MATH410 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Arka Adhikari MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2024	Very organized, especially for a first-time tenure-track professor. The lecture presentation was clear with strong emphasis on building intuition and guiding students through proofs. I think it works especially well for the many students in 410 who are new to proofs and have this as their first proof-based math class. The homeworks are quite constructive as well and not just busywork. The main crux of his class structure is that the exams (2 midterms + final) make up 80% of your grade. The exams are structured so that they are around 4 questions (we only had 5 questions on the final), but with 1-2 questions being very challenging. Exam averages were around the 70% mark for this reason. However, the grading on the exams is quite forgiving, and more importantly, the class is heavily curved from the start. An 85% is an A, an 80% is an A-, a 60-69 is C range, a 70-79 is B range, etc. If you put good effort in to learning how to engineer proofs, you will at worst get a credit-applicable passing grade and at best get a phenomenal grade. For that reason, I find his class quite rewarding. I think Arka has a bright future as an educator at UMD and would love to take a class with him in the future!
Clarke Safsten MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/16/2024	Actually teaches the class, and has a pretty generous grading scale. My grade is just a reflection of the fact that I was not locked in.
Huy Nguyen MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2024	Second the previous review. He's very willing to help you out at office hours and it's clear he wants you to succeed. Would absolutely recommend.
Huy Nguyen MATH410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/14/2024	Great at teaching, great person & very understanding. Homeworks are very relevant and not at all unfair, if at times difficult. I enjoyed this class a lot, and you can't go wrong with him if you really want to learn the material rigorously. Taking this class with Prof. Nguyen has reinvigorated my love for math and made me want to further pursue pure math, which is great because I had gotten bored with it a while ago. I wish I hadn't waited until my last year to take this class, so that I could have had more time to take 411 & the 600-levels with him. My one personal gripe is that the exams got too easy, and I was not even a particularly dedicated math student. Maybe he was trying to make the final grade distribution better this time, I don't know. There were 3 midterms and a final. The first midterm was the hardest exam, but it was not terrible. I guess he tried to compensate for the low-ish average by literally telling us before each of the next 3 exams that they would mostly just be homework questions. It seems a lot of students didn't heed this advice. Somehow, the score distributions did not improve, except for the 3rd midterm. He ended up adjusting the grade cutoffs a lot, too.
Huy Nguyen MATH410 Expecting an A+ andruepabloske 12/12/2024	Love this guy. Funny and good explainer. Gave some interesting homework problems and made exams relatively low-stress. I highly recommend Huy!
Terence Long MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/11/2024	It is a difficult course, but considering the class is Math410, it isn't unreasonable. Homeworks are reasonable, relevant, and only graded for completion and effort. Exams are challenging, but again, it's Math410, so they are supposed to be hard, and given this, they are reasonable. Also, they weren't time-sensitive, so you could take your time which was nice. He's a nice guy and a solid professor. Answers all questions. I think my section also got bailed out because we had a really easy grader for midterms, but Terence graded the final and he didn't grade it unfairly. Also, there was a nice curve at the end of the class that bumped me up a letter grade. Would recommend it.
Jaime Paradela MATH410 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/09/2024	Regardless of who you take 410 with, it's gonna be really hard, but I think Jaime did a great job teaching it for the first time. Although he lectures straight out of the textbook, his lectures are easy to follow and fast-paced. He is very approachable and will explain things really well during office hours. He has great handwriting and his accent is very understandable. He gives out suggested practice problems that will help develop your understanding of concepts. There were two midterms and one final, all weighed together as 85% of the grade. The first midterm was pretty fair but the second midterm was very unexpected. There were 3 quizzes and 3 homeworks that were all weighed very little. He wants his students to do well as he will curve the assessments based on the average. Additionally, he will curve at the end of the semester as well. Overall, a wonderful person and decent professor.
Arka Adhikari MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/20/2024	Professor Adhikari is a very nice and organized professor. We have weekly homeworks that are often pretty straight-forward and prepare you for the exams. The exams were pretty straight-forward as well, however the fourth question was always a bit of a harder question. He has made MATH410 feel like a pretty "easy" class (as easy as 410 can be). As someone who was scared to take 410, that feeling has gone away since being in this class. I highly recommend professor Adhikari for any math class.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/29/2024	He is the absolute GOAT for MATH410. No matter who you take MATH410 with, it isn't going to be easy by the nature of the class - but Stefan is one of the best you can take it with.
Roy Joshua MATH410 Anonymous 09/22/2024	Roy Joshua just transferred to UMD from Ohio state, and so when he got put into the system and listed as the professor for MATH410, people read his reviews from ohio state, most of which were from covid virtual learning, and 12 people dropped the class before the first day. As for his lecture style, he is very by the book but very consistent. He goes through explanations as well as plenty of examples, and pretty much follows the textbook exactly. He writes on his ipad and projects the notes onto the board, and while he does have messy handwriting he also always says the exact words he writes down as he is writing them. He does have a somewhat thick accent, so while I usually have no trouble with understanding people who speak english as their second language I can understand that some people may want to choose a different lecturer if they struggle in that area. He assigns straightforward homeworks that are only 5 questions (all taken from the textbook), and so the class is relatively low workload. He is also a quite understanding professor, making sure people have enough time to do and submit the homework and also making sure people understand what he is saying in lecture before he moves on. This class is far more interactive than many other professors I have had in the math department. He is somewhat poor with technology though, as he didn't even realize the ELMS wasn't posted on the first day of classes, but he has the understanding of the content and can clearly explain it and that's what counts at the end of the day.
Roy Joshua MATH410 Expecting a W Anonymous 09/09/2024	Run. I withdrew without a "w" and got into another section but in my entire life, he was the worst professor/teacher I've ever had. He speed-runs topics and examples with little to no explanation. His hand writing is a mix of sloppy cursive and print which he switches constantly between in the same sentence. 16 people dropped this class on the second day while every other section has remained full. A C- is a 45% though if that's all you want, but to get an A it's still a 93.
Anna Szczekutowicz MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/28/2024	Anna is a decent option for 410, I excelled throughout most of the semester but sadly didn't do well on just the final. I didn't learn much from her lecturing alone, I think this is her weakest spot. That being said, her exams are fair, and her homeworks are good. I'd probably prefer harder homeworks compared to the exam difficulty, but either way the class is fair. Despite my grade, I learned a lot from the class, and I'd lightly recommend taking Anna.
Terence Long MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2024	Boring lectures. Course contents are exactly the same as the textbook. But the midterm means are not bad.
Hussain Ibdah MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	MATH410 with Dr. Ibdah was a solid experience; while we had occasaionally difficult homeworks (though he always provided solutions after the due date, which I really appreciated) and the exams had averages and medians in the 60s-70s, he gave a generous curve. Grades aside, I liked the way he taught and his notes were comprehensive. He is very kind and genuinely cares about the success of his students (e.g. always made himself available for office hours).
Hussain Ibdah MATH410 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/11/2024	Probably the worst professor I have ever had. Completely fails to engage students during lectures. He is disorganized, constantly had to delay an exam and couldnt get through all the material by the end of the course. His first exam had typos that changed the questions and one question said, and I quote, "make sense of the function". This is in a proof based math course. His handwriting is completely illedgible which means you cannot catch up on lectures if you miss something and cannot use his notes at all. Why this man is allowed to teach the most notoriously challenging math class at UMD is beyond me.
Terence Long MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/27/2024	Professor Long is one of the best math professors at UMD. He's charismatic, funny, and explains content really well. All of his lectures are from the book so you know exactly what he's talking about & his homework are fair with fair grading. The only flaw he has is planning -- or really lack of planning. The second exam was made two weeks before finals & homeworks are randomly assigned (although always with 1 full week to complete). If you're okay with not being totally certain what your upcoming week is going to look like, take him for 410. Imo it's a worth while trade off for his teaching.
Christian Rosendal MATH410 Expecting an A fiftyseven 01/17/2024	Great professor who you can tell really knows and enjoys the content he's teaching and wants you to understand it too. Follows the textbook very closely - but unlike some other professors, manages to present the material in a way that adds onto the textbook and truly makes class worth attending. He's also generally really nice, exams are fair, and homework load is manageable. I'd highly recommend him.
Hussain Ibdah MATH410 Expecting an A- surgeon 12/22/2023	Will start off by saying that the class was small making communication much easier. I also think it was his first time teaching analysis so things were a bit less organized than normal. Lectures were usually him going over some important theorems. The weekly homework took me forever at first, like 12-15 hours, but it eased up over the semester. They were also graded not too harshly but they still have to be somewhat rigorous. I think his notes were a pretty good reference if you can read the handwriting. The exams had averages in the 60s but he gave opportunities to make up points. I'm not sure how this compares to other professors but in general MATH410 is very challenging but doable and that's how it went.
Haizhao Yang MATH410 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/20/2023	Really chill, very nice. cancelled the 2nd and 3rd midterm. lectures were boring though, but treated us as extra elementary which was nice.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2023	Grillakis's classes are completely useless to this course. I attended every day and took notes, yet did not learn a single thing. Most of his classes consist of him looking at his notes, which he posts on canvas, and writing them onto the chalk board word for word. We had one midterm and the material on the exam was not relevant to the class at all. The homework are extremally difficult though he will help you at office hours. That being said a 55% passes the class so if you need to take the class he isnt a terrible choice, just dont expect to learn anything.
Haizhao Yang MATH410 Expecting an A DenialWhammy 12/16/2023	HE'S THE GOAT. THE ABSOLUTE GOAT. IF HE TEACHES THIS CLASS AGAIN YOU HAVE TO TAKE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I have never been more excited to review a professor because he makes the class super interesting and intuitive. Office hours are super useful. Just take any class with this guy tbh.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/14/2023	Speaking for MATH410 he is typically ranked as the best or second-best option on this website for a given semester. He is incredibly nice, answers all questions, and exams are very similar to previous exams. Also, this semester the final and the one midterm both had one or two problems from the sample exams on the actual exams. Go to class, do the homework correctly, study, and with the low letter-grade cutoffs it is not that difficult to do well. Highly recommend him for MATH410.
Anna Szczekutowicz MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2023	She is SO enthusiastic about teaching to the point where her lectures are so freaking engaging lol. IMO she explains the material very and all her proofs are very understandable because she explains the motivation behind each step in a proof. You shooould definitely consider taking ANNA for MATH410 if you ever want to take this course and she is an option. :D
Anna Szczekutowicz MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2023	Pretty good prof. Posts all the lecture notes online so attendance is honestly pretty optional. Exams are definitely very fair, but sometimes seem like they weren't planned out very well in advance, but this is offset by the fact that she's very lenient with partial credit. Overall probably the best 410 prof.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/08/2023	Awesome professor who is funny in lecture and understood that while MATH410 is a very important class it is also typically the first rigorous math class a student takes. There were weekly homeworks that were difficult but doable and the three midterms and final were quick but fair. Also there was a 24h no penalty grace period with HWs which was super helpful. Not so much related to Stefan but the textbook for the course is worth every dollar and probably one of the best I have ever bought. All in all Stefan is the GOAT.
Anna Szczekutowicz MATH410 Anonymous 11/08/2023	Great prof, other 410 reviewer basically summed everything. Only downside is I don't like how tests are memorizing content rather than utilizing them, other than that fair tests. Very nice in person as well. One of the best/better 410 prof's out there, highly recommend.
Anna Szczekutowicz MATH410 Anonymous 11/01/2023	Very sweet person and great lecturer. The exams, so far, have been in this pattern: Q1 gives you three names (theorems/mathematical objects) and asks you to write their definitions. Q2 asks for a counterexample to some claim. Q3, Q4, and Q5 are free-response proof questions, at least one of which closely models a problem in the notes. And Q6 asks you to prove one of the (shorter) theorems we already had proved in class, so understanding and remembering the proof sketches is key here. I'm not gonna lie, I came out of the first two exams feeling like they kicked my ass. Almost nobody finished them on time. But I somehow got an A on both. She and the grader were very lenient and gave lots of partial credit. So even if you don't fully know some answer, write something anyway. The homework has not been difficult at all, especially after coming from MATH340/341.
