much work, usually just 3 or 4 questions and they were usually the same type of questions that would be on the exams so they were good practice. On the topic of exams I highly recommended doing at least some of the suggested problems from each assigned chapter. Sometimes you might not have time to do all of them, but at least do some of them as I think they are the best way to be prepared for the exams. It seems like he likes to have an average of about 75 on the exams and he won't curve exams unless he realizes that it is his fault. For example the 2nd exam had an average of around 65 because the exam was way too long and most people were not able to finish. Because of this Dr. Williams added 10 points everyone's grade. Don't get me wrong this class is not an easy A, but I think the exams are fair and as long as you make an effort to attend and pay attention in lectures and do the suggested problems outside of class you will do fine.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2023	He writes his notes big on the blackboard, and is a good lecturer. But god damn it the exams. He makes the exams so hard and not finishable in the given time (50 minutes). You literally have no time to think. As soon as you read the question you have to start writing like ah solve this equation using .... and you gotta be like okay boom boom boom right there and then. The other thing is he does not give extra credit. Not on exams, not on homework, not a single point. He does not curve as well. He says “I wont curve unless it is my mistake” meaning he only curves if he made a mistake. For us (fall 2023) he gave us a 10 points “curve” for exam 2 as some students literally turned in their exams without even finishing a couple questions due to time constraints. For a 3 credit class I spent too much time studying for the exams. Maybe it is because I took this class straight from doing Calc I and II. I have noticed most students taking this class have done Calc III or linear algebra. Still don’t get me wrong he explains the content very well, but again the exams. He does not post answer keys for the exams you take, or for the one "practice exam" he posts on Canvas. Be aware he does not like giving answer keys to student (had this argument in class with a student). I still think he is your best bet so just be aware you gotta put in the work. What I have noticed is professors either teach the material very well, and have hard exams or don't teach the material at all and have either easy or hard exams. It is hard finding a professor who teaches the material very well (like Dr. Williams), and give a reasonable exam. Just because a professor taught the material well doesn’t mean they should make the exam 10x harder. Just give us a fair exam thats doable in 50 minutes. Is that so much to ask? Remember it is their job to teach the material with clarity. Good Luck! -MK
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2023	Dr. Williams is a really good lecturer with large handwriting and clear examples. He is very understanding and curves well when the exams are too long/complicated. His homeworks, Matlabs, and exams are definitely more challenging than other professors' though, and requires more application. The final is a lot easier in comparison to his midterms.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2023	Summary: He's nice, but you'll learn a lot on your own. If you're looking for the best grade boost, take him; if you're looking to actually learn, take someone else. Grillakis is a nice guy and if you go to his office hours before an exam, he's helpful. However, lectures are taken exactly from Levermore's notes (Grillakis is very transparent about that), so most of the time he doesn't show the work. The lectures were boring and I rarely understood what was happening. However, I used Justin's notes (search up Justin MATH 246 UMD and his site will pop up) and it was EXTREMELY useful. Your grade is 30% MATLAB (6 in total over the whole semester), 30% midterm (which is only chapter 1), and 40% final (chapters 1-3). The MATLAB was confusing since the textbook is outdated, but if you go to math tutoring for MATLAB, it'll be WAY easier. Also, the TA was very lenient on grading MATLAB and the average score was 23/25 on each homework. The midterm wasn't too bad and Grillakis will send out practice questions for the midterm and final. Since Grillakis writes the midterm, the practice is EXACTLY like the midterm. The final was difficult since it's the same across all teachers. However, Grillakis will curve your overall grade (A+ = 95-100, A = 90-94, A- = 85-89, etc.) so it's super helpful especially since the class is difficult.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2023	Good professor, nice guy. He speaks loudly and clearly and writes clearly on the board. No quizzes. Decently easy homework and Matlab assignments. His exams are super difficult though. You really have to study and know your stuff. I'd recommend him.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2023	This guy was slightly hard to understand but SO understanding and kind.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2023	Great lecturer who writes easy to read and understandable notes during class. The examples he does are easy to follow along and he is very receptive to questions both during lecture and office hours. He does a good job in making sure the class understands a concept before going on. HW assignments were tricky but doable. Matlab assignments were annoying if you little prior Matlab experience. That being said, his exams were insane and he curves only if he felt that he made a mistake writing the test.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Anonymous 12/11/2023	Great lecturer with large, easy to read handwriting and clear notes. Explained concepts and in-class examples well and slowly. Spoke loudly and clearly and was very receptive to questions asked in class and office hours. Homework assignments were a little tricky, but doable. Matlab assignments were annoying if you have little Matlab experience. Only downside was that his midterm exams were insane, so be prepared.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/09/2023	Dr. Williams has a simple teaching style. He is a strict grader, but the exams are fair. If you are an organized note taker, and do the suggested problem sets you will do well in the class. My best professor at Maryland so far.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/04/2023	worst professor ive ever had. 1 midterm only. sucks that this semester we dont even get a TA to teach us. useless lectures useless notes. only saving grace might be that he drops the midterm if u do better on the final. do not do not take him unless you can actually teach yourself the course
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/02/2023	There are very few MATH246 professors with good/great reviews so you are pretty much picking the best of the worst. The class is tough and you will need to put in a lot of work regardless of who your prof is. A major tip for this class is to use the lecture notes from Justin Wyss-Gallifent. They are available on his website (alongside notes for other math and CS classes). Honestly, if at all possible I would recommend you take this class at a community college. Grillakis' lectures are rather poor. While not completely useless, I often left with an incomplete idea of what was taught. This may be in part due to the tough course content and not necessarily any incompetence from Grillakis. He does post his lecture slides which are complete, if a little dense. He is helpful during office hours if you choose to go. This class has 5 MATLAB assignments due roughly every 2 weeks. These require the use of an outdated textbook that is not up to date with the latest MATLAB software, meaning some of the content, examples, and solutions are useless. The only good thing is that these were seemingly graded on completion which is the only saving grace for this part of the course. The lowest grades were consistently 22/25 even if you submitted it late or incomplete. There is one midterm worth 30% of your grade. We were given two practice tests which were nearly identical to the actual exam. Do these practice exams and you will be fine. Grading felt fair and he did give plenty of partial credit. The main saving grace for this course, and why I would recommend Grillakis in certain scenarios, is the insane curve for this class. To earn a C- you only need to to get a 55%. If you do the MatLab assignments, which are free points, and do decent on the midterm you will be fine.
David Hamilton MATH246 CsGetDegrees 11/30/2023	If I could give a 0, I would. Alas, he gets a 1. Differential Equations is already a difficult subject to begin with, so a bad professor is just the icing on the cake when it comes to how difficult a course can be. If you aren't good with understanding the WHYs of Math, avoid at all costs. First of all, you only get one midterm in the BEGINNING of the semester. There is a make-up, but be cautious. Whatever grade you receive on that mid-term replaces your original grade, even if you did worse. He does bonus quizzes (6-7) over the course of the semester, but to be quite honest your only saving grace is doing well on the final. The good news is that because everyone does so bad, the odds of a curve is super duper high. I heavily recommend going to MATH246 GSS and researching the topics based off of the website he tells you to use. Self-teaching is the only possible way to passing this class, best of luck. I truly don't even know what grade I have in the class or what to expect at this time, I just want to pass and move on with my life at this rate.
Brandon Kolstoe MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/18/2023	Brandon was an amazing TA. He clarified concepts from lecture and did good example problems in discussion. Whenever he didn't get through everything during discussion, he would type up and send a notes sheet detailing step by step solutions to example problems. He was also super prompt responding to emails and grading exams.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 11/17/2023	Oh my god, taking this class with her was the biggest mistake ever. I even waitlisted for her for so long and was so happy to find out that I got a place in her section. Man do I have regrets. So first off, she is genuinely a very good teacher and wants us to succeed by giving us a lot of material to study with and study guides to follow for her quizzes. She also drops an exam, around 5 or 6 quizzes, and one matlab assignment. However, her exams! Oh my god, it was nearly impossible to get everything done in the 75 minute time frame. There were quite a few questions, and that too, extremely difficult questions. The difficulty of the exam questions are incomparable to all the questions we have done in class or quizzes. It is pretty obvious that UMD told her to make her curriculum harder, as she was much more generous before and had nearly 5 star ratings before, but this semester things went completely downhill. She also said she is not going to be curving because she usually doesn't curve. Maybe that is because she usually doesn't curve cuz she usually is much easier. And all my friends taking different diff eq professors are having a much easier time. I am giving her 2 stars still since she is such a sweet person has us take good notes and is good at explaining the concepts, but man this course was so dissapointing.
Alice Wang MATH246 Anonymous 11/16/2023	I selected this professor because she had a high rating when I registered for classes, which I now see has (rightfully) dropped. Here's why I think she's a 2/5 stars: 1. Her exams are very long, which may be universal across all of the 246 classes, but her grading on the exams are very difficult. During lecture she'll say that she gives good partial credit as long as you show understanding of the concept, which sounds normal, right? Well, she takes 50% off problems for simply getting the initial values wrong even if the rest of the work (which is a lot of work btw) is 100% correct. Her only reasoning was that "it's important to get the right values" which is true but it seems unfair to say that she'll give a lot of partial credit when she simply doesn't. 2. She always goes overtime in class. I understand that she has less lecture time than other professors, but there are videos that can be watched to catch up on the material. The main thing is that she just never addresses how she'll go over 10 minutes every class, which seems disrespectful of other students' time especially if they have other classes right after. 3. The way that she talks about the concepts. A lot of the time she'll say something is "really easy" or "as you all know" which feels a little condescending, especially since a lot of calculus stuff was done years ago in high school. 4. Lecture style. She writes on an ipad which is not an issue, but she always scrolls away really fast so it's almost impossible to catch everything and try to digest what she's saying. The good things are that she drops a lot of the lowest assignments which is one of the main things that makes this an okay class.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/09/2023	A lot of what was said below, emphasis on brutal exams and course being a lot harder with her than other professors.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/07/2023	Nice guy and a great lecturer, with clear notes. His tests and exams are 10x harder than the other classes, and if the midterm is easier he will add more questions so you will not finish the exam. I would not recommend it unless you are trying to suffer through the course. He is the exact same for calc 3 except luckily gave us extra credit. Because I took this class before and calc 3 I did better on the exams than most but when I took calc 3 with him I failed his exams multiple times and put in so much work to get a B, take this course at your own risk ion ever know how this class has so many good ratings lmao, yall are capping.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting a W theGreat 10/24/2023	DO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS WITH ALICE WANG WITHOUT READING THIS REVIEW If you take this class, don't say I didn't warn you. Wow I have been looking forward to writing this. Let's start with the positives. - There are lots of good practice problems available on the course website - 1/3 of midterms, 1/6 of Matlabs, and 6/16 of quizzes are dropped - As a person, Alice is actually pretty nice - There are very good online lectures. Will they be posted? Probably not. We will get to that later though Sounds pretty enticing right? Well, keep reading. Let's get to the negatives. I am NOT including the following information to brag (this is anonymous anyway) but to provide important context into just how bad this class is. I am a junior at UMD double majoring in CS and math. I have a 3.8+ GPA, have never gotten below a B in any class, and I like to think of myself as a hard-working person. Even with all of this said, I fully dropped this class and took a W so that I can take it next semester with an easy professor. It was absolutely horrible and destroyed me. My friend is in a different section and it is so easy. I looked over their practice exams and never hated myself more for not taking 246 with them. Here is why Alice Wang is so bad. Alice Wang makes both of those professors look like superstars and is the worst professor I have ever had in my entire life. Here's why: - She does not respond to her emails or elms messages. I once emailed and messaged her and it took her a week and a half to respond. This is arguably my biggest problem with her because it really is not hard to answer your email and be there for your students. So many times throughout the semester I tried to contact her for help and it took her days to get back to me - She does not hold office hours and has no TAs. She has "office hours" from 830-930 before class, but you have to get in touch with her beforehand to schedule a meeting during this time. Good luck doing that when she doesn't respond to emails or messages for at least 2 days! - The exams are brutal. You barely have enough time to complete them, the problems are hard, and they are graded very hard. - The matlabs are worse than brutal. They are deceiving because there are only 4 problems, but each problem is going to take you a minimum of 1 hour, and probably more. Also, there are 6 (SIX?? WHY) matlabs. Every other class has like 3 or 4. - Lectures are recorded, but often not posted for days on end, including when you need them to do the weekly quizzes. Once again, good luck getting in contact with her to post the lectures, because I sure wasn't able to! - The class is not curved The only type of person who should be taking this class is someone who absolutely loves to learn and do math and spends all day working on DifEq and matlabs. If you are not that type of person, then plain and simple, do not take 246 with Alice Wang unless your life depends on it. And even then don't do it.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/17/2023	Seriously an amazing lecturer--not at all sure why his reviews aren't higher. He is a very straightforward lecturer and makes it clear multiple times throughout the semester what he wants to get out of his students. His class will not be easy but if you have a good work ethic and pay attention during lectures you will get all the relevant info needed to do well on tests and homework. Cannot recommend Dr. Williams enough!!
Kendall Williams MATH246 Anonymous 09/29/2023	This man is the larry herman of math teachers. He's a dinosaur, but a good teacher. The problem with that though is that alot of REALLY IMPORTANT INFORMATION WILL LITTERLY BE SAID ONCE AND NOT WRITEN ANYWHERE FOR PEOPLE TO LOOK AT. If you skip class, or are just the kind of person who is litterly too busy to attend slow paced lectures that waste alot of time (like me), you are going to hate this teacher by the time the first midterm comes. I just took an exam, and partial fraction decomposition from calc 2 was a REQUIREMENT FOR SOLVING THE BIGGEST PROBLEM ON THE EXAM. I was litterly uninformed. Everything was fine except for that one fucking question, and it happened all because this teacher is alergic to documenting what goes on inside of his class rooms.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/12/2023	I highly encourage everyone to take Alice Wang! She has an amazing teaching style and really wants us to succeed. We have a quiz every week, however the quiz is literally take home and there is no time limit on it. You can also rewrite the quizzes for extra credit that goes onto the final grades. Also, she drops 5 quizzes. We also have three midterms but one of them gets dropped. Also we have 5 matlab assignments but again, the lowest one gets dropped. Also midterms can be rewritten like the quizzes, for extra credit. Besides all those benefits she also lectures really well and will answer all of your questions. She is very approachable and nice and you can really tell she wants us to succeed.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/26/2023	The math department at UMD needs serious work. My biggest regret is not taking this class at Montgomery College. I would go to lectures in the beginning but quickly figured it was a waste of time and would instead use the time to study. If I didn't study before the lecture I would have no clue what is going on. His exams range from stupidly easy to difficult but the curve is good. I honestly don't know why Matlab is still a part of the curriculum but the TA that I had would grade them on completion which is good because not once did the prof go over Matlab.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/24/2023	He's not a great lecturer, which makes it hard to learn the harder topics, but he's a very kind and understanding guy. He very clearly cares about his students and wants everyone to get a good grade. Midterms were curved generously, and practice exams for the midterms are almost exactly like the actual midterms, so they're easy to study for. I just wish he would respond to emails more, he was hard to contact if you didn't approach him after class.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting a D Anonymous 05/22/2023	Excellent instructor, provides all you need to succeed in the course. But she assumes that because a student has access to these tools it is their fault if they cannot succeed. Alice Wang is an overwhelming class with too much work, leading to students getting lost as to what work is important to the class and what work is just what she thinks you should be learning. If you love Differential Equations, take this class. If you want to know the amount you need to succeed in Engineering and not much more, avoid this class.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2023	Exams are very fair and similar to the practice exams. As long as you do practice problems from the textbook, you will be prepared for the midterms and final. His MATLAB's are graded leniently, and the built in curve makes it easy to get a good grade.
Terence Long MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2023	Absolutely amazing. Cares so much for his students, goes out of his way to give them all of the resources needed to succeed. His lecture videos are amazing and so so helpful, and he will answer any questions you have whenever, and will go more in depth than even needed to ensure you understand the material in many different ways. He is so good that he is worth an 8am class.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/21/2023	Hanson's lectures aren't terrible, but the online notes will usually be more informative (and easier to read) in studying for the exams. Discussion sections are have pretty helpful groupwork, but they aren't mandatory and the work isn't graded. Weekly homeworks typically are only a few questions but can take 2-4 hours to get through, so don't procrastinate. MATLAB assignments are not too bad if your groupmates are competent, but they were graded pretty nicely anyways (tip: skim through the sections of the textbook that the problems are from if you're stuck. What you need to do is often spelled out verbatim in some example). Tests were alright, and especially towards the end, he would post what questions were on each topic and how many points they were, which was super helpful. Three midterms were all curved by lowering the cutoffs (70, 120, and 100) by ten points, which weirdly benefits people with higher scores the most (ex. Going from 30/100 to 30/90 is a 3% increase, but 90/100 to 90/90 is 10%). Final was written by some other professor, hard as hell, and not curved at all despite a low average (65%). Lowest MATLAB and regular homework assignment were dropped. Overall, not great experience, but I can't say most of it was attributable to the professor and not the fact that course was, even on a good day, still differential equations.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2023	i had math241 and math246 with stefan. in both classes, the lectures were structured very well. exams were easy and straightforward. that said for both classes, especially math246, practice outside of class is absolutely necessary to succeed. For math246, there was no homework, only matlab projects and exams. for math241 there were discussion quizzes and matlab projects, but exams were weighed less. only thing i didn't like was the lack of lecture videos or lecture notes, if you miss a class you gotta get class notes from a fellow classmate.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/20/2023	So, there are currently about 6 one star reviews under me giving him one star, and at the start of the semester I can say I might've thought the same too. I will say that he is unexperienced at teaching, but being fair this is the second time he's taught the course and looking at previous exams I think the bigger issue is that the course's curriculum makes no sense, so what he says seems like random crap when that's how the course was designed. However, he acknowledged this quite a lot and so made the 3 midterms have pretty good averages, (75%, 80%, and 85% respectively), which was from giving nice numbers and problems and not making anything seem too much out of the blue. He also gave an extra 10% for each of these afterwards due to the lower quartile being lower, so the average student was at an A for a while. It seemed like the graders for his section did not take off massive points for mistakes so that seemed nice. The final itself had a 65 percent average but apparently that was also last semesters average so not much new there. Lastly, the MATLAB and homeworks do take a long time, but also it's not even taught in class but expected to be learned by students... It's another moment where the curriculum is at fault, not Hanson. Getting to the lectures, Hanson really does try, and I'd say closer to the end of the course he actually got his stuff together and made more sense. His initial explanations can be janky, but when asked for clarification he usually explains what's going on better. I think lecture is hit or miss, but going to discussion (Keagan the GOAT fr), using the notes as necessary, and redoing examples from the notes is how to actually understand what's happening. In addition, outside of class I do believe he's reasonably accommodating, at least in my case he answered my email within a week and also stays after lecture for a couple of minutes if you have an issue. Overall, I do not believe he is a great teacher, but he does try to make sense of the course and gave a generous curve, and if run like this semester I believe it will be a decent experience.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2023	He honestly isn't terrible. I think a lot of people are too harsh; sure, sometimes he can't explain some concepts that well, but he's helpful during office hours and is genuinely a nice person, he isn't out to get you. His exams are fair (granted I didn't do well on them, in hindsight I clearly didn't do enough practice), and his quizzes aren't too bad. Your lowest 2 quizzes out of the 7 are dropped, your lowest exam grade is dropped, and even though (I think) he doesn't curve the final, he has really lenient grade cutoffs so you're never too stressed about it. I'd say he's better than the average MATH246 professor here, but you do need to put in work to do well.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2023	He tries to communicate the information, but he writes all over the board and it isn't clear what he's writing. The exams were only doable because he provides previous exams, which look exactly like what's on the current one save for some changed numbers or reworded questions. The homework was difficult, and I couldn't do it without the TA's office hours. The MATLABs are especially challenging, as the book is horrible at explaining how to do things and I don't have any prior experience. If you're able to teach yourself material and attend office hours, you can get through this class, but otherwise, I don't recommend him.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2023	He isn't that horrendous, but he still isn't the greatest. He definitely does try, however I feel like he was very unprepared to teach the class. Every lecture was just a rehash of the textbook the school uses, which definitely did not help. If the textbook and material was better and less terribly organized, I might've had a better experience with the course. Overall the bigger problem I had with the class was the material being taught rather than the professor, the textbook/Levermore's notes manages to take the simplest of concepts that could be explained in a sentence or two and turn it into literally, not-exaggerating, into 20 fucking pages with the most esoteric wordings alongside greek letter spam, which for some reason the entirety of the course is based and taught off on. I don't think anyone who takes this class with any professor would be having a good time. Overall, with Hanson, I went to the TAs office hours to carry me the homeworks and the TAs graded generously the MATLABs which took hours to do and the textbook, which the questions taken from, being wildly out of date and the example code often unhelpful and often incorrect. The only reason I probably had a decent grade in the class was because that I managed to score mid-80s on all the midterms which Hanson, did reduce the total amount of points it was worth 10-20 points before the final. However, this did cause some anxiety if the class was going to be curved for the entirety of the semester. The final was not curved though and the average was a 65. Overall, Hanson isn't a bad professor I'd probably give him a 3.5 but the way the actual course material was taught from and organized was questionable at the best and brain-dead at the worst.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	Ok look. He’s not the greatest teacher. Matter of fact, he usually ends up making you more confused. However, he is probably the easiest professor to get an A in the class with. His midterms are extremely easy to study for because he gives you practice midterms that are super similar to the actual ones, making it easy to know what you are getting into. He curves extremely generously imo. Before the final, he curved all the midterms by reducing the amount of points of them by 10. This meant that if you were in the upper quartile, you literally got extra credit. I had over a 100% in the class before the final. Now, again, really bad teacher. You’re gonna need to basically self study the entire course. But this is generally true for most other diff eq teachers. The Levermore notes give you more than enough practice problems to learn everything yourself with answer keys that explain how something is solved. The class is perfectly doable, and I give Hanson 5 stars because he made it extremely easy to pass the class. As of right now there isn’t a better professor out there. If you want to pass differential without caring about understanding it, Hanson is your guy.
Yuxiang Ji MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	Yuxiang was a nice TA and graded pretty easily, especially on our MATLAB (which he required that we print out for some reason?). But he stopped uploading discussion notes midway thru the semester and often just ran off after discussion instead of letting us ask questions.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	When you pick a diff eq professor you are picking the best of the worst. Grillakis' lectures are terrible 80% of the time and you will need to teach yourself most of this class, but his exams are easy and he is a nice person. And the curve is predefined and is really good.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2023	Class is super easy. There's a 10 point curve, one exam is dropped (not counting the final), and two out of seven quizzes are dropped. If you're looking for an easy grader, take him. The notes online for the class are dense but pretty detailed, and you can learn everything you need to know from them. If you're looking for a good lecturer, steer clear away. Super nice guy, but he doesn't know how to teach for the life of him.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	This dude is aight, he isn't exactly great but he's also better than the one star average he currently has for Math246. He's not a good lecturer, he spends most lectures deriving formulas and methods to solve ODE's with hardly any numerical examples. Though I think this is only his second or third time teaching 246, so I'll give him some slack. I left lecture confused many times, however, I found the material of this class easy to teach to myself when I didn't understand Grill's lectures. There are many resources on youtube, and also Justin's notes, that taught me a lot better than Grill did. I'm giving him a three star because the grading scale is incredibly generous, 85 for A- and 75 for B. Also because he tells you the exact sections covered for each quiz and midterm, which aren't that hard to begin with. Overall, if you want an easy 246 professor take him. If you want a deep understanding of the content without having to teach yourself, take someone else.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/15/2023	Grillakis is a terrible lecturer but his class is quite easy, which is the only thing saving him from a 1 star. His curve is very generous, with a 55 counting as a C-. Each grade tier is 5 points instead of the normal 3.33. To add to this, he drops your 2 lowest scoring quizzes out of 7 total, along with your lowest scoring exam out of 3 total. There are also 5 short MATLAB projects. I was able to cruise through most of the class by getting an A+ on the first exam and most of the quizzes. I suspect some of this generosity may exist as a way to make up for his incompetence at lecturing. By the end of the semester most people had stopped attending lectures, myself included in the last couple of weeks. He doesn't really teach, instead he goes through the material on his own and then stares blankly at the students. Sometimes it appears he doesn't know the material himself, as he's not very confident in his calculations. There are extensive online resources available from other professors though, and I used those to learn nearly everything I had to in this class. If you want an easy class take Grillakis. If you want to learn from the professor and not on your own take someone else.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/15/2023	Alr bruh imma be honest. Ignore what everyone said an listen to this. I’m a student who hates lectures and skips often. I do not condone this but if you do, you can still be at pace by using the provided LEVERMORE NOTES at home. Hanson is a very nice, reserved, and theoretical guy as he doesn’t not do examples in depth. For that you should definitely go to discussion as they help a lot. EXAMS: to pass this class you need Levermore notes and his practice exams. ALl you have to do is do some practice examples from Levermores and basically memorize his practice exam. His Practice exam is basically 1:1 but slightly different problems. He wants you to do good and his grading shows that as he CURVES at the end of the semester. He takes off 5-10 points off of each midterm. His Matlabs are basically free points and so is his hw so make sure u have a good group of friends to work on it with. FINAL: the final will probably be hard as he spoils you with his somewhat decent exams. However if you memorize the Levermores notes you should be in good hands CONCLUSION: compared to the others, Hanson is a great professor and I am happy I chose him. He is understanding, and though he may not respond to emails, In person he really wants to help. His TA’s are great and his grading is very nice. Just follow the practice exams and study hard for the final and no doubt you’ll have an A.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2023	He's an okay professor I'll list the pros and cons. Pros - Class gets curved well - Exams are nearly identical to the practice tests he releases - Homeworks are relatively easy and never too much (excluding matlab) - Helpful during office hours Cons - Lectures are often very confusing because he's a smart guy but really isn't good at presenting the information - Writes in small messy handwriting on the board so if you don't have 20/20 vision you'll spend more time trying to understand what's written on the board than understanding the actual info on the board - Matlabs are so awful no help is provided and they take hours upon hours to complete
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/11/2023	Hamilton is honestly the worst professor I've ever had. I have literally never, ever struggled in a math course before. Hamilton changed that. He is so bad at explaining things and rushes through so many examples without giving students time to think. He makes students feel stupid for asking questions and is overall just awful. Half the problem is how fast he goes through examples/theorems/explaining new concepts. To someone who is learning new material, examples need to be slowed down so we can think through the problem. Instead he goes at a pace that only makes sense if you already know the material. The notes he sends ahead of schedule are awful. Often they have gaps where he solves problems, but you never know how much space each problem will take so its hard to take notes on paper. Notes are very unclear, have mistakes, or lack important info and often do an awful job of explaining the content. Honestly, I don't know if Hamilton can even improve his instruction enough for the course to be ok. I think he should just be fired. Yes, fired. I have never had a professor this bad. If he is your only choice, I think you should just wait until another semester.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2023	Straightforward exams that are exactly like the practice exams. Be careful of random trig sub calc 2 integrals though... The homeworks are really time consuming and not very expansive. He would give 1-2 problems for the topic, but give them the most atrocious numbers so that it would take you 1-2 hours to do each problem. However, by the end of the homework you should be able to do that type of problem pretty easily. His lectures suck a lot. Do not go to his lectures, and instead just learn from looking at the practice problems in the online textbook. A lot of diff eq is brute force memorization, and when you think of it like that there isn't actually that much memorization in the end. Trying to understand what is going on conceptually will make your head spin, so i suggest that you just don't do that for this class and just memorize how the problems are done. tl;dr take hanson for the easy exams. Self study from the textbook and don't go to his lectures.
David Hamilton MATH246 Anonymous 05/10/2023	He said don't come to my office hours because I don't answer private questions LOL
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/09/2023	246 is already hard enough, but Hanson just makes it so much worse. Lectures are basically him scratching stuff down on the board with little to no explanation for anything he is doing. He also likes to go off-topic and waste 5 minutes of lecture time, which is mostly just confusing and destroys your capability to learn properly. He will then proceed to run out of time at the end of lecture without having taught much, if anything at all. If you genuinely want to learn the material, you will need to basically teach yourself, as even discussions aren't very helpful. Also, good luck on the MATLAB assignments, those are complete hell. My advice is to do them as soon as you can, or else you'll probably end up struggling for hours on end. TLDR: Don't take Hanson if you can afford to, literally any other professor would do a better job of teaching 246. Also, pray when you do the MATLABs.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/08/2023	In my experience, I'm not terribly fond of James as a professor. His lectures move extremely fast paced and he would frequently erase things people were still trying to write down. I write pretty fast, but the entire lecture I felt like I couldn't listen to what he was saying because I was trying to keep up with writing everything down. James wasn't the best at explaining concepts and would just kind of do the problems on the board, so oftentimes I had no idea what was happening or why. The exams were fair and, for the most part, the same as the practice exams (except the first one which he included a tank problem which we had done ONCE in discussion and never in lecture that I remember). I found the homework pretty difficult and the matlab assignments were an absolute nightmare. Overall he's a nice man and very personable, but my arm was about to fall off after every lecture from writing so fast and I often left class confused about what we had even learned.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/05/2023	Complicated for the sake of being complicated. When you eventually go and learn on your own I recommend Justin’s notes(though I believe not all stuff is covered and have some blind spots in topics). I will say however that the only redeeming thing is that his grading structure gives people who are able to learn sufficiently on their own get an easy A. As their is not much work at all you just have to be very prepared for the final and midterm.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/02/2023	Class is terrible. Professor needs to get better at teaching. Half the stuff he tries to teach is blubber and rubbish. Professor is bad but class is even worse than the Professor. Like seriously what is key identity!!!
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a W Anonymous 05/01/2023	Please do not take this man if you love yourself. I have never in my entire academic career had such a terrible professor. I would go to class and not understand a thing. He teaches very scattered brain and his lectures are very hard to follow. He is an intelligent man but a terrible lecturer. If you do not do your own studying before class you will be genuinely confused about what concepts he's teaching. Take someone else.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 04/27/2023	He writes chicken scratch on the board and doesn't make any sense. Don't take him.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/27/2023	He does try. His lectures are pretty difficult to parse and I mostly just ended up reading the book, asking my TA questions, and studying the both the sample midterms and practice problems from the book. I got a better grade in this class compared to what I feel like I ended up understanding. Also yeah the exams are really quick.
Vladimir Yushutin MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/10/2023	This class was a complete nightmare. His lectures were pointless to attend since the content was either irrelevant to the exam or too difficult to understand since it was so theoretical and written in the most illogical way in the worst handwriting. I relied on Justin's notes for the entire course. He had weekly quizzes in lecture that could be on either day, so most people just left after the first 15 minutes. The TA was a blessing though (love you Eric). Discussions had graded group work, which were pretty easy grade boosters. Matlab was extremely hard since we never discussed it in class or did it on the exam, so it was pointless partner work (but at least graded leniently). He did replace your lowest exam grade with your highest, which helped a lot and put a 5% curve on the class. Overall, be prepared to work for your grade, and recommend going with another professor. This is a hard class.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/04/2023	For all those who put higher than one star, I am seriously questioning your sanity. Yes Hanson’s exams are basically the same as the midterms but that is the ONLY positive thing I can say about him as a teacher. He never replied to emails. Sick- screw you, no response. ADS accomodations- screw you, no response. I had to email ADS to badger him to get accomodations. His lectures are all over the place. He always messes up, starts and stops topics, jumps around and honestly unless you know the content already, good luck getting ANYTHING out of going to lecture. The only reason to go is to the know the topic so you can learn it on your own. He typically starts with examples which he never finishes and changes partway through as an intro to concepts and the never actually explains the concepts. Unless you are really good at calc 2 and memorizing and have enormous amounts of time to waste learning on your own, you will not do well at all. Take someone else. Also the matlabs are horrendous. There are seven, no help is provided, the textbook does not help, he doesn’t teach it, and they take hours upon hours to complete. In addition, the TAs are not prepared to help with them except right before they are due. Discussion is helpful (for once) but it is not enough to substitute the hours is will take to understand the content well enough to pass with Hanson’s horrible attempt at teaching
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/29/2023	Grillakas is a very nice person and is obviously very smart, but the way he teaches is pretty confusing. He spends a lot of time proving theorems and a lot of his examples are not numerical, which can be pretty confusing. Also, the textbook for the class of just some other professor’s notes, which aren’t helpful at all. Even though he’s not the best lecturer, I think his other reviews are pretty harsh. Overall, even though he’s not the greatest professor, you should be fine in the class if you think you can teach yourself some of the material.
Hannah Hoganson MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/28/2023	She subbed for one day and taught Laplace transforms. I have Hanson and she made the topic clearer than he could have. The pacing was a little slower than Hanson so I did not get lost like normally.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/17/2023	Sure the exams are easy, but please never take this professor. It’s honestly baffling to me how he got this job. He obviously knows what he’s doing, but also doesn’t know how to teach. If I could give 0 stars I would.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/11/2023	He's a bad lecturer. LITERALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND 99% OF WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. I didn't give him a one-star because of three reasons. His exams and his quizzes are fair meaning that they arn't rediculous. Also, he he curves to where you need a 55% to get a C- and an 85 for an A-. He also is willing to answer questions during lecture and answer emails, though it may take a few days. You can self teach yourself through professor leonard, JG, and other helpful YouTube content creators for diff Eqs.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 03/02/2023	He was a terrible professor. His lectures were straight from the textbook and were dense and very hard to understand and he would get upset if you asked clarifying questions or didn't know how to answer his questions during lecture. By the end of the semester only 10 people in my 200 person lecture were regularly showing up. I learned more from other professors' lectures that they posted online than him. The problem is diff eq is super important for many other classes and I've had to relearn/learn a lot of new concepts because I never really got a good understanding of them from Grillakis.
Melanka Wedige MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 02/21/2023	Melanka is a phenomenal TA for differential equations. We learned a lot of theory in class time and Melanka would be the one to put it all together with practical exercises. He also makes problem solving a algorithm that's easier to digest and it works on all problems. He listened to our needs as well. He held a fairly long review session before the finals to go over past final exams. He was really helpful with MATLAB assignments as well. We didn't learn any MATLAB in class so he was our main source of information and guidance on MATLAB assignments. Personally, I attribute a couple of my A's in exams to him. I went to his office hours and he helped me a lot. Just a great TA that cares about his students, he never misses a beat!
Melanka Wedige MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/19/2023	Melanka was my TA for differential equations and I just can’t give him enough praise. He was practically the professor and helped me and my discussion section through the process of answering every question and even threw in better methods than what we learned in class. He answers emails very very quickly and provides sources you can use to find answers to your questions along with answering your question incredibly thoroughly and in a way that you can pick up. The class focused tremendously on theory so Melanka taught us the methods to solve the problems rather than more theory. Honestly couldn’t have done as well as I did without him. 100% would recommend for any and everything.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/29/2023	Hamilton is a bad lecturer who actually confused me more than he taught me. You're much better off reading Justin's notes or watching youtube videos. Some days I feel like his lectures actually took knowledge out of my head. When our class did poorly on his exam, he blamed us for being lazy and told us that it was an easy exam. The class average was a 56 and the highest anyone got was an 84. Hamilton was also rude to us at times during lecture. Hamilton was a bad teacher who was unwilling to improve. The only reason I rate him two stars is because he was a very lenient grader, although he had to be for people to actually pass his class.
David Hamilton MATH246 Anonymous 01/27/2023	If I could put 0 stars I would. Don't take his class. His lectures consist of complicated examples instead of actually teaching the content, as if he expects students to learn the content beforehand. He uses complicated notation, doesn't stop for questions, and is not nice.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 01/03/2023	This course is extremely rough, mostly because of Trevino's course structure but also because of the amount of content covered in the class. The course consists of only 10 assignments, meaning you have to do well on most of them to maintain a high grade. Lectures are overly conceptual and examples are given few and far between. The overly difficult Matlab assignments are required to be done on your own and you get no instruction on them during lectures. Thankfully, the TA was generous (or maybe lazy) with grading them this semester. Exams are fair but still hard just because of the amount of content. I'm not sure if it's Trevino or just the MATH246 class in general, but this course needs to be rewritten from the ground up.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/18/2022	This class was genuinely the worst experience I have ever had in college. Maybe it is just how messed up this class has always been? The exams feel legitimately humanly impossible to complete on time (many other students agreed and frequently complained or joked about it). I doubt the TA's or prof himself could solve these in time. Even if you completed Hanson's midterm practice exams (which were identical to the exams) and studied extremely hard, there STILL will not be enough time to finish these exams, which I find EXTREMELY unfair (MANY of the solutions to these exam questions would take up to two pages of work in my notebook). No calculators allowed on exams and lots and lots of tedious integration and algebra to do. This isn't a calc 2 class, these integrals need to be easier to do by hand when you have less than 8 minutes to solve each question man. Hanson please. Hanson's lectures are frequently confusing, extremely unorganized (at times he would completely skip examples and further explanation if they were missing from his hand written notes), and students had to very frequently correct what he would write on the board (not just algebra but notation for formulas or how he was using them, etc.), so I never felt as though I could trust my notes to study from. It's mostly everybody's first time taking this class so I don't understand why the students have to know this stuff before lecture in order to correct the professor when he makes a mistake. I mean don't get me wrong, he would catch his own mistakes too, many many times. Be prepared to change what you write in your notes over and over again because his notes are just chaos. Justin's notes do not cover the class material in depth at times so I was frequently jumping between the textbook, my TA (Keith)'s notes (which were awesome), and thank god for Terrence Long's videos on youtube, though there is still some material he does not cover, and some of Professor Leonard on youtube. Hanson did end up curving the 3 midterm exams by lowering the total by 5-10 points (which was strange because it gave some people extra credit). The final was tough and the class average was a 63% and seems to barely have been curved. In closing, I wish you all good luck in this class. I disliked every moment of it.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 12/17/2022	Lecture: not many examples, sometimes hard to follow. There are a lot of examples on his syllabus to go though with explanations though Tests: straightforward, no trick questions just solving Matlabs: take a long time if you do it solo, but grading is fairly lenient (?) also gets deadline extended often Grading: seems like he does a decent bit of partial credit and he curved +5%(or more) on my final grade
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2022	If you want a good grade take literally anyone else. The average GPA for Trevino's MATH246 is a 1.76, lower than any professor for this course that I've seen. More people fail/withdraw than get an A or B. No curve at all. Lecture's are very poor. Tests are fairly easy if you do the practice problems he gives you. If you see any good reviews they are most likely for his upper level courses, which I suppose he must be better at teaching than differential equations.
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2022	Hanson tries his best to explain the concepts, but it often feels clouded and you end up getting lost. I would say the MATLABs were typically way hard and can take hours to complete, so make sure you start on those early. The homeworks were fair and serve as good review. His practice exams were basically 1-1 with the real exams, so they're great to study off of. The use of a cheat-sheet for the midterm exams was also quite welcome, especially with the complex nature of Diff Eqs. He did curve quite generously pre-final and will probably be receiving a final curve as well. Generally, take him if you want to pass the class and not learn too much. However if you're genuinely interested in understanding the material, maybe not the best professor out there. I will say though, shout out to Terence Long's review videos. Definitely take a look at them if you're lost or stuck!
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/05/2022	Hanson isn't the most eloquent speaker, but he teaches the content well enough. His exams can be difficult, but he provides practice exams that are basically the same as the actual exams, which, if you practice, will make the exams a breeze. I wish he covered the MatLab assignments a bit more, but I feel like that is more of an issue with the amount of content in the course rather than a fault in his lectures. He is probably one of the better professors for MATH246.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/01/2022	These reviews had me worried before classes started, but it turns out he's a pretty good professor. Lots of people in the class were complaining about him but many didn't show up consistently to lecture and almost nobody went to discussion section. If you actually go to class and study a few hours a week then it's not that bad, although it's not necessarily easy either because of the nature of the course material. The textbook for this course is free online (you still need to buy a MATLAB textbook for ~$30 though) and comes with ample practice problems, and he tells you which problems to practice for the exams. He does teach a lot of theory, which some people might find a bit confusing at first, but he usually runs through multiple example problems which cleared stuff up for me. Additionally, discussion section was mostly example practice questions, so if you are confused during lecture definitely go to discussion. The most difficult part of this course was the MATLAB since you basically have to learn it by yourself by reading the book, but it was pretty easy to finish them in a few days at most (just remember that Google is your friend). Definitely not necessary, but I do recommend taking linear algebra before this class since the later part of the course has a lot of similar concepts.
Brandon Kolstoe MATH246 Anonymous 11/29/2022	Brandon is vital to surviving Hamilton in 246. He's the best. Super helpful and grades much nicer. Hamilton is the worst - Brandon is saving grace
James Hanson MATH246 Expecting a W Anonymous 10/21/2022	Hanson does try, and he does explain the processes needed to solve differential equations. However, there is no concept base to build this off of, and the MATLABs and homeworks are not reflective of exams. If you are good at memorizing processes and specific cases, you will be fine. I would not recommend him for anyone trying to have a complete understanding of course concepts.