Boyu Zhang MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 06/01/2023	I took this class in the fall of 2023 - Boyu's first time teaching MATH410. The class initially started off with high hopes, but as more time passed by, it was understood that this class would basically be impossible. The grade split was 20% homework (essentially completion/how much you tried), 25% for each midterm (there were 2), and 30% on the final. Homework was weekly (even on the week of tests). Boyu's teaching was very fast-paced, however, he was good at answering questions and clarifying concepts when needed. However, there would be no review of past sections/theorems every class. Once the topic introduction had passed, you were expected to be an expert in it and recall the definition and be well versed in it. This class covers a lot of dense material in a very short time, and other is no forgiveness for the student who falls behind even the slightest amount. Exams (in theory) were nicely formatted - 75% (3/4 questions) of exams would be directly from the textbook. This sounds nice until you look at the textbook. It is almost unreadable at times, unreasonably dense at times, and often steps are skipped. Furthermore, no solutions were ever given to homework or textbook problems. To get solutions to a specific problem you would have to go to his office hours or send him an email - something that isn't feasible for 300+ textbook problems. Often, we had to resort to trying to find half solutions online and working off of those (we didn't understand them well at all). Giving a practice exam with similar types of problems to the exam coming up would be much better. The lack of clear solutions and explanations to practice problems makes this almost impossible to do. When asked about this at the start of the course, Boyu responded "Well its a proof. You will know if your proof is correct or not". This doesn't make sense and just isn't true. The averages of the exams went 64%, 49% and the average of the final was 47%. Apparently, these averages were "good" according to Boyu. The saving grace in this class was the curve. 75-95 A, 65-75 A-, 63-65 B+, 58-63 B-, 53-55 C+, 49-53 C, 40-49 C-, <40 D/F. Boyu is one of the instructors that believes that the curve is necessary, and would rather curve the class at the end rather than give easier/better exams. Essentially, to see how you're doing in the class, just see how you are doing compared to the average. Overall, I would not recommend taking this class with Boyu unless it really is your only option or you are already a genuis at real analysis (then this class review shouldn't matter to you). It is not a simple or straightforward class, and the only way to do well is to spend 10-15 hours outside of class every single week understand the concepts by yourself and trying to solve textbook exercises. How will you find the answers to those problems? Good luck. Try emailing him or finding a math genuis/tutor that can do all of them.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	Like another reviewer mentioned, grading is done so 85% is an A-, 70% is a B- etc. His exams are hit or miss, some of the questions are similar to the hw but others are kinda wonky. Grading is also hit or miss too, he seems to take the same amount of points of if you make a large or a little mistake. Lecture's are subpar, didn't really learn much from them, which made the hw tedious. If you can teach yourself the material for 410, I guess you'll be okay, but if there's a better option go for that...
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	One of the most organized and thorough professors I've had. Genuinely one of the best math courses I've taken thanks to Denny! Even at his age, he is still very sharp and knows what he's talking about. It was hard to follow him in lecture sometimes but his note sheets were amazing and picked up for any gaps in knowledge due to his teaching. His exams were fair, homework was well picked, and quizzes were fair. He was also very approachable during office hours and a very sweet old man. It's sad that he is no longer teaching after this semester, but it's been an honor to have been one of his last students.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH410 Anonymous 02/09/2023	A difficult professor. He deducts points for everything. For each question, you receive a score of 0 or 100%. He does not give partial credit for your good attempts. He is a very self-centered individual who simply wants you to know that he is knowledgeable about the subject. His teaching is so boring that he does not allow you to ask questions. He gets mad at students who ask a question and stops them while they are asking question. He will make you feel your question is silly. I highly recommend you to register for any professor other than him.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH410 Expecting an F Anonymous 02/09/2023	Too hard, bad grader. Take anyone else but him…
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH410 Expecting an F Anonymous 01/19/2023	Tough, difficult, many students dropped
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2022	Dr. Ebrahimian is a very good professor. He explains the concepts so well; even though his course is very challenging, he made it manageable. He gives us study guides before exams, and his exam problems are similar to (almost the same as) the study guide. He has hw and quizzes every week which helps us learn a lot. He tries his best to help us understand the material. Highly recommend him!
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH410 Expecting an A+ Charl1e1029 12/23/2022	This course was legit one of the most challenging math classes I’ve ever taken in my life. However, having Ebrahimian teach it made it significantly more understandable. I would say Ebrahimian went above and beyond in terms of listening to his students’ requests and working his hardest to make sure we had what we needed to succeed. An incredibly knowledgeable lecturer, as well as a fast grader, Ebrahimian graded all of our assignments in a prompt, timely manner and even went as far as grading our second midterm within a day to give us time to decide whether or not we wanted to withdraw before the withdraw deadline. Never have I seen a man be asked a question and simply go to town on the blackboard and answer it concisely and understandably within a few minutes. He even dropped an extra quiz and homework for us at the end of the semester! 10/10 would recommend.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH410 Anonymous 12/22/2022	You will pass his course if you are able to master the topics and write solutions exactly how he says. This means working harder than you think you should. The only way you can pass is to study every single day, and practice problems everyday. I mean it - do not ever skip studying. He does not give partial credit. He is not a generous grader. So if you write a solution that is technically correct but somehow missing a minor point or two, he will give you a zero. He will accept only a perfect solution. He has a hard time connecting with students. He does not care about anything you tell him. He will only care about your perfect solutions on a test. If you are a genius and you enjoy a challenge, this is the right professor for you. He is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the topics in this class. But if you are not a genius and have to work hard for it, turn away. You will have a hard time in this class because he has no problem in giving out zeros. The exams are fair sometimes, and sometimes harder. Like I said, if you are naturally a gifted mathematician, you will do just fine. This professor is not for all types of students.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/21/2022	One of the best math professor. He has weekly quiz, even sometimes stressful, but do force you to learn. He totally understand the fact that not every math major really like math and good at math (doing new problem during exam) so he give study guide for every exam and the exam questions are basically come from the study guide.
Roohollah Ebrahimian MATH410 Expecting an A ceremonialgradematcha 12/18/2022	challenging, but a great professor. had him for 341 last semester, but didn't get around to reviewing until now. his weekly quizzes are mostly reiterations of the homework, and so are free points. but you're going to need those points, as exams are quite hard (but fair), along with homeworks and study guides. if you do well on the homework and study guide, the exams are just like those. you'll walk out of the class really understanding the material he teaches you. if you just wanted an easy a...find someone else. also, his class is very well-organized. notes are posted online, and his "drop one exam for the final" is merciful, since the final has an extra credit question.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH410 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/16/2022	Had the opposite experience as others. This class is statistically known to be the HARDEST class for math majors by far. From my experience, he would always leave proofs half written and have students figure it out on their own, and sometimes he would look at his own proofs and find small errors. Before exam day, students requested he go over the whole practice exam for review since it would be great knowing the difficulty of the material, but he simply refused.
Lei Chen MATH410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/12/2022	I will try to keep this review short, as the other reviewers can sum it up. Her lectures could be better and could do some work. Reading the respective section of Fitzpatrick beforehand was necessary to gauge her lectures well, as they often seem unplanned, and the proofs sometimes seem hand-waved. I wouldn't say she's a bad lecturer, just that the proofs done in class are not always done with full rigor, and the additional commentary can [sometimes] make the lecture hard to follow, which is why I stopped showing up to the lecture after a while. Homework can be quite difficult. However, she's extremely helpful and super approachable during office hours and will answer any question with full rigor and critique proofs quite well. I found her to be quite a nice person in general as well, apart from just the subject matter being discussed. She does an excellent job of easing students into theoretical mathematics and is quite lenient with grading exams - full rigor is only sometimes expected, even for full credit. There are a lot of extra credit opportunities and a curve, which makes it easy for the final grade to be indicative of your actual understanding of the course content at the end of the course, and she drops quizzes and the lowest exam. As another reviewer here mentioned, the exam reviews are close to the exams themselves, and even the extra credit questions are not of unreasonable difficulty, warranting relatively high-class averages. If you can understand all the homework problems and do the reviews, it is quite fathomable to score a minimum of a B in the class and an A with some extra studying.
Lei Chen MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2022	Goated in the sauce, for different reasons than being a good prof. As the other reviews may say, she is disorganized and doesn't really seem to plan a lecture, so some lectures are not very easy to follow. She also likes to offhandedly mention a lot of comments on the proof instead of doing them, which are pretty confusing unless you have selective hearing. However, she's nice and gives some genuine help in OH, where if you have a particular question on homework or about a comment in the textbook, she is pretty smooth about answering it. The TA graded homework somewhat roughly but that's to be expected given the upper level nature of the course. The real thing she provides is that her reviews are almost essentially the exam itself. If you can do confidently finish the reviews for each exam, they will more than prepare you for the exam. Additionally, she's very lenient about the nature of proofs, where as long as you can explain reason even without being rigorous, you can get a lot of the partial credit for each problem. This is enhanced even more by the fact that she has 10 extra points for midterms, giving even more Leiway. The means on the first midterms for our quarter are at least 80%, so this made 410 a much more bearable experience for me. TL;DR Lei Chen for 410 is a very solid option and it wouldn't be bad to try taking her for this course.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/02/2022	Professor Gulick is amazing! He is a clear, funny, organized lecturer. He is very knowledgeable and passionate, which always helps. I had always heard of 410 as a nightmare course for math majors, but it was honestly not bad at all for me with Professor Gulick. I obviously still had to work hard, but his homework and exams were very fair and doable from reading the textbook and attending lecture. He always holds review sessions for the exams and takes any questions that students may have. He is very sweet and accommodating and it is clear how much he cares for his students.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 10/13/2022	He isn’t bad at all. He just speaks to the class as if we all know exactly what he’s talking about. He is helpful and will help pass you if you put in the work by going to office hours. During office hours he breaks everything down for you. You have a 70% chance of passing his class if you show up, attend office hours, and try your best.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A wmy78b 05/20/2022	Although MATH410 is believed as a tough course for Math majors, I had really good time in the class. Prof. Gulick is very sweet and friendly. He makes all the things straightforward and tries his best to make everyone to understand. Reply to email super quick and always be willing to help. The old exams are useful, my suggestion is to do all the old ones before your exam. And remember all the important ideas in his notes. The notes are fantastic! I really appreciate his work. After his class, I gained my confidence back and enjoyed the beauty of Math.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2022	My favorite professor at UMD. you can tell he's very smart and really loves math, and is always great at explaining material. he's also super approachable and loves answering questions. homeworks are fairly challenging but if you just pay attention in class and takes notes you'll be fine (he grades most of the hard problems for completion anyways). exams were fair and individually curved as needed. 100% take him if you have a chance for any class
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2022	Certainly not the greatest professor I have had but I found him to be better than what most of these other reviewers described. First of all he is very generous with his curve with 85% being an A-, 70% being a B- and 55% being a C- on top of dropping 1/8 HW’s and 1/3 exams. The exams were not crazy difficult with a lot of problems being very similar to either the hw or the (ungraded quizzes he gives out). The final was extremely easy too in comparison to the exams. His lectures are definitely the worst part however. His handwriting is good and his accent is pretty mild in my opinion but he tends to go on tangents and can be pretty confusing. For the homework I felt I had to teach myself from the book and learn from online resources often as I had not learned from class. It’s definitely a doable class though and if you put in a reasonable amount of time then you should be able to get a decent grade with the aforementioned curving.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 01/06/2022	He is overall a good professor. He doesn't really know how to break the material down for others to understand and only explains the way he knows best. If you go in for office hours that is where you'll be able to understand everything because he breaks down the proofs even more (showing more steps). I remember there being about 3 questions on the midterms and they are kinda like hit or miss. If you get 2 questions completely right then you pass the exam. His exam reviews are helpful in a sense because it is set up just like the exams. All in all, if you pass 2 exams you basically pass the class. There is also a huge curve but I'm sure that is only if he sees that you are really trying to understand the material.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/01/2022	I loved Denny and his attitude. He makes the class fun. Weekly pop quizzes (usually on Fridays) and homework due every class. Sometimes the homework can be hard, so find a study group! Mine got me through some tough homework problems. Memorize and understand the major theorems he teaches-- he calls them one, two, and three star theorems, ranging in importance. Quizzes usually ask for these theorems, or a definition, or a T/F question, or an easy computation problem. Memorize these theorems, please. I didn't do well on some quizzes due to sheer laziness in not studying except for exams. Totally my fault here-- he really makes these quizzes easy, honestly. He gives old exams to study with a few days before an exam, but if you ask him to share them earlier, he will. His exams are very similar to old ones-- usually the same ideas are tested, and there's usually one or two problems that are the same as the old exam, just the numbers or function is changed. He also hosts review sessions before each exam, which is nice. Do go to these, he will answer all your questions and do as many proofs as you ask of him.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/30/2021	MATH410 is regarded as one the four toughest math classes at UMD. However, Denny does a fantastic job at teaching the course and makes the material much more straightforward compared to MATH310. There are 3 homeworks each week and a pop quiz. While this is a pain it keeps you on track for the course as there is a lot of definitions, theorems and arithmetic to learn. The quizzes are usually very easy and ask to state a theorem/definition (the ones he stars in class), a 2 sentence proof or basic arithmetic. The exams are 5 questions each with 2 parts and can be a time crunch but are manageable as well. He will ask you to state theorems/definitions (again the one he stars), arithmetic and more in-depth proofs. In general he takes half of your lowest midterm, drops 1-2 quizzes and does a curve at the end of the semester, midterm averages are in the 70's. In order to succeed in this course memorize the theorems/definitions as well as how the proofs work and you can get at least a B. This class can seem very daunting to math majors but Denny does a great job at teaching it.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2021	Fair exams and good lecturer. Highly recommend him!