Siddharth Sharma MATH246 Anonymous 08/27/2022	I took MATH246 with Sid during the 2022 Summer II class session. While he seems like a genuinely nice guy, he's not a great professor. At the beginning of the course, Sid did not give us a syllabus because he does not really believe in them, but now that the course is over, I think it is only because he struggles to follow one. We were supposed to have a few coding assignments throughout the five week period however, week after week, Sid stated that he was almost finished writing the project and it would be assigned soon. This went on until about halfway through week four, when he suddenly started assigning random homework questions in lecture, which we would have to email our submission to him. On the last day of the course, Sid loosely stated that these were meant to replace the coding assignment grade. We had five other assignments, consisting of two long homeworks, two midterms, and one final. Three of these five assignments were pushed back, sometimes more than once. These delays came both at student requests, and at Sid's decision regarding where we were in the course. While it was nice to know that he was very flexible in giving extra time for students that need it, I did not need any extra time and these delays forced me to take an extra day off work on top of the day I took off for the original test date. Sometimes this was after I had already submitted my availability to my boss for that week. Lastly, Sid did not grade anything all semester, and with it being a week after the course ended, I still do not know my final grade. This all being said, Sid bases his exams heavily on the homework assignments, so as long as you do those yourself, you should be fine.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/21/2022	Dr. Williams explained all of the topics very clearly and concisely, and he goes all the way to help his students to address the questions and concerns on both the HW and matlab. He also organized the class in a very fluid way. The suggested problems from the textbook really helps me to get extra and further practice with the course material. Exams are very fair (but not easy though, one has to study very hard), but I think it would be a little more helpful to provide more feedback (i.e. where one person may did which exact thing wrong/forget which exact thing) instead of just providing comments with the scores on the exams. But overall, he is still a really awesome professor, and take him for MATH 246 if you can.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B+ mewuzhere 08/14/2022	There should be a certain level and respect given to students that I felt was clearly missing. Issues happen with online submissions and I believe the rules upheld by Dr. Williams didn’t respect the humanity of his students. I believe a compromise that would create a much healthier environment would be requiring the tests to be submitted 5 mins early, then allowing 5 mins of late submissions with no penalty. I understand this purely symbolic and doesn’t change anything, I think students would find this policy much more reasonable and it would reflect much better on the professor. I also understand that it is not necessary to justify one’s grading, it was infinitely less helpful getting a random fraction as my grade with no associated feedback. I would highly encourage any professor to use Gradescope or some comparable method to convey feedback and allow a dialogue in the grading method. Personally, I wish the tests where asynchronous. I had a very difficult time managing taking the test while working. If Dr. Williams created a more empathic policy for online submissions and implemented Gradescope with constructive feedback and correction opportunities, he would go from 3 out 5 star processor to a 5 out of 5 professor. His lectures were solid and came off as understanding during those times. His tests were difficult but overall fair, and the same goes for the homeworks and MatLabs. I also enjoyed using the online textbook with the suggested problems and solutions.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/08/2022	I'm not sure why Williams doesn't have a higher rating, he was a great and organized professor. He wrote very clear and detailed notes on the board explaining step by step how to do a problem. His exams were fair, but even if you didn't do well MATLAB and HW grades boosted your grade (plus one exam was dropped). He was always helpful during office hours and always answered questions in class - he wants you to do well. The final was very hard but I found that it didn't impact my grade too much.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/24/2022	Stefan's a nice guy and pretty smart but he isn't good at teaching the material in an understandable way unlike other Diff Eq professors such as Kendall. He does not really teach the concepts or reasons around topics, so you'll have to learn it outside of class or learn from your peers who took another professor. His exams are a little too easy, and it sucks because the average is so high and making a mistake will put you below. His exams also don't prepare you for the culmulative final, because his exams were much easier than other professors'. When reviewing for exams, I found that a lot of my peers who took another professor were taught to actually understand the material and taught helpful shortcuts and tricks. It will help a lot if you took linear algebra before you take diff eq, and you won't have to learn it outside of class because Stefan went over lin alg basics once and expected us to be knowledgable on a lot more when most of the class has never taken lin alg (bc its not a pre-requisite).
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2022	Stefan's teaching was well organized and clear. In general differential equations is a tough class that covers many, many topics however his lectures covered everything that was necessary. Stefan went over several examples in class to show us how to do the problems. His lectures were straight into the point, but he also provided some intuition for why we did certain things. Most of it was just applying an algorithm or formula though. In addition, he provided suggestions from the textbook for the class. This was never required, but doing these problems strongly prepared you for his tests. The only graded homework we had was MATLAB assignments, which were fairly easy (you had infinite attempts). The tests themselves were fair. The problems were similar to those from the textbooks, so if you studied those and went to lecture you should be prepared. The final exam was more difficult however, but it was a common exam between all lectures. The grading on these tests was fine, and his averages were higher than other professors.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/21/2022	My review for Rodrigo will be "standout" to say the least. Let me first break down the logistics of the grading for his class and perhaps why he isn't as appealing to other students: Your grade is only comprised of 4 midterms, some MatLab projects, and the final. Rodrigo doesn't curve, and from his announcements does not seem apt to bump people's grades. I thought Rodrigo was good for many reasons: from the first day of class he was incredibly explicit with his grading policies and what your grade was going to be comprised of. He gave us a very helpful online textbook (I assume created by the UMD math department?) which you could use to learn, study, and practice from. Before every exam, he ALWAYS was explicit with what kind of content you were going to be tested on and provided a slew of practice problems (through the textbook) which you could use to practice from (all practice problems had worked out solutions!). The MatLab projects were simple due to the fact that the problems for them came from a textbook that showed you exactly how to do each question. Simulink was a bit ehhhh but everything else about the projects was straightforward and quite doable. I think I personally found the greatest amount of help through the GSS for this class though. Although I personally never went to a review session in person, the worksheets and mock exams provided through GSS prepared me quite well for the exams in this class. Rodrigo is a nice guy if you ever do talk to him. Just... if you're a bad test taker and bad at MatLab you might be setting yourself up for failure if you choose him. If those two traits don't apply to you though, he's a great guy and a fine professor for diff eq, despite what the rest of these 1-star reviews for him may say :).
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/20/2022	Amazing professor. He keeps everyone engaged in lecture, and has great large handwriting that is easy to follow. Do not be afraid to ask questions, but be mindful the amount of content needed to cover in a short time frame. Ken keeps the class personable and entertaining. The matlabs and homework assignments are quite hard at times, but if you work with a friend than it shouldn't be too too bad. The midterms can be hard and stressful, but ultimately for me the final was much harder. There are some lin-alg concepts covered in the later part of the semester that we could not delve deep into, so I suggest watching a youtube video or two to familiarize yourself on the background, and understand why we do what wee do. Otherwise the content seems disjointed and we see no application for any of it. I would take another course with this guy if I needed any more maths.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 Expecting a B+ tortoise7 05/18/2022	Gives clear examples during lecture and fair exams. He's a good lecturer which made this class feel not as hard as it actually is.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2022	Trevino is not nearly as bad as some of these reviews make him out to be. It's true that his lecture style focuses more on providing a solid theoretical foundation for differential equations than applications, but this only serves to make things a lot easier to understand when you go back to the textbook to actually internalize the material. If you work out of Levermore's and Justin's notes when studying and make sure to do practice problems, understanding the material is easy if you paid attention in his lectures. He's definitely not a perfect lecturer, but he's not the devil. His exams are incredibly straightforward and easy. You will need to study on your own, but if you know the material I promise that you will do well. That being said, there will be a few more bumps than usual if you have not taken Calc 3 or Linear Algebra beforehand; I didn't and it definitely meant I had to study more, especially for the last unit of the class. The MATLAB assignments are also not terrible if you take the time to read the textbook and aren't averse to Googling. They are 20% of your final grade and only 5 out of 6 are graded, and Trevino pushed every single deadline back. He's not the most compassionate professor but he is at least responsive to student concerns. The bottom line is that this course covers a lot of material by policy and does not have Linear Algebra as a prerequisite, which is in my opinion a mistake. Seek a better professor if available, but don't stress about it if you're confident in your study skills or have a good track record with prior university math courses.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 05/18/2022	Yeah.... this class is just about what everyone else is saying. The only reason I'm giving this a two instead of the normal 1 star is because I thought that the tests felt at least somewhat fair. They're based off of the problems from the textbook, and if you can do those you can do fairly well on the test. But that's the nicest thing I can really say. To start off, here are the upsides: - There's no homework in this class, nor are there any quizzes. This is nice if you want to learn DiffEq at you own pace. - The textbook is free and every problem is thoroughly explained. As stated earlier, learning these questions will help you greatly. - The GSS Sessions are amazing, the GSS Leader effectively explains everything. - He pushed back every MATLAB assignment except the last one. But now here are the problems: - No homework/quizzes is nice and all, but that means that the only grades are the 4 exams(15%), MATLAB(20%) and the final(20%). I got above average for every exam, but I messed up the last one(mind you, two days before the final) and my grade tanked. - He does not teach MATLAB. At all. The TA's don't really know the material either, and the textbook you have to buy for the questions are practically useless. This would be fine if they were easy, yet they're all long and complex. As stated earlier, he didn't push back the last MATLAB. I should note this one was due the same day as Exam 4, and two days before the Final. The class average for this one was 6/19. - As stated before, he does not curve, despite the horrible average. To pull a direct quote: "Please do not message me about extra credit work or curves. I will not respond to those emails. Have a great summer." If you can self study, then maybe you'll be okay. If you're only okay at math, and have no choice but Trevino for MATH246, Godspeed.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2022	His lectures were great, things were always clear and concise. We always did ample examples and his exams were very fair. His exams consisted of content directly covered in class and not content from a random textbook made 60 years ago. He's a calm, nice guy and likes to tell jokes in class. Would love to take his higher level math courses but I'm stuck on the waitlist :(
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 Anonymous 05/15/2022	Overall great professor.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B- xtermn8 05/14/2022	Any professor will teach 246 simply as 'here is the process, memorize it'. There is no way to teach conceptual diff eq at a 200 level, and as such, professor Williams is a perfectly fine professor. The homework is hard but not overbearing, the Matlab is difficult if you don't know what you're doing, but the tests are okay. They're not hard, but they are graded VERY harshly. It almost seems like there's more weight put on a final answer than demonstration of understanding. I really hope he changes this, but aside from that, it's all good. Definitely would recommend him unless Terence Long is available. If Terence is teaching, take Terence instead. Otherwise, take Kendall.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2022	Trevino may be a good professor for math majors taking 300-400 level courses, but anyone taking him for MATH 246 should avoid taking his class like the plague. I took this class because he was the only option for freshman, and although I got an A, it might have been my biggest mistake in course selection yet. I'll be entirely honest here. I only went to the first 3 lectures before I realized that everything taught in the class is explained way more comprehensively through Justin's notes. In those three lectures, I found his teaching method to be needlessly confusing. He constantly used convoluted notation that was rarely seen elsewhere in the course, and 90% or more of time was spent solely writing proofs. If you aren't a math major or don't have a real need to learn the "pure math" behind every method to solve DE's, he is the worst professor you can take for this class. My thoughts here are only reinforced by what everyone else in the class's message group has to say about his teaching. Time and time again in this class, Trevino has refused to accept any responsibility for his mistakes. The most apparent is the severe discrepancy between his grade distribution for 246 and other professors. You can chalk it up to poor teaching style or lack of applying any curve, but either way there's a severe fault here that he blames on the students of his class. Expect 5 to 15 hours of work for each of the 6 MATLAB's given in the semester. These get progressively more difficult and don't expect any help for Trevino in class or by request. I don't think he is a bad person, but you have to be significantly more uncaring than most to give the last midterm 2 days before the final exam. Last and most difficult MATLAB assignment was due on the same day too.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2022	Trevino is one of the worst math professors I've had, and wouldn't recommend him to my worst enemy. Here is a list of a few red flags I noticed while takin this course: - The average on one exam was a 63, and he didn't curve it. - Our last midterm was two days before our final - When I was reviewing with a friend who had a different professor for the final, I noticed there was a good chunk of content that she had covered and I had not. Trevino's lectures are also genuinely terrible to the point that I sometimes just left in the middle because I would learn more studying Justin Wyss-Gallifent's notes on my own time. Do not take this professor if you can, I took his class because I had other classes I wanted to take during the other professor's times, and in hindsight I would adjust my schedule drastically just to avoid this professor if I could.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 05/11/2022	If this is the only professor you have room for in your schedule consider this me on my hands and knees begging you not to do it. I promise you don't need it this bad. Take it another semester. For reference, I have friends in other math classes where test averages are low-mid 80's. This last test, the average for Trevino was a 63. That is ridiculous, especially for a class I've heard will be curved little to nothing and considering tests will be about 80% of your grade. MATLAB is for some reason a part of 246 and also looking at my friends MATLABs vs mine I see fewer and more basic questions where as mine could have around 6 questions that take me upwards of 6 hrs to fully figure out. He also can just be plain rude in regards to questions about grades or assignments. Possibly better for upper level classes as based on the reviews I see people are much happier with him in those classes, but as for 246. please, please, PLEASE do not.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 05/11/2022	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. If he is the only professor you can take I suggest you wait a year. Apparently, 33% of 246 students get a D or below as their final grade, that doesn't include people who have dropped the class. He doesnt even have good lectures, they are super confusing to follow or understand, and the only way you're going to learn is if you do it all yourself.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 05/11/2022	Do not take for Differential at all costs He goes over a lot of theories in lecture which is great except he ONLY goes over theories and never how to actually solve any problem. His lecture "notes" are virtually impossible to learn from and you basically have to self teach yourself the entirety of Differential. This year 80 percent of the grade for the course was exams and the other 20 percent were MATLAB's. This wouldn't be too bad but every MATLAB after the first one is extremely difficult, time consuming and very harshly graded. You also have to teach yourself MATLAB, Rodrigo stated one the first day of class he would not cover any MATLAB at all (despite being 20 percent of the grade) and he stayed true to that (The TAs did not know how to help with the MATLAB either). This class is passable if you have taken this class before or have a very easy schedule with an absurd amount of free time
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 05/11/2022	Rodrigo is a nice enough guy, and he definitely cares about his students. With that said, his teaching is AWFUL. He focuses almost entirely on theory and neglects to do examples. His notes are very difficult to comprehend. I knew about 10 students in my lecture and EVERY SINGLE ONE did some or all of the following: stopped showing up, used Terrence's videos from remote learning, used Justin's notes, etc. On top of that, many people failed/performed significantly worse in this class than is typical of them. Look at the grade data and please do NOT take him if you want to pass this class or (dare I say) even do well.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/08/2022	He is a very straightforward teacher and like a lot of people say, it is super clear to understand him. This made the content not as hard as it should have thankfully. There are four midterm tests + a final and no quizzes, the tests are a bit difficult despite him giving us the previous semester's exam, but it is still doable if you get study hard enough, he posts suggested problems + the people who hosts GSS post their notes of the review session online. This class (in my opinion) requires a lot of memorization because there's so many concepts, but thankfully he was really clear in answering student's questions during the lectures. If you do want to get a good grade as well, GO TO THE LECTURES, he does not post lecture recordings online.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH246 anon154 05/05/2022	His exams were very fair and on the material that we went over in class. His averages were always much higher than other professors and its very worth going on the waitlist for any of his classes. His lectures are filled with examples and him writing everything down on the blackboard in neat handwriting.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/18/2022	Alice is amazing! She releases note guide pdfs before lectures so that you aren't taking notes by scratch which allows for material to be covered efficiently. She has a lot of quizzes but has study guides for them, so if you go through them the quizzes are straightforward and will boost your grade. I'm not sure if she does this every semester but for Fall 2021 she gave a good amount of extra credit if you rewrite quizzes and exams after answers are released. This is time-consuming but raises your grade and helps you fully understand problems you may have gotten wrong. Also, Alice hosts review sessions before the exam which is very generous of her and always prepared me for the exams. I've heard valid complaints about no TAs, office hours, or discussion but if you're a student who is okay with learning content from lectures combined with going through practice problems and the answers she provides for them, then this professor is probably a great fit for you. Overall, she gives A LOT of resources to help you succeed so if you are willing to put the time and energy into her class, you will do well.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 04/18/2022	If you are considering taking Trevino for differential equations, I would first point you to the "View grade data for this professor" button on the right side of his PlanetTerp page. Make sure you look at the grade distribution for Math 246 only. Awful, right? Of course, grades are not everything, but that chart should be a huge red flag for anyone considering taking him. If your schedule can only accommodate taking him, move things around or take this class another semester. As other reviews have pointed out (some in favor and some against), he spends a large portion of his lecture time writing out the proofs for the concepts and little time applying them. This is why you will see great reviews for his 400 level courses, which are only taken by math majors, and low reviews for his other courses, which are taken by a variety of majors. Pros and cons from my experience in this class: Pros: - The exams are pretty straightforward and he is very clear about which sections are covered and gives you a set of problems to practice for the test (which he uses as the basis for the questions he writes). - He is, in his own words, generous with extending the due dates for MATLAB projects (more on them below). - He does seem to care (in general) about his students' well-being - The GSS leader is usually helpful! Cons: - Unless you enjoy bogging yourself down into mathematical proofs and can easily follow 20 variables being used on the same page, his lectures are extremely difficult to follow. - The MATLAB projects comprise 20% of the final grade and are extremely challenging. Little help is afforded by Rodrigo (his office hours are conveniently scheduled at a time when everyone has classes), and the problems that are assigned are both long and complex. - You end up teaching yourself everything - both the course content and the MATLAB (can be a pro or con depending on the person).
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/07/2022	She's a good professor and very kind. She provides you with a lot of resources to learn the material. We had weekly quizzes (worth 10 points), and accompanying practice quizzes and solutions. These were very helpful for the exams. Additionally, she provided sample exams and solutions, and held ~3 hour review sessions before each exam. She also had recorded lectures, and the notes are structured (packets with outlines; fill them in during class). Unfortunately, I don't think her sections ever have TAs and she doesn't have set office hours. This especially became a problem for the MATLAB projects. You can make an appointment with her, but she sometimes isn't the most responsive to emails. Overall, though, I liked the way she structured her course and she clearly cares about her students. I highly recommend her as a professor.
Alice Wang MATH246 Anonymous 03/17/2022	You can tell that she cares but her class is much like high school. No office hours, no TAs. Just notes that you fill in the blanks for.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2021	I took this course Fall 2017 Professor Williams is very straightforward and writes everything out very clearly. The exams are challenging but he doesn't give you any "gotcha" questions. It was a good experience overall because I definitely learned something.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/27/2021	Dr. Williams is a pretty decent professor. Overall, he did a good job of teaching the content. The weekly quizzes were pretty easy, and the limited homework and MATLAB assignments were doable. The class content is pretty straightforward until the last third of the class, where it felt like we were learning a bunch of random concepts. The exams were pretty straightforward but as difficult as the content. The final were pretty difficult due to the vast amount of content covered by the course. Overall, Dr. Williams is a safe professor to go with; he isn't the easiest professor, but he's also pretty fair.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/25/2021	Not a great professor. Lectures were barely relevant to the homework and he put way to much time into topics that never were covered in exams. ELMS was horribly managed, with Grillakis just uploading notes and writing down what was talked about in class on the front page. Exams aren't bad and the grading scale is generous, but that doesn't make up for how miserable your experience will be with this guy.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/25/2021	I'll admit Hamilton is really bad at lecturing and you will spend a great deal of time self studying. However, his grading scheme and review lectures are his saving grace. If an exam grade is higher than the previous exams grades, then all previous test grades are replaced with the higher one, this includes the final. You can go from failing the class to getting an A just from the final if you studied hard enough. His review sessions are similar to the test, just be sure to write it all down. He goes quickly and won't send out review notes. MATLAB projects are fairly difficult, but the lowest grade is dropped. Quizzes range from really easy to really difficult for some reason, but they are open note / take home and seemed to be graded mostly on completion. I recommend keeping up with the optional homework (Which comes with answers) it's how I managed to do well in the class. I would avoid Hamilton for his awful lecturing if you can, but if you get stuck with him it's not the end of the world. Grading and tests are fair and you can get by just fine with some self studying. Also he has a cool Australian accent, wears a leather jacket, and has a dry sense of humor which almost makes his lectures bearable to go to, almost.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/24/2021	I was nervous to take this class because of the negative reviews, but I really don't understand the hate at all. Dr. Williams's lectures are some of the clearest and most organized lectures I've ever seen. When I had to speak with him once or twice about specific circumstances, he was genuinely empathetic, even if he's pretty strict about that stuff. He was helpful during office hours and engaging during lectures. The exams were difficult because the subject matter is difficult, not because he had unrealistic expectations. If you are hesitant about taking a class with him because of the negative reviews, know that he is an amazing lecturer and you can definitely succeed in his class if you're willing to put in the work.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2021	The only reason I am expecting the grade I am is because I thought the exam material was easier than everything he did in class. If you are very capable of teaching yourself all of the content required, then I would recommend this class because of the relatively easy exams. If you require your professor to put any ounce of effort into the class (which is entirely reasonable and shouldn't be too much to ask for), do your best to find someone else. This man did not care about our class at all. Any communication that he had with us would be a maximum of 5 one syllable words. The review that he gave to us and posted for the final exam was just a compilation of all of the non-graded homeworks that he had already given us throughout the class, and they didn't even have any answers attached to them. He read word for word from someone else's notes for the entire class and called it teaching. Some reviews say he didn't go over any examples, which I would have to disagree with. He did go over examples, they were just rarely helpful. I went to every single lecture and consider it a huge waste of time. I never walked out of the lecture understanding anything that he went over. There are plenty of online resources that you can use, so if you think you can teach yourself all of the content, then I would recommend this class.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2021	Absolutely avoid for diffy q. Lectures are completely pointless as he speaks quietly and doesn't go over a single example problem. Doesn't help at all when the course is already very theoretical. By October lecture attendance was about 25% of the start of the semester. Exams and quizzes vary so much where some are extremely easy and some are extremely difficult. It basically comes down to how well you can teach yourself the material. Textbook (online notes) is very hard to read so I would recommend using Justin's notes. Only problem is that not all of the course is covered in Justin's notes. They usually suffice but sometimes you'll have to bite the bullet and read the online notes. Overall Grillakis did the bare minimum throughout the entire sem. ELMS was hardly ever up to date (syllabus said exams 1 2 3 would cover "??"), grades took months to get posted, a complete mess. I believe Fall 2021 was Grillakis' first time teaching 246 because he had no reviews or grade data at the start of the semester but he certainly fumbled on this one. Absolutely avoid.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2021	Normally I try to be nice in teacher reviews. For Hamilton, though, I feel I must make an exception. Throughout the course he was condescending and rude to students and even to colleagues. Also, his lectures were often unclear, which meant that a lot of students were stuck trying to learn diffeq entirely from the textbook (which was also largely incoherent). If you care only about getting a decent grade with minimal effort, he may be the professor for you. If you actually want to learn diffeq in an enjoyable environment, though, steer clear.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2021	Don't consider Grill for 246. His lectures are absolutely pointless to go to, as he spends the entire class deriving formulas and barely goes over any actual examples. Difficulty on exams and quizzes ranges from stupid easy to stupid difficult and you never know what you're gonna get. Doing well in this class was pretty much entirely based off of how well you can teach yourself the concepts. The Matlabs are also insanely difficult with neither the professor nor the TAs offering much help or guidance with them. The only redeeming thing about the class was the generous grading scale, where a 55 is a C-, a 75 is a B, and an 85 is an A-, but with the difficulty of this class, you'll probably find it saving your grade more than it allowing you to get an easy A.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Anonymous 12/15/2021	Terrible professor. Exams are nothing like what is taught in the class. Watched 10 minutes of Alice Wang's review and learned more than Grillakis teaches in 2 months.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2021	The professor is a nice guy but I recommend finding another professor if your going to take this class. The exams are easy(they are mostly similar to what you will see in the homework) but he just reads off from the online notes(which is our textbook) in lecture and to be honest I think I have learned more from the TA.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2021	Honestly, before taking the third midterm, I would have given Hamilton 1 star. He's disrespectful to students and seems to get ahead of himself while lecturing. When he goes over example problems, he chooses complex problems outside the scope of the class and skips multiple steps in his explanations (for example, he'll just look at a matrix and "guess" the eigenvalues without explaining his process). He frequently insulted people's intelligence and savagely berated a girl who came to solve a problem with the projector in front of the entire class. The only reason I'm giving him 3 stars is because the content he covers in class, and the reviews he does before exams usually follow exactly what will be on the exam and final. Usually the same types of problems with only numbers changed. I only realized this after heavily studying his review materials before midterm 3, and I got a 90.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Anonymous 12/09/2021	Truly do not understand any positive review here. DiffEQ is supposed to be an easier math class. This man does not teach you ANYTHING. No examples, no guidance, matlab projects are irrelevant and unnecessarily difficult, TA's do not teach nor do they even have a fucking clock in their classrooms. By the end of September, half of the people still attend the lectures. By the end of October, 10% do. He will finish talking about (not teaching) the material for your next exam by the time you are taking the current one. Too bad Justin isn't teaching this class. His notes are helpful but do not align with Levermore's shitty textbook. Levermore's textbook is what you will be using and it is too convoluted and is written in a demeanor that feels like this mans was trying too hard to make it "difficult." This class should be taught in a straight-to-the-point fashion. Instead, you are left to teach yourself shit that you won't end up understanding. Exam 1 and 2 are awful but Exam 3 is fucking terrible. We took exam 2 right before thanksgiving break and exam 3 the week that we got back. I fucking hate teachers that coast their ways to a decent salary. A good teacher should try their best so that their students succeed. All of us come from rigorous majors and know how to tackle difficult courseloads... but everyone in this class, except for the 10 kids who are either retaking this class or have no social life, is struggling. Don't fucking tell me that I should have studied more because, like everyone else, I know how to fucking apply myself. I am extremely disappointed with the way this class was "taught." Take this class at Montgomery College if you want to survive.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/03/2021	Avoid at all costs for diffeq. Does not do a single numerical example all year. Exclusively does symbolic examples. TA's and prof are never on same page. Lectures are useless and you'll just end up teaching yourself everything. Also the matlab assignments have 0 guidance or relevancy to the material all year.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/22/2021	Professor Williams is an amazing lecturer. This is the first fully in-person class since covid and i'm really glad that he is my professor. He explains topics very well and is very open to answering questions. His homework assignments aren't that bad and they're group work, same with the matlab assignments. Quizzes every other week during discussion, but they aren't worth very many points. His exams are fair and not that difficult as long as you do the suggested homework problems.
Luis Suarez MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/19/2021	Took 246 with Luis over the summer of 2021. The course is very fast-paced due to the nature of a summer course but he tries his best to explain concepts clearly and is very helpful during office hours. Only 3 HW assignments and 3 exams throughout the course so as long as you set aside a couple hours or so everyday to go over the material and do some of the problems in the hw, you'll be fine.
Vladimir Yushutin MATH246 Anonymous 11/09/2021	Pretty hard to understand lectures, not enough practical examples and too much time spent on proofs in class rather than what you will actually be tested on. Expect to teach yourself everything - luckily the TA was the only thing made this class even remotely tolerable
Vladimir Yushutin MATH246 Expecting a W Anonymous 11/01/2021	Easily the worst professor/teacher I have ever had, do not take his 246 course. His lectures are confusing, his notes are sprawled all over the board and his handwriting sucks so it is almost impossible to follow what he is doing. He pretty much just goes over theory the entire lecture, does one simple example at the end and then expects us to know how to solve some ridiculously hard exam problems. If you take his class you will have to teach yourself everything, as his lectures are absolutely pointless. It ended up being way to much for me and I had to take a W. Do yourself a favor and don't take his class.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/21/2021	Dr. Ebrahimian finds a good balance between being accommodating and helpful while still making sure you actually get a good understanding of the material. Tests and quizzes, which make up the vast majority of grades for the class, are pretty similar to the examples covered in class, so take good notes and study them and you'll be fine. My only criticism is that the MATLAB textbook was sometimes pretty unhelpful for the projects, so be sure to find some resources (like Justin's notes) to get those done. Overall, definitely recommend taking this class with Ebrahimian though.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/27/2021	The lectures were understandable if you read the information beforehand, and the example problems in the lectures are exactly the type of problem that appears on the quizzes and exams. The lectures are labeled only as a number, and not with the content, which makes it a bit more difficult to follow, but if you have read the material that is supposed to be in the lecture, even if you don't understand it, it becomes easier to follow and understand the lectures. The quizzes and exams are exactly like problems given in lectures, and typically for quizzes, there were 20 minutes to complete and 5 to submit, with a 5 minute grace period, and for exams, there was an hour and a half to complete it and 15 minutes to submit. The grading can be strict as the rubric is mostly focusing on the answer being right, and not the processes of solving the problems, however simple errors like dropping a negative sign and smaller errors of that sort can be discussed with TA's, and typically can get points back for this. The class was also curved, with the two worst quizzes and worst Matlab being dropped, and the worst team would be replaced with half the score of the final, which was 200 points as opposed to 100 points on exams. This curve was the one announced at the beginning of class, however at the end, according to a TA, the professor enlisted a curve to make the average grade in the class a C. Many students took the class as Pass/Fail, so the averages with higher levels of A and B are deceptive, as most of the class was pass/fail and would receive a C. Overall, I would suggest trying to find a professor that has better lectures and a better record of teaching well, but Dr. Jakobson's class was straightforward, and I certainly learned a lot from it.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH246 Expecting a B- javathunderman 05/25/2021	Great lectures, easy quizzes, but a pretty hard class overall, so make sure you do as much of the HW as possible. Highly recommend taking 246 with him.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/22/2021	From first day knew Hamilton is a wreck of a teacher. Didn't respect student concerns. Lectures skip a lot of steps. All in all he's hard to learn from. The only reason I can solve differential equations is from another teachers notes that were posted online. He does have a policy that the final can count for everything though which is blessed. Went from a 26% in the class to a B with one test.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2021	Dr. Ebrahimian is one of the best math teachers I have had. His lecture notes are clear and easy to follow. If a student has a question, he took the time to answer it even if it was already asked. Dr. E never got annoyed by "too many questions," and encouraged more questions. If we did not get to all the lecture material he wanted, he adjusted the following lectures accordingly. Although this was over virtual learning, I am certain the way he teaches in-person lectures is just the same. Quizzes and exams were very representative of what was learned in lectures and discussions. There were never any curveball questions, so if you attend lectures, discussions, and GSS occasionally, you should have all the resources needed to be successful. There were suggested textbook problems, but I found they were more complex than what was asked. However, they are good for more practice since the textbook is online and has solutions underneath each problem statement.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2021	Good God where do I begin. By far the worst teacher I’ve had in my life. To get things out of the way, do not take him unless the only other possible option is Hamilton, no matter how much schedule rearrangement is needed. Draw the line only at dropping necessary classes if it means avoiding him. Lectures make absolutely no sense at all, does nothing to respond to student questions/concerns, my TA was no help, and I had to practically rely solely on GSS and self-teaching to pass (shoutout to Victoria). A 130-ish person class had only about 15-20 attending lecture within a few weeks. Assuming he keeps this semester’s grading policy, there is no curve either. He drops your lowest Matlab and 2 lowest quizzes. Lowest exam gets replaced by half of final. Got an A in spite of him, not because of him.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/14/2021	Yo he a goat fr. His lectures are very clear and he takes the time to answer pretty much every student's question, even if someone else has already asked it before. His tests and quizzes are just like the homework and the class examples. You can't go wrong with him
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH246 Anonymous 05/13/2021	Ebrahimian was a great and organized professor . The notes in class were fantastic and provided the general theory and lots of example problems. The quizzes and exams were representative of the notes from class and were a mix of easy and difficult problems. Overall great professor definitely one of the better options for MATH246.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/12/2021	The worst professor I have had at umd. His lecture style is terrible and don't expect to be able to read his notes because they're illegible. Pretty sure UMD only holds onto him because of tenure. His exams for the most part are actually pretty straight forward but between the lectures being ass, the textbook being ass, and the TAs taking off points every chance they get, the course was an overall uphill battle and it was super hard for me to learn. It also didn't help that things were online this semester due to COVID. I love math and I know I would have loved Diffeq if it had been taught to me properly but because it wasn't I had the exact opposite experience. Highly recommend switching out if you have him unless your only other choice is Hamilton.
David Hamilton MATH246 Anonymous 05/10/2021	He is the worst professor I have ever had. I learned nothing from him. If your taking his differential equations class use Justin’s notes and mathispower4u. He should be a final option if there are other teachers take them.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2021	NEVER take this professor. He has awful lecture material, is extremely rude to students, and clearly has no passion or ability for teaching. I recommend you take literally any other professor, regardless of their ratings, before you take ANY course with David Hamilton. Prepare to learn diff. eq. completely on your own with no help from a professor. I am utterly shocked that this man has a single rating higher than 1 star, and he deserves less than that even.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/04/2021	Would not recommend it, took him online due to COVID and he wasn't lenient about turning in any quizzes late yet wouldn't include time to actually submit. Overall I would say his exams were hard yet would have followed his lectures if I could have understood them. His notes and lectures were too hard to understand for me so I resorted to Justins notes. If I hadn't chosen pass-fail I probably would have gotten a C+. The dropped quizzes and dropped matlab that he offers are helpful yet are the only form of curve he provides
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/15/2021	Hamilton is a smart guy, however it's apparent he knows you are dumb. He will commonly disregard students questions and make snide remarks towards you if your lucky enough to get a reply. However, you could give him the benefit of the doubt that he's simply as upset about online learning as we are. Regardless he will overcomplicate new topics as they are introduced and expect you to understand it as well as he does. In the end you will pass due to his extremely low bar for grading... Means on tests for this semester were failing grades; to me that says something beyond the students being dumb or lazy.
Jonathan Rosenberg MATH246 Anonymous 01/11/2021	Dr. Rosenberg was an intelligent man that you can tell is passionate about the subject matter. He likes to emphasize MATLAB and the application of DEs in real-world scenarios. There is no official homework with the exception of group MATLAB projects throughout the semester. In this course, however, quizzes and exams made things difficult. The course content itself is not too complicated, but the format of these assignments were not the best. They took place in the format of Canvas quizzes (final included) with typed answers (no file uploads), which made partial credit and time management difficult. These assignments also featured some tricky questions that really required you to know the material and pay attention to small details. Overall, Dr. Rosenberg was a good professor and the course would have been much easier if the exam format was different.
Ruiwen Shu MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/10/2021	Good lecturer, goes by his notes and never seems like he's unprepared. He has an accent though but it's pretty easy to understand him. Exams/quizzes/worksheets/matlab were fair and he's a lenient grader. Would take him again for sure
Keith Mills MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/30/2020	Although Keith was my TA for 241 this semester, Keith deserves a review here. Keith is an amazing TA. I have had bad TAs for previous math courses, but Keith is my first TA that was actually helpful. When going over examples, his work is very clear, very thorough, and he explains his work in a simple way. If you have a question, he is always able to answer it and help the student. Aside from being a good TA if you have any other math questions, he either answers them or tries his best to answer, or gets back to you. Again, he is very caring about the success of his students and was a really good TA Since he taught 241, he was well prepared as a TA to ensure the overall success of his students.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2020	Yeah, reading the other reviews, and given my previous success in math courses, I thought 246 with Levermore would be tricky, but doable. My god was I wrong. I do not know how his grade data is as good as it is, I worked so damn hard on this class to get the grades I did but I can not imagine so many people going as insane as I did. I probably sound a bit pretentious by now but anyway if you can take this course over the summer with Justin- DO IT. Here's what made this course so frustrating: He teaches more content and some of it he ~customizes~ so if you can't comprehend his lectures or notes, you're basically fucked. I remember googling a term from class and the top results were all his notes. You can learn the basics from Justin's awesome notes, but you will need to learn Levermore's custom/proprietary stuff. The grading policy is pretty good though. I don't think my grievances with this class are due to it being online though. All of the other reviews mention his shitty teaching method of reading through slides/notes. It's terrible. I can't imagine how bad the other prof's are if he's the least of the evils, but if you can take this during the summer or at a different college, do it. I really though I would be fine in this class in spite of the other reviews below, but I was so wrong.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2020	Great Professor! Takes her time and provides you with all the resources necessary to excel in the class. 10/10
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/18/2020	I had him for MATH246 when covid hit, and let me just start off by saying he was an extremely helpful and understanding professor. When it came to lectures, he went at a fast but reasonable pace and would pause for questions from the students. His exams were fair, quizzes were easy, MATLAB assignments were also easy, however his written homeworks could be quite difficult (just don't do them the night before they're due and you'll be fine). If you need a professor for 246 take Williams.
Luis Suarez MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/23/2020	New math prof who's a very nice guy. Does not curve but adds incentives like averaging lowest of two first exams with exam 3 to help people with their grades if they do poorly on an early exam but well on the final. Lectures can be a bit hard to follow and sometimes contain errors + exams can be very difficult and rely on techniques we didn't fully go over in class, but in the end his teaching is effective and (especially if you self-study) assignments and exams are reasonable and you can do well in the course.
Alice Wang MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 08/12/2020	She is really knowledgeable about the course and makes note-taking very easy (printed packets to fill in). She didn't have a discussion section when I had her, but she made up for it by having 2-3 hour long sessions before each exam that you really should go to. Overall, she is nice and cares about all her students.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Anonymous 06/10/2020	What a strange, strange man he is... He presents the content of this course in a very theoretical manner, so if you do not work through practice problems or if you do not generally understand a string of just theory, you may encounter problems. The practice problems on his website are sometimes unclear as to how he reaches his final answer and you'll have to kinda go through it several times to notice which steps he has omitted. Regarding my first comment, he "speaks in fonts." If you don't know what that means then oh boy you're in for an experience. He also frequently used the phrase "licking your chops" when referring to types of ODEs, then proceeded to make some ungodly schlurpschlupschschlurp sounds. He will ask for volunteers that serve literally no purpose. Just an all around odd experience, but certainly something you should endure if nothing else then as a rite of passage into your big boy classes
Terence Long MATH246 pavanbhat0710 06/08/2020	He makes the course very manageable and tells the content as it is without unnecessary proofs and such. He is also personable and a very unique, laid back personality. Sometimes the lectures can get a little boring, but they cover the content needed to succeed on the exam well.
Terence Long MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/04/2020	Terence was not my favorite professor, which is unfortunate because he has such high reviews so I had high expectations. My biggest gripe with him is that he lectures so slow, painfully slow. I understand that for some it's nice to have a slower paced professor so no one gets left behind, and Terence definitely does that. However, if you did understand the material the first or second time around, the third and fourth explanations aren't needed. The slow pace of his lectures got to the point where we wound up 2-3 weeks behind Kendall Williams' 246 lectures (I know because my roommate took Kendall's section the same semester). The benefit of this is that the final exam covers much less material because you don't get to cover as much in the class. The downside of this is that I feel like I didn't actually learn anything. Terence teaches in a way where he gives you the exact steps to solve any problem so you always get the right answer. But gives zero explanation as to why those are the steps we take. So you can mindlessly solve a problem but only because you've memorized steps and in reality have no idea what you're doing (reminiscent of high school for me). Overall the class with him is an easy A but you don't actually learn. So take him if you don't care for math and just need to pass to graduate or if you want to boost your gpa. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2020	I don't understand the low rating for Dr. Williams. He explains his lectures well and has great handwriting, so I personally never had an issue following during class. His exams are very hard, but for a 200-level math class, that should be expected. You should be good at managing your time and always be prepared. Quizzes, on the other hand, are pretty easy. His MATLAB assignments were easy since the textbook gives examples that are very similar to the prompts. The only complaint I have is that the written homework assignments are extremely deceiving. If it looks like the homework will only take an hour, expect to spend multiple. The questions are intentionally made to look simple but he'll throw in tricks like making the final integral only possible if you do integration by parts multiple times. Or you'll only be able to solve something by using a trig identity you wouldn't think to use.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 04/14/2020	Absolutely terrible professor. Would constantly mess up in lecture and provide an insufficient curve at the end of the semester. All 246 professors are questionable but don't take him.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Anonymous 03/27/2020	I like his lectures -- his handwriting is really good and he always does lots of examples which make the concept very clear. For my class we didn't have to read the book, he just told us everything we needed to know which is nice. The exams I think are hard but fair if you do the suggested problems from the book.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 12/16/2019	Teaches directly off of Levermore's notes and cannot explain anything when classification is needed. He does did not address students' concerns. Avoid him at all cost
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2019	Averaged professor, not very responsible, make mistakes occasionally. Grading is fair, but the mean of class is very low, he gave a little(not very sufficient) curve. His lectures are confusing, but that's not his fault, the MATH246 has unreasonable material to cover. He doesn't give exam practice, and not even publish solutions for exams. This is why I would say he is not responsible. His exams are easy, immediate results of the online book's formula. If you are the kind that heavily rely on lectures and review materials, don't consider him. And try to not take 246. This course has too much to learn. The study advice is: must read online book, at least remember the formulae. Do practice exams of Levermore class, its online.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Expecting a D Anonymous 12/14/2019	Terrible professor, uncaring human being. Rodrigo is easily the worst professor I have had the displeasure of having. His teaching style was inconsistent, and the only thing that was consistent was that it was terrible. He copied the online notes (written by Levermore) word for word in class, and tried to administer math quizzes on Canvas - which to me was a sign of laziness, since he didn't want to grade anything himself, dumping it all on our TAs. Additionally, his exams were different than other sections, often containing errors, and he did not curve. When I emailed him on multiple occasions requesting to meet and discuss how to succeed, he never replied. He also only had 2 hours of office hours weekly, on one day, during peak class times, making himself unavailable. Additionally, he missed many lectures for personal trips to "relieve stress." He blames our class's low scores on us, and ridiculed us for not taking linear algebra first - even though it is not a prerequisite. Rodrigo, as a professor, does not represent the quality or type of education the University of Maryland is acclaimed for, and even though it was his first semester teaching it, I strongly feel it should be his last. I will admit some of my strong wording is out of disappointment in failing the class, but that aside, the fact still stands Rodrigo was not an effective teacher, and did not care about his students. He even had the audacity to email us after the exam and tell us he though the grades were good enough, and that if we failed it is exclusively our fault, essentially telling us to f*** off. The way in which the email was written struck me as very unprofessional, and oblivious to the fact he is a terrible professor. If you can take this class with anyone else, do it. I sincerely hope to see Rodrigo removed from the faculty of UMD.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Anonymous 11/25/2019	I can not believe that he has a PhD in Mathematics. Exams are hard to understand and he can not explain the material in class.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Anonymous 11/21/2019	Avoid him at all cost.
Rodrigo Trevino MATH246 Anonymous 11/14/2019	He is not a good teacher, he focuses too much on the theory and does not go through enough examples. When people ask questions he half answers them, but in a more confusing way. He makes numerous mistakes in his lectures, which does not help comprehension, and he is married to the most convoluted mathematical notation. If you take his class be prepared to learn everything on your own.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/11/2019	Literally horrible lecturer, like horrendous. His online notes are extremely difficult to decipher, and you dont learn anything in discussion because he has you doing graded groupwork. Eventually, you'll learn how to decipher his notes, but in all honesty, what a horrible class. The only perk to his class is that he has past exams and quizzes online so you have a pretty good idea of whats going to be thrown your way. Still though, its a shame that the university lets such horrible teachers teach diffeq, a fairly useful class
Charles Levermore MATH246 Anonymous 10/16/2019	Honestly horrible lecturer. Seriously, don't even bother going to class. His online notes are almost in a different language, they extremely complicate fairly trivial topics... but eventually you will get the hang of them and how to decipher them. Still though, horrible class to take, only plus side is that his tests are all fairly similar to past years exams. Literally the only plus to taking diffeq with him
Jacky Chong MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 07/24/2019	Best TA at UMD
Adam Telatovich MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/27/2019	He honestly goes out of his way to help his students. His exams are straightfoward, and he typically follows directly from the textbook. Definitely would take him again.
Jacky Chong MATH246 Anonymous 05/12/2019	Really understands what he is doing. Lots of experience both teaching and being a TA for diffeq. Wish discussions met twice a week
Adam Telatovich MATH246 Anonymous 05/12/2019	Straightforward exams, neat handwriting, has unexpected jokes. Consistently updates schedule.
Adam Telatovich MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 04/25/2019	This guy is one of the worst professors I've had at UMD. He is smart to the point that he doesn't understand the difficulty of material. His test are too long (only takes him 20 mins but the must people in class don't finish). His grading is inconsistent between sections (one TA gave quiz retakes) and he doesn't seem like he will curve. I would NOT recommend taking him.
Cara Peters MATH246 Anonymous 04/19/2019	Amazing TA. I learned everything in Diff Eq from her in 50 minutes per week because Hamilton is a terrible professor.
Jacky Chong MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/04/2019	Actually the only reason I'm surviving diff eq.
Adam Telatovich MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/04/2019	Not okay. Can't even hear him in lecture. Writes entire alphabet on blackboard and makes no sense.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/23/2018	Jakobson may be the worst lecturer on campus. His speaking, writing, and teaching style make it nearly impossible to learn anything in his lectures, resulting in less than 10% of the class attending each lecture. My TA was the only reason I learned anything in the class, as his website and provided textbook are a mess to navigate and get information from. The homeworks and quizzes we had did little to build on what we did learn, even when we had an assignment or quiz every week. Avoid at all costs.
Antoine Mellet MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/15/2018	Goes through lecture really quickly, some days I was able to keep up and some days I was really lost. Quizzes were a mixed bag; some were ok some were wtf is going on. Exams were really long but graded really leniently as well. Weird curve at the end.
Antoine Mellet MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/18/2018	Good professor. Agree with the other guy, he tries to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time, so make sure you focus, or else you'll get lost in lecture. His notes are just levermore's notes, so make sure you use Justin's notes (they can be found online). Exams are very fair, nothing trippy.
Kendall Williams MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/28/2018	Great lecturer, explains topics in a casual manner. His exams are hard but fair.
Jacky Chong MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/13/2017	he's a kind guy
Antoine Mellet MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/30/2017	Mellet is a good professor and the exams are very fair in comparison to other professors, especially Levermore. However, his lectures do get boring and he likes to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. Also, his notes are just Levermore's, so make sure you use Justin Wyss-Gallifent's notes instead. If I had to take MATH246 again, I would gladly retake him.
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting an A soulelite 08/25/2016	Best Math professor I've ever had at UMD, hands down. If this guy is available for any Math course that you are taking, ENROLL FOR JUSTIN'S CLASS. You will definitely not regret it. He teaches in such a clear and precise manner, and he is also a very nice guy that is willing to help you after class. He genuinely loves to teach to students, and it really shows.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/11/2016	Make sure you practice with the old exams. If you do, and can understand the online notes, don't bother going to class. Seriously, don't waste your time. Grab yourself a good study group and you'll do fine.
Casey Cremins MATH246 Anonymous 12/18/2015	Casey was a pretty bad teacher. When I signed up for MATH246, I had Mellet but they did a professor switch and I ended up with Casey. Going to lecture was pretty pointless because there were the online notes for you to reference, and what he taught didn't always follow the notes online. When we got the study guide for the final (written by Levermore, the course chair) we realized we were at the disadvantage because methods Casey taught us were either slower and more steps than other classes learned, or simply we never learned the material on the review which was then on the final. When asked about a curve he laughed and said maybe 1%. There was no curve for my class. A lot of the learning I had to do was independent and through the online homework because what he taught in class was not all that helpful. He also took a while to get started. There were times at the end of the semester where he took half the class to prepare and talk about the final, but there were still things we had to learn up until the last class before the final. Overall I was pretty disappointed with Casey. I don't know if Levermore would have been better because I heard his tests were harder, but we didn't get a curve - even with test #2's average being a 60%.
Charles Levermore MATH246 apaskal 10/21/2015	Pros: Very intelligent, clearly knows what he is talking about, seems really nice and friendly, and doesn't give you busywork (except for Matlab, which sucks, but that isn't on him. His grading policy is also specifically designed to give you as fair a grade as possible, and to not screw you if you mess up occasionally. His website is also a tremendous resource. I personally didn't find his notes too helpful, but many did, and his online exams and quizzes are incredibly valuable. Cons: His intelligence gets in the way of his teaching, and he makes things that should be easy in application seem very complicated. I would often read through his notes trying to understand what the heck was going on, then watch a youtube video on it and understand it very clearly, and think "why didn't he just say that?". He understands things on a different level than most students, and that is the level he teaches on, because that is how his mind works. Pure mathematics is not a strength of mine, so this caused me difficulties. He also does cover a lot more material than other people do in general for diff eq, so this makes it harder to find supplementary resources on it. This inability to lecture or explain things clearly has caused big problems for me and many people I know. Synopsis: if you have an easy schedule or were really good at calc2 and calc3, then take him, because you'll get the highest grade from him. Just be prepared to teach yourself, because odds are you'll have a hard time learning from him. If you thought those classes were hard, or you are taking a heavy class load (i'm taking 19 right now and i'm slowly but surely drowning), take someone else who's a better lecturer, or put diff eq off until you have the time to dedicate to it, because, especially with him, it's a ton to digest and master.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2014	Firstly I gotta say that before taking DFQ I knew nothing about this course, and Dr. Jakobson just screwed it up even more severer. I never absented but all I could do in his class this whole semester is merely sitting, napping and playing my cell phone. I totally got no idea about what he was talking about. Thanks for my lovely TA I didn't screw up whole things at the end before finals. So 4 stars for TA, 1 star for Dr. Jakobson(for his hard work awww). DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS UNLESS YOU GOT BALLS IN MATH
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/04/2014	Machedon is a decent teacher. He tends to drone on and is extremely vague in his explanations in class. I don't feel like I gain very much from going to lecture. That being said, his expectations are very reasonable. His tests are fair, as are the quizzes. You can learn it all from the internet and by doing the problems from the textbook before the tests. He puts a relatively small emphasis on matlab, which I appreciate because I've never really been taught matlab and feel like i have no idea how to use the software. I'd suggest you take matlab if you want to put minimal effort into this class and you don't expect to gain much of an understanding of the material out of the experience.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B cblumenf 11/05/2014	Machedon's lectures are boring and his accent and handwriting can be hard to understand at times. The tests were pretty difficult and the textbook was hard to understand and in my opinion focused too much on derivations rather than how to get solutions to problems. He does curve the class about 10% which is helpful.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A- parade 07/31/2014	Overall, not a great lecturer, he goes through the material quite fast and is not great at explaining things. Using the online notes by Levermore supplemented with Paul's notes plus the occasional patrickJMT/Khanacademy youtube video was enough to get me through most of the material. I also had a fantastic TA (Jacky Chong), definitely take him if available, he's kind of eccentric but really knows his stuff! His tests are quite fair not easy but not impossible either.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/28/2014	Taking Diff Eq with Machedon, I only went to class for his assessments (3 quizzes, each a week before each of the 3 midterms), and instead of going to class taught myself from the online textbook. Before each assessment, he sends out an email reminding you about it, which sections it covers, and usually a few hints about its content. They were all fairly straightforward, though the midterm with LaPlace was bad, an average of 59, the other two exams had B averages. He curves significantly at the end, 10% for me. The matlab was not bad, and only was on one exam, unlike some other Diff Eq teachers. Paul's Online Notes are great for when the textbook is too wordy.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/25/2014	Cameron was the worst teacher I've ever had. It was so hard to understand her during lecture since she had a heavy accent and didn't really explain the things she wrote on the board. I stopped going to Tuesday lectures and only came to the other lecture because she had weekly quizzes on this day. I had to learn everything from discussion, but 50 minutes a week is not enough to cover all the material taught in Diff Eq. Therefore, I had to teach myself a lot of the material, which is really hard considering the fact that quizzes were every week, and I had other things to do. She also assigned a LOT of Matlab projects, which were very difficult considering a lot of people had no prior experience with it. I actually wish I didn't look at the ourumd grade curve for Cameron so I could've taken a teacher that explains the material better. If you're taking Diff Eq, I recommend NOT taking Cameron. You won't learn anything in lecture and the weekly quizzes will wear down your grade unless you're willing to put in a lot of effort outside of class.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2013	Great Professor, hands down the best option for diff eq. Very Nice person who is very dedicated and wants his students to succeed (Not many professors will hold a 2 hour review on a Sunday before an exam). He's average at lecturing and sometimes goes a little too fast, but he is very helpful at office hours and posts the notes online. His website is AMAZING and you can find old exams as well as class notes on his webpage as well, which is extremely helpful. Tests are very fair, yet there are still idiots out there who don't study and do his sample problems/old exams and complain about the difficulty of the exams. He also has a nice "bomb's away policy" and your quizzes get bumped up if you have a higher exam grade. The final was extremely easy, and I'd say Levermore prepared us well for it. The only negative thing I'd say about this class were the matlab's which were a pain in the ass.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A joebiden 12/17/2013	amazing online notes (no need to attend lectures). fair grading scale. Easy tests/quizzes that are the same as past semesters.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B grumble 12/17/2013	If you're good at self-teaching, this professor is the one for you. I'll just go ahead and say it outright; he's not a good teacher in any sense of the phrase. Most of the notes that were useful when the exams came around came from my discussion sections, although the TA wasn't superb either. The problems and concepts aren't difficult or complicated at all; they're just incredibly numerous and Jakobson doesn't do a very good job in explaining them. If you're preparing yourself to take this class, understand that either you'll: a) be on the same page as him as few of the students were, or b) be pretty lost a lot of the time and will be engaging yourself heavily in the textbook. While he might be hard to understand, it certainly helps to read ahead and study the textbook prior to the lectures because you'll actually understand what's going on. However, I will say that his exams and quizzes are very fair. Simply teach yourself the rather basic concepts, do the suggested problems, and you'll probably be okay. Of 6 MATLABs, he drops the lowest grade for a total of 100 points and out of 150 earnable quiz points, he only accepts 100 in the final grade and he never really explained how that part works. 3 midterms are 100 points each and the final is worth 200.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2013	I seriously do not understand why everyone hates her so much. I mean, I can see why her teaching style (which involved rigorous theoretical proofs and only very complex examples) doesn't work for some people--especially those who aren't math majors--but this backlash is a tad strong. She has an accent. It's pretty darn understandable. If you can't deal with an accent, go elsewhere. Otherwise, it's not a big deal and it shouldn't affect your understanding of the material. If you're used to either writing down nothing or writing everything the professor writes, you need to reconsider. The material is complex enough that you can't get away with paying no attention (or not going to lecture because they don't like it). She also will do entire proofs which are not necessary for applying the concepts, but may help your understanding or come in handy in later proof-based classes. If you're smart, you'll know when to stop taking notes (around the time imaginary numbers show up) and just try to absorb it. The quizzes were quite difficult and I do think she should have lightened up on them a bit once the averages dropped significantly). The Matlabs were pretty hard, but such is the nature of Matlab for those who aren't fluent in it. I think they should be removed from the course entirely, but I don't think that's her decision. The exams were entirely fair. Nothing was unexpected. If you knew what you were doing, you would get a good grade. Sure, the averages were low, but getting that just means that what's considered good has shifted. It doesn't feel great to have an 85 and not know what is going to happen to your grade, but now I can tell you that an 85 is at least a solid A. The TAs were absolutely wonderful and complemented her theoretical style by giving step-by-step instructions. If you're into theoretical math and proofs, go ahead and take Cameron. You're going to have the stress of a low grade throughout the class, but know that it will be improved by a curve at the end. If you do well on the midterms or the final, you're golden.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Anonymous 06/10/2013	There were several issues with this class. The major ones: Time management. The first chapters were covered in 2-3 weeks, the last chapters were covered one per week (or more, if you include discussion). I imagine this will improve in future classes. The MATLAB assignments. This was barely covered in class and the book less than helpful. On one hand, they were graded EXTREMELY leniently. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure they did not in the least improve my MATLAB skills. She has an accent. Not much to say other than it's there. The pros: Examples. This professor did more step by step example problems than any other professor I have ever had. Everywhere around me people *****ed and moaned when a problem took two pages to write. But now I'm reading your reviews, and apparently skipping steps (after she had done several of one type of problem) is bad too? She is amazing in office hours. I felt like an idiot struggling with problems at home. When I went to see her, she explained them to me in five minutes. Overall the class consisted of tests, weekly quizzes based on hw problems (hw is not graded), and MATLAB projects (which in my section received full mark for submission). I went to lecture every day, took notes, did homework and studied for tests, and I got a B+. I put in a decent effort, a solid effort would have gotten me an A. As a side note - if any engineering student in Cameron's class thought she has bad handwriting - you are in for a rude awakening. Engineering professors are second only to doctors in bad penmanship.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/29/2013	I feel bad for the lady looking at all of these reviews, she was so nice to everyone. I wish she had more command over the classroom, it was a very noisy lecture. Everyone is giving terrible reviews because they couldn't keep up with her lecture. She structured her class badly because her lecture was always at least a section ahead of the homework. I think if people kept up they would have found that she was a decent lecturer. I couldn't keep up, so I just learned from Levermore's notes that are on his website. I did a little above the class average on everything, but absolutely crushed the final, so she just gave me an A in the class. She ended up grading the last 3 matlabs for completion, so there's that. Overall, not the end of the world if you take her.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/17/2013	She is just terrible. I remember the first day of class a substitute came in and taught for us and I thought to myself diff eq ain't bad as all of my friends and advisor had told me. The following week when Cameron finally showed up I knew the moment she opened her mouth that I couldn't understand what she was saying. Her handwriting is so atrocious and she tends to skip steps to cut off time but leaves us confused. Anytime someone asks a question she answers in a way no one can decipher. After a week of this nonsense I just skipped lecture and learned off the book. The quizzes were similar to our homework at first but then she drifted off to just things she made up. I went to scoring an average of 8/10 at first to around 3/10 by the end of the semester. It wasn't just me as I saw my friend and fellow classmates go down this way. Matlab was too hard for this class. The matlab questions for this class requires you to know a large amount of knowledge about matlab beforehand. I have only been acquainted with the copy and paste method I have learned in MATH241. If you do the matlab projects alone, you are gonna have a bad time. The tests that she give out are not hard and I even found out the test comes from another professor. There is matlab involved and she does not cover well most of the questions that are on the tests. Then again, she doesn't cover most things well. The TA for this class will make or break your experience. Luckily, I had Hana Ueda who dissected the topics Cameron will talk about for the following lecture into steps to solve. The math discussion basically became my lecture time. Other than the book and the internet, I learned diff eq from my TA. For anyone that is looking into taking this class, take my advice. Read the book, find an online homework help source, attend all the discussions if your TA is good, skip all lecture except the last 20 minutes on thursday since she gives out quizzes at the end of class, and form a matlab group! If you do all of the steps you will definitely get at least a C like I did. Lecture is definitely a waste of time when you can actually learn Diff Eq off the book.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/15/2013	Here is MY problem with this professor. I went to class, read the book, beat the curve on nearly all the quizzes and all but one test (the one test i barely missed the curve), and I still got a C in the class. I can't argue that my raw grade in the class was a literal 70%, because thats what it was from a strict (points earned)/(points possible) standpoint. Lets first establish that diff eq is a hard class, there's no two ways about that (not sure what the person below me is talking about...). Due to this fact, I expected to come out with a B, because teachers typically curve the class by giving the majority of the students C+ or B-. However..... If I beat the curve on most assignments and got a C (so lets say that pulls me from 70% to 75%) what happned to the rest of the class? Did you SERIOUSLY pass half of the class and fail the other half? I personally thought she was bad at lecturing, and if she didn't put you to sleep then she just confused the daylights out of you. Questions usually went unaddressed, and even when she did finally see someone with their hand up she always managed to make everyones comprehension worse. She has a thick (Russian I believe?) accent and its hard to understand her sometimes, her handwriting isn't great. I even went to her office hours a couple times, and just stopped going because she was never of any help. So.... if for scheduling reasons, or some other circumstances you are forced to take this professor (I feel for you, by the way) then here's what I believe helped me survive and things I probably could have done better : 1) Whenever she gives out quizzes, they are usually based on homework. If you are doing homework and think "oh this problem is insane, she wouldn't give us that" then you've just found the quiz question. 2)The TA's are remarkable. They will be your only lifeboat in this class, and typically you'll only get once a week discussion where they are forced to cover excessive amounts of material in a short amount of time, but they are good at it and will get it done. Go to discussion and TA office hours for questions, it is vital to your survival. Don't take her. Please. It's GPA poison. I learned all the material, scored above average, and I still got screwed. I'm more in shock that she did this as opposed to upset
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/14/2013	Cameron did a terrible job of managing this class. I understand that this is the first time she has taught this course, but she could have done a much better job on many levels. She spent the majority of the semester going over the first three chapters (which contain the easiest material covered in the course) and did the last three chapters in the last 3-4 weeks of the semester. My roommate took a different professor for this class and he was having tests on material that our class hadn't even covered yet in lecture. Considering the fact that our class was learning the last chapter less that a week before the final really put our class at a disadvantage compared to the other sections. Her classroom lectures mostly consisted of copying the lectures that Prof. Levermore posted online. The tests and quizzes were also very similar to the ones posted on Levermore's site. She even assigned the exact Matlab projects that he posted. If you are severely unfortunate and get stuck with Cameron as a teacher, just google 'umd math246 levermore' to find all of Levermore's material. Besides the fact that she sounds like the Count from Sesame Street, her teaching style is awful. Even if you focus really hard to understand what she is saying, it is impossible to keep up with her lecture. She consistently skips essential steps in problems that makes it extremely difficult for anybody to understand how the problems are being done. For example: When learning about linear systems, she would routinely skip the steps when you have to multiply matrices together or do other matrix related functions. So unless you have taken linear algebra you would have no idea how she got the answer. Class attendance was a joke. After the first two weeks a large majority of people stopped going to class with an exception to the weekly quizzes, with the averages being around 40-50%. Take another MATH246 teacher. If this is not an option for you, skip class and use your time to teach yourself this course, because it will help you more than actually going her lectures.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting an A- UMDStudent2 05/12/2013	She is really bad at lecturing. Lectures are rarely helpful, so you will be learning most of the material in discussion and on your own. Her weekly quizzes are moderately difficult. They are not impossible but are difficult given that you only have 10 minutes to complete them at the end of class. Her exams were reasonable, and she does curve them (unfortunately this includes curving DOWN). Overall, I would NOT recommend this professor. If you have to choose between her and Lipsman, I would go with Lipsman because he is the better lecturer.
Maria Cameron MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/08/2013	By far the worst teacher I have ever had. Her Syllabus was constantly changed 2 weeks into the class because she had forgotten to take account for things. Her handwriting is god awful and the notations she uses confuse people to no end. I know this is her first time teaching this course but there is no excuse for the confusion her course brought me. I agree with the person who says that they regret taking her and would never reccomend her for any class.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/28/2013	It's true that He covers more than other professors, but it's worth to learn then. Because the book may often confuse me. He has the nicest online note. Most people complain that the course is hard, but they are the one who does not do his practice exam and former exams that he post online the exam is almost identical to the previous exams. Sometimes, I fell he goes too fast during the lecture, but overall he is a good math246 professor!
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A kingpinchimp 01/24/2013	I loved taking DiffEQ with Machedon. He is really friendly (the friendliest professor I've had). While the material can sometimes be unclear during lecture, he is approachable and you can clear up the issues you have. Some of the differences in reviews may have been the different TA's that we had. I had Summer as my TA and she was fantastic, and always explained everything clearly that Dr. Machedon may have been unclear on. Those with the other TA may not have had that and thus were unable to clarify a few things. As far as tests go, they are on a curve and fair for the most part. The only issue is the one trick question he likes to put on each test. If you get lucky its only worth a few points, but on one for us it was worth 20/100 and very few people actually knew what to do.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/21/2012	Dr.Machedon isn't the best teacher, but he makes up for it. His grade curve for the class is awesome! Automatically, above a 50% is a C- . Then the rest of the grades are determined based on how well the rest of the class did. Averages were real low for first 2 tests, but the 3rd test was ridiculously easy. But by choosing to take Machedon, prepared to get demolished on the final because the other teacher makes up the majority of the test. As a person, Machedon is probably the nicest math teacher, in which he is always willing to help you and clarify things. So if you don't understand somethin, just stop by his office during office hours and you'll be good.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/13/2012	This review is more about Machedon's class than his teaching. I never really went to lecture so I can't say whether or not he was good. But he drops 5 out of 15 hwk. We had three exams and one was extremely easy, the other two were fine and definitely doable. I would advise taking his class if you usually don't go to lecture because you can teach yourself from the book and still get a good grade in this course.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2012	I have to agree with the review below this one. I am a good student who is pretty good at math (Usually get A's) but as a teacher Machedon is not very helpful. He is a nice guy, but he doesn't really teach important concepts.. he gets more caught up on the details of the material. I have never really intentionally skipped a class before this one, but reading the dense book was more helpful than attending lecture. And that says something especially for a math textbook. I wouldn't recommend him as a professor for this class :/
Matei Machedon MATH246 Anonymous 11/06/2012	Machedon is a really nice man, and he seems to genuinely care about his students, but he is not a great teacher. His handwriting is difficult to read and his lectures are not very well-organized. He runs through lessons very quickly, and I personally find it difficult learning Diff Eq from him. I have watched Khan Academy videos and have had to read sections in the textbook (which is mediocre) repeatedly just to catch up to him. I'm also really confused by the comments about his tests being really easy. I guess he's changed his test format since then, because his tests are so ridiculously and unnecessariy complicated. They're long for a 50-minute time period, and the questions are far from direct. I've done all the homeworks and recommended practice problems and I feel like they don't help me with the tests at all. For the first exam, the average was around a 67/100. He does curve the tests, but if you score under a 50, you're out of luck. This seems like a fair grading system at first, until you realize how much the TA's don't like giving out partial credit.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/25/2012	I liked Levermore. I always felt like he was on the students side by always trying to make things clear in class. As people have mentioned his website is a great resource. There are old quizzes and exams to study from which are extremely helpful. His notes are also quite helpful. A lot of the time though I usually did not understand the theory that he explained before he went into examples which there are plenty of. I usually went to his notes rather than the textbook which is an okay secondary resource. His lectures were okay. I usually felt pretty confused. He is obviously a really smart guy but sometimes his explanations were not the greatest. I also felt like I memorized a lot methods rather than understanding differential equations but who cares.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Anonymous 05/11/2012	Levermore THE GOOD: Levermore is a good professor. He really limits the proofs he does on the class, which is good for engineering students. He is also very dedicated to teaching diffeq. His website is really well designed. It’s obvious he spent a lot of time on his class notes and sample problems for exams (he uses the same ones every year). Exams questions were predictable since he uses a similar format every year. THE BAD: Personally, I found differential equations difficult. This is a class where the curve can work against you if you make lots of careless mistakes. Some of his “shortcut” methods (especially partial fractions and linear algebra stuff) are somewhat cryptic and hard to understand. OVERALL: Good professor, hard exams. If you are looking for an easier A, then take someone else.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/06/2012	I have not taken the final yet so I can't fully describe how well he prepared us. But with that in mind I have to say Levermore is a really good teacher. He seems to understand that most of the people in the class didn't really care about proofs so he seemed to do just enough for this to still qualify as a math class and then spent most of the class doing examples which ultimately helped me a lot. And, as a bonus, it was really easy for me to picture him as a super villain who spends his nights punishing students who don't know math. This served as a great incentive to learn diff eq.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B+ TerpGuy 01/15/2012	The review for Jakobson was misleading. He is portrayed as a really horrible professor but in retrospective, he was not bad mostly because his exams and quizzes were straightforward. Although some matlab homeworks were pain, they were doable since we were allowed to work in a group of 3. We only had about 5 matlab projects. Also, he gave out 5 extra credit points for each matlab projects if the presentation of the assignment was pretty. However, his lecture notes are very messy and I had to mostly self teach myself or rely on my TAs. Speaking of TAs, I got cheated out of an A because my TA never revealed to us that we could get extra credit points for matlab assignments until around the time before 3rd assignment was due. If you do the suggested book problems, you should do well on his exams. I would recommend taking him if you do not wanna be bothered by huge amounts of matlab assignments and terribly difficult exams.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2011	Because of all the low reviews here, I didn't have very high expectations for Jakobson going in. As it turned out, Jakobson was much better than his reviews give him credit for. He usually teaches much better than the book does and always says what exactly is expected of you for each type of problem on a test. The book is good for the easier topics (integrating factors, exact equations) but becomes pretty useless later on in the course. At this point, you definitely want to go to lecture and he will make things pretty simple. He doesn't really try to trick you on tests or quizzes. If you can do the majority of the problems in the suggested homework, the tests are simple. He never really gave any integrals that were too tricky to evaluate. He ended up dropping our lowest quiz grade, and our lowest test was only weighted as half of a test. Gives pretty good partial credit, and is very organized. Homework problems are suggested and not graded. Matlab can be very time-consuming and annoying because you have to work in a group of 3, so I would recommend joining a discussion section with a few friends who you know are reliable, because it is a real hassle if you get stuck with random people who don't know what they're doing. Overall, I would definitely recommend Dr. Jakobson.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2011	Levermore taught us fairly well, but it seems like he taught us more how to do the problems in the class and less how to do differential equations in general. It doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of good diff eq professors in general, but I would recommend Levermore over others.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C TinyOne 12/21/2011	It's not very hard to do well with this professor if you stay on top of your homework. I barely did homework and I got a C in the class. If you go to the lecture and discussion right before an exam, hints are dropped like bombs about the problems that will be on it. Even without the hints you get, the problems are pretty straightforward. The final was made up of easy problems, it was just long. Also, this professor dropped half of the the score of the worst exam and he gave extra credit on the Matlab projects. And while he wasn't the best lecturer, he certainly wasn't the worst.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Anonymous 12/16/2011	He is not the teacher to teach the materials however he is not a harsh professor. He makes adjustments in the class to help students. His exams are not difficult if you do all the home work and he usually tells you before the exam what is on there. However he doesn't make the final. The final is different from what he does in class. The wording of the questions and the style of questions are different.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/14/2011	His lectures are 100% a waste of time. He is very difficult to understand and he barely erases the chalkboard so it's difficult to read his notes. The only time his lectures made sense were when I studied the topic before class, and even then I got lost about 20 minutes along. That being said, his exams and quizzes are generally a lot easier than some of the other instructors. Compared to Balan (the other option this semester) the exams were easy. If you can afford the time, wait to take DiffEQ when there is a decent professor teaching it. The subject is so boring that a terrible teacher makes me lose interest in studying for the class at all.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2011	Levermore is a pro at teaching differential equations. He really knows who the class is made of - primarily scientists and engineers, not mathematicians. His online notes are then particularly useful because he takes the time to write out general formulas that can actually be applied to real-world problems. I am saving his notes for life.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A vnsach 05/22/2011	Great professor and nice guy. He is very reasonable with grades as his policies suggest. Drops a quiz and matlab, replaces quiz grades if you do well on the test and curves generously if you perform well on the final. I probably had around an 85 going into the final but he curved me up to an A since I did well on the final. Most importantly, his website is amazing. I literally went to class for 10 minutes a week just so I could take my quiz and learned everything off class notes and previous quizzes/tests. If you read his online notes intently, you will get an A in the class. He is better than the other teachers from what I have heard and a great choice for differential equations.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2011	Lecture: Levermore was not the greatest lecturer, but from what my friends experienced in other 246 classes he is probably your best bet. Definitely helps to be a math major and know many different math terms and symbols. Handwriting was subpar. You really only need to go to lecture for the last three weeks or so because that is when he goes over phase portraits and right before the second exam when he goes over spring forces because theses are not on his online notes. (He has great online notes that he posts) Website: Seriously best website ever, take him because of his website. MATLAB: Is difficult I can't really grade him for it though, he just assigns it and we have to figure it out (buy the MATLAB book, it does a pretty good job) Grading: 3 Midterms (100points each) 6 MATLAB's one dropped (20 points each) 11 Quizzes (almost every Tuesday during lecture 10 points each) Final (200 points) He also has some crazy grading systems which you can look up here: http://www-users.math.umd.edu/~lvrmr/2010-2011-S/Classes/MATH246/Quizzes.html Hint: look over the past couple years quizzes to study for each quiz (he keeps the answers posted too). And do the practice tests.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2011	Just finished taking him. Probably the best teacher you could ask for for a class like 246. Very engaging, handwriting sometimes hard to read but bearable. Best part: His amazing website. All pertinent announcements go on there, grades averages and distributions, awesome sample problems, and best of all: Online notes! His online notes are great; they could easily be a substitute for going to class, but keep in mind there is a weekly quiz. Exams aren't difficult at all, just look at old exams and the samples problems and you can easily ace the class.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A terp315 07/28/2010	The median grades for the 3 exams in my section: 80/100, 94/100, 98/100. Seriously, they were that easy. Professor Machedon was a very efficient lecturer, so as long as you paid attention in class there was little to no reason not to do well. The final was apparently written by the other professor but I didn't find it that difficult at all. Just review the homeworks and you'll be fine.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A+ keyoung 06/01/2010	I found Machedon to be an excellent teacher as well as a great guy. His lectures were clear and very focused. He taught very straight forward, only covering subjects we needed to know and talked about theory only a few times. He was approachable and responded well to students concerns. His hws were helpful and exams were basically hw problems. Try to take a class with him.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B- mikhail 05/22/2010	Sooooooo... His exams are easy, nevertheless, final exam will bring you back to earth. So just be prepared. Other than that he is a very good math professor. I Recommend!
Tobias von Petersdorff MATH246 Expecting an A xenonscreams 05/20/2010	He's an excellent professor who really understands the material and is pretty good at teaching it. His exams are extremely fair, and if you study you should do well, although it is easy to make stupid mistakes and lose a lot of credit. Matlab assignments were relatively long, but were graded very kindly and generally helped with everyone's grades. He does have panic attacks, as other people have mentioned. Sometimes they interfere with class or getting an exam passed out on time. He seems to be working on controlling them, as sometimes he will come close to having a panic attack but will breathe deeply and control himself. It seems to help to give him all the answers he asks for and ensure him that everything is OK and readable when he starts to frantically erase.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2010	His tests are a joke. The only thing is if you make one mistake it could cost you. Final was unfortunately not written by him, so that was a bit rough. However, if you have the option, definitely take Machedon.
Tobias von Petersdorff MATH246 aloo1111 05/11/2010	He's a good professor. Study well and earn your grade with him
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A armantheman 05/09/2010	Diffeq is a joke with him, take it with him.
Tobias von Petersdorff MATH246 Anonymous 04/27/2010	The instructor covered the material very well and explained how to do each type of problem however it was distracting to watch the professor have panic attacks in class in middle of a problem. It is unnecessary to erase the whole board because of a small algebra error such as a missed sign. His matlab assignments are very long and since he forgets to post them up I had less than a week to do the matlab and no time to do them over the weekend. I would suggest Von Petersdorff as a math professor since he covers the material well and because his tests are fairly straight forward on material covered in class.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A+ jahs389 03/03/2010	Levermore has no accent and very effectively presents what you need to know - you can't ask for more than that. But, he also has a website with all his old exams and quizzes. He does reviews for exams and the actual exams are nearly identical in format to his practice ones, you can't go wrong if you study. Matlab will take up time but that is just the course not him. Between Levermore and my TA, I managed an A+ which is a pretty big turn around from a D I got when I first took Math246.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/02/2010	Ok professor, however just like every other math course at UMD, the structure is terrible. His lectures would leave you left in the dust, got most of my help from the TA during office hours. Not impressed with the way this class is set up. Your grade in this class solely depends on what TA you get. They grade all of the quizes and exams. For the last exam, my TA was not given a solution manual and had to make up her own solutions to the exam and then graded my exam. Don't expect to get any partial credit, it's either right or wrong with this class. I'm so glad that I pay so much in tuition to have my TA teach and grade me.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting an A jcosta12 12/11/2009	At first, I hated this guy. However, once you get used to his teaching method and the extensive information he throws at you at once, he is a really good professor. He has his own methods of teaching things (KEY IDENTITY is his method) and it is by far easier than the other methods. He is the best Differential Equations professor UMD has to offer. His exams are EXACTLY like his sample tests he posts on his website with only slight variations. Do those and you'll be fine. Quizes every tuesday sucks, but if you get a higher grade in an exam, he replaces all the quizes leading up to that exam with your exam grade. This is the reason why I got an A in the class.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Xin 11/25/2009	Not a great professor. He tries to make class entertaining with his jokes and such, but it doesn't compensate for his lack of teaching ability. Don't even bother going to class unless there is a quiz or an exam, you won't learn anything at all. He just writes a bunch of greek symbols and nasty algorithms. Get past exams and quizzes and study those. Also read the book.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Anonymous 11/14/2009	I can't believe how many good reviews there are of this professor! He just down right does not know how to teach. You MUST go to lecture to even try to have a shot at a good grade and it is impossible to get an A. Whoever the other professors are take them, cause they have to be better then Machedon!
Charles Levermore MATH246 guru 10/01/2009	I think he was a good professor. Slightly humorous. His class webpage is possibly the best in terms of utility I have seen from a professor. The exam dates, notes, homeworks, and solutions to quizzes, etc are posted in a very organized, clear fashion.
Charles Levermore MATH246 jumpboyb 09/12/2009	So-So. His lectures often left you saying "WTF?" He will force you into learning the greek alphabet if you do not know it yet along with drawing some other random symbols. Not too many examples in the lecture however. The homeworks, old quizzes, and practice test will make sure you are ready to get an A or B in the class as the material really isn't hard for the most part. Easier than Calc 2 for sure. Go to his office hours and he does a slightly better job of explaining things to you that he went over in lecture. He is also very approachable and does not have a accent you can't understand
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 08/04/2009	Justin is a great professor. he doesnt make you learn all of the unnecessary things that the other 246 teachers make you learn. his tests are basic and there is nothing that is on there to try to trick you. they are basically the same as the practice tests he gives, which really help a lot. the final exam was a little bit more difficult because it is a uniform exam and there are things that he did not cover, as far as i know. (i did not go to many classes at the end of the semester) he probably would have curved it, but he had taught the other material so well, our class did better than the classes who covered more material. Overall, if you put any effort into this class, there is no reason to not get an A
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting a B highvoltage81 07/09/2009	I had Justin for Diff eq, which on its own is moderately hard. He was different from wolfe who i had the semester prior in that he didnt just write up all the formulas on the board or derive them, he went through step by step to show you the methods you needed to know, and his tests clearly followed his lectures. im taking him again for math403!
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting an A cityazndan 05/23/2009	Great class. Exams were like the samples. Screw the MATLAB book...guides were always posted. Excellent professor who broke MATH246 down into the simplest of terms. As long as you do the MATLABs, do well on the exams, and take a decent amount of quizzes, you have the A on lockdown. The final was VERY similar to the ones on testbank.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/19/2009	He can't teach. He spends 75 minutes writing gibberish on the board that no one can understand. Even the book does a better job of explaining the material than he does. At some point during the semester you realize that you can't learn from him and you might as well skip his class and go to lunch instead.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/18/2009	I was expecting to get a B in the class but was pleased to find out that I got an A-. Although he isn't the greatest teacher in the world, the only advice i can give is to do his sample questions for his exams and the final. They are EXACTLY like his exams just with different numbers. Also, for any math class, when preparing for a final exam, go to UMD's testbank and do past exams. There was a question that was taken verbatim off last years test. Do his sample questions and past exams and you will have no problem getting at least a B
Charles Levermore MATH246 jmartin1 05/18/2009	he was so-so as a professor. I personally found him to be very confusing at times and not very clear. however, the book for the class was awful, and for someone like me who uses textbooks as references, this made the class even harder for me.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/01/2009	One of the worst professors I have ever had. Rarely uses examples to explain and lectures get confusing with the vast number of symbols and variables he uses. My TA's were excellent and more effectively explained 2 lectures worth of material in 50 minutes that he was able to do. Avoid taking his Math246 class.
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting a B kvizzle321 04/28/2009	Justin is a great professor. MATH246 is a very hard class, and the book they give you is not very good at explaining, so lectures are very important when learning the material. He was pretty flexible with missed MATLAB assignments, which were pretty frustrating. Additionally there are weekly quizzes in discussion but he drops a few of them. I missed many lectures and quizzes and still have a chance to get a B. As long as you go to lectures and take all the notes, you will have no problem getting a good grade in Justin's class.
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting an A jwong89 04/20/2009	By far the best math professor I've had. If you go to class and write down all the notes he writes on the board, the only time you will open your book is to see what the homework problems are. Lectures are very organized, starts with the theory and then shows a couple of examples. The best thing is that he only teaches what you need to know for the tests and the tests themselves are really easy. He doesn't try to trick you with the tests and the sample exams he gives are very similar to the actual tests. Basically, if you can do the sample exams you will know how to do the entire test. Weekly quizzes are a pain, but he only takes the top ten. MATLAB is similarly a pain, but he posts guides to the MATLAB assignments that are pretty much a step by step guide to the problems. If you can, take Justin for any math class that you have to take.
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/06/2009	You know? I would write an amazing review, but it seems like everything I could have said about him (all good) has already been said multiple times. I just felt like reinforcing the positive ratings anyway.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/29/2008	Not the best teacher but the material is not that hard. If you read the book you should have no problem grasping the concepts with the help of your TA's, dont expect much help from the professor. Grading is fair, if you get higher than 50%, you get a C. Then the passing grades are divided up
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH246 Expecting an A warthog 12/24/2008	I flunked Diff Eq twice, and had to beg for special permission to take it again. I took Justin's 246 one summer, and finally understood everything and got an A. Absolutely wonderful professor, can't recommend highly enough. Also, I just read this comments page after reading Wolfe's. Total opposites, haha.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a B stanleyj 12/08/2008	He is difficult to understand and tends to strictly teach theory rather than doing examples. Also, his lectures get rather confusing due to the abstract variables, bold letters etc. His tests can be too long vs the time that is given to take them.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Anonymous 12/04/2008	His lecture is clear and great! You have to par attention though because sometimes he teaches his own methods which are easier than the stuff in the textbook.
Charles Levermore MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/01/2008	worst professor ever. he is a genius, thats for sure, but he can not teach at all. i have not taken calc 3 yet which is supposed to make it easier but either way... he teaches class like he is reading from a book, which book, i havent a clue, because it sure isnt the one that is assigned to us. he has his own methods for solving things which are not in the book (or any others for that matter) which are not at all intuitive and effectively take up class time, as they are all useless. (to me at the very least). he rarely does examples to illustrate the concepts that he presents to us, and the examples he does use are not very good and are only of the simplest cases. his hand writing is very difficult to read, and his board is very rarely cleaned making it even harder to read the notes. finally, he refuses to accept any excuse for missing an exam. even if your mom dies, he does not care.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2008	Even though he has a thick accent and horrible handwriting, go to class and just see what you're supposed to know. The written homework is not graded, but you should do it because it's the best way to prepare for weekly quizzes. The TAs do really good jobs at explaining stuff from lecture but it's not enough. Exams are fair but MATLAB hw was a bit hard.
Tobias von Petersdorff MATH246 Expecting an A gundamwing4132 05/01/2008	Fair exams, good lectures.
Matei Machedon MATH246 Anonymous 04/22/2008	Very very confusing when he teaches, but you should go to the classes and try to just get the general flow of what is going on because you have to make it click during discussion because there is a quiz almost every week. he often goes ahead in the book right before tests when it would be better if he just reviewed. he is bearable but if you don't understand make sure you go to your ta and the matlabs for this class are horrible