Lei Chen MATH410 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/20/2021	A little disorganized in lectures, so there is maybe a 30% chance you will not know what she is talking about in class. She always answers questions, so if you are confused ask her a question. Her office hours are much more helpful than the average professors office hours. The homework's are pretty difficult, but as long as you can do her exam reviews, the tests will not be hard at all. She genuinely does not want anyone to fail the course. Her whole motto is that MATH410 is for learning, not failing so as long as you can show that you have learned material, you will pass. The 10% curve at the end was also helpful. Not the best, but far from the worst.
Stefan Doboszczak MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/22/2021	The best math professor I've ever had, even better than Justin. I was prepared to take what all my friends have called the worst math class for a math major and understood everything he went over. He always answered the questions that students had in lecture and also had very generous curves. Take him for anything you can.
Steven Chadwick MATH410 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/29/2021	Highly recommend any math class with Chadwick. As everyone knows, 410 is one of the hardest math classes at UMD but its really manageable with Chadwick. He explains concepts well and his exams, homeworks, and quizzes are really straightforward. He's also really flexible about extending due dates if you need more time on a homework
Charles Levermore MATH410 Anonymous 02/01/2021	Great professor. I’d definitely recommend taking 410 with him, it really improved my ability to do proofs. Levermore knows a lot about math and its history which makes lectures interesting. He also provides super detailed notes. He is very helpful in office hours.
Charles Levermore MATH410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/26/2021	Very knowledgeable in the field. He breaks up his very math heavy lecture with interesting historical anecdote that puts into perspective the depth of the work well. His homeworks are quite difficult and tedious, but he lectures well and is very available for help.
Patrick Fitzpatrick MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2020	He made some errors but not as bad as some other reviewers claim. He's also a very generous grader. I felt like his office hours were much more helpful than going to class, but some of his lectures were quite helpful for the denser material. I would recommend reading the material a day or two in advance that way you know what to expect. Also if you email him ahead of time he with questions he'll give a bit of extra time towards it in class. If not for technical limitations I would take another course taught by professor Fitzpatrick.
TBA MATH410 Expecting a W Anonymous 12/13/2020	This professor appears to be teaching half the courses/sections at UMD, but then magically disappears and gets replaced by some terrible professor! But on very rare occasion, when the stars align and Testudo rises, the legend Justin will replace Dr.TBA. Overall, any class that Dr.TBA is teaching will be replaced by someone else, so unless you think it'll be Justin, it's probably better to opt to taking a different professor.
Jacob Bedrossian MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/23/2020	A very knowledgeable guy and a great lecturer
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/16/2020	I highly recommend taking a course with Gulick if you can. He's a super nice professor and loves to teach his class, and as others have said he has a very quirky personality, which I think is a huge benefit to keeping the class interesting. Additionally, I've always had no problem reaching out to him for help as he's quite welcoming and never once was condescending towards any questions I had, regardless of how silly they may have been (something that unfortunately can't be said about many of my previous math profs). I agree that the way he runs through proofs in class can be a bit too fast sometimes, but going to office hours has helped with that along with going through the textbook while doing HW. While the homework definitely becomes a pain in the a** as the semester goes on its definitely a helpful way to keep you on track and in my opinion is better than having a few major assignments as it gives you a little bit more leeway in the event you forget to do an assignment or submit it late.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/29/2020	Above average. Besides reading from the book, he only gives slightly different proofs. He gives a lot of homework. His exams are difficult, especially the midterms, because of a shortage of time. The final is easier, with double time and 1.5 times as many questions as midterms. A difficult question in midterm 1 is similar to a homework problem. Another difficult question in midterm 2 is related to the Darboux theorem (which is not included in the textbook).
Xiumin Du MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/04/2020	Professor Du is a great professor. She comes to class with very organized and structured notes, which she then posts after each class so if you miss a day you won't be behind. However attending class is still beneficial because she doesn't just mindlessly write the notes on the board, she explains them as well, especially the more complicated proofs. Her lecture is very structured as well. She presents a definition, then a theorem, and then a proof, in that order. So if you like an organized prof you'll like her. The homework is hard but prepares you for the final and you have one homework a week (but it takes about 2-4 hours generally so it's best to not do it last minute). I got a 100% on the first midterm and a 66% on the final, so it's definitely a tough final (average on it was 55%) but she curves the class accordingly (86% for the class got me an A). Math 410 is a very hard class and likely the first tough proof based math class you'll take at UMD. And I think taking professor Du is very beneficial if you plan to take more rigorous proof classes. Also she has a very easy to understand accent so don't worry about that either.
Xiumin Du MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2020	Super clear explanations and great resources.
Xiumin Du MATH410 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/15/2020	She is the most prepared lecturer I've ever had in a math class. Super smart and can always answer questions in office hours. totally fair grader.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/03/2020	He is a good professor. Usually he is available as scheduled so that you can ask him questions. Usually, his exams are somewhat on the difficult side, but he is a fairly forgiving grader. It might be that he doesn't prepare the class with the problem solving skills to do the problems in the exam (as in our section over half the students ended up dropping the course). So his course is somewhat sink or swim. However, for 410 his cutoffs are very generous (85+ for at least an A-). Overall I would recommend him to others looking to take this course.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/28/2020	He strictly follow the book in his lectures. Lectures are helpful, but is the same as reading the book yourself. His exams are difficult with little curve, it's usually the case that you can't complete the exams on time. The grade cutoffs are rather low, but not cover up the difficulty of the exams. If you know the material well but don't have time to finish exams, midterms are extremely horrible while final is fine. He is extremely nice and knowledgeable, and he is very careful and serious as a mathematician(I guess). Hints: some midterm problems are similar to past final exams, don't wait till the end of semester to study them. I saw many problems about Mean Value Theorem, seems like he like it very much. I saw a problem on exam about Darboux Theorem (you can solve it with MVT, but very hard), you can try that.
Jacob Bedrossian MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/25/2019	Great lecturer, but exams are hard.
Jacob Bedrossian MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2019	Professor Bedrossian is an amazing teacher. He wants students to succeed, and provides many opportunities to do so, from posting exam review guides, pointing out which type of questions and concepts will be on exams, and posting where students can get assistance from other faculty or students if they cannot make his office hours. He made a hard class seem, if not easy, then at least doable.
Changguang Dong MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/12/2019	Nice enough guy, but a poor lecturer. Lenient homeworker grader, but harder on exams. Lots of homework problems each week. Exams are extremely difficult. Teaches directly from Levermore's notes.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/10/2019	He is a very nice professor. He is good at explaining things and he is pretty much always available as scheduled to entertain questions. He is very smart (he solved a question I was pondering for a week in around 30 seconds). Admittedly, he does "teach out of the book", in the literal sense: his lecture preparation consists of opening the book where we last left off and then lecturing some more. His exams are fairly difficult, but his grading for them is lenient if you demonstrate understanding of how to solve the problem. I also think his discussion on the beginning of the book (field axioms and natural numbers) was way too slow. Overall I would recommend him. For students who struggle more with the material I might not recommend him. For students who want their 410 experience to be extra spicy I would recommend Levermore instead.
Nathan Manning MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/18/2019	Great dude and great lecturer. Exams are pretty fair, a lot of homework. He tried not to show his disappointment for our class, but you could tell that he thought we were all idiots.
Nathan Manning MATH410 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 09/01/2019	Cool guy, very prepared for lectures, follows the book. I really wanted to like the class but toward the end I was just worrying about grades instead of actually enjoying the contents, so that wasn't great... (the final mark was horrible indeed). the content is not hard but I felt like I didn't grow in the right direction. The homework problems didn't provide too much intuition of what we should be doing -- even though most of the times I did all the exercises without much difficulty I still couldn't get the big picture.
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH410 Anonymous 04/14/2019	I've had Justin for MATH241, MATH401, and MATH410. He's been incredible for all three. He is such a nice guy and simply knows how to each. He also runs his classes in a professional, organized fashion. His expectations are always very clear and his willingness to help students is unparalleled by any other professor I've had at this university. He seems to always know exactly what students are thinking. Because I've had him for three classes, I've seen how he adapts his style to best suit different types of classes. Especially for MATH410, where the material gives students a lot of trouble, Justin is so good at explaining things clearly and patiently. I cannot even fathom the notion that there could be a better professor on this campus than Justin.
Charles Levermore MATH410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2018	LECTURES: Very organized, engaging, and useful lectures. He often goes into the history of math during the class, but does so in a beneficial way such that it completely integrated with the course content. He often expects class participation from people (not explicitly graded, but "factored into the final grade"), but is really good about getting students to "think like a mathematician." The class often proved many of the largest theorems in calculus together, which helped with learning the material. I'd give a subscore of 5/5. Truly the best lecturer I had the semester I took the course. ASSIGNMENTS: Levermore makes his assignments incredibly difficult in general. I normally spent ~8-12 hours each week on homework for this class (partially since I didn't know how to prove non-trivial problems before this course), but in general, they were very useful at building confidence before an exam. Levermore is very much a "give hard homeworks, make the test easier" kind of professor, but at the same time, some assignments were just so much harder than any of the tests we took that it was demoralizing at times. Thankfully, the assignments are not worth a large part of the grade overall, so it's alway spossible to half-ass an assignment and have it not do massive damage to your grade. (The 4 lowest homeworks get dropped at the end of the semester) I give a subscore of 4/5 -- Assignments were sometimes just too hard to be useful, and often took too long. EXAMS: Levermore gives 3 exams for his 410 class--two midterms and a final. The exams are largely easy since he recycles most of the questions on the exams from previous homework problems and previous exams in different years. This means that just with proper studying/memorizing, it's possible to get ~80% without understanding the material just by copying answers from previous exams. However, the logistics of exams is frustrating. Our first exam was returned in 3 weeks, which was a bit slow, but our second exam was a different story. We took that exam halfway through the semester, and got the grades back the night before the final, nearly 1.5 months after the test. While the logistics of regular homework assignments was well done (usually given back within a week), the exams were graded directly by Prof. Levermore, which caused significant problems. Subsection score: 3/5 -- For really bad logistical errors made with grading OVERALL THOUGHTS: Definitely one of the hardest, yet most rewarding math classes I've taken here. I'd recommend taking MATH410 with him if you're interested in a challenge, and willing to put large amounts of time understanding the material.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2018	I just took Gulick's 410 class. Solid professor -- quite an old guy, you can tell he's been teaching the material for quite a long time and definitely knows his stuff inside out. Pros: -- Lively/Quirky, easy to stay engaged in class, fairly clear lecturer -- Exams and grading seem to be considerably easier and more straightforward than other profs who teach 410 (just from talking to other students and looking at content of final exams). This is the biggest pro. -- Gives a lot of material to prep for exams. He gives out practice exams, reviews problems, as well as "concept understanding" problems for each chapter. Also, all his past final exams are on math test bank. -- Drops lowest two quizzes, and takes 50% of your lowest midterm Cons: -- Goes through the proofs too fast for my taste. Luckily, the the textbook he uses (Fitzpatrick) is well written and there to help. -- The biggest con: Assigns homework due every class period (MWF), that usually takes 30-90 minutes. I had a hefty schedule this semester so this was extremely annoying. I advise that you take Gulick's 410 with other low-workload classes Summary: All in all, a solid professor to take 410 with, and (from my observation) the easiest version of MATH410 to get an A or A- with if you reguarly attend class and put in the work.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2018	Not a great lecturer; talks really quietly into the board as he writes in his (truly impeccable) handwriting. He also is not good at communicating information effectively to the class. Probably the only good thing about his teaching is that he is somewhat helpful in office hours. Even so, he merely tells you the answer. He seems pretty uninterested in actually helping students get a deep understanding of the material. His exams are hard, not completely reflective of homeworks, and he is stingy with partial credit. He also maintained almost no contact with his grader, who sucked - didn't finish grading the last 2 homeworks before the last midterm or the final.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/29/2018	Okoudjou is a fantastic instructor. He is very passionate and energetic during his lectures, which keeps students engaged. He is also very understanding of the difficulty of the course - while he did not make the course easy, he took time for group work in class to make sure everyone was really on the same page with the material. Would recommend.