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/19/2024

Unintelligible. nice guy though

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting an F
Anonymous
09/07/2024

NEVER TAKE MANS, HE DOESNT EVEN DESERVE ONE STAR, MANS ENCAPSULATED EVERYTHING BAD ABOUT A PROFESSOR. RUN AWAY

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
08/28/2024

Bad, Avoid , SOS, GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN. This is a self-study course, don't expect any help from the professor, TAs are decent, but out of their league. If you can take lectures from a different section, do it. Quizzes and tests are arbitrary, teacher is bad with email, lecture slides are incomprehensible.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/24/2024

By far one of the best math teachers I've had at umd so far. He really cares about his students whenever someone had a question he'd stop and fully explain it. After he answered a question the student said "thank you" and he said "thank you" back you can really see he cares in his lecture. No quizzes in the discussions which is nice if you can't make in and the homework's are pretty straight forward especially if you work with other people. Test are also not too bad there are usually 1 or 2 tricker questions but as long as you pay attention in class and study you should be fine. He also has a huge curve to his class which was super helpful (I think an 86 was and A). I would definitely recommend taking Prof. Machedon for 246!

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/21/2024

I want to say that he is really a nice professor, but he's lectures are very confusing, I did so many self study in this class. But he's office hour is helpful and you only need to take one mid term.

Pablo Cedillos
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/09/2024

Super helpful! Provided lots of extra practice problems and posted examples from discussion. Helped a lot with exam review!

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Anonymous
06/09/2024

A catastrophically bad professor. I had to drop him within two weeks of the semester beginning because I knew it was going to be a nightmare. He 'teaches' by mumbling through pre-prepared slides where he basically just reads the equations. Long story short, it's impossible to learn anything from that. By the end of the first lecture, something like half the room had already left, and only a third were still showing up by the time I dropped the class. Do not take under any circumstances, even if you have to push the class in question back a semester.

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/27/2024

He is alright as long as you do the Levermore practice problems and go to discussions. His exams are very similar to the practice exam he gives. Overall he's not the best in terms of teaching, a lot of this course is learned by yourself or with your friends.

Haoran Li
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/22/2024

I had him for Math246 with Justin in Fall 2023. He was a great TA! He was very nice and helpful and took his time to explain confusing concepts to me. He tried his best to teach me the material in a way that I could understand. His office hours were always consistent and he helped make this course less stressful for me. I could tell that he cared and wanted me and my classmates to succeed.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Redacted_Username
05/19/2024

Unfortunately, I can't endorse him as a professor due to his teaching style. Much of his lectures involved projecting pre-written images onto the board, but these were not shown in full screen, making his handwriting difficult to read; it was also fairly easy to lose track of where he was in the lecture as a result. The exams weren't too bad provided that you can self-study from the online textbook.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/17/2024

Pros: Good lecturer, makes material easy to understand, writes very large on chalkboard. Seems like a nice guy. Curve was VERY generous. Cons: Class taught off of very convoluted notes, hard to know what was on final

Pablo Cedillos
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/16/2024

Pablo is a really nice man. His practice problems for the midterms were very helpful! Wish he could be my TA again.

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2024

I'll star off by saying this is the first and only Math class that I've ever gotten an A in. He explains things very clearly and is super chill. He's still a young guy and is figuring things our but he's definitely one of my all time favorite professors. His practice exams are carbon copies of his actual midterms, which there are three of. I will say the problems he gives out on exams are generally the simplest/easiest form of the problem to solve which is nice. I got through the class pulling an all-nighter before each midterm without any extra studying and got a 100 on 2/3 of the exams. He's a great guy and def. the best choice to pick if he has any open seats left.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/14/2024

Nightmare fuel. Lectures were impossible, he mumbles along and either scribbles on the chalkboard which is unreadable, or reads off his lecture notes, which are just lined paper filled with his scribbles, stuff crossed out, arrows pointing every which way. By the third week, the lecture hall was pretty much empty every class, maybe twenty people or less still hanging on, but you could see most were on their computers taking notes from the online textbook (you need to know about this if you take Jakobson, the "Levermore Notes", it's literally a collection of PDFs on the UMD website) or recordings from Professor Terrence Long which are on youtube. Exams were arguably not horribly difficult, nor were the quizzes. We had random homework which required learning MatLab which was absolutely never referenced in class except for a one-off quiz question one time, so it was a huge waste of time but worth a lot of points. Luckily the homework was group work, which made it more tolerable. Lowest homework assignment and lowest quiz grades were dropped, which was good, he one time claimed final scores could replace worst midterm score, but I don't know if he'll actually do this. The only thing that can be said is that the textbook, and Professor Long's lectures, are both quite good, so it's definitely possible to self-study. If you're someone who can't do that, then absolutely do not take Jakobson. Jakobson is just a means to an end to be in a section to take the exams.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/14/2024

Prof. Machedon is a really nice professor and probably one of the best you can have for diff eq. He knows his material, and happily will answer questions during lecture if you have them. His TAs this semester were really excellent as well. Lectures: Not too engaging. He does have a slight accent that is not a problem understanding. They made sense, but they were hard to pay attention to for 75 minutes. He would sometimes go on theoretical tangents and proofs, which were interesting but hard to tell if it was something we were expected to know for the exam. Overall, they were slightly disorganized and many people skipped. The notes came from Dr. Levermore's diff eq online notes. These notes were very thorough and the content could be learned from reading these alone. He assigned a few optional practice problems each lecture from these notes. DO THESE! Prof. Machedon ran the class very well from a logistical standpoint. Very communicative, and kept us up to date on assignment due dates. The canvas page was run very smoothly as well. All assignments were posted promptly. If you have time, the GSS sessions were also good. Homework (HW = 20%, Matlab = 20%): Homework was given as multiple choice quizzes on Canvas -- we had a week or so to do them. There were also 2 written homeworks, graded leniently. We had 3 Matlabs that were very easy. They were Justin's projects, modified slightly. He was very conscious when we were behind in content and extended the homework/Matlabs a couple times when needed. Midterm (25%): We had one midterm. It was very straightforward, and there were no tricks. Significantly less stressful than the other professors this semester. Final (35%): It was a common final which all the professors could contribute to. It was very fair, I just didn't prepare well and therefore, didn't do well on the final. My only complaint is it felt very long and I didn't really have time to finish. Overall, 4 stars. Great communication, friendly lecture hall environment, great course organization. His generous grade brackets are also by 15 points instead of the usual 10. (i.e 85-100 is A-/A/A+ etc.) My only complaint is the content didn't quite feel paced right; we were really rushing at the end of the semester. I would recommend Machedon for sure! But, if you take 75 minute classes with, be prepared for a barrage of math!

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2024

This was one of the best math courses I've had at UMD so far. Francisco is super chill and a good professor. Weekly quizzes were super easy and matlabs were free points. He follows Levermore's notes almost exactly, both in lecture and exams. I thought his exams were very fair. He provides practice material that mirrors the actual exam. His lectures and exams prepared me very well for the final. He posts lecture notes and recordings which is also nice.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/14/2024

His lectures are not very straightforward and often left me confused, however Levermore and Justin's notes help a lot in this class. His exams are fair and his grade cutoffs are nice (over an 85 is an A). I would recommend taking his class but putting in more effort to stay on top of the material. He only gave my class one midterm, so when it was time to start studying for the final, I was really behind. Going to GSS and doing the practice problems he posts are worth it.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2024

This guy is not very good at teaching math. As someone who can usually follow along in math lectures (i.e. 240 and 241), I’d say I walked out of about 80% of lectures not understanding a word he said. Justin Wyss-Galifent’s notes for this class are pretty much the only reason I was able to do well, so I strongly recommend just using those. The good things about Machedon’s class is that he gives one of the lightest workloads you can get in a math class, with only 5 homeworks and 3 of the easiest Matlabs you’ll ever do, plus just one midterm and a final (although I recommend doing some practice on top of his assignments since learning everything in the couple days before the final was not fun). He also has a pretty nice curve compared to some other teachers (88% is an A). I’m giving him 2 stars because he’s a bad lecturer, but if you want a light workload and trust yourself to learn most of the content on your own (again Justin’s notes give you almost everything you need), you’ll be ok in this class.

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/11/2024

Very theory heavy which I personally favor but i know its not for everyone. He was very knowledgable and could always answer questions that people had. The practice exams were always very similar to the midterms. Weekly quizzes always helped learn concepts. Very approachable and a pretty cool guy.

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/10/2024

Francisco is fantastic! I was worried about taking DiffEq until I got into his class and realized how much he genuinely cared about his students and ensuring they do well. His exams are pretty easy and straightforward. He doesn’t try to trip you up with fancy calculus which I appreciated; there was one problem on Exam 1 that had us working with integrals and he literally told us to use u-sub (and he provided u!!). He proves plenty of resources to do well on all of the exams and his office hours are extremely helpful. There are quizzes almost every week but they are fairly easy as long as you are keeping up with the material; the quizzes also forced me to study/understand the topics on a weekly basis which was a good review. I had Pablo Cedillos as a TA, he is also fantastic and did a great job explaining the concepts that were on the quizzes.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/10/2024

Horrible. You cannot see what he puts on the board since it's a JPEG and a glare due to the lights in the armory. You cannot really understand what he is saying because he has a thick accent and talks relatively quietly. He does post his notes, but his handwriting is basically illegible. There is no point in even going to lecture, most of the class just learns the material on their own. There is maybe 6 people who consistently go to lecture but even then they are not paying attention. His exams and quizzes are somewhat fair I will say. The MATLAB homework is pretty difficult because we are expected to already know it. We get a book on it, but it is not taught in lecture or discussion.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2024

I think he would be a very good professor for an upper level course rather than MATH246. He taught it very much theoretical, which as this course is hard enough, that made it very difficult to understand and follow. As the semester went on I went to less and less lectures as it didn't benefit me in anyway, rather have me left in confusion as the only notes I have don't have any real useful examples to help me in practice (I was better off using Justin's online notes as they were extremely detailed with practical examples). There was only one midterm that was 25% of the grade, and the final 35%.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/09/2024

If I could leave 0 stars I would. This professor is fucking useless. Hopefully he gets removed from his job, but it has been 14 years of the same bullshit so I am sure nothing will change. DONT TAKE THIS CLASS. Save yourself the pain of teaching yourself all of Diff eq.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/05/2024

Never went to lecture, he is not the best at explaining at all. He only goes through Levermore's notes and it doesn't make any sense in class. To catch up, please watch Terrance Long's dfq videos on YouTube, although the videos were taken as the class was over the summer, you will have all the necessary notes. He only has one midterm and a final along with matlabs and homework! The Matlab and homework are pretty easy, make sure to utilize those for your grade. The midterm was pretty similar to the practice exam he gave, just know the important things from each chapter and practice. His curve is crazy, a 55 was a C-, if you put in the effort you will do amazing in this class!

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/03/2024

Machedon is not a bad teacher- his lectures just seem to go in one ear and out the other because of the monotone voice. That being said- everything in this class can be learned online or with the notes and the tests and quizzes are very fair. I would take this class if you enjoy self-studying more than going to class itself.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/03/2024

I love this man. He explains things so well, is always open to questions, and his practice exams with answers are godly. Also has a youtube channel where he posts how to do problems we did in class. He really cares about his students and wil even have "dinner office hours" in the y where people can come and chat with him. Highly recommend!

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/28/2024

Great professor! Considering how terrible diff eq professors have been historically, Herrera is fantastic. On a personal level, he is very nice and very understanding. On a teaching level, he does an excellent good job explaining the content in a way that cuts 80% of the BS. Lectures for the most part are easy to follow (occasionally there are derivations and technicalities which can be a pain to sit through). The class is mostly theory, so plan on studying a lot of the class outside lecture (practice problems on levermore's website is great). He records lectures (absolutely godsent). Weekly discussion quizzes are fair and easy for the most part, good to keep you up to pace with the class. The exams have been decently fair, he doesn't throw in any curveballs (no weird identities for integrals, no integration by part). He provides practice midterms, which were super helpful and mirrored exam structure. The second exam killed everyone in the class (some people only were able to attempt 2/5 problems), but he's receptive to these things and had exams graded very generously (I had two incomplete problems and still got a 91% on the exam). Overall, good professor, exams are fair game, receptive to class performance, genuinely nice guy. I would strongly recommend him! Additionally TAs (especially Pablo) have been great

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Anonymous
04/28/2024

Dr.Machedon is very nice, if you come to his office hour, he will help you to do the homework and explain everything you don't understand. The only thing bad is sometimes he pay to much attention on the stuff that we don't need to know in the exam. But the boundary is nice, you need an 88% to get A.

Noah Chrein
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/24/2024

If you have the opportunity to get Noah as your TA absolutely go for it - i know multiple people who switched into his section during the first week of classes or attend his discussion section despite having the other TA. During every discussion, he gives a recap of relevant concepts from class (ie. what will actually be tested) and also frequently goes over problems that are very similar to the graded homework questions. Also never takes off unnecessary points! Great teacher

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
04/17/2024

Some reviews have said that he drops the lowest test score or curves, and I’m here to tell you that he does neither! The grade that you have all semester will be the grade that ends up on your transcript! He does not curve, even fractions of a point. His lectures are probably one of the best for MATH246, but he leaves most of his problems unfinished. He does not provide any answers for practice problems because he says learning the process is more important than getting the answer (but that doesn’t seem to apply on exams..) You HAVE to do the suggested problems to get a feel for the test, reading the textbook, taking notes in every class, or watching YouTube videos is not enough. I put in the work and even got a tutor, but I’m still fractions of a point away from a B(ended up getting a C in the class). In class make sure to take very detailed notes because some small details about situations will show up. Good luck for this class, you’ll need it

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/25/2024

3 stars is what prof. Grillakis deserves. Not too high or low Pros: - Lenient grading - simplified midterm and final with copycat samples available - no homework except the MATLABs (largely completion grade), which tbf are quite stressful - covers less material than other teachers Cons: - will have to self teach, though there is less to self teach because he doesn't go as in depth on late topics - Not a great lecturer -- too theoretical, not enough practice problems especially considering its a "for eng/sci" course

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
BlueSyncer
01/07/2024

OK, everyone saying things on here that are pushing the rating to the 3-star region are being very unfair IMO. There are no quizzes in M246 with Williams, and the discussion is basically optional so only go if you feel it is necessary (I personally found my TAs unhelpful too which was another thing but that wasn't really Williams' fault). That being said, the lectures feel very "engineering course"-y in the context that there is NO justification of anything being done. In DiffEq, the opportunity to explain at least some of the logical things in the course (integrating factor, method of undetermined coefficients, hamiltonian functions, greens function, etc) was there, but it felt like Williams just chose not to because there wasn't enough time and he thought people wouldn't have interest. Not only would people have interest (at least I did), I think it would've helped made some of the concepts easier to understand (since there are a lot of non-logical concepts in DiffEq like Variation of Parameters, Local Linearization, etc). In terms of what you learn in the course though, you definitely will learn the appropriate content and he gives you enough of a basis to go out and justify some of the things he talks about in class should you feel that is necessary (like I did). Very approachable during office hours, and an overall really fun person to be around (not to mention he's super built and will talk about non-Math things as well). Cool guy overall, definitely knowledgeable... I'd definitely take Williams for M246 if you get the opportunity.

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/24/2023

As a person, he's a really nice and chill guy who does care about your learning. However, his lectures tend to just be him copying off Levermore's notes and only going into theory. He rarely goes through example problems with real numbers in class, which make it more difficult to prepare for exams. However, he does give good practice for his exams. My advice is to go through all the problems in Levermore's notes because many times, he simply copies problems from there and puts them in his exams.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Hanson truly wants every student in his class to do well. He takes time to meaningfully answer every single question during lecture, no matter how stupid it may sound. He also stays after lecture to clarify confusions and makes himself available through email and office hours. His lectures can occasionally be a bit hard to follow since he is scatter-brained and jumps around a lot, but he teaches straight from Levermore's notes so you can always reference those notes if you get lost or miss class. He also does a generally good job of getting through all the content and does a lot of example problems on the board which helps make things clearer. Before exams he also makes it very clear what will be tested on the exams and what won't be so you always know what to expect. He grades EXTREMELY generously so exam averages are quite high and the weekly workload from problem sets is very light. Overall a nice guy and good professor who will help you get the grade you want in diff eq

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2023

Overall, I think Francisco was a decent professor for MATH246, but I did have some issues with how this class was managed. His lectures placed a large emphasis on theory. But he would give a practice midterm before every exam, which really helped. It usually reflected the layout of the actual exam. I spent most of my time for this class self-studying and doing practice problems from Levermore's website, and that alongside the practice midterms helped me prepare well for exams. Francisco dropped the ball quite a bit near the end of the semester. He didn't teach the last unit very well (Systems of ODEs) and went at a poor pace. There were also concepts in class that he didn't teach at all (eigenvalues with higher multiplicities) that ended up on the exam. Also, he was lenient on his exam grading for most of the semester but for some reason, he decided to make a 180-degree u-turn on this last unit midterm. He deducted a whopping 10% for each small mistake on this exam rather than 2% like he did for the rest of the exams. The averages for that unit's midterm were 15% lower than the rest of the midterms. As I stated earlier, his pacing was quite poor for the last unit. As a result, he dumped a boatload of new content (very difficult content, that too) on us on the very last day of class, which he stated was going to be on the final. Because of this, I had to spend many, many hours across a mere few days just to learn and understand this new content. This made it way harder for me to study for not just for MATH246 in general, but all my other finals too. This gave me an extraordinary amount of stress going into finals week. However, despite all these issues, I felt Francisco was very understanding throughout the semester. He cancelled quizzes when it was not appropriate, such as right before/after an exam, or right after Thanksgiving break. He also entirely cut out a Matlab as we were short on time, instead of blindly stuffing it in on the last week like many other professors would do. He was also super chill, friendly and open to answering any questions in class or in office hours. I think he truly wanted us to succeed. Also, his TA, Dmitrii Gudin, was awesome. I've never had a more lenient grader than Dmitrii. About MATH246 in general - this is quite a difficult course. I know others who took this class with different professors and had it way worse. In general, it seems most MATH246 professors are terrible. In light of this, Francisco is definitely on the better end of MATH246 professors. I recommend taking this class with him if you can.

Francisco Arana Herrera
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/21/2023

He's a good lecturer but spends a lot of time on theory. Not his fault, it's how the course is designed. The quizzes are decent and the exams are really fair. The practice midterms he posted were what was put on the exam with different numbers, etc. The final was much harder but that was common across all diff eq sections. The matlabs were terrible to do but the ta wasn't too harsh in grading. They did take a crazy amount of time. If I had to redo this class, i would spend more time understanding the theory and being able know how to do different types of problems intuitively.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/18/2023

Dr. Williams is a very good lecturer, he writes clearly on the chalkboard and makes sure to repeat important information. He does a good job explaining things in a simple and easy to understand way and he usually doesn't go too fast during lectures which is generally good, but sometimes that means we don't finish a topic and have to stop in a weird place which can be confusing at first when we come back to it next lecture. He is fairly approachable during office hours, the only thing is usually there are a lot of students there so you end up relying more on other students for help than the professor, but if other students can't help you he is willing to answer your questions. There were only 3 matlab assignments and the first one had lots of examples in the textbook to guide you through it which was good because I had never used matlab before and it helped me understand how to use it. The other two matlab assignments were group assignments which is a good or bad thing depending on your opinion of group work. The homeworks weren't that much work, usually just 3 or 4 questions and they were usually the same type of questions that would be on the exams so they were good practice. On the topic of exams I highly recommended doing at least some of the suggested problems from each assigned chapter. Sometimes you might not have time to do all of them, but at least do some of them as I think they are the best way to be prepared for the exams. It seems like he likes to have an average of about 75 on the exams and he won't curve exams unless he realizes that it is his fault. For example the 2nd exam had an average of around 65 because the exam was way too long and most people were not able to finish. Because of this Dr. Williams added 10 points everyone's grade. Don't get me wrong this class is not an easy A, but I think the exams are fair and as long as you make an effort to attend and pay attention in lectures and do the suggested problems outside of class you will do fine.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/17/2023

He writes his notes big on the blackboard, and is a good lecturer. But god damn it the exams. He makes the exams so hard and not finishable in the given time (50 minutes). You literally have no time to think. As soon as you read the question you have to start writing like ah solve this equation using .... and you gotta be like okay boom boom boom right there and then. The other thing is he does not give extra credit. Not on exams, not on homework, not a single point. He does not curve as well. He says “I wont curve unless it is my mistake” meaning he only curves if he made a mistake. For us (fall 2023) he gave us a 10 points “curve” for exam 2 as some students literally turned in their exams without even finishing a couple questions due to time constraints. For a 3 credit class I spent too much time studying for the exams. Maybe it is because I took this class straight from doing Calc I and II. I have noticed most students taking this class have done Calc III or linear algebra. Still don’t get me wrong he explains the content very well, but again the exams. He does not post answer keys for the exams you take, or for the one "practice exam" he posts on Canvas. Be aware he does not like giving answer keys to student (had this argument in class with a student). I still think he is your best bet so just be aware you gotta put in the work. What I have noticed is professors either teach the material very well, and have hard exams or don't teach the material at all and have either easy or hard exams. It is hard finding a professor who teaches the material very well (like Dr. Williams), and give a reasonable exam. Just because a professor taught the material well doesn’t mean they should make the exam 10x harder. Just give us a fair exam thats doable in 50 minutes. Is that so much to ask? Remember it is their job to teach the material with clarity. Good Luck! -MK

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/17/2023

Dr. Williams is a really good lecturer with large handwriting and clear examples. He is very understanding and curves well when the exams are too long/complicated. His homeworks, Matlabs, and exams are definitely more challenging than other professors' though, and requires more application. The final is a lot easier in comparison to his midterms.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/16/2023

Summary: He's nice, but you'll learn a lot on your own. If you're looking for the best grade boost, take him; if you're looking to actually learn, take someone else. Grillakis is a nice guy and if you go to his office hours before an exam, he's helpful. However, lectures are taken exactly from Levermore's notes (Grillakis is very transparent about that), so most of the time he doesn't show the work. The lectures were boring and I rarely understood what was happening. However, I used Justin's notes (search up Justin MATH 246 UMD and his site will pop up) and it was EXTREMELY useful. Your grade is 30% MATLAB (6 in total over the whole semester), 30% midterm (which is only chapter 1), and 40% final (chapters 1-3). The MATLAB was confusing since the textbook is outdated, but if you go to math tutoring for MATLAB, it'll be WAY easier. Also, the TA was very lenient on grading MATLAB and the average score was 23/25 on each homework. The midterm wasn't too bad and Grillakis will send out practice questions for the midterm and final. Since Grillakis writes the midterm, the practice is EXACTLY like the midterm. The final was difficult since it's the same across all teachers. However, Grillakis will curve your overall grade (A+ = 95-100, A = 90-94, A- = 85-89, etc.) so it's super helpful especially since the class is difficult.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2023

Good professor, nice guy. He speaks loudly and clearly and writes clearly on the board. No quizzes. Decently easy homework and Matlab assignments. His exams are super difficult though. You really have to study and know your stuff. I'd recommend him.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/12/2023

This guy was slightly hard to understand but SO understanding and kind.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/12/2023

Great lecturer who writes easy to read and understandable notes during class. The examples he does are easy to follow along and he is very receptive to questions both during lecture and office hours. He does a good job in making sure the class understands a concept before going on. HW assignments were tricky but doable. Matlab assignments were annoying if you little prior Matlab experience. That being said, his exams were insane and he curves only if he felt that he made a mistake writing the test.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Anonymous
12/11/2023

Great lecturer with large, easy to read handwriting and clear notes. Explained concepts and in-class examples well and slowly. Spoke loudly and clearly and was very receptive to questions asked in class and office hours. Homework assignments were a little tricky, but doable. Matlab assignments were annoying if you have little Matlab experience. Only downside was that his midterm exams were insane, so be prepared.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/09/2023

Dr. Williams has a simple teaching style. He is a strict grader, but the exams are fair. If you are an organized note taker, and do the suggested problem sets you will do well in the class. My best professor at Maryland so far.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
12/04/2023

worst professor ive ever had. 1 midterm only. sucks that this semester we dont even get a TA to teach us. useless lectures useless notes. only saving grace might be that he drops the midterm if u do better on the final. do not do not take him unless you can actually teach yourself the course

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/02/2023

There are very few MATH246 professors with good/great reviews so you are pretty much picking the best of the worst. The class is tough and you will need to put in a lot of work regardless of who your prof is. A major tip for this class is to use the lecture notes from Justin Wyss-Gallifent. They are available on his website (alongside notes for other math and CS classes). Honestly, if at all possible I would recommend you take this class at a community college. Grillakis' lectures are rather poor. While not completely useless, I often left with an incomplete idea of what was taught. This may be in part due to the tough course content and not necessarily any incompetence from Grillakis. He does post his lecture slides which are complete, if a little dense. He is helpful during office hours if you choose to go. This class has 5 MATLAB assignments due roughly every 2 weeks. These require the use of an outdated textbook that is not up to date with the latest MATLAB software, meaning some of the content, examples, and solutions are useless. The only good thing is that these were seemingly graded on completion which is the only saving grace for this part of the course. The lowest grades were consistently 22/25 even if you submitted it late or incomplete. There is one midterm worth 30% of your grade. We were given two practice tests which were nearly identical to the actual exam. Do these practice exams and you will be fine. Grading felt fair and he did give plenty of partial credit. The main saving grace for this course, and why I would recommend Grillakis in certain scenarios, is the insane curve for this class. To earn a C- you only need to to get a 55%. If you do the MatLab assignments, which are free points, and do decent on the midterm you will be fine.

David Hamilton
MATH246

CsGetDegrees
11/30/2023

If I could give a 0, I would. Alas, he gets a 1. Differential Equations is already a difficult subject to begin with, so a bad professor is just the icing on the cake when it comes to how difficult a course can be. If you aren't good with understanding the WHYs of Math, avoid at all costs. First of all, you only get one midterm in the BEGINNING of the semester. There is a make-up, but be cautious. Whatever grade you receive on that mid-term replaces your original grade, even if you did worse. He does bonus quizzes (6-7) over the course of the semester, but to be quite honest your only saving grace is doing well on the final. The good news is that because everyone does so bad, the odds of a curve is super duper high. I heavily recommend going to MATH246 GSS and researching the topics based off of the website he tells you to use. Self-teaching is the only possible way to passing this class, best of luck. I truly don't even know what grade I have in the class or what to expect at this time, I just want to pass and move on with my life at this rate.

Brandon Kolstoe
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/18/2023

Brandon was an amazing TA. He clarified concepts from lecture and did good example problems in discussion. Whenever he didn't get through everything during discussion, he would type up and send a notes sheet detailing step by step solutions to example problems. He was also super prompt responding to emails and grading exams.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
11/17/2023

Oh my god, taking this class with her was the biggest mistake ever. I even waitlisted for her for so long and was so happy to find out that I got a place in her section. Man do I have regrets. So first off, she is genuinely a very good teacher and wants us to succeed by giving us a lot of material to study with and study guides to follow for her quizzes. She also drops an exam, around 5 or 6 quizzes, and one matlab assignment. However, her exams! Oh my god, it was nearly impossible to get everything done in the 75 minute time frame. There were quite a few questions, and that too, extremely difficult questions. The difficulty of the exam questions are incomparable to all the questions we have done in class or quizzes. It is pretty obvious that UMD told her to make her curriculum harder, as she was much more generous before and had nearly 5 star ratings before, but this semester things went completely downhill. She also said she is not going to be curving because she usually doesn't curve. Maybe that is because she usually doesn't curve cuz she usually is much easier. And all my friends taking different diff eq professors are having a much easier time. I am giving her 2 stars still since she is such a sweet person has us take good notes and is good at explaining the concepts, but man this course was so dissapointing.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Anonymous
11/16/2023

I selected this professor because she had a high rating when I registered for classes, which I now see has (rightfully) dropped. Here's why I think she's a 2/5 stars: 1. Her exams are very long, which may be universal across all of the 246 classes, but her grading on the exams are very difficult. During lecture she'll say that she gives good partial credit as long as you show understanding of the concept, which sounds normal, right? Well, she takes 50% off problems for simply getting the initial values wrong even if the rest of the work (which is a lot of work btw) is 100% correct. Her only reasoning was that "it's important to get the right values" which is true but it seems unfair to say that she'll give a lot of partial credit when she simply doesn't. 2. She always goes overtime in class. I understand that she has less lecture time than other professors, but there are videos that can be watched to catch up on the material. The main thing is that she just never addresses how she'll go over 10 minutes every class, which seems disrespectful of other students' time especially if they have other classes right after. 3. The way that she talks about the concepts. A lot of the time she'll say something is "really easy" or "as you all know" which feels a little condescending, especially since a lot of calculus stuff was done years ago in high school. 4. Lecture style. She writes on an ipad which is not an issue, but she always scrolls away really fast so it's almost impossible to catch everything and try to digest what she's saying. The good things are that she drops a lot of the lowest assignments which is one of the main things that makes this an okay class.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
11/09/2023

A lot of what was said below, emphasis on brutal exams and course being a lot harder with her than other professors.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/07/2023

Nice guy and a great lecturer, with clear notes. His tests and exams are 10x harder than the other classes, and if the midterm is easier he will add more questions so you will not finish the exam. I would not recommend it unless you are trying to suffer through the course. He is the exact same for calc 3 except luckily gave us extra credit. Because I took this class before and calc 3 I did better on the exams than most but when I took calc 3 with him I failed his exams multiple times and put in so much work to get a B, take this course at your own risk ion ever know how this class has so many good ratings lmao, yall are capping.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting a W
theGreat
10/24/2023

DO NOT TAKE ANY CLASS WITH ALICE WANG WITHOUT READING THIS REVIEW If you take this class, don't say I didn't warn you. Wow I have been looking forward to writing this. Let's start with the positives. - There are lots of good practice problems available on the course website - 1/3 of midterms, 1/6 of Matlabs, and 6/16 of quizzes are dropped - As a person, Alice is actually pretty nice - There are very good online lectures. Will they be posted? Probably not. We will get to that later though Sounds pretty enticing right? Well, keep reading. Let's get to the negatives. I am NOT including the following information to brag (this is anonymous anyway) but to provide important context into just how bad this class is. I am a junior at UMD double majoring in CS and math. I have a 3.8+ GPA, have never gotten below a B in any class, and I like to think of myself as a hard-working person. Even with all of this said, I fully dropped this class and took a W so that I can take it next semester with an easy professor. It was absolutely horrible and destroyed me. My friend is in a different section and it is so easy. I looked over their practice exams and never hated myself more for not taking 246 with them. Here is why Alice Wang is so bad. Alice Wang makes both of those professors look like superstars and is the worst professor I have ever had in my entire life. Here's why: - She does not respond to her emails or elms messages. I once emailed and messaged her and it took her a week and a half to respond. This is arguably my biggest problem with her because it really is not hard to answer your email and be there for your students. So many times throughout the semester I tried to contact her for help and it took her days to get back to me - She does not hold office hours and has no TAs. She has "office hours" from 830-930 before class, but you have to get in touch with her beforehand to schedule a meeting during this time. Good luck doing that when she doesn't respond to emails or messages for at least 2 days! - The exams are brutal. You barely have enough time to complete them, the problems are hard, and they are graded very hard. - The matlabs are worse than brutal. They are deceiving because there are only 4 problems, but each problem is going to take you a minimum of 1 hour, and probably more. Also, there are 6 (SIX?? WHY) matlabs. Every other class has like 3 or 4. - Lectures are recorded, but often not posted for days on end, including when you need them to do the weekly quizzes. Once again, good luck getting in contact with her to post the lectures, because I sure wasn't able to! - The class is not curved The only type of person who should be taking this class is someone who absolutely loves to learn and do math and spends all day working on DifEq and matlabs. If you are not that type of person, then plain and simple, do not take 246 with Alice Wang unless your life depends on it. And even then don't do it.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
10/17/2023

Seriously an amazing lecturer--not at all sure why his reviews aren't higher. He is a very straightforward lecturer and makes it clear multiple times throughout the semester what he wants to get out of his students. His class will not be easy but if you have a good work ethic and pay attention during lectures you will get all the relevant info needed to do well on tests and homework. Cannot recommend Dr. Williams enough!!

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Anonymous
09/29/2023

This man is the larry herman of math teachers. He's a dinosaur, but a good teacher. The problem with that though is that alot of REALLY IMPORTANT INFORMATION WILL LITTERLY BE SAID ONCE AND NOT WRITEN ANYWHERE FOR PEOPLE TO LOOK AT. If you skip class, or are just the kind of person who is litterly too busy to attend slow paced lectures that waste alot of time (like me), you are going to hate this teacher by the time the first midterm comes. I just took an exam, and partial fraction decomposition from calc 2 was a REQUIREMENT FOR SOLVING THE BIGGEST PROBLEM ON THE EXAM. I was litterly uninformed. Everything was fine except for that one fucking question, and it happened all because this teacher is alergic to documenting what goes on inside of his class rooms.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/12/2023

I highly encourage everyone to take Alice Wang! She has an amazing teaching style and really wants us to succeed. We have a quiz every week, however the quiz is literally take home and there is no time limit on it. You can also rewrite the quizzes for extra credit that goes onto the final grades. Also, she drops 5 quizzes. We also have three midterms but one of them gets dropped. Also we have 5 matlab assignments but again, the lowest one gets dropped. Also midterms can be rewritten like the quizzes, for extra credit. Besides all those benefits she also lectures really well and will answer all of your questions. She is very approachable and nice and you can really tell she wants us to succeed.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/26/2023

The math department at UMD needs serious work. My biggest regret is not taking this class at Montgomery College. I would go to lectures in the beginning but quickly figured it was a waste of time and would instead use the time to study. If I didn't study before the lecture I would have no clue what is going on. His exams range from stupidly easy to difficult but the curve is good. I honestly don't know why Matlab is still a part of the curriculum but the TA that I had would grade them on completion which is good because not once did the prof go over Matlab.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/24/2023

He's not a great lecturer, which makes it hard to learn the harder topics, but he's a very kind and understanding guy. He very clearly cares about his students and wants everyone to get a good grade. Midterms were curved generously, and practice exams for the midterms are almost exactly like the actual midterms, so they're easy to study for. I just wish he would respond to emails more, he was hard to contact if you didn't approach him after class.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting a D
Anonymous
05/22/2023

Excellent instructor, provides all you need to succeed in the course. But she assumes that because a student has access to these tools it is their fault if they cannot succeed. Alice Wang is an overwhelming class with too much work, leading to students getting lost as to what work is important to the class and what work is just what she thinks you should be learning. If you love Differential Equations, take this class. If you want to know the amount you need to succeed in Engineering and not much more, avoid this class.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/22/2023

Exams are very fair and similar to the practice exams. As long as you do practice problems from the textbook, you will be prepared for the midterms and final. His MATLAB's are graded leniently, and the built in curve makes it easy to get a good grade.

Terence Long
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/21/2023

Absolutely amazing. Cares so much for his students, goes out of his way to give them all of the resources needed to succeed. His lecture videos are amazing and so so helpful, and he will answer any questions you have whenever, and will go more in depth than even needed to ensure you understand the material in many different ways. He is so good that he is worth an 8am class.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/21/2023

Hanson's lectures aren't terrible, but the online notes will usually be more informative (and easier to read) in studying for the exams. Discussion sections are have pretty helpful groupwork, but they aren't mandatory and the work isn't graded. Weekly homeworks typically are only a few questions but can take 2-4 hours to get through, so don't procrastinate. MATLAB assignments are not too bad if your groupmates are competent, but they were graded pretty nicely anyways (tip: skim through the sections of the textbook that the problems are from if you're stuck. What you need to do is often spelled out verbatim in some example). Tests were alright, and especially towards the end, he would post what questions were on each topic and how many points they were, which was super helpful. Three midterms were all curved by lowering the cutoffs (70, 120, and 100) by ten points, which weirdly benefits people with higher scores the most (ex. Going from 30/100 to 30/90 is a 3% increase, but 90/100 to 90/90 is 10%). Final was written by some other professor, hard as hell, and not curved at all despite a low average (65%). Lowest MATLAB and regular homework assignment were dropped. Overall, not great experience, but I can't say most of it was attributable to the professor and not the fact that course was, even on a good day, still differential equations.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2023

i had math241 and math246 with stefan. in both classes, the lectures were structured very well. exams were easy and straightforward. that said for both classes, especially math246, practice outside of class is absolutely necessary to succeed. For math246, there was no homework, only matlab projects and exams. for math241 there were discussion quizzes and matlab projects, but exams were weighed less. only thing i didn't like was the lack of lecture videos or lecture notes, if you miss a class you gotta get class notes from a fellow classmate.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/20/2023

So, there are currently about 6 one star reviews under me giving him one star, and at the start of the semester I can say I might've thought the same too. I will say that he is unexperienced at teaching, but being fair this is the second time he's taught the course and looking at previous exams I think the bigger issue is that the course's curriculum makes no sense, so what he says seems like random crap when that's how the course was designed. However, he acknowledged this quite a lot and so made the 3 midterms have pretty good averages, (75%, 80%, and 85% respectively), which was from giving nice numbers and problems and not making anything seem too much out of the blue. He also gave an extra 10% for each of these afterwards due to the lower quartile being lower, so the average student was at an A for a while. It seemed like the graders for his section did not take off massive points for mistakes so that seemed nice. The final itself had a 65 percent average but apparently that was also last semesters average so not much new there. Lastly, the MATLAB and homeworks do take a long time, but also it's not even taught in class but expected to be learned by students... It's another moment where the curriculum is at fault, not Hanson. Getting to the lectures, Hanson really does try, and I'd say closer to the end of the course he actually got his stuff together and made more sense. His initial explanations can be janky, but when asked for clarification he usually explains what's going on better. I think lecture is hit or miss, but going to discussion (Keagan the GOAT fr), using the notes as necessary, and redoing examples from the notes is how to actually understand what's happening. In addition, outside of class I do believe he's reasonably accommodating, at least in my case he answered my email within a week and also stays after lecture for a couple of minutes if you have an issue. Overall, I do not believe he is a great teacher, but he does try to make sense of the course and gave a generous curve, and if run like this semester I believe it will be a decent experience.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/19/2023

He honestly isn't terrible. I think a lot of people are too harsh; sure, sometimes he can't explain some concepts that well, but he's helpful during office hours and is genuinely a nice person, he isn't out to get you. His exams are fair (granted I didn't do well on them, in hindsight I clearly didn't do enough practice), and his quizzes aren't too bad. Your lowest 2 quizzes out of the 7 are dropped, your lowest exam grade is dropped, and even though (I think) he doesn't curve the final, he has really lenient grade cutoffs so you're never too stressed about it. I'd say he's better than the average MATH246 professor here, but you do need to put in work to do well.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2023

He tries to communicate the information, but he writes all over the board and it isn't clear what he's writing. The exams were only doable because he provides previous exams, which look exactly like what's on the current one save for some changed numbers or reworded questions. The homework was difficult, and I couldn't do it without the TA's office hours. The MATLABs are especially challenging, as the book is horrible at explaining how to do things and I don't have any prior experience. If you're able to teach yourself material and attend office hours, you can get through this class, but otherwise, I don't recommend him.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/18/2023

He isn't that horrendous, but he still isn't the greatest. He definitely does try, however I feel like he was very unprepared to teach the class. Every lecture was just a rehash of the textbook the school uses, which definitely did not help. If the textbook and material was better and less terribly organized, I might've had a better experience with the course. Overall the bigger problem I had with the class was the material being taught rather than the professor, the textbook/Levermore's notes manages to take the simplest of concepts that could be explained in a sentence or two and turn it into literally, not-exaggerating, into 20 fucking pages with the most esoteric wordings alongside greek letter spam, which for some reason the entirety of the course is based and taught off on. I don't think anyone who takes this class with any professor would be having a good time. Overall, with Hanson, I went to the TAs office hours to carry me the homeworks and the TAs graded generously the MATLABs which took hours to do and the textbook, which the questions taken from, being wildly out of date and the example code often unhelpful and often incorrect. The only reason I probably had a decent grade in the class was because that I managed to score mid-80s on all the midterms which Hanson, did reduce the total amount of points it was worth 10-20 points before the final. However, this did cause some anxiety if the class was going to be curved for the entirety of the semester. The final was not curved though and the average was a 65. Overall, Hanson isn't a bad professor I'd probably give him a 3.5 but the way the actual course material was taught from and organized was questionable at the best and brain-dead at the worst.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2023

Ok look. He’s not the greatest teacher. Matter of fact, he usually ends up making you more confused. However, he is probably the easiest professor to get an A in the class with. His midterms are extremely easy to study for because he gives you practice midterms that are super similar to the actual ones, making it easy to know what you are getting into. He curves extremely generously imo. Before the final, he curved all the midterms by reducing the amount of points of them by 10. This meant that if you were in the upper quartile, you literally got extra credit. I had over a 100% in the class before the final. Now, again, really bad teacher. You’re gonna need to basically self study the entire course. But this is generally true for most other diff eq teachers. The Levermore notes give you more than enough practice problems to learn everything yourself with answer keys that explain how something is solved. The class is perfectly doable, and I give Hanson 5 stars because he made it extremely easy to pass the class. As of right now there isn’t a better professor out there. If you want to pass differential without caring about understanding it, Hanson is your guy.