Sandra Cerrai MATH410 Anonymous 05/18/2018	I thought I’d comment on prof Cerrai since I feel the reviews on this site are not accurate, except for kvsiddarth’s review (there are some reviews on reddit which do a better job). I was weary of taking her this semester precisely because of the Ourumd reviews but her section fit my schedule perfectly so I decided to take her anyways. And she did an amazing job. You can tell that she knows her stuff, knows how to convey it to the class, and makes an effort to make sure that we understand and will repeat herself again if we do not. This is exactly what a prof is supposed to do. And not many upper level math profs do so unfortunately... Sometimes she relates a concept to some other concept in mathematics helping you see the big picture. For those of us math majors this is incredibly useful and interesting. Her exams are not exactly a walk in the park but are not bad either. There are usually 2-3 questions that are extremely fair since they were covered in lecture and another 1-2 that are just random (getting these well depends on how well you know the material or just how lucky you are lol). But fair exams overall. She also curves. Homework is straight from the book. And there are solutions for all problems in the book everywhere so no reason why you shouldn’t get 100 on them. So if you’re a math major serious about math I would definitely recommend her. And if you’re a math major serious about math, and in particular, probability, even more so, since after all, its her field and she is very knowledgeable. So probs the best option for STAT410. I would def take another class with her if I could.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/29/2018	Grillakis uses the textbook so everything you need to learn in 410 is in the book. His class is droll but informative and he is very understanding about sickness and family matters.
Charles Levermore MATH410 Expecting an A- me 12/16/2017	He knows the topic really well. Lectures follow the class notes very closely, and homeworks are helpful for learning the material. One piece of advice for taking this class: the tests are similar from year to year. He has old tests posted on his website, so you should definitely use those to study.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A pens_suck 10/03/2016	Great professor, he was very thorough. People complaining about him are simply angry that they didn't get a good grade, despite not understanding the material. Exams were fair. Do your homework thoroughly, it's 410 that's what the class is about.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/04/2013	Foreword: reviews complaining about "spending way too much time on proofs" are obviously from people who have no business taking a 400-level course in the math department; upper-level math /is/ proofs. So, Leonid Koralov: Super-nice professor, always smiling, lots of office-hours, will always stay after to help you through a problem. Reasonable homework assignments, though they edge on the lengthy side. Very flexible re: late homework if you miss a lecture, which is refreshing. Very good lecturer. None of the material in the course was at all difficult to understand if you showed up and paid attention in lecture. All proofs done in satisfactory detail and explained lucidly. He occasionally goes on tangents, but they generally cover material you'll see in subsequent courses and I've found that many of them were quite helpful. He does assume a level of student competence with formal proof-based math in his lectures; if you are not yet comfortable with lectures consisting of definition -> claim -> proof -> repeat and little else, avoid. If you are, you will find that he's one of the better lecturers out there. Yes, he is a tough grader, but fair with partial credit. Be sure to write your proofs cleanly. Yes, his exams are fairly difficult (median grade was below 50% on both midterms, but most of this was due to many people in the class who simply were not ready to take a rigorous theory course). Little-to-no curve, but he will bump your grade up if you put in a fair effort and show a good grasp of the material.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/31/2013	I had Hamilton for 410, so this review probably won't be relevant for 100-level or 200-level lectures because of the differing class sizes/content/structure of the course. He was not terrible, nor was he terrific; he was satisfactory and nothing else. Lectures: His lectures weren't particularly valuable. I always went since the course wasn't to be taken lightly, but the only time I ever found myself consulting what I had written down in lecture was when he solved one of the homework problems in class. Otherwise, I'd teach myself the material by reading the book/the notes he sent to us via e-mail(which he would do if he found the book to be too convoluted, but I often found his notes more confusing than the book). Homework: His homeworks were fair, just problems out of the book. I found that they took several hours in the beginning of the semester (like 4-5), but by the end of the semester, once I had gotten used to the course, they took about two hours. Just get a group of three/four together to work on them once a week and you should be fine. Do as many as possible yourself before that, though, or else you won't benefit from the homework, which was the only work outside of the tests. Tests: The tests were designed so you could pass, especially the final. Basically, 30% of the test was true/false, two medium difficulty questions (20 % each), and one tough question (30 %, might be a choice between two problems). He also added 10 percent to the two midterms, just cause. The only way you didn't pass the class is if you REALLY didn't know your shit, so you should get through it the first time even if you struggle. As far as his character goes: yeah, he's pretty arrogant, but the description two posts below is an unfair exaggeration. I found his personality tolerable. I heard rumors that he's a misogynist, but I never noticed him treating women any different than men. He's not the most personable person, but he's fair and lenient. All in all, he's a solid professor, and if you can handle the course material, you'll get through it just fine.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A anonn 12/21/2012	Gulick teaches the concepts well. He emphasizes physical intuition, but he also is a stickler about definitions and proofs, which was annoying at first, but made me realize that I didn't understand the material as well as I had thought. He also cares a lot about the students. He'll take the time to print out solutions to particularly challenging homeworks, and he'll have at least two review sessions for each midterm so everyone can make them. And this is on top of him working 80 hours a week. The reason I'm giving him four stars might be a personal preference. He taught us like we were children. Some of the students liked it, but I didn't. It somehow made me take the class less seriously than I should have in the beginning and middle of the semester, so I had to work really hard for the final. He also gives homework every class, which was both good and bad. The homeworks would each take 30-90 minutes to complete, so they weren't a time-suck. On the other hand, it was a bit annoying to do the homework so often.
Matei Machedon MATH410 Expecting an A dfarias 12/19/2012	Dr. Machedon is a great professor! He is really nice and always approachable. It is clear he cares a lot about teaching, and enjoys congratulating students for getting certain problems correct. He teaches very well, and often presents material in a better way than the book. His tests tend to require true understanding of the material instead of memorization, though many questions are "tricky". The test averages for 410 were very low, but he understands this and curves the class fairly in the end. I would highly recommend him as a teacher. You will end up understanding the class material extremely well at the end of it all.
McBlaine Boyle MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/13/2012	Boyle is a great teacher, the only problem I find is his exams. I would say they are not truly fair. He doesn't focus on the stuff that is most important or he asks stuff in a very strange way. He is teaching 411 next semester and I was going to take it with him, but I know if I take it with someone else there will at least be a chance that I will get a B, maybe even an A. I feel like with Boyle my grade would be a C.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/23/2012	Professor Hamilton is a genius and knows analysis like nobody's business, but he has a difficult time communicating this knowledge to his students. In class, he works proofs very quickly in an extremely convoluted fashion that is generally impossible to follow. He makes plenty of assumptions and skips many steps in his proofs that make his lectures so incoherent that you almost wish you didn't go. Although he doesn't understand that the average MATH410 student isn't a bonafine genius, he is still very nice and pretty approachable to answer questions. For Fall '09, the class was MWF at 2pm and was basically structured like this: Monday and Wednesday he would teach new material (i.e. go through proofs of basic theorums) and Friday he would go through any problems on the newest problem set that we had questions about (he would actually just do the problem for you, which was great), and that problem set would likely be due the following Monday. He does not answer many homework questions outside of class because he wants you to ask it during lecture so that everyone has a chance to hear it. The class has 2 midterms, a cumulative final, 9 homeworks (highest one counts double), and two bonus homeworks if you choose to do them. You grade is the maximum of your homeworks&midterms grade, or your final exam grade. Exams are VERY easy and test your basic understanding of the material. Homework is very challenging and you will likely need to seek help to complete it. Overall medium professor, but good enough for this class.
Denny Gulick MATH410 helkoz 04/13/2012	I don't know why everyone loves Denny, but I know I do. Yes, he can be very entertaining, but it's also the fact that he is compassionate, in-tune with student concerns, and knows his stuff! I would not necessarily call him the best professor ever or possibly not even in the math department BUT he is certainly a great professor. I was literally jealous of 410 classmates who were able to be in 411 with him the following Fall because I had to take it over the summer. Luckily, I got to have him for 452, and for the most part, it was great as well.
Denny Gulick MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2011	410 is a great course to take as you will really start to understand what math is all about from it. Gulick is a good professor for this class. He definitely cares about students and tries to help you learn to the best of his ability. He gives a small homework due each class, which gets pretty annoying, but it's good that it keeps you up to date with the material all the time. His exams can be tough, but they are pretty fair. The quizzes that he gives to enforce attendance are stupid, but they're not really a big deal in terms of your grade.
Michael Jakobson MATH410 Expecting a B timbade 07/25/2011	Jakobson was truly disappointing to learn from. He came to lecture and scribbled down some notes while mumbling in broken english. He did not want any input from the class, nor to talk to any of his students. He clearly had better things to be doing, and it seemed like this class was at the bottom of his priority list. His proof methods are sloppy, and I have a feeling that if he were the grader the grades would have been fine, but that was not the case. Some grad student the class never met did 100% of the grading, and was ultra meticulous. He is a fine guy, but I would avoid his class at all costs. I ended up with my first D ever, completely to my surprise. I am however, looking forward to redeeming myself with a better professor. Just don't take it with him, flat out.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Anonymous 02/25/2011	He is definitely a nice guy, and has office hours three times a week (more than any other professor I've ever had). However, he does not curve at all, he barely gives partial credit, his exams are very difficult, and there were MANY people in the class who did not pass. Furthermore, his specialty is statistics, so having him teach MATH410 was a strange decision on the part of the math department. I don't recommend taking this particular class with him if proofs don't come easily to you. He tries to help, but he is only partially effective at doing so.
Michael Jakobson MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2010	Jakobson was completely useless in lecture. It's hard to understand him and he never was helpful when it came to the homework. HOWEVER, he is pretty generous when it came to grades. He drops 4 homeworks, gives some extra credit, and will round up your final grade. May not be the best teacher, but you are more likely to get a better grade with him than some of the other professors. Teach yourself and do the hw with a friend and you will be fine.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/18/2010	Nice guy, but pretty much just writes the book on the board. Although he usually makes some insightful comments which I usually found made it worth it to go to class. I dunno if he was just out of his element teaching MATH410 since he had only taught STAT classes before. He is a really smart guy, but a hard grader and no curve. Everyone failed the first test, and a lot of people failed the second one. He does want to help though, he tries very hard to help, but he just can't.
Melissa Macasieb MATH410 Expecting an A toypajme 05/16/2010	What everyone said is mostly true. She makes tons of errors on the board, and at least for 410, she basically wrote the book on the board with little extra explanation. Sometimes she is helpful in office hours and other times she isn't depending on her mood. Just sit on her till she gives you a good enough hint. Overall, she was okay. Test questions came out of no where sometimes and you don't even see a glimpse of the difficulty of the test problems till the class before where she gives a practice exam, and those are never indicative to how the test will be. The first one was hard and the test was okay. The second one was easier and the test was impossible (average dropped 10 points), and the final practice test was ridiculous but the final was very easy. Go figure. It's just a very mixed up class.
David Hamilton MATH410 keyoung 01/04/2010	Everything Musick Video has posted is a great summary of prof Hamilton and his 410. Even though his lectures were difficult to follow and he often went off on tangents his exams were so easy. The Friday review sessions were great and when prof Hamilton graded the hw he just glances and gives 10s. His grading system was also grade because you just need to secure an A before the final and only need a 50% on the final. It's very easy to get the A with the midterms and HW's and 2 bonuses. The final was a lot more difficult than the midterms, so don't plan on just getting an A on the final. Great Prof for 410