Yuxiang Ji
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/17/2023

Yuxiang was a nice TA and graded pretty easily, especially on our MATLAB (which he required that we print out for some reason?). But he stopped uploading discussion notes midway thru the semester and often just ran off after discussion instead of letting us ask questions.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/17/2023

When you pick a diff eq professor you are picking the best of the worst. Grillakis' lectures are terrible 80% of the time and you will need to teach yourself most of this class, but his exams are easy and he is a nice person. And the curve is predefined and is *really* good.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/16/2023

Class is super easy. There's a 10 point curve, one exam is dropped (not counting the final), and two out of seven quizzes are dropped. If you're looking for an easy grader, take him. The notes online for the class are dense but pretty detailed, and you can learn everything you need to know from them. If you're looking for a good lecturer, steer clear away. Super nice guy, but he doesn't know how to teach for the life of him.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2023

This dude is aight, he isn't exactly great but he's also better than the one star average he currently has for Math246. He's not a good lecturer, he spends most lectures deriving formulas and methods to solve ODE's with hardly any numerical examples. Though I think this is only his second or third time teaching 246, so I'll give him some slack. I left lecture confused many times, however, I found the material of this class easy to teach to myself when I didn't understand Grill's lectures. There are many resources on youtube, and also Justin's notes, that taught me a lot better than Grill did. I'm giving him a three star because the grading scale is incredibly generous, 85 for A- and 75 for B. Also because he tells you the exact sections covered for each quiz and midterm, which aren't that hard to begin with. Overall, if you want an easy 246 professor take him. If you want a deep understanding of the content without having to teach yourself, take someone else.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/15/2023

Grillakis is a terrible lecturer but his class is quite easy, which is the only thing saving him from a 1 star. His curve is very generous, with a 55 counting as a C-. Each grade tier is 5 points instead of the normal 3.33. To add to this, he drops your 2 lowest scoring quizzes out of 7 total, along with your lowest scoring exam out of 3 total. There are also 5 short MATLAB projects. I was able to cruise through most of the class by getting an A+ on the first exam and most of the quizzes. I suspect some of this generosity may exist as a way to make up for his incompetence at lecturing. By the end of the semester most people had stopped attending lectures, myself included in the last couple of weeks. He doesn't really teach, instead he goes through the material on his own and then stares blankly at the students. Sometimes it appears he doesn't know the material himself, as he's not very confident in his calculations. There are extensive online resources available from other professors though, and I used those to learn nearly everything I had to in this class. If you want an easy class take Grillakis. If you want to learn from the professor and not on your own take someone else.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/15/2023

Alr bruh imma be honest. Ignore what everyone said an listen to this. I’m a student who hates lectures and skips often. I do not condone this but if you do, you can still be at pace by using the provided LEVERMORE NOTES at home. Hanson is a very nice, reserved, and theoretical guy as he doesn’t not do examples in depth. For that you should definitely go to discussion as they help a lot. EXAMS: to pass this class you need Levermore notes and his practice exams. ALl you have to do is do some practice examples from Levermores and basically memorize his practice exam. His Practice exam is basically 1:1 but slightly different problems. He wants you to do good and his grading shows that as he CURVES at the end of the semester. He takes off 5-10 points off of each midterm. His Matlabs are basically free points and so is his hw so make sure u have a good group of friends to work on it with. FINAL: the final will probably be hard as he spoils you with his somewhat decent exams. However if you memorize the Levermores notes you should be in good hands CONCLUSION: compared to the others, Hanson is a great professor and I am happy I chose him. He is understanding, and though he may not respond to emails, In person he really wants to help. His TA’s are great and his grading is very nice. Just follow the practice exams and study hard for the final and no doubt you’ll have an A.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/14/2023

He's an okay professor I'll list the pros and cons. Pros - Class gets curved well - Exams are nearly identical to the practice tests he releases - Homeworks are relatively easy and never too much (excluding matlab) - Helpful during office hours Cons - Lectures are often very confusing because he's a smart guy but really isn't good at presenting the information - Writes in small messy handwriting on the board so if you don't have 20/20 vision you'll spend more time trying to understand what's written on the board than understanding the actual info on the board - Matlabs are so awful no help is provided and they take hours upon hours to complete

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/11/2023

Hamilton is honestly the worst professor I've ever had. I have literally never, ever struggled in a math course before. Hamilton changed that. He is so bad at explaining things and rushes through so many examples without giving students time to think. He makes students feel stupid for asking questions and is overall just awful. Half the problem is how fast he goes through examples/theorems/explaining new concepts. To someone who is learning new material, examples need to be slowed down so we can think through the problem. Instead he goes at a pace that only makes sense if you already know the material. The notes he sends ahead of schedule are awful. Often they have gaps where he solves problems, but you never know how much space each problem will take so its hard to take notes on paper. Notes are very unclear, have mistakes, or lack important info and often do an awful job of explaining the content. Honestly, I don't know if Hamilton can even improve his instruction enough for the course to be ok. I think he should just be fired. Yes, fired. I have never had a professor this bad. If he is your only choice, I think you should just wait until another semester.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2023

Straightforward exams that are exactly like the practice exams. Be careful of random trig sub calc 2 integrals though... The homeworks are really time consuming and not very expansive. He would give 1-2 problems for the topic, but give them the most atrocious numbers so that it would take you 1-2 hours to do each problem. However, by the end of the homework you should be able to do that type of problem pretty easily. His lectures suck a lot. Do not go to his lectures, and instead just learn from looking at the practice problems in the online textbook. A lot of diff eq is brute force memorization, and when you think of it like that there isn't actually that much memorization in the end. Trying to understand what is going on conceptually will make your head spin, so i suggest that you just don't do that for this class and just memorize how the problems are done. tl;dr take hanson for the easy exams. Self study from the textbook and don't go to his lectures.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Anonymous
05/10/2023

He said don't come to my office hours because I don't answer private questions LOL

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/09/2023

246 is already hard enough, but Hanson just makes it so much worse. Lectures are basically him scratching stuff down on the board with little to no explanation for anything he is doing. He also likes to go off-topic and waste 5 minutes of lecture time, which is mostly just confusing and destroys your capability to learn properly. He will then proceed to run out of time at the end of lecture without having taught much, if anything at all. If you genuinely want to learn the material, you will need to basically teach yourself, as even discussions aren't very helpful. Also, good luck on the MATLAB assignments, those are complete hell. My advice is to do them as soon as you can, or else you'll probably end up struggling for hours on end. TLDR: Don't take Hanson if you can afford to, literally any other professor would do a better job of teaching 246. Also, pray when you do the MATLABs.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/08/2023

In my experience, I'm not terribly fond of James as a professor. His lectures move extremely fast paced and he would frequently erase things people were still trying to write down. I write pretty fast, but the entire lecture I felt like I couldn't listen to what he was saying because I was trying to keep up with writing everything down. James wasn't the best at explaining concepts and would just kind of do the problems on the board, so oftentimes I had no idea what was happening or why. The exams were fair and, for the most part, the same as the practice exams (except the first one which he included a tank problem which we had done ONCE in discussion and never in lecture that I remember). I found the homework pretty difficult and the matlab assignments were an absolute nightmare. Overall he's a nice man and very personable, but my arm was about to fall off after every lecture from writing so fast and I often left class confused about what we had even learned.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/05/2023

Complicated for the sake of being complicated. When you eventually go and learn on your own I recommend Justin’s notes(though I believe not all stuff is covered and have some blind spots in topics). I will say however that the only redeeming thing is that his grading structure gives people who are able to learn sufficiently on their own get an easy A. As their is not much work at all you just have to be very prepared for the final and midterm.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
05/02/2023

Class is terrible. Professor needs to get better at teaching. Half the stuff he tries to teach is blubber and rubbish. Professor is bad but class is even worse than the Professor. Like seriously what is key identity!!!

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a W
Anonymous
05/01/2023

Please do not take this man if you love yourself. I have never in my entire academic career had such a terrible professor. I would go to class and not understand a thing. He teaches very scattered brain and his lectures are very hard to follow. He is an intelligent man but a terrible lecturer. If you do not do your own studying before class you will be genuinely confused about what concepts he's teaching. Take someone else.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
04/27/2023

He writes chicken scratch on the board and doesn't make any sense. Don't take him.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/27/2023

He does try. His lectures are pretty difficult to parse and I mostly just ended up reading the book, asking my TA questions, and studying the both the sample midterms and practice problems from the book. I got a better grade in this class compared to what I feel like I ended up understanding. Also yeah the exams are really quick.

Vladimir Yushutin
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/10/2023

This class was a complete nightmare. His lectures were pointless to attend since the content was either irrelevant to the exam or too difficult to understand since it was so theoretical and written in the most illogical way in the worst handwriting. I relied on Justin's notes for the entire course. He had weekly quizzes in lecture that could be on either day, so most people just left after the first 15 minutes. The TA was a blessing though (love you Eric). Discussions had graded group work, which were pretty easy grade boosters. Matlab was extremely hard since we never discussed it in class or did it on the exam, so it was pointless partner work (but at least graded leniently). He did replace your lowest exam grade with your highest, which helped a lot and put a 5% curve on the class. Overall, be prepared to work for your grade, and recommend going with another professor. This is a hard class.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/04/2023

For all those who put higher than one star, I am seriously questioning your sanity. Yes Hanson’s exams are basically the same as the midterms but that is the ONLY positive thing I can say about him as a teacher. He never replied to emails. Sick- screw you, no response. ADS accomodations- screw you, no response. I had to email ADS to badger him to get accomodations. His lectures are all over the place. He always messes up, starts and stops topics, jumps around and honestly unless you know the content already, good luck getting ANYTHING out of going to lecture. The only reason to go is to the know the topic so you can learn it on your own. He typically starts with examples which he never finishes and changes partway through as an intro to concepts and the never actually explains the concepts. Unless you are really good at calc 2 and memorizing and have enormous amounts of time to waste learning on your own, you will not do well at all. Take someone else. Also the matlabs are horrendous. There are seven, no help is provided, the textbook does not help, he doesn’t teach it, and they take hours upon hours to complete. In addition, the TAs are not prepared to help with them except right before they are due. Discussion is helpful (for once) but it is not enough to substitute the hours is will take to understand the content well enough to pass with Hanson’s horrible attempt at teaching

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/29/2023

Grillakas is a very nice person and is obviously very smart, but the way he teaches is pretty confusing. He spends a lot of time proving theorems and a lot of his examples are not numerical, which can be pretty confusing. Also, the textbook for the class of just some other professor’s notes, which aren’t helpful at all. Even though he’s not the best lecturer, I think his other reviews are pretty harsh. Overall, even though he’s not the greatest professor, you should be fine in the class if you think you can teach yourself some of the material.

Hannah Hoganson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
03/28/2023

She subbed for one day and taught Laplace transforms. I have Hanson and she made the topic clearer than he could have. The pacing was a little slower than Hanson so I did not get lost like normally.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/17/2023

Sure the exams are easy, but please never take this professor. It’s honestly baffling to me how he got this job. He obviously knows what he’s doing, but also doesn’t know how to teach. If I could give 0 stars I would.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/11/2023

He's a bad lecturer. LITERALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND 99% OF WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. I didn't give him a one-star because of three reasons. His exams and his quizzes are fair meaning that they arn't rediculous. Also, he he curves to where you need a 55% to get a C- and an 85 for an A-. He also is willing to answer questions during lecture and answer emails, though it may take a few days. You can self teach yourself through professor leonard, JG, and other helpful YouTube content creators for diff Eqs.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
03/02/2023

He was a terrible professor. His lectures were straight from the textbook and were dense and very hard to understand and he would get upset if you asked clarifying questions or didn't know how to answer his questions during lecture. By the end of the semester only 10 people in my 200 person lecture were regularly showing up. I learned more from other professors' lectures that they posted online than him. The problem is diff eq is super important for many other classes and I've had to relearn/learn a lot of new concepts because I never really got a good understanding of them from Grillakis.

Melanka Wedige
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
02/21/2023

Melanka is a phenomenal TA for differential equations. We learned a lot of theory in class time and Melanka would be the one to put it all together with practical exercises. He also makes problem solving a algorithm that's easier to digest and it works on all problems. He listened to our needs as well. He held a fairly long review session before the finals to go over past final exams. He was really helpful with MATLAB assignments as well. We didn't learn any MATLAB in class so he was our main source of information and guidance on MATLAB assignments. Personally, I attribute a couple of my A's in exams to him. I went to his office hours and he helped me a lot. Just a great TA that cares about his students, he never misses a beat!

Melanka Wedige
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/19/2023

Melanka was my TA for differential equations and I just can’t give him enough praise. He was practically the professor and helped me and my discussion section through the process of answering every question and even threw in better methods than what we learned in class. He answers emails very very quickly and provides sources you can use to find answers to your questions along with answering your question incredibly thoroughly and in a way that you can pick up. The class focused tremendously on theory so Melanka taught us the methods to solve the problems rather than more theory. Honestly couldn’t have done as well as I did without him. 100% would recommend for any and everything.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/29/2023

Hamilton is a bad lecturer who actually confused me more than he taught me. You're much better off reading Justin's notes or watching youtube videos. Some days I feel like his lectures actually took knowledge out of my head. When our class did poorly on his exam, he blamed us for being lazy and told us that it was an easy exam. The class average was a 56 and the highest anyone got was an 84. Hamilton was also rude to us at times during lecture. Hamilton was a bad teacher who was unwilling to improve. The only reason I rate him two stars is because he was a very lenient grader, although he had to be for people to actually pass his class.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Anonymous
01/27/2023

If I could put 0 stars I would. Don't take his class. His lectures consist of complicated examples instead of actually teaching the content, as if he expects students to learn the content beforehand. He uses complicated notation, doesn't stop for questions, and is not nice.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
01/03/2023

This course is extremely rough, mostly because of Trevino's course structure but also because of the amount of content covered in the class. The course consists of only 10 assignments, meaning you have to do well on most of them to maintain a high grade. Lectures are overly conceptual and examples are given few and far between. The overly difficult Matlab assignments are required to be done on your own and you get no instruction on them during lectures. Thankfully, the TA was generous (or maybe lazy) with grading them this semester. Exams are fair but still hard just because of the amount of content. I'm not sure if it's Trevino or just the MATH246 class in general, but this course needs to be rewritten from the ground up.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/18/2022

This class was genuinely the worst experience I have ever had in college. Maybe it is just how messed up this class has always been? The exams feel legitimately humanly impossible to complete on time (many other students agreed and frequently complained or joked about it). I doubt the TA's or prof himself could solve these in time. Even if you completed Hanson's midterm practice exams (which were identical to the exams) and studied extremely hard, there STILL will not be enough time to finish these exams, which I find EXTREMELY unfair (MANY of the solutions to these exam questions would take up to two pages of work in my notebook). No calculators allowed on exams and lots and lots of tedious integration and algebra to do. This isn't a calc 2 class, these integrals need to be easier to do by hand when you have less than 8 minutes to solve each question man. Hanson please. Hanson's lectures are frequently confusing, extremely unorganized (at times he would completely skip examples and further explanation if they were missing from his hand written notes), and students had to very frequently correct what he would write on the board (not just algebra but notation for formulas or how he was using them, etc.), so I never felt as though I could trust my notes to study from. It's mostly everybody's first time taking this class so I don't understand why the students have to know this stuff before lecture in order to correct the professor when he makes a mistake. I mean don't get me wrong, he would catch his own mistakes too, many many times. Be prepared to change what you write in your notes over and over again because his notes are just chaos. Justin's notes do not cover the class material in depth at times so I was frequently jumping between the textbook, my TA (Keith)'s notes (which were awesome), and thank god for Terrence Long's videos on youtube, though there is still some material he does not cover, and some of Professor Leonard on youtube. Hanson did end up curving the 3 midterm exams by lowering the total by 5-10 points (which was strange because it gave some people extra credit). The final was tough and the class average was a 63% and seems to barely have been curved. In closing, I wish you all good luck in this class. I disliked every moment of it.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
12/17/2022

Lecture: not many examples, sometimes hard to follow. There are a lot of examples on his syllabus to go though with explanations though Tests: straightforward, no trick questions just solving Matlabs: take a long time if you do it solo, but grading is fairly lenient (?) also gets deadline extended often Grading: seems like he does a decent bit of partial credit and he curved +5%(or more) on my final grade

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/16/2022

If you want a good grade take literally anyone else. The average GPA for Trevino's MATH246 is a 1.76, lower than any professor for this course that I've seen. More people fail/withdraw than get an A or B. No curve at all. Lecture's are very poor. Tests are fairly easy if you do the practice problems he gives you. If you see any good reviews they are most likely for his upper level courses, which I suppose he must be better at teaching than differential equations.

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/14/2022

Hanson tries his best to explain the concepts, but it often feels clouded and you end up getting lost. I would say the MATLABs were typically way hard and can take *hours* to complete, so make sure you start on those early. The homeworks were fair and serve as good review. His practice exams were basically 1-1 with the real exams, so they're great to study off of. The use of a cheat-sheet for the midterm exams was also quite welcome, especially with the complex nature of Diff Eqs. He did curve quite generously pre-final and will probably be receiving a final curve as well. Generally, take him if you want to pass the class and not learn too much. However if you're genuinely interested in understanding the material, maybe not the best professor out there. I will say though, shout out to Terence Long's review videos. Definitely take a look at them if you're lost or stuck!

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/05/2022

Hanson isn't the most eloquent speaker, but he teaches the content well enough. His exams can be difficult, but he provides practice exams that are basically the same as the actual exams, which, if you practice, will make the exams a breeze. I wish he covered the MatLab assignments a bit more, but I feel like that is more of an issue with the amount of content in the course rather than a fault in his lectures. He is probably one of the better professors for MATH246.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/01/2022

These reviews had me worried before classes started, but it turns out he's a pretty good professor. Lots of people in the class were complaining about him but many didn't show up consistently to lecture and almost nobody went to discussion section. If you actually go to class and study a few hours a week then it's not that bad, although it's not necessarily easy either because of the nature of the course material. The textbook for this course is free online (you still need to buy a MATLAB textbook for ~$30 though) and comes with ample practice problems, and he tells you which problems to practice for the exams. He does teach a lot of theory, which some people might find a bit confusing at first, but he usually runs through multiple example problems which cleared stuff up for me. Additionally, discussion section was mostly example practice questions, so if you are confused during lecture definitely go to discussion. The most difficult part of this course was the MATLAB since you basically have to learn it by yourself by reading the book, but it was pretty easy to finish them in a few days at most (just remember that Google is your friend). Definitely not necessary, but I do recommend taking linear algebra before this class since the later part of the course has a lot of similar concepts.

Brandon Kolstoe
MATH246

Anonymous
11/29/2022

Brandon is vital to surviving Hamilton in 246. He's the best. Super helpful and grades much nicer. Hamilton is the worst - Brandon is saving grace

James Hanson
MATH246

Expecting a W
Anonymous
10/21/2022

Hanson does try, and he does explain the processes needed to solve differential equations. However, there is no concept base to build this off of, and the MATLABs and homeworks are not reflective of exams. If you are good at memorizing processes and specific cases, you will be fine. I would not recommend him for anyone trying to have a complete understanding of course concepts.

Siddharth Sharma
MATH246

Anonymous
08/27/2022

I took MATH246 with Sid during the 2022 Summer II class session. While he seems like a genuinely nice guy, he's not a great professor. At the beginning of the course, Sid did not give us a syllabus because he does not really believe in them, but now that the course is over, I think it is only because he struggles to follow one. We were supposed to have a few coding assignments throughout the five week period however, week after week, Sid stated that he was almost finished writing the project and it would be assigned soon. This went on until about halfway through week four, when he suddenly started assigning random homework questions in lecture, which we would have to email our submission to him. On the last day of the course, Sid loosely stated that these were meant to replace the coding assignment grade. We had five other assignments, consisting of two long homeworks, two midterms, and one final. Three of these five assignments were pushed back, sometimes more than once. These delays came both at student requests, and at Sid's decision regarding where we were in the course. While it was nice to know that he was very flexible in giving extra time for students that need it, I did not need any extra time and these delays forced me to take an extra day off work on top of the day I took off for the original test date. Sometimes this was after I had already submitted my availability to my boss for that week. Lastly, Sid did not grade anything all semester, and with it being a week after the course ended, I still do not know my final grade. This all being said, Sid bases his exams heavily on the homework assignments, so as long as you do those yourself, you should be fine.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/21/2022

Dr. Williams explained all of the topics very clearly and concisely, and he goes all the way to help his students to address the questions and concerns on both the HW and matlab. He also organized the class in a very fluid way. The suggested problems from the textbook really helps me to get extra and further practice with the course material. Exams are very fair (but not easy though, one has to study very hard), but I think it would be a little more helpful to provide more feedback (i.e. where one person may did which exact thing wrong/forget which exact thing) instead of just providing comments with the scores on the exams. But overall, he is still a really awesome professor, and take him for MATH 246 if you can.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B+
mewuzhere
08/14/2022

There should be a certain level and respect given to students that I felt was clearly missing. Issues happen with online submissions and I believe the rules upheld by Dr. Williams didn’t respect the humanity of his students. I believe a compromise that would create a much healthier environment would be requiring the tests to be submitted 5 mins early, then allowing 5 mins of late submissions with no penalty. I understand this purely symbolic and doesn’t change anything, I think students would find this policy much more reasonable and it would reflect much better on the professor. I also understand that it is not necessary to justify one’s grading, it was infinitely less helpful getting a random fraction as my grade with no associated feedback. I would highly encourage any professor to use Gradescope or some comparable method to convey feedback and allow a dialogue in the grading method. Personally, I wish the tests where asynchronous. I had a very difficult time managing taking the test while working. If Dr. Williams created a more empathic policy for online submissions and implemented Gradescope with constructive feedback and correction opportunities, he would go from 3 out 5 star processor to a 5 out of 5 professor. His lectures were solid and came off as understanding during those times. His tests were difficult but overall fair, and the same goes for the homeworks and MatLabs. I also enjoyed using the online textbook with the suggested problems and solutions.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/08/2022

I'm not sure why Williams doesn't have a higher rating, he was a great and organized professor. He wrote very clear and detailed notes on the board explaining step by step how to do a problem. His exams were fair, but even if you didn't do well MATLAB and HW grades boosted your grade (plus one exam was dropped). He was always helpful during office hours and always answered questions in class - he wants you to do well. The final was very hard but I found that it didn't impact my grade too much.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/24/2022

Stefan's a nice guy and pretty smart but he isn't good at teaching the material in an understandable way unlike other Diff Eq professors such as Kendall. He does not really teach the concepts or reasons around topics, so you'll have to learn it outside of class or learn from your peers who took another professor. His exams are a little too easy, and it sucks because the average is so high and making a mistake will put you below. His exams also don't prepare you for the culmulative final, because his exams were much easier than other professors'. When reviewing for exams, I found that a lot of my peers who took another professor were taught to actually understand the material and taught helpful shortcuts and tricks. It will help a lot if you took linear algebra before you take diff eq, and you won't have to learn it outside of class because Stefan went over lin alg basics once and expected us to be knowledgable on a lot more when most of the class has never taken lin alg (bc its not a pre-requisite).

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/22/2022

Stefan's teaching was well organized and clear. In general differential equations is a tough class that covers many, many topics however his lectures covered everything that was necessary. Stefan went over several examples in class to show us how to do the problems. His lectures were straight into the point, but he also provided some intuition for why we did certain things. Most of it was just applying an algorithm or formula though. In addition, he provided suggestions from the textbook for the class. This was never required, but doing these problems strongly prepared you for his tests. The only graded homework we had was MATLAB assignments, which were fairly easy (you had infinite attempts). The tests themselves were fair. The problems were similar to those from the textbooks, so if you studied those and went to lecture you should be prepared. The final exam was more difficult however, but it was a common exam between all lectures. The grading on these tests was fine, and his averages were higher than other professors.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/21/2022

My review for Rodrigo will be "standout" to say the least. Let me first break down the logistics of the grading for his class and perhaps why he isn't as appealing to other students: Your grade is only comprised of 4 midterms, some MatLab projects, and the final. Rodrigo doesn't curve, and from his announcements does not seem apt to bump people's grades. I thought Rodrigo was good for many reasons: from the first day of class he was incredibly explicit with his grading policies and what your grade was going to be comprised of. He gave us a very helpful online textbook (I assume created by the UMD math department?) which you could use to learn, study, and practice from. Before every exam, he ALWAYS was explicit with what kind of content you were going to be tested on and provided a slew of practice problems (through the textbook) which you could use to practice from (all practice problems had worked out solutions!). The MatLab projects were simple due to the fact that the problems for them came from a textbook that showed you exactly how to do each question. Simulink was a bit ehhhh but everything else about the projects was straightforward and quite doable. I think I personally found the greatest amount of help through the GSS for this class though. Although I personally never went to a review session in person, the worksheets and mock exams provided through GSS prepared me quite well for the exams in this class. Rodrigo is a nice guy if you ever do talk to him. Just... if you're a bad test taker and bad at MatLab you might be setting yourself up for failure if you choose him. If those two traits don't apply to you though, he's a great guy and a fine professor for diff eq, despite what the rest of these 1-star reviews for him may say :).

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/20/2022

Amazing professor. He keeps everyone engaged in lecture, and has great large handwriting that is easy to follow. Do not be afraid to ask questions, but be mindful the amount of content needed to cover in a short time frame. Ken keeps the class personable and entertaining. The matlabs and homework assignments are quite hard at times, but if you work with a friend than it shouldn't be too too bad. The midterms can be hard and stressful, but ultimately for me the final was much harder. There are some lin-alg concepts covered in the later part of the semester that we could not delve deep into, so I suggest watching a youtube video or two to familiarize yourself on the background, and understand why we do what wee do. Otherwise the content seems disjointed and we see no application for any of it. I would take another course with this guy if I needed any more maths.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

Expecting a B+
tortoise7
05/18/2022

Gives clear examples during lecture and fair exams. He's a good lecturer which made this class feel not as hard as it actually is.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/18/2022

Trevino is not nearly as bad as some of these reviews make him out to be. It's true that his lecture style focuses more on providing a solid theoretical foundation for differential equations than applications, but this only serves to make things a lot easier to understand when you go back to the textbook to actually internalize the material. If you work out of Levermore's and Justin's notes when studying and make sure to do practice problems, understanding the material is easy if you paid attention in his lectures. He's definitely not a perfect lecturer, but he's not the devil. His exams are incredibly straightforward and easy. You will need to study on your own, but if you know the material I promise that you will do well. That being said, there will be a few more bumps than usual if you have not taken Calc 3 or Linear Algebra beforehand; I didn't and it definitely meant I had to study more, especially for the last unit of the class. The MATLAB assignments are also not terrible if you take the time to read the textbook and aren't averse to Googling. They are 20% of your final grade and only 5 out of 6 are graded, and Trevino pushed every single deadline back. He's not the most compassionate professor but he is at least responsive to student concerns. The bottom line is that this course covers a lot of material by policy and does not have Linear Algebra as a prerequisite, which is in my opinion a mistake. Seek a better professor if available, but don't stress about it if you're confident in your study skills or have a good track record with prior university math courses.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
05/18/2022

Yeah.... this class is just about what everyone else is saying. The only reason I'm giving this a two instead of the normal 1 star is because I thought that the tests felt at least somewhat fair. They're based off of the problems from the textbook, and if you can do those you can do fairly well on the test. But that's the nicest thing I can really say. To start off, here are the upsides: - There's no homework in this class, nor are there any quizzes. This is nice if you want to learn DiffEq at you own pace. - The textbook is free and every problem is thoroughly explained. As stated earlier, learning these questions will help you greatly. - The GSS Sessions are amazing, the GSS Leader effectively explains everything. - He pushed back every MATLAB assignment except the last one. But now here are the problems: - No homework/quizzes is nice and all, but that means that the only grades are the 4 exams(15%), MATLAB(20%) and the final(20%). I got above average for every exam, but I messed up the last one(mind you, two days before the final) and my grade tanked. - He does not teach MATLAB. At all. The TA's don't really know the material either, and the textbook you have to buy for the questions are practically useless. This would be fine if they were easy, yet they're all long and complex. As stated earlier, he didn't push back the last MATLAB. I should note this one was due the same day as Exam 4, and two days before the Final. The class average for this one was 6/19. - As stated before, he does not curve, despite the horrible average. To pull a direct quote: "Please do not message me about extra credit work or curves. I will not respond to those emails. Have a great summer." If you can self study, then maybe you'll be okay. If you're only okay at math, and have no choice but Trevino for MATH246, Godspeed.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/16/2022

His lectures were great, things were always clear and concise. We always did ample examples and his exams were very fair. His exams consisted of content directly covered in class and not content from a random textbook made 60 years ago. He's a calm, nice guy and likes to tell jokes in class. Would love to take his higher level math courses but I'm stuck on the waitlist :(

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

Anonymous
05/15/2022

Overall great professor.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B-
xtermn8
05/14/2022

Any professor will teach 246 simply as 'here is the process, memorize it'. There is no way to teach conceptual diff eq at a 200 level, and as such, professor Williams is a perfectly fine professor. The homework is hard but not overbearing, the Matlab is difficult if you don't know what you're doing, but the tests are okay. They're not hard, but they are graded VERY harshly. It almost seems like there's more weight put on a final answer than demonstration of understanding. I really hope he changes this, but aside from that, it's all good. Definitely would recommend him unless Terence Long is available. If Terence is teaching, take Terence instead. Otherwise, take Kendall.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/13/2022

Trevino may be a good professor for math majors taking 300-400 level courses, but anyone taking him for MATH 246 should avoid taking his class like the plague. I took this class because he was the only option for freshman, and although I got an A, it might have been my biggest mistake in course selection yet. I'll be entirely honest here. I only went to the first 3 lectures before I realized that everything taught in the class is explained way more comprehensively through Justin's notes. In those three lectures, I found his teaching method to be needlessly confusing. He constantly used convoluted notation that was rarely seen elsewhere in the course, and 90% or more of time was spent solely writing proofs. If you aren't a math major or don't have a real need to learn the "pure math" behind every method to solve DE's, he is the worst professor you can take for this class. My thoughts here are only reinforced by what everyone else in the class's message group has to say about his teaching. Time and time again in this class, Trevino has refused to accept any responsibility for his mistakes. The most apparent is the severe discrepancy between his grade distribution for 246 and other professors. You can chalk it up to poor teaching style or lack of applying any curve, but either way there's a severe fault here that he blames on the students of his class. Expect 5 to 15 hours of work for each of the 6 MATLAB's given in the semester. These get progressively more difficult and don't expect any help for Trevino in class or by request. I don't think he is a bad person, but you have to be significantly more uncaring than most to give the last midterm 2 days before the final exam. Last and most difficult MATLAB assignment was due on the same day too.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/12/2022

Trevino is one of the worst math professors I've had, and wouldn't recommend him to my worst enemy. Here is a list of a few red flags I noticed while takin this course: - The average on one exam was a 63, and he didn't curve it. - Our last midterm was two days before our final - When I was reviewing with a friend who had a different professor for the final, I noticed there was a good chunk of content that she had covered and I had not. Trevino's lectures are also genuinely terrible to the point that I sometimes just left in the middle because I would learn more studying Justin Wyss-Gallifent's notes on my own time. Do not take this professor if you can, I took his class because I had other classes I wanted to take during the other professor's times, and in hindsight I would adjust my schedule drastically just to avoid this professor if I could.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
05/11/2022

If this is the only professor you have room for in your schedule consider this me on my hands and knees begging you not to do it. I promise you don't need it this bad. Take it another semester. For reference, I have friends in other math classes where test averages are low-mid 80's. This last test, the average for Trevino was a 63. That is ridiculous, especially for a class I've heard will be curved little to nothing and considering tests will be about 80% of your grade. MATLAB is for some reason a part of 246 and also looking at my friends MATLABs vs mine I see fewer and more basic questions where as mine could have around 6 questions that take me upwards of 6 hrs to fully figure out. He also can just be plain rude in regards to questions about grades or assignments. Possibly better for upper level classes as based on the reviews I see people are much happier with him in those classes, but as for 246. please, please, PLEASE do not.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
05/11/2022

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. If he is the only professor you can take I suggest you wait a year. Apparently, 33% of 246 students get a D or below as their final grade, that doesn't include people who have dropped the class. He doesnt even have good lectures, they are super confusing to follow or understand, and the only way you're going to learn is if you do it all yourself.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
05/11/2022

Do not take for Differential at all costs He goes over a lot of theories in lecture which is great except he ONLY goes over theories and never how to actually solve any problem. His lecture "notes" are virtually impossible to learn from and you basically have to self teach yourself the entirety of Differential. This year 80 percent of the grade for the course was exams and the other 20 percent were MATLAB's. This wouldn't be too bad but every MATLAB after the first one is extremely difficult, time consuming and very harshly graded. You also have to teach yourself MATLAB, Rodrigo stated one the first day of class he would not cover any MATLAB at all (despite being 20 percent of the grade) and he stayed true to that (The TAs did not know how to help with the MATLAB either). This class is passable if you have taken this class before or have a very easy schedule with an absurd amount of free time

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
05/11/2022

Rodrigo is a nice enough guy, and he definitely cares about his students. With that said, his teaching is AWFUL. He focuses almost entirely on theory and neglects to do examples. His notes are very difficult to comprehend. I knew about 10 students in my lecture and EVERY SINGLE ONE did some or all of the following: stopped showing up, used Terrence's videos from remote learning, used Justin's notes, etc. On top of that, many people failed/performed significantly worse in this class than is typical of them. Look at the grade data and please do NOT take him if you want to pass this class or (dare I say) even do well.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/08/2022

He is a very straightforward teacher and like a lot of people say, it is super clear to understand him. This made the content not as hard as it should have thankfully. There are four midterm tests + a final and no quizzes, the tests are a bit difficult despite him giving us the previous semester's exam, but it is still doable if you get study hard enough, he posts suggested problems + the people who hosts GSS post their notes of the review session online. This class (in my opinion) requires a lot of memorization because there's so many concepts, but thankfully he was really clear in answering student's questions during the lectures. If you do want to get a good grade as well, GO TO THE LECTURES, he does not post lecture recordings online.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH246

anon154
05/05/2022

His exams were very fair and on the material that we went over in class. His averages were always much higher than other professors and its very worth going on the waitlist for any of his classes. His lectures are filled with examples and him writing everything down on the blackboard in neat handwriting.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/18/2022

Alice is amazing! She releases note guide pdfs before lectures so that you aren't taking notes by scratch which allows for material to be covered efficiently. She has a lot of quizzes but has study guides for them, so if you go through them the quizzes are straightforward and will boost your grade. I'm not sure if she does this every semester but for Fall 2021 she gave a good amount of extra credit if you rewrite quizzes and exams after answers are released. This is time-consuming but raises your grade and helps you fully understand problems you may have gotten wrong. Also, Alice hosts review sessions before the exam which is very generous of her and always prepared me for the exams. I've heard valid complaints about no TAs, office hours, or discussion but if you're a student who is okay with learning content from lectures combined with going through practice problems and the answers she provides for them, then this professor is probably a great fit for you. Overall, she gives A LOT of resources to help you succeed so if you are willing to put the time and energy into her class, you will do well.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
04/18/2022

If you are considering taking Trevino for differential equations, I would first point you to the "View grade data for this professor" button on the right side of his PlanetTerp page. Make sure you look at the grade distribution for Math 246 only. Awful, right? Of course, grades are not everything, but that chart should be a huge red flag for anyone considering taking him. If your schedule can only accommodate taking him, move things around or take this class another semester. As other reviews have pointed out (some in favor and some against), he spends a large portion of his lecture time writing out the proofs for the concepts and little time applying them. This is why you will see great reviews for his 400 level courses, which are only taken by math majors, and low reviews for his other courses, which are taken by a variety of majors. Pros and cons from my experience in this class: Pros: - The exams are pretty straightforward and he is very clear about which sections are covered and gives you a set of problems to practice for the test (which he uses as the basis for the questions he writes). - He is, in his own words, generous with extending the due dates for MATLAB projects (more on them below). - He does seem to care (in general) about his students' well-being - The GSS leader is usually helpful! Cons: - Unless you enjoy bogging yourself down into mathematical proofs and can easily follow 20 variables being used on the same page, his lectures are extremely difficult to follow. - The MATLAB projects comprise 20% of the final grade and are extremely challenging. Little help is afforded by Rodrigo (his office hours are conveniently scheduled at a time when everyone has classes), and the problems that are assigned are both long and complex. - You end up teaching yourself everything - both the course content and the MATLAB (can be a pro or con depending on the person).