Arka Adhikari
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/19/2024

Very organized, especially for a first-time tenure-track professor. The lecture presentation was clear with strong emphasis on building intuition and guiding students through proofs. I think it works especially well for the many students in 410 who are new to proofs and have this as their first proof-based math class. The homeworks are quite constructive as well and not just busywork. The main crux of his class structure is that the exams (2 midterms + final) make up 80% of your grade. The exams are structured so that they are around 4 questions (we only had 5 questions on the final), but with 1-2 questions being very challenging. Exam averages were around the 70% mark for this reason. However, the grading on the exams is quite forgiving, and more importantly, the class is heavily curved from the start. An 85% is an A, an 80% is an A-, a 60-69 is C range, a 70-79 is B range, etc. If you put good effort in to learning how to engineer proofs, you will at worst get a credit-applicable passing grade and at best get a phenomenal grade. For that reason, I find his class quite rewarding. I think Arka has a bright future as an educator at UMD and would love to take a class with him in the future!

Clarke Safsten
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/16/2024

Actually teaches the class, and has a pretty generous grading scale. My grade is just a reflection of the fact that I was not locked in.

Huy Nguyen
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2024

Second the previous review. He's very willing to help you out at office hours and it's clear he wants you to succeed. Would absolutely recommend.

Huy Nguyen
MATH410

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/14/2024

Great at teaching, great person & very understanding. Homeworks are very relevant and not at all unfair, if at times difficult. I enjoyed this class a lot, and you can't go wrong with him if you really want to learn the material rigorously. Taking this class with Prof. Nguyen has reinvigorated my love for math and made me want to further pursue pure math, which is great because I had gotten bored with it a while ago. I wish I hadn't waited until my last year to take this class, so that I could have had more time to take 411 & the 600-levels with him. My one personal gripe is that the exams got too easy, and I was not even a particularly dedicated math student. Maybe he was trying to make the final grade distribution better this time, I don't know. There were 3 midterms and a final. The first midterm was the hardest exam, but it was not terrible. I guess he tried to compensate for the low-ish average by literally telling us before each of the next 3 exams that they would mostly just be homework questions. It seems a lot of students didn't heed this advice. Somehow, the score distributions did not improve, except for the 3rd midterm. He ended up adjusting the grade cutoffs a lot, too.

Huy Nguyen
MATH410

Expecting an A+
andruepabloske
12/12/2024

Love this guy. Funny and good explainer. Gave some interesting homework problems and made exams relatively low-stress. I highly recommend Huy!

Terence Long
MATH410

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/11/2024

It is a difficult course, but considering the class is Math410, it isn't unreasonable. Homeworks are reasonable, relevant, and only graded for completion and effort. Exams are challenging, but again, it's Math410, so they are supposed to be hard, and given this, they are reasonable. Also, they weren't time-sensitive, so you could take your time which was nice. He's a nice guy and a solid professor. Answers all questions. I think my section also got bailed out because we had a really easy grader for midterms, but Terence graded the final and he didn't grade it unfairly. Also, there was a nice curve at the end of the class that bumped me up a letter grade. Would recommend it.

Jaime Paradela
MATH410

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
12/09/2024

Regardless of who you take 410 with, it's gonna be really hard, but I think Jaime did a great job teaching it for the first time. Although he lectures straight out of the textbook, his lectures are easy to follow and fast-paced. He is very approachable and will explain things really well during office hours. He has great handwriting and his accent is very understandable. He gives out suggested practice problems that will help develop your understanding of concepts. There were two midterms and one final, all weighed together as 85% of the grade. The first midterm was pretty fair but the second midterm was very unexpected. There were 3 quizzes and 3 homeworks that were all weighed very little. He wants his students to do well as he will curve the assessments based on the average. Additionally, he will curve at the end of the semester as well. Overall, a wonderful person and decent professor.

Arka Adhikari
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/20/2024

Professor Adhikari is a very nice and organized professor. We have weekly homeworks that are often pretty straight-forward and prepare you for the exams. The exams were pretty straight-forward as well, however the fourth question was always a bit of a harder question. He has made MATH410 feel like a pretty "easy" class (as easy as 410 can be). As someone who was scared to take 410, that feeling has gone away since being in this class. I highly recommend professor Adhikari for any math class.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/29/2024

He is the absolute GOAT for MATH410. No matter who you take MATH410 with, it isn't going to be easy by the nature of the class - but Stefan is one of the best you can take it with.

Roy Joshua
MATH410

Anonymous
09/22/2024

Roy Joshua just transferred to UMD from Ohio state, and so when he got put into the system and listed as the professor for MATH410, people read his reviews from ohio state, most of which were from covid virtual learning, and 12 people dropped the class before the first day. As for his lecture style, he is very by the book but very consistent. He goes through explanations as well as plenty of examples, and pretty much follows the textbook exactly. He writes on his ipad and projects the notes onto the board, and while he does have messy handwriting he also always says the exact words he writes down as he is writing them. He does have a somewhat thick accent, so while I usually have no trouble with understanding people who speak english as their second language I can understand that some people may want to choose a different lecturer if they struggle in that area. He assigns straightforward homeworks that are only 5 questions (all taken from the textbook), and so the class is relatively low workload. He is also a quite understanding professor, making sure people have enough time to do and submit the homework and also making sure people understand what he is saying in lecture before he moves on. This class is far more interactive than many other professors I have had in the math department. He is somewhat poor with technology though, as he didn't even realize the ELMS wasn't posted on the first day of classes, but he has the understanding of the content and can clearly explain it and that's what counts at the end of the day.

Roy Joshua
MATH410

Expecting a W
Anonymous
09/09/2024

Run. I withdrew without a "w" and got into another section but in my entire life, he was the worst professor/teacher I've ever had. He speed-runs topics and examples with little to no explanation. His hand writing is a mix of sloppy cursive and print which he switches constantly between in the same sentence. 16 people dropped this class on the second day while every other section has remained full. A C- is a 45% though if that's all you want, but to get an A it's still a 93.

Anna Szczekutowicz
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
05/28/2024

Anna is a decent option for 410, I excelled throughout most of the semester but sadly didn't do well on just the final. I didn't learn much from her lecturing alone, I think this is her weakest spot. That being said, her exams are fair, and her homeworks are good. I'd probably prefer harder homeworks compared to the exam difficulty, but either way the class is fair. Despite my grade, I learned a lot from the class, and I'd lightly recommend taking Anna.

Terence Long
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2024

Boring lectures. Course contents are exactly the same as the textbook. But the midterm means are not bad.

Hussain Ibdah
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/14/2024

MATH410 with Dr. Ibdah was a solid experience; while we had occasaionally difficult homeworks (though he always provided solutions after the due date, which I really appreciated) and the exams had averages and medians in the 60s-70s, he gave a generous curve. Grades aside, I liked the way he taught and his notes were comprehensive. He is very kind and genuinely cares about the success of his students (e.g. always made himself available for office hours).

Hussain Ibdah
MATH410

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
05/11/2024

Probably the worst professor I have ever had. Completely fails to engage students during lectures. He is disorganized, constantly had to delay an exam and couldnt get through all the material by the end of the course. His first exam had typos that changed the questions and one question said, and I quote, "make sense of the function". This is in a proof based math course. His handwriting is completely illedgible which means you cannot catch up on lectures if you miss something and cannot use his notes at all. Why this man is allowed to teach the most notoriously challenging math class at UMD is beyond me.

Terence Long
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/27/2024

Professor Long is one of the best math professors at UMD. He's charismatic, funny, and explains content really well. All of his lectures are from the book so you know exactly what he's talking about & his homework are fair with fair grading. The only flaw he has is planning -- or really lack of planning. The second exam was made two weeks before finals & homeworks are randomly assigned (although always with 1 full week to complete). If you're okay with not being totally certain what your upcoming week is going to look like, take him for 410. Imo it's a worth while trade off for his teaching.

Christian Rosendal
MATH410

Expecting an A
fiftyseven
01/17/2024

Great professor who you can tell really knows and enjoys the content he's teaching and wants you to understand it too. Follows the textbook very closely - but unlike some other professors, manages to present the material in a way that adds onto the textbook and truly makes class worth attending. He's also generally really nice, exams are fair, and homework load is manageable. I'd highly recommend him.

Hussain Ibdah
MATH410

Expecting an A-
surgeon
12/22/2023

Will start off by saying that the class was small making communication much easier. I also think it was his first time teaching analysis so things were a bit less organized than normal. Lectures were usually him going over some important theorems. The weekly homework took me forever at first, like 12-15 hours, but it eased up over the semester. They were also graded not too harshly but they still have to be somewhat rigorous. I think his notes were a pretty good reference if you can read the handwriting. The exams had averages in the 60s but he gave opportunities to make up points. I'm not sure how this compares to other professors but in general MATH410 is very challenging but doable and that's how it went.

Haizhao Yang
MATH410

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/20/2023

Really chill, very nice. cancelled the 2nd and 3rd midterm. lectures were boring though, but treated us as extra elementary which was nice.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH410

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/18/2023

Grillakis's classes are completely useless to this course. I attended every day and took notes, yet did not learn a single thing. Most of his classes consist of him looking at his notes, which he posts on canvas, and writing them onto the chalk board word for word. We had one midterm and the material on the exam was not relevant to the class at all. The homework are extremally difficult though he will help you at office hours. That being said a 55% passes the class so if you need to take the class he isnt a terrible choice, just dont expect to learn anything.

Haizhao Yang
MATH410

Expecting an A
DenialWhammy
12/16/2023

HE'S THE GOAT. THE ABSOLUTE GOAT. IF HE TEACHES THIS CLASS AGAIN YOU HAVE TO TAKE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I have never been more excited to review a professor because he makes the class super interesting and intuitive. Office hours are super useful. Just take any class with this guy tbh.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/14/2023

Speaking for MATH410 he is typically ranked as the best or second-best option on this website for a given semester. He is incredibly nice, answers all questions, and exams are very similar to previous exams. Also, this semester the final and the one midterm both had one or two problems from the sample exams on the actual exams. Go to class, do the homework correctly, study, and with the low letter-grade cutoffs it is not that difficult to do well. Highly recommend him for MATH410.

Anna Szczekutowicz
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/29/2023

She is SO enthusiastic about teaching to the point where her lectures are so freaking engaging lol. IMO she explains the material very and all her proofs are very understandable because she explains the motivation behind each step in a proof. You shooould definitely consider taking ANNA for MATH410 if you ever want to take this course and she is an option. :D

Anna Szczekutowicz
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/17/2023

Pretty good prof. Posts all the lecture notes online so attendance is honestly pretty optional. Exams are definitely very fair, but sometimes seem like they weren't planned out very well in advance, but this is offset by the fact that she's very lenient with partial credit. Overall probably the best 410 prof.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/08/2023

Awesome professor who is funny in lecture and understood that while MATH410 is a very important class it is also typically the first rigorous math class a student takes. There were weekly homeworks that were difficult but doable and the three midterms and final were quick but fair. Also there was a 24h no penalty grace period with HWs which was super helpful. Not so much related to Stefan but the textbook for the course is worth every dollar and probably one of the best I have ever bought. All in all Stefan is the GOAT.

Anna Szczekutowicz
MATH410

Anonymous
11/08/2023

Great prof, other 410 reviewer basically summed everything. Only downside is I don't like how tests are memorizing content rather than utilizing them, other than that fair tests. Very nice in person as well. One of the best/better 410 prof's out there, highly recommend.

Anna Szczekutowicz
MATH410

Anonymous
11/01/2023

Very sweet person and great lecturer. The exams, so far, have been in this pattern: Q1 gives you three names (theorems/mathematical objects) and asks you to write their definitions. Q2 asks for a counterexample to some claim. Q3, Q4, and Q5 are free-response proof questions, at least one of which closely models a problem in the notes. And Q6 asks you to prove one of the (shorter) theorems we already had proved in class, so understanding and remembering the proof sketches is key here. I'm not gonna lie, I came out of the first two exams feeling like they kicked my ass. Almost nobody finished them on time. But I somehow got an A on both. She and the grader were very lenient and gave lots of partial credit. So even if you don't fully know some answer, write something anyway. The homework has not been difficult at all, especially after coming from MATH340/341.