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/07/2022

She's a good professor and very kind. She provides you with a lot of resources to learn the material. We had weekly quizzes (worth 10 points), and accompanying practice quizzes and solutions. These were very helpful for the exams. Additionally, she provided sample exams and solutions, and held ~3 hour review sessions before each exam. She also had recorded lectures, and the notes are structured (packets with outlines; fill them in during class). Unfortunately, I don't think her sections ever have TAs and she doesn't have set office hours. This especially became a problem for the MATLAB projects. You can make an appointment with her, but she sometimes isn't the most responsive to emails. Overall, though, I liked the way she structured her course and she clearly cares about her students. I highly recommend her as a professor.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Anonymous
03/17/2022

You can tell that she cares but her class is much like high school. No office hours, no TAs. Just notes that you fill in the blanks for.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/27/2021

I took this course Fall 2017 Professor Williams is very straightforward and writes everything out very clearly. The exams are challenging but he doesn't give you any "gotcha" questions. It was a good experience overall because I definitely learned something.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/27/2021

Dr. Williams is a pretty decent professor. Overall, he did a good job of teaching the content. The weekly quizzes were pretty easy, and the limited homework and MATLAB assignments were doable. The class content is pretty straightforward until the last third of the class, where it felt like we were learning a bunch of random concepts. The exams were pretty straightforward but as difficult as the content. The final were pretty difficult due to the vast amount of content covered by the course. Overall, Dr. Williams is a safe professor to go with; he isn't the easiest professor, but he's also pretty fair.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/25/2021

Not a great professor. Lectures were barely relevant to the homework and he put way to much time into topics that never were covered in exams. ELMS was horribly managed, with Grillakis just uploading notes and writing down what was talked about in class on the front page. Exams aren't bad and the grading scale is generous, but that doesn't make up for how miserable your experience will be with this guy.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/25/2021

I'll admit Hamilton is really bad at lecturing and you will spend a great deal of time self studying. However, his grading scheme and review lectures are his saving grace. If an exam grade is higher than the previous exams grades, then all previous test grades are replaced with the higher one, this includes the final. You can go from failing the class to getting an A just from the final if you studied hard enough. His review sessions are similar to the test, just be sure to write it all down. He goes quickly and won't send out review notes. MATLAB projects are fairly difficult, but the lowest grade is dropped. Quizzes range from really easy to really difficult for some reason, but they are open note / take home and seemed to be graded mostly on completion. I recommend keeping up with the optional homework (Which comes with answers) it's how I managed to do well in the class. I would avoid Hamilton for his awful lecturing if you can, but if you get stuck with him it's not the end of the world. Grading and tests are fair and you can get by just fine with some self studying. Also he has a cool Australian accent, wears a leather jacket, and has a dry sense of humor which almost makes his lectures bearable to go to, almost.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/24/2021

I was nervous to take this class because of the negative reviews, but I really don't understand the hate at all. Dr. Williams's lectures are some of the clearest and most organized lectures I've ever seen. When I had to speak with him once or twice about specific circumstances, he was genuinely empathetic, even if he's pretty strict about that stuff. He was helpful during office hours and engaging during lectures. The exams were difficult because the subject matter is difficult, not because he had unrealistic expectations. If you are hesitant about taking a class with him because of the negative reviews, know that he is an amazing lecturer and you can definitely succeed in his class if you're willing to put in the work.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/19/2021

The only reason I am expecting the grade I am is because I thought the exam material was easier than everything he did in class. If you are very capable of teaching yourself all of the content required, then I would recommend this class because of the relatively easy exams. If you require your professor to put any ounce of effort into the class (which is entirely reasonable and shouldn't be too much to ask for), do your best to find someone else. This man did not care about our class at all. Any communication that he had with us would be a maximum of 5 one syllable words. The review that he gave to us and posted for the final exam was just a compilation of all of the non-graded homeworks that he had already given us throughout the class, and they didn't even have any answers attached to them. He read word for word from someone else's notes for the entire class and called it teaching. Some reviews say he didn't go over any examples, which I would have to disagree with. He did go over examples, they were just rarely helpful. I went to every single lecture and consider it a huge waste of time. I never walked out of the lecture understanding anything that he went over. There are plenty of online resources that you can use, so if you think you can teach yourself all of the content, then I would recommend this class.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/18/2021

Absolutely avoid for diffy q. Lectures are completely pointless as he speaks quietly and doesn't go over a single example problem. Doesn't help at all when the course is already very theoretical. By October lecture attendance was about 25% of the start of the semester. Exams and quizzes vary so much where some are extremely easy and some are extremely difficult. It basically comes down to how well you can teach yourself the material. Textbook (online notes) is very hard to read so I would recommend using Justin's notes. Only problem is that not all of the course is covered in Justin's notes. They usually suffice but sometimes you'll have to bite the bullet and read the online notes. Overall Grillakis did the bare minimum throughout the entire sem. ELMS was hardly ever up to date (syllabus said exams 1 2 3 would cover "??"), grades took months to get posted, a complete mess. I believe Fall 2021 was Grillakis' first time teaching 246 because he had no reviews or grade data at the start of the semester but he certainly fumbled on this one. Absolutely avoid.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/17/2021

Normally I try to be nice in teacher reviews. For Hamilton, though, I feel I must make an exception. Throughout the course he was condescending and rude to students and even to colleagues. Also, his lectures were often unclear, which meant that a lot of students were stuck trying to learn diffeq entirely from the textbook (which was also largely incoherent). If you care only about getting a decent grade with minimal effort, he may be the professor for you. If you actually want to learn diffeq in an enjoyable environment, though, steer clear.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/15/2021

Don't consider Grill for 246. His lectures are absolutely pointless to go to, as he spends the entire class deriving formulas and barely goes over any actual examples. Difficulty on exams and quizzes ranges from stupid easy to stupid difficult and you never know what you're gonna get. Doing well in this class was pretty much entirely based off of how well you can teach yourself the concepts. The Matlabs are also insanely difficult with neither the professor nor the TAs offering much help or guidance with them. The only redeeming thing about the class was the generous grading scale, where a 55 is a C-, a 75 is a B, and an 85 is an A-, but with the difficulty of this class, you'll probably find it saving your grade more than it allowing you to get an easy A.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Anonymous
12/15/2021

Terrible professor. Exams are nothing like what is taught in the class. Watched 10 minutes of Alice Wang's review and learned more than Grillakis teaches in 2 months.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/10/2021

The professor is a nice guy but I recommend finding another professor if your going to take this class. The exams are easy(they are mostly similar to what you will see in the homework) but he just reads off from the online notes(which is our textbook) in lecture and to be honest I think I have learned more from the TA.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/09/2021

Honestly, before taking the third midterm, I would have given Hamilton 1 star. He's disrespectful to students and seems to get ahead of himself while lecturing. When he goes over example problems, he chooses complex problems outside the scope of the class and skips multiple steps in his explanations (for example, he'll just look at a matrix and "guess" the eigenvalues without explaining his process). He frequently insulted people's intelligence and savagely berated a girl who came to solve a problem with the projector in front of the entire class. The only reason I'm giving him 3 stars is because the content he covers in class, and the reviews he does before exams usually follow exactly what will be on the exam and final. Usually the same types of problems with only numbers changed. I only realized this after heavily studying his review materials before midterm 3, and I got a 90.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Anonymous
12/09/2021

Truly do not understand any positive review here. DiffEQ is supposed to be an easier math class. This man does not teach you ANYTHING. No examples, no guidance, matlab projects are irrelevant and unnecessarily difficult, TA's do not teach nor do they even have a fucking clock in their classrooms. By the end of September, half of the people still attend the lectures. By the end of October, 10% do. He will finish talking about (not teaching) the material for your next exam by the time you are taking the current one. Too bad Justin isn't teaching this class. His notes are helpful but do not align with Levermore's shitty textbook. Levermore's textbook is what you will be using and it is too convoluted and is written in a demeanor that feels like this mans was trying too hard to make it "difficult." This class should be taught in a straight-to-the-point fashion. Instead, you are left to teach yourself shit that you won't end up understanding. Exam 1 and 2 are awful but Exam 3 is fucking terrible. We took exam 2 right before thanksgiving break and exam 3 the week that we got back. I fucking hate teachers that coast their ways to a decent salary. A good teacher should try their best so that their students succeed. All of us come from rigorous majors and know how to tackle difficult courseloads... but everyone in this class, except for the 10 kids who are either retaking this class or have no social life, is struggling. Don't fucking tell me that I should have studied more because, like everyone else, I know how to fucking apply myself. I am extremely disappointed with the way this class was "taught." Take this class at Montgomery College if you want to survive.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/03/2021

Avoid at all costs for diffeq. Does not do a single numerical example all year. Exclusively does symbolic examples. TA's and prof are never on same page. Lectures are useless and you'll just end up teaching yourself everything. Also the matlab assignments have 0 guidance or relevancy to the material all year.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/22/2021

Professor Williams is an amazing lecturer. This is the first fully in-person class since covid and i'm really glad that he is my professor. He explains topics very well and is very open to answering questions. His homework assignments aren't that bad and they're group work, same with the matlab assignments. Quizzes every other week during discussion, but they aren't worth very many points. His exams are fair and not that difficult as long as you do the suggested homework problems.

Luis Suarez
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
11/19/2021

Took 246 with Luis over the summer of 2021. The course is very fast-paced due to the nature of a summer course but he tries his best to explain concepts clearly and is very helpful during office hours. Only 3 HW assignments and 3 exams throughout the course so as long as you set aside a couple hours or so everyday to go over the material and do some of the problems in the hw, you'll be fine.

Vladimir Yushutin
MATH246

Anonymous
11/09/2021

Pretty hard to understand lectures, not enough practical examples and too much time spent on proofs in class rather than what you will actually be tested on. Expect to teach yourself everything - luckily the TA was the only thing made this class even remotely tolerable

Vladimir Yushutin
MATH246

Expecting a W
Anonymous
11/01/2021

Easily the worst professor/teacher I have ever had, do not take his 246 course. His lectures are confusing, his notes are sprawled all over the board and his handwriting sucks so it is almost impossible to follow what he is doing. He pretty much just goes over theory the entire lecture, does one simple example at the end and then expects us to know how to solve some ridiculously hard exam problems. If you take his class you will have to teach yourself everything, as his lectures are absolutely pointless. It ended up being way to much for me and I had to take a W. Do yourself a favor and don't take his class.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/21/2021

Dr. Ebrahimian finds a good balance between being accommodating and helpful while still making sure you actually get a good understanding of the material. Tests and quizzes, which make up the vast majority of grades for the class, are pretty similar to the examples covered in class, so take good notes and study them and you'll be fine. My only criticism is that the MATLAB textbook was sometimes pretty unhelpful for the projects, so be sure to find some resources (like Justin's notes) to get those done. Overall, definitely recommend taking this class with Ebrahimian though.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/27/2021

The lectures were understandable if you read the information beforehand, and the example problems in the lectures are exactly the type of problem that appears on the quizzes and exams. The lectures are labeled only as a number, and not with the content, which makes it a bit more difficult to follow, but if you have read the material that is supposed to be in the lecture, even if you don't understand it, it becomes easier to follow and understand the lectures. The quizzes and exams are exactly like problems given in lectures, and typically for quizzes, there were 20 minutes to complete and 5 to submit, with a 5 minute grace period, and for exams, there was an hour and a half to complete it and 15 minutes to submit. The grading can be strict as the rubric is mostly focusing on the answer being right, and not the processes of solving the problems, however simple errors like dropping a negative sign and smaller errors of that sort can be discussed with TA's, and typically can get points back for this. The class was also curved, with the two worst quizzes and worst Matlab being dropped, and the worst team would be replaced with half the score of the final, which was 200 points as opposed to 100 points on exams. This curve was the one announced at the beginning of class, however at the end, according to a TA, the professor enlisted a curve to make the average grade in the class a C. Many students took the class as Pass/Fail, so the averages with higher levels of A and B are deceptive, as most of the class was pass/fail and would receive a C. Overall, I would suggest trying to find a professor that has better lectures and a better record of teaching well, but Dr. Jakobson's class was straightforward, and I certainly learned a lot from it.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH246

Expecting a B-
javathunderman
05/25/2021

Great lectures, easy quizzes, but a pretty hard class overall, so make sure you do as much of the HW as possible. Highly recommend taking 246 with him.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/22/2021

From first day knew Hamilton is a wreck of a teacher. Didn't respect student concerns. Lectures skip a lot of steps. All in all he's hard to learn from. The only reason I can solve differential equations is from another teachers notes that were posted online. He does have a policy that the final can count for everything though which is blessed. Went from a 26% in the class to a B with one test.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/20/2021

Dr. Ebrahimian is one of the best math teachers I have had. His lecture notes are clear and easy to follow. If a student has a question, he took the time to answer it even if it was already asked. Dr. E never got annoyed by "too many questions," and encouraged more questions. If we did not get to all the lecture material he wanted, he adjusted the following lectures accordingly. Although this was over virtual learning, I am certain the way he teaches in-person lectures is just the same. Quizzes and exams were very representative of what was learned in lectures and discussions. There were never any curveball questions, so if you attend lectures, discussions, and GSS occasionally, you should have all the resources needed to be successful. There were suggested textbook problems, but I found they were more complex than what was asked. However, they are good for more practice since the textbook is online and has solutions underneath each problem statement.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/15/2021

Good God where do I begin. By far the worst teacher I’ve had in my life. To get things out of the way, do not take him unless the only other possible option is Hamilton, no matter how much schedule rearrangement is needed. Draw the line only at dropping necessary classes if it means avoiding him. Lectures make absolutely no sense at all, does nothing to respond to student questions/concerns, my TA was no help, and I had to practically rely solely on GSS and self-teaching to pass (shoutout to Victoria). A 130-ish person class had only about 15-20 attending lecture within a few weeks. Assuming he keeps this semester’s grading policy, there is no curve either. He drops your lowest Matlab and 2 lowest quizzes. Lowest exam gets replaced by half of final. Got an A in spite of him, not because of him.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH246

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/14/2021

Yo he a goat fr. His lectures are very clear and he takes the time to answer pretty much every student's question, even if someone else has already asked it before. His tests and quizzes are just like the homework and the class examples. You can't go wrong with him

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH246

Anonymous
05/13/2021

Ebrahimian was a great and organized professor . The notes in class were fantastic and provided the general theory and lots of example problems. The quizzes and exams were representative of the notes from class and were a mix of easy and difficult problems. Overall great professor definitely one of the better options for MATH246.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a P
Anonymous
05/12/2021

The worst professor I have had at umd. His lecture style is terrible and don't expect to be able to read his notes because they're illegible. Pretty sure UMD only holds onto him because of tenure. His exams for the most part are actually pretty straight forward but between the lectures being ass, the textbook being ass, and the TAs taking off points every chance they get, the course was an overall uphill battle and it was super hard for me to learn. It also didn't help that things were online this semester due to COVID. I love math and I know I would have loved Diffeq if it had been taught to me properly but because it wasn't I had the exact opposite experience. Highly recommend switching out if you have him unless your only other choice is Hamilton.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Anonymous
05/10/2021

He is the worst professor I have ever had. I learned nothing from him. If your taking his differential equations class use Justin’s notes and mathispower4u. He should be a final option if there are other teachers take them.

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/10/2021

NEVER take this professor. He has awful lecture material, is extremely rude to students, and clearly has no passion or ability for teaching. I recommend you take literally any other professor, regardless of their ratings, before you take ANY course with David Hamilton. Prepare to learn diff. eq. completely on your own with no help from a professor. I am utterly shocked that this man has a single rating higher than 1 star, and he deserves less than that even.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a P
Anonymous
05/04/2021

Would not recommend it, took him online due to COVID and he wasn't lenient about turning in any quizzes late yet wouldn't include time to actually submit. Overall I would say his exams were hard yet would have followed his lectures if I could have understood them. His notes and lectures were too hard to understand for me so I resorted to Justins notes. If I hadn't chosen pass-fail I probably would have gotten a C+. The dropped quizzes and dropped matlab that he offers are helpful yet are the only form of curve he provides

David Hamilton
MATH246

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
04/15/2021

Hamilton is a smart guy, however it's apparent he knows you are dumb. He will commonly disregard students questions and make snide remarks towards you if your lucky enough to get a reply. However, you could give him the benefit of the doubt that he's simply as upset about online learning as we are. Regardless he will overcomplicate new topics as they are introduced and expect you to understand it as well as he does. In the end you will pass due to his extremely low bar for grading... Means on tests for this semester were failing grades; to me that says something beyond the students being dumb or lazy.

Jonathan Rosenberg
MATH246

Anonymous
01/11/2021

Dr. Rosenberg was an intelligent man that you can tell is passionate about the subject matter. He likes to emphasize MATLAB and the application of DEs in real-world scenarios. There is no official homework with the exception of group MATLAB projects throughout the semester. In this course, however, quizzes and exams made things difficult. The course content itself is not too complicated, but the format of these assignments were not the best. They took place in the format of Canvas quizzes (final included) with typed answers (no file uploads), which made partial credit and time management difficult. These assignments also featured some tricky questions that really required you to know the material and pay attention to small details. Overall, Dr. Rosenberg was a good professor and the course would have been much easier if the exam format was different.

Ruiwen Shu
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/10/2021

Good lecturer, goes by his notes and never seems like he's unprepared. He has an accent though but it's pretty easy to understand him. Exams/quizzes/worksheets/matlab were fair and he's a lenient grader. Would take him again for sure

Keith Mills
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/30/2020

Although Keith was my TA for 241 this semester, Keith deserves a review here. Keith is an amazing TA. I have had bad TAs for previous math courses, but Keith is my first TA that was actually helpful. When going over examples, his work is very clear, very thorough, and he explains his work in a simple way. If you have a question, he is always able to answer it and help the student. Aside from being a good TA if you have any other math questions, he either answers them or tries his best to answer, or gets back to you. Again, he is very caring about the success of his students and was a really good TA Since he taught 241, he was well prepared as a TA to ensure the overall success of his students.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/19/2020

Yeah, reading the other reviews, and given my previous success in math courses, I thought 246 with Levermore would be tricky, but doable. My god was I wrong. I do not know how his grade data is as good as it is, I worked so damn hard on this class to get the grades I did but I can not imagine so many people going as insane as I did. I probably sound a bit pretentious by now but anyway if you can take this course over the summer with Justin- DO IT. Here's what made this course so frustrating: He teaches more content and some of it he ~customizes~ so if you can't comprehend his lectures or notes, you're basically fucked. I remember googling a term from class and the top results were all his notes. You can learn the basics from Justin's awesome notes, but you will need to learn Levermore's custom/proprietary stuff. The grading policy is pretty good though. I don't think my grievances with this class are due to it being online though. All of the other reviews mention his shitty teaching method of reading through slides/notes. It's terrible. I can't imagine how bad the other prof's are if he's the least of the evils, but if you can take this during the summer or at a different college, do it. I really though I would be fine in this class in spite of the other reviews below, but I was so wrong.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/18/2020

Great Professor! Takes her time and provides you with all the resources necessary to excel in the class. 10/10

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/18/2020

I had him for MATH246 when covid hit, and let me just start off by saying he was an extremely helpful and understanding professor. When it came to lectures, he went at a fast but reasonable pace and would pause for questions from the students. His exams were fair, quizzes were easy, MATLAB assignments were also easy, however his written homeworks could be quite difficult (just don't do them the night before they're due and you'll be fine). If you need a professor for 246 take Williams.

Luis Suarez
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
08/23/2020

New math prof who's a very nice guy. Does not curve but adds incentives like averaging lowest of two first exams with exam 3 to help people with their grades if they do poorly on an early exam but well on the final. Lectures can be a bit hard to follow and sometimes contain errors + exams can be very difficult and rely on techniques we didn't fully go over in class, but in the end his teaching is effective and (especially if you self-study) assignments and exams are reasonable and you can do well in the course.

Alice Wang
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
08/12/2020

She is really knowledgeable about the course and makes note-taking very easy (printed packets to fill in). She didn't have a discussion section when I had her, but she made up for it by having 2-3 hour long sessions before each exam that you really should go to. Overall, she is nice and cares about all her students.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Anonymous
06/10/2020

What a strange, strange man he is... He presents the content of this course in a very theoretical manner, so if you do not work through practice problems or if you do not generally understand a string of just theory, you may encounter problems. The practice problems on his website are sometimes unclear as to how he reaches his final answer and you'll have to kinda go through it several times to notice which steps he has omitted. Regarding my first comment, he "speaks in fonts." If you don't know what that means then oh boy you're in for an experience. He also frequently used the phrase "licking your chops" when referring to types of ODEs, then proceeded to make some ungodly schlurpschlupschschlurp sounds. He will ask for volunteers that serve literally no purpose. Just an all around odd experience, but certainly something you should endure if nothing else then as a rite of passage into your big boy classes

Terence Long
MATH246

pavanbhat0710
06/08/2020

He makes the course very manageable and tells the content as it is without unnecessary proofs and such. He is also personable and a very unique, laid back personality. Sometimes the lectures can get a little boring, but they cover the content needed to succeed on the exam well.

Terence Long
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/04/2020

Terence was not my favorite professor, which is unfortunate because he has such high reviews so I had high expectations. My biggest gripe with him is that he lectures so slow, painfully slow. I understand that for some it's nice to have a slower paced professor so no one gets left behind, and Terence definitely does that. However, if you did understand the material the first or second time around, the third and fourth explanations aren't needed. The slow pace of his lectures got to the point where we wound up 2-3 weeks behind Kendall Williams' 246 lectures (I know because my roommate took Kendall's section the same semester). The benefit of this is that the final exam covers much less material because you don't get to cover as much in the class. The downside of this is that I feel like I didn't actually learn anything. Terence teaches in a way where he gives you the exact steps to solve any problem so you always get the right answer. But gives zero explanation as to why those are the steps we take. So you can mindlessly solve a problem but only because you've memorized steps and in reality have no idea what you're doing (reminiscent of high school for me). Overall the class with him is an easy A but you don't actually learn. So take him if you don't care for math and just need to pass to graduate or if you want to boost your gpa. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2020

I don't understand the low rating for Dr. Williams. He explains his lectures well and has great handwriting, so I personally never had an issue following during class. His exams are very hard, but for a 200-level math class, that should be expected. You should be good at managing your time and always be prepared. Quizzes, on the other hand, are pretty easy. His MATLAB assignments were easy since the textbook gives examples that are very similar to the prompts. The only complaint I have is that the written homework assignments are extremely deceiving. If it looks like the homework will only take an hour, expect to spend multiple. The questions are intentionally made to look simple but he'll throw in tricks like making the final integral only possible if you do integration by parts multiple times. Or you'll only be able to solve something by using a trig identity you wouldn't think to use.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
04/14/2020

Absolutely terrible professor. Would constantly mess up in lecture and provide an insufficient curve at the end of the semester. All 246 professors are questionable but don't take him.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Anonymous
03/27/2020

I like his lectures -- his handwriting is really good and he always does lots of examples which make the concept very clear. For my class we didn't have to read the book, he just told us everything we needed to know which is nice. The exams I think are hard but fair if you do the suggested problems from the book.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
12/16/2019

Teaches directly off of Levermore's notes and cannot explain anything when classification is needed. He does did not address students' concerns. Avoid him at all cost

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/15/2019

Averaged professor, not very responsible, make mistakes occasionally. Grading is fair, but the mean of class is very low, he gave a little(not very sufficient) curve. His lectures are confusing, but that's not his fault, the MATH246 has unreasonable material to cover. He doesn't give exam practice, and not even publish solutions for exams. This is why I would say he is not responsible. His exams are easy, immediate results of the online book's formula. If you are the kind that heavily rely on lectures and review materials, don't consider him. And try to not take 246. This course has too much to learn. The study advice is: must read online book, at least remember the formulae. Do practice exams of Levermore class, its online.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Expecting a D
Anonymous
12/14/2019

Terrible professor, uncaring human being. Rodrigo is easily the worst professor I have had the displeasure of having. His teaching style was inconsistent, and the only thing that was consistent was that it was terrible. He copied the online notes (written by Levermore) word for word in class, and tried to administer math quizzes on Canvas - which to me was a sign of laziness, since he didn't want to grade anything himself, dumping it all on our TAs. Additionally, his exams were different than other sections, often containing errors, and he did not curve. When I emailed him on multiple occasions requesting to meet and discuss how to succeed, he never replied. He also only had 2 hours of office hours weekly, on one day, during peak class times, making himself unavailable. Additionally, he missed many lectures for personal trips to "relieve stress." He blames our class's low scores on us, and ridiculed us for not taking linear algebra first - even though it is not a prerequisite. Rodrigo, as a professor, does not represent the quality or type of education the University of Maryland is acclaimed for, and even though it was his first semester teaching it, I strongly feel it should be his last. I will admit some of my strong wording is out of disappointment in failing the class, but that aside, the fact still stands Rodrigo was not an effective teacher, and did not care about his students. He even had the audacity to email us after the exam and tell us he though the grades were good enough, and that if we failed it is exclusively our fault, essentially telling us to f*** off. The way in which the email was written struck me as very unprofessional, and oblivious to the fact he is a terrible professor. If you can take this class with anyone else, do it. I sincerely hope to see Rodrigo removed from the faculty of UMD.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Anonymous
11/25/2019

I can not believe that he has a PhD in Mathematics. Exams are hard to understand and he can not explain the material in class.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Anonymous
11/21/2019

Avoid him at all cost.

Rodrigo Trevino
MATH246

Anonymous
11/14/2019

He is not a good teacher, he focuses too much on the theory and does not go through enough examples. When people ask questions he half answers them, but in a more confusing way. He makes numerous mistakes in his lectures, which does not help comprehension, and he is married to the most convoluted mathematical notation. If you take his class be prepared to learn everything on your own.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
11/11/2019

Literally horrible lecturer, like horrendous. His online notes are extremely difficult to decipher, and you dont learn anything in discussion because he has you doing graded groupwork. Eventually, you'll learn how to decipher his notes, but in all honesty, what a horrible class. The only perk to his class is that he has past exams and quizzes online so you have a pretty good idea of whats going to be thrown your way. Still though, its a shame that the university lets such horrible teachers teach diffeq, a fairly useful class

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Anonymous
10/16/2019

Honestly horrible lecturer. Seriously, don't even bother going to class. His online notes are almost in a different language, they extremely complicate fairly trivial topics... but eventually you will get the hang of them and how to decipher them. Still though, horrible class to take, only plus side is that his tests are all fairly similar to past years exams. Literally the only plus to taking diffeq with him

Jacky Chong
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
07/24/2019

Best TA at UMD

Adam Telatovich
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/27/2019

He honestly goes out of his way to help his students. His exams are straightfoward, and he typically follows directly from the textbook. Definitely would take him again.

Jacky Chong
MATH246

Anonymous
05/12/2019

Really understands what he is doing. Lots of experience both teaching and being a TA for diffeq. Wish discussions met twice a week

Adam Telatovich
MATH246

Anonymous
05/12/2019

Straightforward exams, neat handwriting, has unexpected jokes. Consistently updates schedule.

Adam Telatovich
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
04/25/2019

This guy is one of the worst professors I've had at UMD. He is smart to the point that he doesn't understand the difficulty of material. His test are too long (only takes him 20 mins but the must people in class don't finish). His grading is inconsistent between sections (one TA gave quiz retakes) and he doesn't seem like he will curve. I would NOT recommend taking him.

Cara Peters
MATH246

Anonymous
04/19/2019

Amazing TA. I learned everything in Diff Eq from her in 50 minutes per week because Hamilton is a terrible professor.

Jacky Chong
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/04/2019

Actually the only reason I'm surviving diff eq.

Adam Telatovich
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/04/2019

Not okay. Can't even hear him in lecture. Writes entire alphabet on blackboard and makes no sense.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
12/23/2018

Jakobson may be the worst lecturer on campus. His speaking, writing, and teaching style make it nearly impossible to learn anything in his lectures, resulting in less than 10% of the class attending each lecture. My TA was the only reason I learned anything in the class, as his website and provided textbook are a mess to navigate and get information from. The homeworks and quizzes we had did little to build on what we did learn, even when we had an assignment or quiz every week. Avoid at all costs.

Antoine Mellet
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/15/2018

Goes through lecture really quickly, some days I was able to keep up and some days I was really lost. Quizzes were a mixed bag; some were ok some were wtf is going on. Exams were really long but graded really leniently as well. Weird curve at the end.

Antoine Mellet
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/18/2018

Good professor. Agree with the other guy, he tries to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time, so make sure you focus, or else you'll get lost in lecture. His notes are just levermore's notes, so make sure you use Justin's notes (they can be found online). Exams are very fair, nothing trippy.

Kendall Williams
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/28/2018

Great lecturer, explains topics in a casual manner. His exams are hard but fair.

Jacky Chong
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/13/2017

he's a kind guy

Antoine Mellet
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/30/2017

Mellet is a good professor and the exams are very fair in comparison to other professors, especially Levermore. However, his lectures do get boring and he likes to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time. Also, his notes are just Levermore's, so make sure you use Justin Wyss-Gallifent's notes instead. If I had to take MATH246 again, I would gladly retake him.

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting an A
soulelite
08/25/2016

Best Math professor I've ever had at UMD, hands down. If this guy is available for any Math course that you are taking, ENROLL FOR JUSTIN'S CLASS. You will definitely not regret it. He teaches in such a clear and precise manner, and he is also a very nice guy that is willing to help you after class. He genuinely loves to teach to students, and it really shows.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/11/2016

Make sure you practice with the old exams. If you do, and can understand the online notes, don't bother going to class. Seriously, don't waste your time. Grab yourself a good study group and you'll do fine.