Boyu Zhang
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
06/01/2023

I took this class in the fall of 2023 - Boyu's first time teaching MATH410. The class initially started off with high hopes, but as more time passed by, it was understood that this class would basically be impossible. The grade split was 20% homework (essentially completion/how much you tried), 25% for each midterm (there were 2), and 30% on the final. Homework was weekly (even on the week of tests). Boyu's teaching was very fast-paced, however, he was good at answering questions and clarifying concepts when needed. However, there would be no review of past sections/theorems every class. Once the topic introduction had passed, you were expected to be an expert in it and recall the definition and be well versed in it. This class covers a lot of dense material in a very short time, and other is no forgiveness for the student who falls behind even the slightest amount. Exams (in theory) were nicely formatted - 75% (3/4 questions) of exams would be directly from the textbook. This sounds nice until you look at the textbook. It is almost unreadable at times, unreasonably dense at times, and often steps are skipped. Furthermore, no solutions were ever given to homework or textbook problems. To get solutions to a specific problem you would have to go to his office hours or send him an email - something that isn't feasible for 300+ textbook problems. Often, we had to resort to trying to find half solutions online and working off of those (we didn't understand them well at all). Giving a practice exam with similar types of problems to the exam coming up would be much better. The lack of clear solutions and explanations to practice problems makes this almost impossible to do. When asked about this at the start of the course, Boyu responded "Well its a proof. You will know if your proof is correct or not". This doesn't make sense and just isn't true. The averages of the exams went 64%, 49% and the average of the final was 47%. Apparently, these averages were "good" according to Boyu. The saving grace in this class was the curve. 75-95 A, 65-75 A-, 63-65 B+, 58-63 B-, 53-55 C+, 49-53 C, 40-49 C-, <40 D/F. Boyu is one of the instructors that believes that the curve is necessary, and would rather curve the class at the end rather than give easier/better exams. Essentially, to see how you're doing in the class, just see how you are doing compared to the average. Overall, I would not recommend taking this class with Boyu unless it really is your only option or you are already a genuis at real analysis (then this class review shouldn't matter to you). It is not a simple or straightforward class, and the only way to do well is to spend 10-15 hours outside of class every single week understand the concepts by yourself and trying to solve textbook exercises. How will you find the answers to those problems? Good luck. Try emailing him or finding a math genuis/tutor that can do all of them.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/18/2023

Like another reviewer mentioned, grading is done so 85% is an A-, 70% is a B- etc. His exams are hit or miss, some of the questions are similar to the hw but others are kinda wonky. Grading is also hit or miss too, he seems to take the same amount of points of if you make a large or a little mistake. Lecture's are subpar, didn't really learn much from them, which made the hw tedious. If you can teach yourself the material for 410, I guess you'll be okay, but if there's a better option go for that...

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/17/2023

One of the most organized and thorough professors I've had. Genuinely one of the best math courses I've taken thanks to Denny! Even at his age, he is still very sharp and knows what he's talking about. It was hard to follow him in lecture sometimes but his note sheets were amazing and picked up for any gaps in knowledge due to his teaching. His exams were fair, homework was well picked, and quizzes were fair. He was also very approachable during office hours and a very sweet old man. It's sad that he is no longer teaching after this semester, but it's been an honor to have been one of his last students.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH410

Anonymous
02/09/2023

A difficult professor. He deducts points for everything. For each question, you receive a score of 0 or 100%. He does not give partial credit for your good attempts. He is a very self-centered individual who simply wants you to know that he is knowledgeable about the subject. His teaching is so boring that he does not allow you to ask questions. He gets mad at students who ask a question and stops them while they are asking question. He will make you feel your question is silly. I highly recommend you to register for any professor other than him.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH410

Expecting an F
Anonymous
02/09/2023

Too hard, bad grader. Take anyone else but him…

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH410

Expecting an F
Anonymous
01/19/2023

Tough, difficult, many students dropped

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH410

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/23/2022

Dr. Ebrahimian is a very good professor. He explains the concepts so well; even though his course is very challenging, he made it manageable. He gives us study guides before exams, and his exam problems are similar to (almost the same as) the study guide. He has hw and quizzes every week which helps us learn a lot. He tries his best to help us understand the material. Highly recommend him!

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH410

Expecting an A+
Charl1e1029
12/23/2022

This course was legit one of the most challenging math classes I’ve ever taken in my life. However, having Ebrahimian teach it made it significantly more understandable. I would say Ebrahimian went above and beyond in terms of listening to his students’ requests and working his hardest to make sure we had what we needed to succeed. An incredibly knowledgeable lecturer, as well as a fast grader, Ebrahimian graded all of our assignments in a prompt, timely manner and even went as far as grading our second midterm within a day to give us time to decide whether or not we wanted to withdraw before the withdraw deadline. Never have I seen a man be asked a question and simply go to town on the blackboard and answer it concisely and understandably within a few minutes. He even dropped an extra quiz and homework for us at the end of the semester! 10/10 would recommend.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH410

Anonymous
12/22/2022

You will pass his course if you are able to master the topics and write solutions exactly how he says. This means working harder than you think you should. The only way you can pass is to study every single day, and practice problems everyday. I mean it - do not ever skip studying. He does not give partial credit. He is not a generous grader. So if you write a solution that is technically correct but somehow missing a minor point or two, he will give you a zero. He will accept only a perfect solution. He has a hard time connecting with students. He does not care about anything you tell him. He will only care about your perfect solutions on a test. If you are a genius and you enjoy a challenge, this is the right professor for you. He is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the topics in this class. But if you are not a genius and have to work hard for it, turn away. You will have a hard time in this class because he has no problem in giving out zeros. The exams are fair sometimes, and sometimes harder. Like I said, if you are naturally a gifted mathematician, you will do just fine. This professor is not for all types of students.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/21/2022

One of the best math professor. He has weekly quiz, even sometimes stressful, but do force you to learn. He totally understand the fact that not every math major really like math and good at math (doing new problem during exam) so he give study guide for every exam and the exam questions are basically come from the study guide.

Roohollah Ebrahimian
MATH410

Expecting an A
ceremonialgradematcha
12/18/2022

challenging, but a great professor. had him for 341 last semester, but didn't get around to reviewing until now. his weekly quizzes are mostly reiterations of the homework, and so are free points. but you're going to need those points, as exams are quite hard (but fair), along with homeworks and study guides. if you do well on the homework and study guide, the exams are just like those. you'll walk out of the class really understanding the material he teaches you. if you just wanted an easy a...find someone else. also, his class is very well-organized. notes are posted online, and his "drop one exam for the final" is merciful, since the final has an extra credit question.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH410

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/16/2022

Had the opposite experience as others. This class is statistically known to be the HARDEST class for math majors by far. From my experience, he would always leave proofs half written and have students figure it out on their own, and sometimes he would look at his own proofs and find small errors. Before exam day, students requested he go over the whole practice exam for review since it would be great knowing the difficulty of the material, but he simply refused.

Lei Chen
MATH410

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/12/2022

I will try to keep this review short, as the other reviewers can sum it up. Her lectures could be better and could do some work. Reading the respective section of Fitzpatrick beforehand was necessary to gauge her lectures well, as they often seem unplanned, and the proofs sometimes seem hand-waved. I wouldn't say she's a bad lecturer, just that the proofs done in class are not always done with full rigor, and the additional commentary can [sometimes] make the lecture hard to follow, which is why I stopped showing up to the lecture after a while. Homework can be quite difficult. However, she's extremely helpful and super approachable during office hours and will answer any question with full rigor and critique proofs quite well. I found her to be quite a nice person in general as well, apart from just the subject matter being discussed. She does an excellent job of easing students into theoretical mathematics and is quite lenient with grading exams - full rigor is only sometimes expected, even for full credit. There are a lot of extra credit opportunities and a curve, which makes it easy for the final grade to be indicative of your actual understanding of the course content at the end of the course, and she drops quizzes and the lowest exam. As another reviewer here mentioned, the exam reviews are close to the exams themselves, and even the extra credit questions are not of unreasonable difficulty, warranting relatively high-class averages. If you can understand all the homework problems and do the reviews, it is quite fathomable to score a minimum of a B in the class and an A with some extra studying.

Lei Chen
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/09/2022

Goated in the sauce, for different reasons than being a good prof. As the other reviews may say, she is disorganized and doesn't really seem to plan a lecture, so some lectures are not very easy to follow. She also likes to offhandedly mention a lot of comments on the proof instead of doing them, which are pretty confusing unless you have selective hearing. However, she's nice and gives some genuine help in OH, where if you have a particular question on homework or about a comment in the textbook, she is pretty smooth about answering it. The TA graded homework somewhat roughly but that's to be expected given the upper level nature of the course. The real thing she provides is that her reviews are almost essentially the exam itself. If you can do confidently finish the reviews for each exam, they will more than prepare you for the exam. Additionally, she's very lenient about the nature of proofs, where as long as you can explain reason even without being rigorous, you can get a lot of the partial credit for each problem. This is enhanced even more by the fact that she has 10 extra points for midterms, giving even more Leiway. The means on the first midterms for our quarter are at least 80%, so this made 410 a much more bearable experience for me. TL;DR Lei Chen for 410 is a very solid option and it wouldn't be bad to try taking her for this course.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/02/2022

Professor Gulick is amazing! He is a clear, funny, organized lecturer. He is very knowledgeable and passionate, which always helps. I had always heard of 410 as a nightmare course for math majors, but it was honestly not bad at all for me with Professor Gulick. I obviously still had to work hard, but his homework and exams were very fair and doable from reading the textbook and attending lecture. He always holds review sessions for the exams and takes any questions that students may have. He is very sweet and accommodating and it is clear how much he cares for his students.

David Hamilton
MATH410

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
10/13/2022

He isn’t bad at all. He just speaks to the class as if we all know exactly what he’s talking about. He is helpful and will help pass you if you put in the work by going to office hours. During office hours he breaks everything down for you. You have a 70% chance of passing his class if you show up, attend office hours, and try your best.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A
wmy78b
05/20/2022

Although MATH410 is believed as a tough course for Math majors, I had really good time in the class. Prof. Gulick is very sweet and friendly. He makes all the things straightforward and tries his best to make everyone to understand. Reply to email super quick and always be willing to help. The old exams are useful, my suggestion is to do all the old ones before your exam. And remember all the important ideas in his notes. The notes are fantastic! I really appreciate his work. After his class, I gained my confidence back and enjoyed the beauty of Math.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/19/2022

My favorite professor at UMD. you can tell he's very smart and really loves math, and is always great at explaining material. he's also super approachable and loves answering questions. homeworks are fairly challenging but if you just pay attention in class and takes notes you'll be fine (he grades most of the hard problems for completion anyways). exams were fair and individually curved as needed. 100% take him if you have a chance for any class

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/17/2022

Certainly not the greatest professor I have had but I found him to be better than what most of these other reviewers described. First of all he is very generous with his curve with 85% being an A-, 70% being a B- and 55% being a C- on top of dropping 1/8 HW’s and 1/3 exams. The exams were not crazy difficult with a lot of problems being very similar to either the hw or the (ungraded quizzes he gives out). The final was extremely easy too in comparison to the exams. His lectures are definitely the worst part however. His handwriting is good and his accent is pretty mild in my opinion but he tends to go on tangents and can be pretty confusing. For the homework I felt I had to teach myself from the book and learn from online resources often as I had not learned from class. It’s definitely a doable class though and if you put in a reasonable amount of time then you should be able to get a decent grade with the aforementioned curving.

David Hamilton
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
01/06/2022

He is overall a good professor. He doesn't really know how to break the material down for others to understand and only explains the way he knows best. If you go in for office hours that is where you'll be able to understand everything because he breaks down the proofs even more (showing more steps). I remember there being about 3 questions on the midterms and they are kinda like hit or miss. If you get 2 questions completely right then you pass the exam. His exam reviews are helpful in a sense because it is set up just like the exams. All in all, if you pass 2 exams you basically pass the class. There is also a huge curve but I'm sure that is only if he sees that you are really trying to understand the material.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting a B
Anonymous
01/01/2022

I loved Denny and his attitude. He makes the class fun. Weekly pop quizzes (usually on Fridays) and homework due every class. Sometimes the homework can be hard, so find a study group! Mine got me through some tough homework problems. Memorize and understand the major theorems he teaches-- he calls them one, two, and three star theorems, ranging in importance. Quizzes usually ask for these theorems, or a definition, or a T/F question, or an easy computation problem. Memorize these theorems, please. I didn't do well on some quizzes due to sheer laziness in not studying except for exams. Totally my fault here-- he really makes these quizzes easy, honestly. He gives old exams to study with a few days before an exam, but if you ask him to share them earlier, he will. His exams are very similar to old ones-- usually the same ideas are tested, and there's usually one or two problems that are the same as the old exam, just the numbers or function is changed. He also hosts review sessions before each exam, which is nice. Do go to these, he will answer all your questions and do as many proofs as you ask of him.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/30/2021

MATH410 is regarded as one the four toughest math classes at UMD. However, Denny does a fantastic job at teaching the course and makes the material much more straightforward compared to MATH310. There are 3 homeworks each week and a pop quiz. While this is a pain it keeps you on track for the course as there is a lot of definitions, theorems and arithmetic to learn. The quizzes are usually very easy and ask to state a theorem/definition (the ones he stars in class), a 2 sentence proof or basic arithmetic. The exams are 5 questions each with 2 parts and can be a time crunch but are manageable as well. He will ask you to state theorems/definitions (again the one he stars), arithmetic and more in-depth proofs. In general he takes half of your lowest midterm, drops 1-2 quizzes and does a curve at the end of the semester, midterm averages are in the 70's. In order to succeed in this course memorize the theorems/definitions as well as how the proofs work and you can get at least a B. This class can seem very daunting to math majors but Denny does a great job at teaching it.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2021

Fair exams and good lecturer. Highly recommend him!

Lei Chen
MATH410

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/20/2021

A little disorganized in lectures, so there is maybe a 30% chance you will not know what she is talking about in class. She always answers questions, so if you are confused ask her a question. Her office hours are much more helpful than the average professors office hours. The homework's are pretty difficult, but as long as you can do her exam reviews, the tests will not be hard at all. She genuinely does not want anyone to fail the course. Her whole motto is that MATH410 is for learning, not failing so as long as you can show that you have learned material, you will pass. The 10% curve at the end was also helpful. Not the best, but far from the worst.

Stefan Doboszczak
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/22/2021

The best math professor I've ever had, even better than Justin. I was prepared to take what all my friends have called the worst math class for a math major and understood everything he went over. He always answered the questions that students had in lecture and also had very generous curves. Take him for anything you can.

Steven Chadwick
MATH410

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/29/2021

Highly recommend any math class with Chadwick. As everyone knows, 410 is one of the hardest math classes at UMD but its really manageable with Chadwick. He explains concepts well and his exams, homeworks, and quizzes are really straightforward. He's also really flexible about extending due dates if you need more time on a homework

Charles Levermore
MATH410

Anonymous
02/01/2021

Great professor. I’d definitely recommend taking 410 with him, it really improved my ability to do proofs. Levermore knows a lot about math and its history which makes lectures interesting. He also provides super detailed notes. He is very helpful in office hours.

Charles Levermore
MATH410

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/26/2021

Very knowledgeable in the field. He breaks up his very math heavy lecture with interesting historical anecdote that puts into perspective the depth of the work well. His homeworks are quite difficult and tedious, but he lectures well and is very available for help.

Patrick Fitzpatrick
MATH410

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/23/2020

He made some errors but not as bad as some other reviewers claim. He's also a very generous grader. I felt like his office hours were much more helpful than going to class, but some of his lectures were quite helpful for the denser material. I would recommend reading the material a day or two in advance that way you know what to expect. Also if you email him ahead of time he with questions he'll give a bit of extra time towards it in class. If not for technical limitations I would take another course taught by professor Fitzpatrick.

TBA
MATH410

Expecting a W
Anonymous
12/13/2020

This professor appears to be teaching half the courses/sections at UMD, but then magically disappears and gets replaced by some terrible professor! But on very rare occasion, when the stars align and Testudo rises, the legend Justin will replace Dr.TBA. Overall, any class that Dr.TBA is teaching will be replaced by someone else, so unless you think it'll be Justin, it's probably better to opt to taking a different professor.

Jacob Bedrossian
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/23/2020

A very knowledgeable guy and a great lecturer

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
09/16/2020

I highly recommend taking a course with Gulick if you can. He's a super nice professor and loves to teach his class, and as others have said he has a very quirky personality, which I think is a huge benefit to keeping the class interesting. Additionally, I've always had no problem reaching out to him for help as he's quite welcoming and never once was condescending towards any questions I had, regardless of how silly they may have been (something that unfortunately can't be said about many of my previous math profs). I agree that the way he runs through proofs in class can be a bit too fast sometimes, but going to office hours has helped with that along with going through the textbook while doing HW. While the homework definitely becomes a pain in the a** as the semester goes on its definitely a helpful way to keep you on track and in my opinion is better than having a few major assignments as it gives you a little bit more leeway in the event you forget to do an assignment or submit it late.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/29/2020

Above average. Besides reading from the book, he only gives slightly different proofs. He gives a lot of homework. His exams are difficult, especially the midterms, because of a shortage of time. The final is easier, with double time and 1.5 times as many questions as midterms. A difficult question in midterm 1 is similar to a homework problem. Another difficult question in midterm 2 is related to the Darboux theorem (which is not included in the textbook).

Xiumin Du
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/04/2020

Professor Du is a great professor. She comes to class with very organized and structured notes, which she then posts after each class so if you miss a day you won't be behind. However attending class is still beneficial because she doesn't just mindlessly write the notes on the board, she explains them as well, especially the more complicated proofs. Her lecture is very structured as well. She presents a definition, then a theorem, and then a proof, in that order. So if you like an organized prof you'll like her. The homework is hard but prepares you for the final and you have one homework a week (but it takes about 2-4 hours generally so it's best to not do it last minute). I got a 100% on the first midterm and a 66% on the final, so it's definitely a tough final (average on it was 55%) but she curves the class accordingly (86% for the class got me an A). Math 410 is a very hard class and likely the first tough proof based math class you'll take at UMD. And I think taking professor Du is very beneficial if you plan to take more rigorous proof classes. Also she has a very easy to understand accent so don't worry about that either.

Xiumin Du
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2020

Super clear explanations and great resources.

Xiumin Du
MATH410

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/15/2020

She is the most prepared lecturer I've ever had in a math class. Super smart and can always answer questions in office hours. totally fair grader.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
02/03/2020

He is a good professor. Usually he is available as scheduled so that you can ask him questions. Usually, his exams are somewhat on the difficult side, but he is a fairly forgiving grader. It might be that he doesn't prepare the class with the problem solving skills to do the problems in the exam (as in our section over half the students ended up dropping the course). So his course is somewhat sink or swim. However, for 410 his cutoffs are very generous (85+ for at least an A-). Overall I would recommend him to others looking to take this course.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/28/2020

He strictly follow the book in his lectures. Lectures are helpful, but is the same as reading the book yourself. His exams are difficult with little curve, it's usually the case that you can't complete the exams on time. The grade cutoffs are rather low, but not cover up the difficulty of the exams. If you know the material well but don't have time to finish exams, midterms are extremely horrible while final is fine. He is extremely nice and knowledgeable, and he is very careful and serious as a mathematician(I guess). Hints: some midterm problems are similar to past final exams, don't wait till the end of semester to study them. I saw many problems about Mean Value Theorem, seems like he like it very much. I saw a problem on exam about Darboux Theorem (you can solve it with MVT, but very hard), you can try that.

Jacob Bedrossian
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/25/2019

Great lecturer, but exams are hard.

Jacob Bedrossian
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/23/2019

Professor Bedrossian is an amazing teacher. He wants students to succeed, and provides many opportunities to do so, from posting exam review guides, pointing out which type of questions and concepts will be on exams, and posting where students can get assistance from other faculty or students if they cannot make his office hours. He made a hard class seem, if not easy, then at least doable.

Changguang Dong
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/12/2019

Nice enough guy, but a poor lecturer. Lenient homeworker grader, but harder on exams. Lots of homework problems each week. Exams are extremely difficult. Teaches directly from Levermore's notes.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/10/2019

He is a very nice professor. He is good at explaining things and he is pretty much always available as scheduled to entertain questions. He is very smart (he solved a question I was pondering for a week in around 30 seconds). Admittedly, he does "teach out of the book", in the literal sense: his lecture preparation consists of opening the book where we last left off and then lecturing some more. His exams are fairly difficult, but his grading for them is lenient if you demonstrate understanding of how to solve the problem. I also think his discussion on the beginning of the book (field axioms and natural numbers) was way too slow. Overall I would recommend him. For students who struggle more with the material I might not recommend him. For students who want their 410 experience to be extra spicy I would recommend Levermore instead.

Nathan Manning
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/18/2019

Great dude and great lecturer. Exams are pretty fair, a lot of homework. He tried not to show his disappointment for our class, but you could tell that he thought we were all idiots.

Nathan Manning
MATH410

Expecting a C+
Anonymous
09/01/2019

Cool guy, very prepared for lectures, follows the book. I really wanted to like the class but toward the end I was just worrying about grades instead of actually enjoying the contents, so that wasn't great... (the final mark was horrible indeed). the content is not hard but I felt like I didn't grow in the right direction. The homework problems didn't provide too much intuition of what we should be doing -- even though most of the times I did all the exercises without much difficulty I still couldn't get the big picture.

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH410

Anonymous
04/14/2019

I've had Justin for MATH241, MATH401, and MATH410. He's been incredible for all three. He is such a nice guy and simply knows how to each. He also runs his classes in a professional, organized fashion. His expectations are always very clear and his willingness to help students is unparalleled by any other professor I've had at this university. He seems to always know exactly what students are thinking. Because I've had him for three classes, I've seen how he adapts his style to best suit different types of classes. Especially for MATH410, where the material gives students a lot of trouble, Justin is so good at explaining things clearly and patiently. I cannot even fathom the notion that there could be a better professor on this campus than Justin.

Charles Levermore
MATH410

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2018

LECTURES: Very organized, engaging, and useful lectures. He often goes into the history of math during the class, but does so in a beneficial way such that it completely integrated with the course content. He often expects class participation from people (not explicitly graded, but "factored into the final grade"), but is really good about getting students to "think like a mathematician." The class often proved many of the largest theorems in calculus together, which helped with learning the material. I'd give a subscore of 5/5. Truly the best lecturer I had the semester I took the course. ASSIGNMENTS: Levermore makes his assignments incredibly difficult in general. I normally spent ~8-12 hours each week on homework for this class (partially since I didn't know how to prove non-trivial problems before this course), but in general, they were very useful at building confidence before an exam. Levermore is very much a "give hard homeworks, make the test easier" kind of professor, but at the same time, some assignments were just so much harder than any of the tests we took that it was demoralizing at times. Thankfully, the assignments are not worth a large part of the grade overall, so it's alway spossible to half-ass an assignment and have it not do massive damage to your grade. (The 4 lowest homeworks get dropped at the end of the semester) I give a subscore of 4/5 -- Assignments were sometimes just too hard to be useful, and often took too long. EXAMS: Levermore gives 3 exams for his 410 class--two midterms and a final. The exams are largely easy since he recycles most of the questions on the exams from previous homework problems and previous exams in different years. This means that just with proper studying/memorizing, it's possible to get ~80% without understanding the material just by copying answers from previous exams. However, the logistics of exams is frustrating. Our first exam was returned in 3 weeks, which was a bit slow, but our second exam was a different story. We took that exam halfway through the semester, and got the grades back the night before the final, nearly 1.5 months after the test. While the logistics of regular homework assignments was well done (usually given back within a week), the exams were graded directly by Prof. Levermore, which caused significant problems. Subsection score: 3/5 -- For really bad logistical errors made with grading OVERALL THOUGHTS: Definitely one of the hardest, yet most rewarding math classes I've taken here. I'd recommend taking MATH410 with him if you're interested in a challenge, and willing to put large amounts of time understanding the material.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/20/2018

I just took Gulick's 410 class. Solid professor -- quite an old guy, you can tell he's been teaching the material for quite a long time and definitely knows his stuff inside out. Pros: -- Lively/Quirky, easy to stay engaged in class, fairly clear lecturer -- Exams and grading seem to be considerably easier and more straightforward than other profs who teach 410 (just from talking to other students and looking at content of final exams). This is the biggest pro. -- Gives a lot of material to prep for exams. He gives out practice exams, reviews problems, as well as "concept understanding" problems for each chapter. Also, all his past final exams are on math test bank. -- Drops lowest two quizzes, and takes 50% of your lowest midterm Cons: -- Goes through the proofs too fast for my taste. Luckily, the the textbook he uses (Fitzpatrick) is well written and there to help. -- The biggest con: Assigns homework due every class period (MWF), that usually takes 30-90 minutes. I had a hefty schedule this semester so this was extremely annoying. I advise that you take Gulick's 410 with other low-workload classes Summary: All in all, a solid professor to take 410 with, and (from my observation) the easiest version of MATH410 to get an A or A- with if you reguarly attend class and put in the work.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH410

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/16/2018

Not a great lecturer; talks really quietly into the board as he writes in his (truly impeccable) handwriting. He also is not good at communicating information effectively to the class. Probably the only good thing about his teaching is that he is somewhat helpful in office hours. Even so, he merely tells you the answer. He seems pretty uninterested in actually helping students get a deep understanding of the material. His exams are hard, not completely reflective of homeworks, and he is stingy with partial credit. He also maintained almost no contact with his grader, who sucked - didn't finish grading the last 2 homeworks before the last midterm or the final.