Casey Cremins
MATH246

Anonymous
12/18/2015

Casey was a pretty bad teacher. When I signed up for MATH246, I had Mellet but they did a professor switch and I ended up with Casey. Going to lecture was pretty pointless because there were the online notes for you to reference, and what he taught didn't always follow the notes online. When we got the study guide for the final (written by Levermore, the course chair) we realized we were at the disadvantage because methods Casey taught us were either slower and more steps than other classes learned, or simply we never learned the material on the review which was then on the final. When asked about a curve he laughed and said maybe 1%. There was no curve for my class. A lot of the learning I had to do was independent and through the online homework because what he taught in class was not all that helpful. He also took a while to get started. There were times at the end of the semester where he took half the class to prepare and talk about the final, but there were still things we had to learn up until the last class before the final. Overall I was pretty disappointed with Casey. I don't know if Levermore would have been better because I heard his tests were harder, but we didn't get a curve - even with test #2's average being a 60%.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

apaskal
10/21/2015

Pros: Very intelligent, clearly knows what he is talking about, seems really nice and friendly, and doesn't give you busywork (except for Matlab, which sucks, but that isn't on him. His grading policy is also specifically designed to give you as fair a grade as possible, and to not screw you if you mess up occasionally. His website is also a tremendous resource. I personally didn't find his notes too helpful, but many did, and his online exams and quizzes are incredibly valuable. Cons: His intelligence gets in the way of his teaching, and he makes things that should be easy in application seem very complicated. I would often read through his notes trying to understand what the heck was going on, then watch a youtube video on it and understand it very clearly, and think "why didn't he just say that?". He understands things on a different level than most students, and that is the level he teaches on, because that is how his mind works. Pure mathematics is not a strength of mine, so this caused me difficulties. He also does cover a lot more material than other people do in general for diff eq, so this makes it harder to find supplementary resources on it. This inability to lecture or explain things clearly has caused big problems for me and many people I know. Synopsis: if you have an easy schedule or were really good at calc2 and calc3, then take him, because you'll get the highest grade from him. Just be prepared to teach yourself, because odds are you'll have a hard time learning from him. If you thought those classes were hard, or you are taking a heavy class load (i'm taking 19 right now and i'm slowly but surely drowning), take someone else who's a better lecturer, or put diff eq off until you have the time to dedicate to it, because, especially with him, it's a ton to digest and master.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/17/2014

Firstly I gotta say that before taking DFQ I knew nothing about this course, and Dr. Jakobson just screwed it up even more severer. I never absented but all I could do in his class this whole semester is merely sitting, napping and playing my cell phone. I totally got no idea about what he was talking about. Thanks for my lovely TA I didn't screw up whole things at the end before finals. So 4 stars for TA, 1 star for Dr. Jakobson(for his hard work awww). DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS UNLESS YOU GOT BALLS IN MATH

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/04/2014

Machedon is a decent teacher. He tends to drone on and is extremely vague in his explanations in class. I don't feel like I gain very much from going to lecture. That being said, his expectations are very reasonable. His tests are fair, as are the quizzes. You can learn it all from the internet and by doing the problems from the textbook before the tests. He puts a relatively small emphasis on matlab, which I appreciate because I've never really been taught matlab and feel like i have no idea how to use the software. I'd suggest you take matlab if you want to put minimal effort into this class and you don't expect to gain much of an understanding of the material out of the experience.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
cblumenf
11/05/2014

Machedon's lectures are boring and his accent and handwriting can be hard to understand at times. The tests were pretty difficult and the textbook was hard to understand and in my opinion focused too much on derivations rather than how to get solutions to problems. He does curve the class about 10% which is helpful.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A-
parade
07/31/2014

Overall, not a great lecturer, he goes through the material quite fast and is not great at explaining things. Using the online notes by Levermore supplemented with Paul's notes plus the occasional patrickJMT/Khanacademy youtube video was enough to get me through most of the material. I also had a fantastic TA (Jacky Chong), definitely take him if available, he's kind of eccentric but really knows his stuff! His tests are quite fair not easy but not impossible either.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/28/2014

Taking Diff Eq with Machedon, I only went to class for his assessments (3 quizzes, each a week before each of the 3 midterms), and instead of going to class taught myself from the online textbook. Before each assessment, he sends out an email reminding you about it, which sections it covers, and usually a few hints about its content. They were all fairly straightforward, though the midterm with LaPlace was bad, an average of 59, the other two exams had B averages. He curves significantly at the end, 10% for me. The matlab was not bad, and only was on one exam, unlike some other Diff Eq teachers. Paul's Online Notes are great for when the textbook is too wordy.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
04/25/2014

Cameron was the worst teacher I've ever had. It was so hard to understand her during lecture since she had a heavy accent and didn't really explain the things she wrote on the board. I stopped going to Tuesday lectures and only came to the other lecture because she had weekly quizzes on this day. I had to learn everything from discussion, but 50 minutes a week is not enough to cover all the material taught in Diff Eq. Therefore, I had to teach myself a lot of the material, which is really hard considering the fact that quizzes were every week, and I had other things to do. She also assigned a LOT of Matlab projects, which were very difficult considering a lot of people had no prior experience with it. I actually wish I didn't look at the ourumd grade curve for Cameron so I could've taken a teacher that explains the material better. If you're taking Diff Eq, I recommend NOT taking Cameron. You won't learn anything in lecture and the weekly quizzes will wear down your grade unless you're willing to put in a lot of effort outside of class.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2013

Great Professor, hands down the best option for diff eq. Very Nice person who is very dedicated and wants his students to succeed (Not many professors will hold a 2 hour review on a Sunday before an exam). He's average at lecturing and sometimes goes a little too fast, but he is very helpful at office hours and posts the notes online. His website is AMAZING and you can find old exams as well as class notes on his webpage as well, which is extremely helpful. Tests are very fair, yet there are still idiots out there who don't study and do his sample problems/old exams and complain about the difficulty of the exams. He also has a nice "bomb's away policy" and your quizzes get bumped up if you have a higher exam grade. The final was extremely easy, and I'd say Levermore prepared us well for it. The only negative thing I'd say about this class were the matlab's which were a pain in the ass.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
joebiden
12/17/2013

amazing online notes (no need to attend lectures). fair grading scale. Easy tests/quizzes that are the same as past semesters.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a B
grumble
12/17/2013

If you're good at self-teaching, this professor is the one for you. I'll just go ahead and say it outright; he's not a good teacher in any sense of the phrase. Most of the notes that were useful when the exams came around came from my discussion sections, although the TA wasn't superb either. The problems and concepts aren't difficult or complicated at all; they're just incredibly numerous and Jakobson doesn't do a very good job in explaining them. If you're preparing yourself to take this class, understand that either you'll: a) be on the same page as him as few of the students were, or b) be pretty lost a lot of the time and will be engaging yourself heavily in the textbook. While he might be hard to understand, it certainly helps to read ahead and study the textbook prior to the lectures because you'll actually understand what's going on. However, I will say that his exams and quizzes are very fair. Simply teach yourself the rather basic concepts, do the suggested problems, and you'll probably be okay. Of 6 MATLABs, he drops the lowest grade for a total of 100 points and out of 150 earnable quiz points, he only accepts 100 in the final grade and he never really explained how that part works. 3 midterms are 100 points each and the final is worth 200.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/11/2013

I seriously do not understand why everyone hates her so much. I mean, I can see why her teaching style (which involved rigorous theoretical proofs and only very complex examples) doesn't work for some people--especially those who aren't math majors--but this backlash is a tad strong. She has an accent. It's pretty darn understandable. If you can't deal with an accent, go elsewhere. Otherwise, it's not a big deal and it shouldn't affect your understanding of the material. If you're used to either writing down nothing or writing everything the professor writes, you need to reconsider. The material is complex enough that you can't get away with paying no attention (or not going to lecture because they don't like it). She also will do entire proofs which are not necessary for applying the concepts, but may help your understanding or come in handy in later proof-based classes. If you're smart, you'll know when to stop taking notes (around the time imaginary numbers show up) and just try to absorb it. The quizzes were quite difficult and I do think she should have lightened up on them a bit once the averages dropped significantly). The Matlabs were pretty hard, but such is the nature of Matlab for those who aren't fluent in it. I think they should be removed from the course entirely, but I don't think that's her decision. The exams were entirely fair. Nothing was unexpected. If you knew what you were doing, you would get a good grade. Sure, the averages were low, but getting that just means that what's considered good has shifted. It doesn't feel great to have an 85 and not know what is going to happen to your grade, but now I can tell you that an 85 is at least a solid A. The TAs were absolutely wonderful and complemented her theoretical style by giving step-by-step instructions. If you're into theoretical math and proofs, go ahead and take Cameron. You're going to have the stress of a low grade throughout the class, but know that it will be improved by a curve at the end. If you do well on the midterms or the final, you're golden.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Anonymous
06/10/2013

There were several issues with this class. The major ones: Time management. The first chapters were covered in 2-3 weeks, the last chapters were covered one per week (or more, if you include discussion). I imagine this will improve in future classes. The MATLAB assignments. This was barely covered in class and the book less than helpful. On one hand, they were graded EXTREMELY leniently. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure they did not in the least improve my MATLAB skills. She has an accent. Not much to say other than it's there. The pros: Examples. This professor did more step by step example problems than any other professor I have ever had. Everywhere around me people *****ed and moaned when a problem took two pages to write. But now I'm reading your reviews, and apparently skipping steps (after she had done several of one type of problem) is bad too? She is amazing in office hours. I felt like an idiot struggling with problems at home. When I went to see her, she explained them to me in five minutes. Overall the class consisted of tests, weekly quizzes based on hw problems (hw is not graded), and MATLAB projects (which in my section received full mark for submission). I went to lecture every day, took notes, did homework and studied for tests, and I got a B+. I put in a decent effort, a solid effort would have gotten me an A. As a side note - if any engineering student in Cameron's class thought she has bad handwriting - you are in for a rude awakening. Engineering professors are second only to doctors in bad penmanship.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/29/2013

I feel bad for the lady looking at all of these reviews, she was so nice to everyone. I wish she had more command over the classroom, it was a very noisy lecture. Everyone is giving terrible reviews because they couldn't keep up with her lecture. She structured her class badly because her lecture was always at least a section ahead of the homework. I think if people kept up they would have found that she was a decent lecturer. I couldn't keep up, so I just learned from Levermore's notes that are on his website. I did a little above the class average on everything, but absolutely crushed the final, so she just gave me an A in the class. She ended up grading the last 3 matlabs for completion, so there's that. Overall, not the end of the world if you take her.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/17/2013

She is just terrible. I remember the first day of class a substitute came in and taught for us and I thought to myself diff eq ain't bad as all of my friends and advisor had told me. The following week when Cameron finally showed up I knew the moment she opened her mouth that I couldn't understand what she was saying. Her handwriting is so atrocious and she tends to skip steps to cut off time but leaves us confused. Anytime someone asks a question she answers in a way no one can decipher. After a week of this nonsense I just skipped lecture and learned off the book. The quizzes were similar to our homework at first but then she drifted off to just things she made up. I went to scoring an average of 8/10 at first to around 3/10 by the end of the semester. It wasn't just me as I saw my friend and fellow classmates go down this way. Matlab was too hard for this class. The matlab questions for this class requires you to know a large amount of knowledge about matlab beforehand. I have only been acquainted with the copy and paste method I have learned in MATH241. If you do the matlab projects alone, you are gonna have a bad time. The tests that she give out are not hard and I even found out the test comes from another professor. There is matlab involved and she does not cover well most of the questions that are on the tests. Then again, she doesn't cover most things well. The TA for this class will make or break your experience. Luckily, I had Hana Ueda who dissected the topics Cameron will talk about for the following lecture into steps to solve. The math discussion basically became my lecture time. Other than the book and the internet, I learned diff eq from my TA. For anyone that is looking into taking this class, take my advice. Read the book, find an online homework help source, attend all the discussions if your TA is good, skip all lecture except the last 20 minutes on thursday since she gives out quizzes at the end of class, and form a matlab group! If you do all of the steps you will definitely get at least a C like I did. Lecture is definitely a waste of time when you can actually learn Diff Eq off the book.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/15/2013

Here is MY problem with this professor. I went to class, read the book, beat the curve on nearly all the quizzes and all but one test (the one test i barely missed the curve), and I still got a C in the class. I can't argue that my raw grade in the class was a literal 70%, because thats what it was from a strict (points earned)/(points possible) standpoint. Lets first establish that diff eq is a hard class, there's no two ways about that (not sure what the person below me is talking about...). Due to this fact, I expected to come out with a B, because teachers typically curve the class by giving the majority of the students C+ or B-. However..... If I beat the curve on most assignments and got a C (so lets say that pulls me from 70% to 75%) what happned to the rest of the class? Did you SERIOUSLY pass half of the class and fail the other half? I personally thought she was bad at lecturing, and if she didn't put you to sleep then she just confused the daylights out of you. Questions usually went unaddressed, and even when she did finally see someone with their hand up she always managed to make everyones comprehension worse. She has a thick (Russian I believe?) accent and its hard to understand her sometimes, her handwriting isn't great. I even went to her office hours a couple times, and just stopped going because she was never of any help. So.... if for scheduling reasons, or some other circumstances you are forced to take this professor (I feel for you, by the way) then here's what I believe helped me survive and things I probably could have done better : 1) Whenever she gives out quizzes, they are usually based on homework. If you are doing homework and think "oh this problem is insane, she wouldn't give us that" then you've just found the quiz question. 2)The TA's are remarkable. They will be your only lifeboat in this class, and typically you'll only get once a week discussion where they are forced to cover excessive amounts of material in a short amount of time, but they are good at it and will get it done. Go to discussion and TA office hours for questions, it is vital to your survival. Don't take her. Please. It's GPA poison. I learned all the material, scored above average, and I still got screwed. I'm more in shock that she did this as opposed to upset

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/14/2013

Cameron did a terrible job of managing this class. I understand that this is the first time she has taught this course, but she could have done a much better job on many levels. She spent the majority of the semester going over the first three chapters (which contain the easiest material covered in the course) and did the last three chapters in the last 3-4 weeks of the semester. My roommate took a different professor for this class and he was having tests on material that our class hadn't even covered yet in lecture. Considering the fact that our class was learning the last chapter less that a week before the final really put our class at a disadvantage compared to the other sections. Her classroom lectures mostly consisted of copying the lectures that Prof. Levermore posted online. The tests and quizzes were also very similar to the ones posted on Levermore's site. She even assigned the exact Matlab projects that he posted. If you are severely unfortunate and get stuck with Cameron as a teacher, just google 'umd math246 levermore' to find all of Levermore's material. Besides the fact that she sounds like the Count from Sesame Street, her teaching style is awful. Even if you focus really hard to understand what she is saying, it is impossible to keep up with her lecture. She consistently skips essential steps in problems that makes it extremely difficult for anybody to understand how the problems are being done. For example: When learning about linear systems, she would routinely skip the steps when you have to multiply matrices together or do other matrix related functions. So unless you have taken linear algebra you would have no idea how she got the answer. Class attendance was a joke. After the first two weeks a large majority of people stopped going to class with an exception to the weekly quizzes, with the averages being around 40-50%. Take another MATH246 teacher. If this is not an option for you, skip class and use your time to teach yourself this course, because it will help you more than actually going her lectures.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting an A-
UMDStudent2
05/12/2013

She is really bad at lecturing. Lectures are rarely helpful, so you will be learning most of the material in discussion and on your own. Her weekly quizzes are moderately difficult. They are not impossible but are difficult given that you only have 10 minutes to complete them at the end of class. Her exams were reasonable, and she does curve them (unfortunately this includes curving DOWN). Overall, I would NOT recommend this professor. If you have to choose between her and Lipsman, I would go with Lipsman because he is the better lecturer.

Maria Cameron
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/08/2013

By far the worst teacher I have ever had. Her Syllabus was constantly changed 2 weeks into the class because she had forgotten to take account for things. Her handwriting is god awful and the notations she uses confuse people to no end. I know this is her first time teaching this course but there is no excuse for the confusion her course brought me. I agree with the person who says that they regret taking her and would never reccomend her for any class.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
01/28/2013

It's true that He covers more than other professors, but it's worth to learn then. Because the book may often confuse me. He has the nicest online note. Most people complain that the course is hard, but they are the one who does not do his practice exam and former exams that he post online the exam is almost identical to the previous exams. Sometimes, I fell he goes too fast during the lecture, but overall he is a good math246 professor!

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
kingpinchimp
01/24/2013

I loved taking DiffEQ with Machedon. He is really friendly (the friendliest professor I've had). While the material can sometimes be unclear during lecture, he is approachable and you can clear up the issues you have. Some of the differences in reviews may have been the different TA's that we had. I had Summer as my TA and she was fantastic, and always explained everything clearly that Dr. Machedon may have been unclear on. Those with the other TA may not have had that and thus were unable to clarify a few things. As far as tests go, they are on a curve and fair for the most part. The only issue is the one trick question he likes to put on each test. If you get lucky its only worth a few points, but on one for us it was worth 20/100 and very few people actually knew what to do.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/21/2012

Dr.Machedon isn't the best teacher, but he makes up for it. His grade curve for the class is awesome! Automatically, above a 50% is a C- . Then the rest of the grades are determined based on how well the rest of the class did. Averages were real low for first 2 tests, but the 3rd test was ridiculously easy. But by choosing to take Machedon, prepared to get demolished on the final because the other teacher makes up the majority of the test. As a person, Machedon is probably the nicest math teacher, in which he is always willing to help you and clarify things. So if you don't understand somethin, just stop by his office during office hours and you'll be good.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/13/2012

This review is more about Machedon's class than his teaching. I never really went to lecture so I can't say whether or not he was good. But he drops 5 out of 15 hwk. We had three exams and one was extremely easy, the other two were fine and definitely doable. I would advise taking his class if you usually don't go to lecture because you can teach yourself from the book and still get a good grade in this course.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/03/2012

I have to agree with the review below this one. I am a good student who is pretty good at math (Usually get A's) but as a teacher Machedon is not very helpful. He is a nice guy, but he doesn't really teach important concepts.. he gets more caught up on the details of the material. I have never really intentionally skipped a class before this one, but reading the dense book was more helpful than attending lecture. And that says something especially for a math textbook. I wouldn't recommend him as a professor for this class :/

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Anonymous
11/06/2012

Machedon is a really nice man, and he seems to genuinely care about his students, but he is not a great teacher. His handwriting is difficult to read and his lectures are not very well-organized. He runs through lessons very quickly, and I personally find it difficult learning Diff Eq from him. I have watched Khan Academy videos and have had to read sections in the textbook (which is mediocre) repeatedly just to catch up to him. I'm also really confused by the comments about his tests being really easy. I guess he's changed his test format since then, because his tests are so ridiculously and unnecessariy complicated. They're long for a 50-minute time period, and the questions are far from direct. I've done all the homeworks and recommended practice problems and I feel like they don't help me with the tests at all. For the first exam, the average was around a 67/100. He does curve the tests, but if you score under a 50, you're out of luck. This seems like a fair grading system at first, until you realize how much the TA's don't like giving out partial credit.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/25/2012

I liked Levermore. I always felt like he was on the students side by always trying to make things clear in class. As people have mentioned his website is a great resource. There are old quizzes and exams to study from which are extremely helpful. His notes are also quite helpful. A lot of the time though I usually did not understand the theory that he explained before he went into examples which there are plenty of. I usually went to his notes rather than the textbook which is an okay secondary resource. His lectures were okay. I usually felt pretty confused. He is obviously a really smart guy but sometimes his explanations were not the greatest. I also felt like I memorized a lot methods rather than understanding differential equations but who cares.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Anonymous
05/11/2012

Levermore THE GOOD: Levermore is a good professor. He really limits the proofs he does on the class, which is good for engineering students. He is also very dedicated to teaching diffeq. His website is really well designed. It’s obvious he spent a lot of time on his class notes and sample problems for exams (he uses the same ones every year). Exams questions were predictable since he uses a similar format every year. THE BAD: Personally, I found differential equations difficult. This is a class where the curve can work against you if you make lots of careless mistakes. Some of his “shortcut” methods (especially partial fractions and linear algebra stuff) are somewhat cryptic and hard to understand. OVERALL: Good professor, hard exams. If you are looking for an easier A, then take someone else.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/06/2012

I have not taken the final yet so I can't fully describe how well he prepared us. But with that in mind I have to say Levermore is a really good teacher. He seems to understand that most of the people in the class didn't really care about proofs so he seemed to do just enough for this to still qualify as a math class and then spent most of the class doing examples which ultimately helped me a lot. And, as a bonus, it was really easy for me to picture him as a super villain who spends his nights punishing students who don't know math. This served as a great incentive to learn diff eq.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a B+
TerpGuy
01/15/2012

The review for Jakobson was misleading. He is portrayed as a really horrible professor but in retrospective, he was not bad mostly because his exams and quizzes were straightforward. Although some matlab homeworks were pain, they were doable since we were allowed to work in a group of 3. We only had about 5 matlab projects. Also, he gave out 5 extra credit points for each matlab projects if the presentation of the assignment was pretty. However, his lecture notes are very messy and I had to mostly self teach myself or rely on my TAs. Speaking of TAs, I got cheated out of an A because my TA never revealed to us that we could get extra credit points for matlab assignments until around the time before 3rd assignment was due. If you do the suggested book problems, you should do well on his exams. I would recommend taking him if you do not wanna be bothered by huge amounts of matlab assignments and terribly difficult exams.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/27/2011

Because of all the low reviews here, I didn't have very high expectations for Jakobson going in. As it turned out, Jakobson was much better than his reviews give him credit for. He usually teaches much better than the book does and always says what exactly is expected of you for each type of problem on a test. The book is good for the easier topics (integrating factors, exact equations) but becomes pretty useless later on in the course. At this point, you definitely want to go to lecture and he will make things pretty simple. He doesn't really try to trick you on tests or quizzes. If you can do the majority of the problems in the suggested homework, the tests are simple. He never really gave any integrals that were too tricky to evaluate. He ended up dropping our lowest quiz grade, and our lowest test was only weighted as half of a test. Gives pretty good partial credit, and is very organized. Homework problems are suggested and not graded. Matlab can be very time-consuming and annoying because you have to work in a group of 3, so I would recommend joining a discussion section with a few friends who you know are reliable, because it is a real hassle if you get stuck with random people who don't know what they're doing. Overall, I would definitely recommend Dr. Jakobson.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2011

Levermore taught us fairly well, but it seems like he taught us more how to do the problems in the class and less how to do differential equations in general. It doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of good diff eq professors in general, but I would recommend Levermore over others.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a C
TinyOne
12/21/2011

It's not very hard to do well with this professor if you stay on top of your homework. I barely did homework and I got a C in the class. If you go to the lecture and discussion right before an exam, hints are dropped like bombs about the problems that will be on it. Even without the hints you get, the problems are pretty straightforward. The final was made up of easy problems, it was just long. Also, this professor dropped half of the the score of the worst exam and he gave extra credit on the Matlab projects. And while he wasn't the best lecturer, he certainly wasn't the worst.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Anonymous
12/16/2011

He is not the teacher to teach the materials however he is not a harsh professor. He makes adjustments in the class to help students. His exams are not difficult if you do all the home work and he usually tells you before the exam what is on there. However he doesn't make the final. The final is different from what he does in class. The wording of the questions and the style of questions are different.

Michael Jakobson
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/14/2011

His lectures are 100% a waste of time. He is very difficult to understand and he barely erases the chalkboard so it's difficult to read his notes. The only time his lectures made sense were when I studied the topic before class, and even then I got lost about 20 minutes along. That being said, his exams and quizzes are generally a lot easier than some of the other instructors. Compared to Balan (the other option this semester) the exams were easy. If you can afford the time, wait to take DiffEQ when there is a decent professor teaching it. The subject is so boring that a terrible teacher makes me lose interest in studying for the class at all.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/25/2011

Levermore is a pro at teaching differential equations. He really knows who the class is made of - primarily scientists and engineers, not mathematicians. His online notes are then particularly useful because he takes the time to write out general formulas that can actually be applied to real-world problems. I am saving his notes for life.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
vnsach
05/22/2011

Great professor and nice guy. He is very reasonable with grades as his policies suggest. Drops a quiz and matlab, replaces quiz grades if you do well on the test and curves generously if you perform well on the final. I probably had around an 85 going into the final but he curved me up to an A since I did well on the final. Most importantly, his website is amazing. I literally went to class for 10 minutes a week just so I could take my quiz and learned everything off class notes and previous quizzes/tests. If you read his online notes intently, you will get an A in the class. He is better than the other teachers from what I have heard and a great choice for differential equations.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2011

Lecture: Levermore was not the greatest lecturer, but from what my friends experienced in other 246 classes he is probably your best bet. Definitely helps to be a math major and know many different math terms and symbols. Handwriting was subpar. You really only need to go to lecture for the last three weeks or so because that is when he goes over phase portraits and right before the second exam when he goes over spring forces because theses are not on his online notes. (He has great online notes that he posts) Website: Seriously best website ever, take him because of his website. MATLAB: Is difficult I can't really grade him for it though, he just assigns it and we have to figure it out (buy the MATLAB book, it does a pretty good job) Grading: 3 Midterms (100points each) 6 MATLAB's one dropped (20 points each) 11 Quizzes (almost every Tuesday during lecture 10 points each) Final (200 points) He also has some crazy grading systems which you can look up here: http://www-users.math.umd.edu/~lvrmr/2010-2011-S/Classes/MATH246/Quizzes.html Hint: look over the past couple years quizzes to study for each quiz (he keeps the answers posted too). And do the practice tests.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/17/2011

Just finished taking him. Probably the best teacher you could ask for for a class like 246. Very engaging, handwriting sometimes hard to read but bearable. Best part: His amazing website. All pertinent announcements go on there, grades averages and distributions, awesome sample problems, and best of all: Online notes! His online notes are great; they could easily be a substitute for going to class, but keep in mind there is a weekly quiz. Exams aren't difficult at all, just look at old exams and the samples problems and you can easily ace the class.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
terp315
07/28/2010

The median grades for the 3 exams in my section: 80/100, 94/100, 98/100. Seriously, they were that easy. Professor Machedon was a very efficient lecturer, so as long as you paid attention in class there was little to no reason not to do well. The final was apparently written by the other professor but I didn't find it that difficult at all. Just review the homeworks and you'll be fine.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A+
keyoung
06/01/2010

I found Machedon to be an excellent teacher as well as a great guy. His lectures were clear and very focused. He taught very straight forward, only covering subjects we needed to know and talked about theory only a few times. He was approachable and responded well to students concerns. His hws were helpful and exams were basically hw problems. Try to take a class with him.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B-
mikhail
05/22/2010

Sooooooo... His exams are easy, nevertheless, final exam will bring you back to earth. So just be prepared. Other than that he is a very good math professor. I Recommend!

Tobias von Petersdorff
MATH246

Expecting an A
xenonscreams
05/20/2010

He's an excellent professor who really understands the material and is pretty good at teaching it. His exams are extremely fair, and if you study you should do well, although it is easy to make stupid mistakes and lose a lot of credit. Matlab assignments were relatively long, but were graded very kindly and generally helped with everyone's grades. He does have panic attacks, as other people have mentioned. Sometimes they interfere with class or getting an exam passed out on time. He seems to be working on controlling them, as sometimes he will come close to having a panic attack but will breathe deeply and control himself. It seems to help to give him all the answers he asks for and ensure him that everything is OK and readable when he starts to frantically erase.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2010

His tests are a joke. The only thing is if you make one mistake it could cost you. Final was unfortunately not written by him, so that was a bit rough. However, if you have the option, definitely take Machedon.

Tobias von Petersdorff
MATH246

aloo1111
05/11/2010

He's a good professor. Study well and earn your grade with him

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
armantheman
05/09/2010

Diffeq is a joke with him, take it with him.

Tobias von Petersdorff
MATH246

Anonymous
04/27/2010

The instructor covered the material very well and explained how to do each type of problem however it was distracting to watch the professor have panic attacks in class in middle of a problem. It is unnecessary to erase the whole board because of a small algebra error such as a missed sign. His matlab assignments are very long and since he forgets to post them up I had less than a week to do the matlab and no time to do them over the weekend. I would suggest Von Petersdorff as a math professor since he covers the material well and because his tests are fairly straight forward on material covered in class.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A+
jahs389
03/03/2010

Levermore has no accent and very effectively presents what you need to know - you can't ask for more than that. But, he also has a website with all his old exams and quizzes. He does reviews for exams and the actual exams are nearly identical in format to his practice ones, you can't go wrong if you study. Matlab will take up time but that is just the course not him. Between Levermore and my TA, I managed an A+ which is a pretty big turn around from a D I got when I first took Math246.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/02/2010

Ok professor, however just like every other math course at UMD, the structure is terrible. His lectures would leave you left in the dust, got most of my help from the TA during office hours. Not impressed with the way this class is set up. Your grade in this class solely depends on what TA you get. They grade all of the quizes and exams. For the last exam, my TA was not given a solution manual and had to make up her own solutions to the exam and then graded my exam. Don't expect to get any partial credit, it's either right or wrong with this class. I'm so glad that I pay so much in tuition to have my TA teach and grade me.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting an A
jcosta12
12/11/2009

At first, I hated this guy. However, once you get used to his teaching method and the extensive information he throws at you at once, he is a really good professor. He has his own methods of teaching things (KEY IDENTITY is his method) and it is by far easier than the other methods. He is the best Differential Equations professor UMD has to offer. His exams are EXACTLY like his sample tests he posts on his website with only slight variations. Do those and you'll be fine. Quizes every tuesday sucks, but if you get a higher grade in an exam, he replaces all the quizes leading up to that exam with your exam grade. This is the reason why I got an A in the class.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Xin
11/25/2009

Not a great professor. He tries to make class entertaining with his jokes and such, but it doesn't compensate for his lack of teaching ability. Don't even bother going to class unless there is a quiz or an exam, you won't learn anything at all. He just writes a bunch of greek symbols and nasty algorithms. Get past exams and quizzes and study those. Also read the book.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Anonymous
11/14/2009

I can't believe how many good reviews there are of this professor! He just down right does not know how to teach. You MUST go to lecture to even try to have a shot at a good grade and it is impossible to get an A. Whoever the other professors are take them, cause they have to be better then Machedon!

Charles Levermore
MATH246

guru
10/01/2009

I think he was a good professor. Slightly humorous. His class webpage is possibly the best in terms of utility I have seen from a professor. The exam dates, notes, homeworks, and solutions to quizzes, etc are posted in a very organized, clear fashion.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

jumpboyb
09/12/2009

So-So. His lectures often left you saying "WTF?" He will force you into learning the greek alphabet if you do not know it yet along with drawing some other random symbols. Not too many examples in the lecture however. The homeworks, old quizzes, and practice test will make sure you are ready to get an A or B in the class as the material really isn't hard for the most part. Easier than Calc 2 for sure. Go to his office hours and he does a slightly better job of explaining things to you that he went over in lecture. He is also very approachable and does not have a accent you can't understand

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
08/04/2009

Justin is a great professor. he doesnt make you learn all of the unnecessary things that the other 246 teachers make you learn. his tests are basic and there is nothing that is on there to try to trick you. they are basically the same as the practice tests he gives, which really help a lot. the final exam was a little bit more difficult because it is a uniform exam and there are things that he did not cover, as far as i know. (i did not go to many classes at the end of the semester) he probably would have curved it, but he had taught the other material so well, our class did better than the classes who covered more material. Overall, if you put any effort into this class, there is no reason to not get an A

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting a B
highvoltage81
07/09/2009

I had Justin for Diff eq, which on its own is moderately hard. He was different from wolfe who i had the semester prior in that he didnt just write up all the formulas on the board or derive them, he went through step by step to show you the methods you needed to know, and his tests clearly followed his lectures. im taking him again for math403!

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting an A
cityazndan
05/23/2009

Great class. Exams were like the samples. Screw the MATLAB book...guides were always posted. Excellent professor who broke MATH246 down into the simplest of terms. As long as you do the MATLABs, do well on the exams, and take a decent amount of quizzes, you have the A on lockdown. The final was VERY similar to the ones on testbank.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/19/2009

He can't teach. He spends 75 minutes writing gibberish on the board that no one can understand. Even the book does a better job of explaining the material than he does. At some point during the semester you realize that you can't learn from him and you might as well skip his class and go to lunch instead.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/18/2009

I was expecting to get a B in the class but was pleased to find out that I got an A-. Although he isn't the greatest teacher in the world, the only advice i can give is to do his sample questions for his exams and the final. They are EXACTLY like his exams just with different numbers. Also, for any math class, when preparing for a final exam, go to UMD's testbank and do past exams. There was a question that was taken verbatim off last years test. Do his sample questions and past exams and you will have no problem getting at least a B

Charles Levermore
MATH246

jmartin1
05/18/2009

he was so-so as a professor. I personally found him to be very confusing at times and not very clear. however, the book for the class was awful, and for someone like me who uses textbooks as references, this made the class even harder for me.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/01/2009

One of the worst professors I have ever had. Rarely uses examples to explain and lectures get confusing with the vast number of symbols and variables he uses. My TA's were excellent and more effectively explained 2 lectures worth of material in 50 minutes that he was able to do. Avoid taking his Math246 class.

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting a B
kvizzle321
04/28/2009

Justin is a great professor. MATH246 is a very hard class, and the book they give you is not very good at explaining, so lectures are very important when learning the material. He was pretty flexible with missed MATLAB assignments, which were pretty frustrating. Additionally there are weekly quizzes in discussion but he drops a few of them. I missed many lectures and quizzes and still have a chance to get a B. As long as you go to lectures and take all the notes, you will have no problem getting a good grade in Justin's class.

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting an A
jwong89
04/20/2009

By far the best math professor I've had. If you go to class and write down all the notes he writes on the board, the only time you will open your book is to see what the homework problems are. Lectures are very organized, starts with the theory and then shows a couple of examples. The best thing is that he only teaches what you need to know for the tests and the tests themselves are really easy. He doesn't try to trick you with the tests and the sample exams he gives are very similar to the actual tests. Basically, if you can do the sample exams you will know how to do the entire test. Weekly quizzes are a pain, but he only takes the top ten. MATLAB is similarly a pain, but he posts guides to the MATLAB assignments that are pretty much a step by step guide to the problems. If you can, take Justin for any math class that you have to take.

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/06/2009

You know? I would write an amazing review, but it seems like everything I could have said about him (all good) has already been said multiple times. I just felt like reinforcing the positive ratings anyway.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/29/2008

Not the best teacher but the material is not that hard. If you read the book you should have no problem grasping the concepts with the help of your TA's, dont expect much help from the professor. Grading is fair, if you get higher than 50%, you get a C. Then the passing grades are divided up

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH246

Expecting an A
warthog
12/24/2008

I flunked Diff Eq twice, and had to beg for special permission to take it again. I took Justin's 246 one summer, and finally understood everything and got an A. Absolutely wonderful professor, can't recommend highly enough. Also, I just read this comments page after reading Wolfe's. Total opposites, haha.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a B
stanleyj
12/08/2008

He is difficult to understand and tends to strictly teach theory rather than doing examples. Also, his lectures get rather confusing due to the abstract variables, bold letters etc. His tests can be too long vs the time that is given to take them.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Anonymous
12/04/2008

His lecture is clear and great! You have to par attention though because sometimes he teaches his own methods which are easier than the stuff in the textbook.

Charles Levermore
MATH246

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/01/2008

worst professor ever. he is a genius, thats for sure, but he can not teach at all. i have not taken calc 3 yet which is supposed to make it easier but either way... he teaches class like he is reading from a book, which book, i havent a clue, because it sure isnt the one that is assigned to us. he has his own methods for solving things which are not in the book (or any others for that matter) which are not at all intuitive and effectively take up class time, as they are all useless. (to me at the very least). he rarely does examples to illustrate the concepts that he presents to us, and the examples he does use are not very good and are only of the simplest cases. his hand writing is very difficult to read, and his board is very rarely cleaned making it even harder to read the notes. finally, he refuses to accept any excuse for missing an exam. even if your mom dies, he does not care.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2008

Even though he has a thick accent and horrible handwriting, go to class and just see what you're supposed to know. The written homework is not graded, but you should do it because it's the best way to prepare for weekly quizzes. The TAs do really good jobs at explaining stuff from lecture but it's not enough. Exams are fair but MATLAB hw was a bit hard.

Tobias von Petersdorff
MATH246

Expecting an A
gundamwing4132
05/01/2008

Fair exams, good lectures.

Matei Machedon
MATH246

Anonymous
04/22/2008

Very very confusing when he teaches, but you should go to the classes and try to just get the general flow of what is going on because you have to make it click during discussion because there is a quiz almost every week. he often goes ahead in the book right before tests when it would be better if he just reviewed. he is bearable but if you don't understand make sure you go to your ta and the matlabs for this class are horrible

Reviews for MATH246