Kasso Okoudjou
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/29/2018

Okoudjou is a fantastic instructor. He is very passionate and energetic during his lectures, which keeps students engaged. He is also very understanding of the difficulty of the course - while he did not make the course easy, he took time for group work in class to make sure everyone was really on the same page with the material. Would recommend.

Sandra Cerrai
MATH410

Anonymous
05/18/2018

I thought I’d comment on prof Cerrai since I feel the reviews on this site are not accurate, except for kvsiddarth’s review (there are some reviews on reddit which do a better job). I was weary of taking her this semester precisely because of the Ourumd reviews but her section fit my schedule perfectly so I decided to take her anyways. And she did an amazing job. You can tell that she knows her stuff, knows how to convey it to the class, and makes an effort to make sure that we understand and will repeat herself again if we do not. This is exactly what a prof is supposed to do. And not many upper level math profs do so unfortunately... Sometimes she relates a concept to some other concept in mathematics helping you see the big picture. For those of us math majors this is incredibly useful and interesting. Her exams are not exactly a walk in the park but are not bad either. There are usually 2-3 questions that are extremely fair since they were covered in lecture and another 1-2 that are just random (getting these well depends on how well you know the material or just how lucky you are lol). But fair exams overall. She also curves. Homework is straight from the book. And there are solutions for all problems in the book everywhere so no reason why you shouldn’t get 100 on them. So if you’re a math major serious about math I would definitely recommend her. And if you’re a math major serious about math, and in particular, probability, even more so, since after all, its her field and she is very knowledgeable. So probs the best option for STAT410. I would def take another class with her if I could.

Manoussos Grillakis
MATH410

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
03/29/2018

Grillakis uses the textbook so everything you need to learn in 410 is in the book. His class is droll but informative and he is very understanding about sickness and family matters.

Charles Levermore
MATH410

Expecting an A-
me
12/16/2017

He knows the topic really well. Lectures follow the class notes very closely, and homeworks are helpful for learning the material. One piece of advice for taking this class: the tests are similar from year to year. He has old tests posted on his website, so you should definitely use those to study.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting an A
pens_suck
10/03/2016

Great professor, he was very thorough. People complaining about him are simply angry that they didn't get a good grade, despite not understanding the material. Exams were fair. Do your homework thoroughly, it's 410 that's what the class is about.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/04/2013

Foreword: reviews complaining about "spending way too much time on proofs" are obviously from people who have no business taking a 400-level course in the math department; upper-level math /is/ proofs. So, Leonid Koralov: Super-nice professor, always smiling, lots of office-hours, will always stay after to help you through a problem. Reasonable homework assignments, though they edge on the lengthy side. Very flexible re: late homework if you miss a lecture, which is refreshing. Very good lecturer. None of the material in the course was at all difficult to understand if you showed up and paid attention in lecture. All proofs done in satisfactory detail and explained lucidly. He occasionally goes on tangents, but they generally cover material you'll see in subsequent courses and I've found that many of them were quite helpful. He does assume a level of student competence with formal proof-based math in his lectures; if you are not yet comfortable with lectures consisting of definition -> claim -> proof -> repeat and little else, avoid. If you are, you will find that he's one of the better lecturers out there. Yes, he is a tough grader, but fair with partial credit. Be sure to write your proofs cleanly. Yes, his exams are fairly difficult (median grade was below 50% on both midterms, but most of this was due to many people in the class who simply were not ready to take a rigorous theory course). Little-to-no curve, but he will bump your grade up if you put in a fair effort and show a good grasp of the material.

David Hamilton
MATH410

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/31/2013

I had Hamilton for 410, so this review probably won't be relevant for 100-level or 200-level lectures because of the differing class sizes/content/structure of the course. He was not terrible, nor was he terrific; he was satisfactory and nothing else. Lectures: His lectures weren't particularly valuable. I always went since the course wasn't to be taken lightly, but the only time I ever found myself consulting what I had written down in lecture was when he solved one of the homework problems in class. Otherwise, I'd teach myself the material by reading the book/the notes he sent to us via e-mail(which he would do if he found the book to be too convoluted, but I often found his notes more confusing than the book). Homework: His homeworks were fair, just problems out of the book. I found that they took several hours in the beginning of the semester (like 4-5), but by the end of the semester, once I had gotten used to the course, they took about two hours. Just get a group of three/four together to work on them once a week and you should be fine. Do as many as possible yourself before that, though, or else you won't benefit from the homework, which was the only work outside of the tests. Tests: The tests were designed so you could pass, especially the final. Basically, 30% of the test was true/false, two medium difficulty questions (20 % each), and one tough question (30 %, might be a choice between two problems). He also added 10 percent to the two midterms, just cause. The only way you didn't pass the class is if you REALLY didn't know your shit, so you should get through it the first time even if you struggle. As far as his character goes: yeah, he's pretty arrogant, but the description two posts below is an unfair exaggeration. I found his personality tolerable. I heard rumors that he's a misogynist, but I never noticed him treating women any different than men. He's not the most personable person, but he's fair and lenient. All in all, he's a solid professor, and if you can handle the course material, you'll get through it just fine.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A
anonn
12/21/2012

Gulick teaches the concepts well. He emphasizes physical intuition, but he also is a stickler about definitions and proofs, which was annoying at first, but made me realize that I didn't understand the material as well as I had thought. He also cares a lot about the students. He'll take the time to print out solutions to particularly challenging homeworks, and he'll have at least two review sessions for each midterm so everyone can make them. And this is on top of him working 80 hours a week. The reason I'm giving him four stars might be a personal preference. He taught us like we were children. Some of the students liked it, but I didn't. It somehow made me take the class less seriously than I should have in the beginning and middle of the semester, so I had to work really hard for the final. He also gives homework every class, which was both good and bad. The homeworks would each take 30-90 minutes to complete, so they weren't a time-suck. On the other hand, it was a bit annoying to do the homework so often.

Matei Machedon
MATH410

Expecting an A
dfarias
12/19/2012

Dr. Machedon is a great professor! He is really nice and always approachable. It is clear he cares a lot about teaching, and enjoys congratulating students for getting certain problems correct. He teaches very well, and often presents material in a better way than the book. His tests tend to require true understanding of the material instead of memorization, though many questions are "tricky". The test averages for 410 were very low, but he understands this and curves the class fairly in the end. I would highly recommend him as a teacher. You will end up understanding the class material extremely well at the end of it all.

McBlaine Boyle
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/13/2012

Boyle is a great teacher, the only problem I find is his exams. I would say they are not truly fair. He doesn't focus on the stuff that is most important or he asks stuff in a very strange way. He is teaching 411 next semester and I was going to take it with him, but I know if I take it with someone else there will at least be a chance that I will get a B, maybe even an A. I feel like with Boyle my grade would be a C.

David Hamilton
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/23/2012

Professor Hamilton is a genius and knows analysis like nobody's business, but he has a difficult time communicating this knowledge to his students. In class, he works proofs very quickly in an extremely convoluted fashion that is generally impossible to follow. He makes plenty of assumptions and skips many steps in his proofs that make his lectures so incoherent that you almost wish you didn't go. Although he doesn't understand that the average MATH410 student isn't a bonafine genius, he is still very nice and pretty approachable to answer questions. For Fall '09, the class was MWF at 2pm and was basically structured like this: Monday and Wednesday he would teach new material (i.e. go through proofs of basic theorums) and Friday he would go through any problems on the newest problem set that we had questions about (he would actually just do the problem for you, which was great), and that problem set would likely be due the following Monday. He does not answer many homework questions outside of class because he wants you to ask it during lecture so that everyone has a chance to hear it. The class has 2 midterms, a cumulative final, 9 homeworks (highest one counts double), and two bonus homeworks if you choose to do them. You grade is the maximum of your homeworks&midterms grade, or your final exam grade. Exams are VERY easy and test your basic understanding of the material. Homework is very challenging and you will likely need to seek help to complete it. Overall medium professor, but good enough for this class.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

helkoz
04/13/2012

I don't know why everyone loves Denny, but I know I do. Yes, he can be very entertaining, but it's also the fact that he is compassionate, in-tune with student concerns, and knows his stuff! I would not necessarily call him the best professor ever or possibly not even in the math department BUT he is certainly a great professor. I was literally jealous of 410 classmates who were able to be in 411 with him the following Fall because I had to take it over the summer. Luckily, I got to have him for 452, and for the most part, it was great as well.

Denny Gulick
MATH410

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/21/2011

410 is a great course to take as you will really start to understand what math is all about from it. Gulick is a good professor for this class. He definitely cares about students and tries to help you learn to the best of his ability. He gives a small homework due each class, which gets pretty annoying, but it's good that it keeps you up to date with the material all the time. His exams can be tough, but they are pretty fair. The quizzes that he gives to enforce attendance are stupid, but they're not really a big deal in terms of your grade.

Michael Jakobson
MATH410

Expecting a B
timbade
07/25/2011

Jakobson was truly disappointing to learn from. He came to lecture and scribbled down some notes while mumbling in broken english. He did not want any input from the class, nor to talk to any of his students. He clearly had better things to be doing, and it seemed like this class was at the bottom of his priority list. His proof methods are sloppy, and I have a feeling that if he were the grader the grades would have been fine, but that was not the case. Some grad student the class never met did 100% of the grading, and was ultra meticulous. He is a fine guy, but I would avoid his class at all costs. I ended up with my first D ever, completely to my surprise. I am however, looking forward to redeeming myself with a better professor. Just don't take it with him, flat out.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Anonymous
02/25/2011

He is definitely a nice guy, and has office hours three times a week (more than any other professor I've ever had). However, he does not curve at all, he barely gives partial credit, his exams are very difficult, and there were MANY people in the class who did not pass. Furthermore, his specialty is statistics, so having him teach MATH410 was a strange decision on the part of the math department. I don't recommend taking this particular class with him if proofs don't come easily to you. He tries to help, but he is only partially effective at doing so.

Michael Jakobson
MATH410

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/18/2010

Jakobson was completely useless in lecture. It's hard to understand him and he never was helpful when it came to the homework. HOWEVER, he is pretty generous when it came to grades. He drops 4 homeworks, gives some extra credit, and will round up your final grade. May not be the best teacher, but you are more likely to get a better grade with him than some of the other professors. Teach yourself and do the hw with a friend and you will be fine.

Leonid Koralov
MATH410

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/18/2010

Nice guy, but pretty much just writes the book on the board. Although he usually makes some insightful comments which I usually found made it worth it to go to class. I dunno if he was just out of his element teaching MATH410 since he had only taught STAT classes before. He is a really smart guy, but a hard grader and no curve. Everyone failed the first test, and a lot of people failed the second one. He does want to help though, he tries very hard to help, but he just can't.

Melissa Macasieb
MATH410

Expecting an A
toypajme
05/16/2010

What everyone said is mostly true. She makes tons of errors on the board, and at least for 410, she basically wrote the book on the board with little extra explanation. Sometimes she is helpful in office hours and other times she isn't depending on her mood. Just sit on her till she gives you a good enough hint. Overall, she was okay. Test questions came out of no where sometimes and you don't even see a glimpse of the difficulty of the test problems till the class before where she gives a practice exam, and those are never indicative to how the test will be. The first one was hard and the test was okay. The second one was easier and the test was impossible (average dropped 10 points), and the final practice test was ridiculous but the final was very easy. Go figure. It's just a very mixed up class.

David Hamilton
MATH410

keyoung
01/04/2010

Everything Musick Video has posted is a great summary of prof Hamilton and his 410. Even though his lectures were difficult to follow and he often went off on tangents his exams were so easy. The Friday review sessions were great and when prof Hamilton graded the hw he just glances and gives 10s. His grading system was also grade because you just need to secure an A before the final and only need a 50% on the final. It's very easy to get the A with the midterms and HW's and 2 bonuses. The final was a lot more difficult than the midterms, so don't plan on just getting an A on the final. Great Prof for 410

Reviews for MATH410