MATH456 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jonathan Rosenberg MATH456 Anonymous 12/08/2023	Not a great professor, lecture is vague and uninformative, better to just self-study from the book than to show up to class, as I often get nothing from lectures. The tests are also horrendous with averages being in the 50-60's percent range and are nothing like the homeworks or previous tests. Homework is somewhat bearable with having group partners. TA's are nice with grading in terms of homework and is easily accessible. The class seemed also lagging behind compared to the lectures vs what is on the homework. Don't take him unless you want to self-study. Don't take him if the course is not based on Washington and Trappe's book on Cryptography, atleast the textbook was very easy to read thanks to prof Washington.
Daniel Gottesman MATH456 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/01/2022	this class hard man
Dana Dachman-Soled MATH456 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/16/2022	Dr. Dana was okay. She explained things well and her office hours were a big help, but her slides weren't all that clear, and her exams were pretty hard. She does offer extra credit assignments though, so you can use that to pick up your grade.
Justin Wyss-Gallifent MATH456 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/11/2022	This was Justin's first time teaching this course and he smashed it. The course structure was excellent and I could tell how everything built on previous content and tied together. I felt we spent an appropriate amount of time on each subject and were able to learn how everything functioned without getting to caught up or rushing through it. I was glad we got the opportunity to touch on hash functions and cryptocurrencies as well as elliptic curve encryption and holomorphic encryption. You could always count on one homework assignment every week with a coding assignment. It was very reasonable and the homework definitely improved my understanding of the content.
Jeffrey Adams MATH456 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/13/2021	Nice guy, real smart too. Super accommodating. He would push back deadlines if the class complained about the hw being too long. In lectures, he writes on a tablet, records and shares lecture notes. He is effective in communicating the ideas without having to make things too rigorous. Questions from students were taken seriously and Adams would spend a considerable amount of lecture time explaining/investigating the ideas (you may or may not like this). Office hours were helpful, and he tries hard to help clear any confusion the class had. Tests were takehomes and easy (a little long though, still reasonable), so the averages were around 90/100. Like the person below said, final was optional. In the end, I think the vast majority of the class got A's. He decided to not give +/- grades because of the pandemic. Overall, zero stress and a lot of fun. Definitely recommend his classes.
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2019	Amazing professor and amazing class! He is a world renowned expert in number theory and cryptography and he ensures you learn the material on a deep level. At the same time, he is incredibly nice and doesn't make the class too hard - the tests are very fair and often ask questions from the homework. Also it's worth mentioning that because Dr. Washington is a math professor, he does not assign any programming tasks/projects, unlike some CS professors who teach this course.
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A zaqu413 05/16/2013	Lecture: If you buy the book you probably don't need to go to lecture since he pretty much just teaches from the book. HOWEVER, he was great at explaining things, this is one of the first courses I have taken where I can come home from class and do the homework without having to read the book first, sometimes I didn't even need to look at my notes! He is also really nice and not uptight like some of the other professors. Protip: He brought us chocolate on the ~3rd to last day of class when we were doing secret sharing schemes, if you cracked the code you got chocolate. Be there! Also he has some good stories/history of crypto stuff. So go to class! Use the book as a backup. Book: It was written by him, so if you miss class no real need to fret. No answers in the back of the book though, but you can find some of them online. HW (~25% of final grade): Wasn't too bad, generally one or two challenge problems, the rest were straightforward. There are MATLAB/MATHEMATICA problems for about half of the homeworks. They are also very straightforward (Tip: the back of the book has an appendix that tells you exactly how to do most of these kinds of problems). Exams: 2 Midterms ~40% Final ~35% He posts about 4-6 exams from past years so you can study for each exam. If you can do all of those and the HW you are good to go for the exam. I feel that the final was a little easier than the midterms, but none of them were truly difficult if you did the previous years exams without struggling. He lets you be a tiny bit less rigorous compared to most math professors. Taking this course before/after/concurrently with CMSC414 seems to be a good combo as one will reinforce/prepare you for the other.
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A keyoung 05/24/2011	This class is very easy to get an A if you put in the work. Dr. Washington gives 3 past exams before each midterm. The homeworks are long but really help and are good practice for exams. Dr. Washington is an excellent lecture, funny, responsive to students' needs and knows the history behind crypto which is really interesting. He wrote the book so your notes look just like the book. If you missed a class just read that section in the book. Great elective course. Awesome prof.
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A xenonscreams 05/20/2010	Larry Washington is a great professor. He makes everything engaging and makes it easy for students to learn. Exams in this class were very fair. They were easy to get a B on if you knew the material at all; getting an A generally required thinking outside of the box, as there was usually a question that was a bit of a curveball. Homework was a little time consuming, but definitely helped you understand the concepts you needed to know for the exams. Most importantly, the class was fun and I think our entire class learned a lot. You're probably at a little bit of an advantage if you've taken number theory, but if you haven't it's definitely not a big deal as it's covered quickly during the course. Definitely take his classes.

Jonathan Rosenberg
MATH456

Anonymous
12/08/2023

Not a great professor, lecture is vague and uninformative, better to just self-study from the book than to show up to class, as I often get nothing from lectures. The tests are also horrendous with averages being in the 50-60's percent range and are nothing like the homeworks or previous tests. Homework is somewhat bearable with having group partners. TA's are nice with grading in terms of homework and is easily accessible. The class seemed also lagging behind compared to the lectures vs what is on the homework. Don't take him unless you want to self-study. Don't take him if the course is not based on Washington and Trappe's book on Cryptography, atleast the textbook was very easy to read thanks to prof Washington.

Daniel Gottesman
MATH456

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/01/2022

this class hard man

Dana Dachman-Soled
MATH456

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/16/2022

Dr. Dana was okay. She explained things well and her office hours were a big help, but her slides weren't all that clear, and her exams were pretty hard. She does offer extra credit assignments though, so you can use that to pick up your grade.

Justin Wyss-Gallifent
MATH456

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/11/2022

This was Justin's first time teaching this course and he smashed it. The course structure was excellent and I could tell how everything built on previous content and tied together. I felt we spent an appropriate amount of time on each subject and were able to learn how everything functioned without getting to caught up or rushing through it. I was glad we got the opportunity to touch on hash functions and cryptocurrencies as well as elliptic curve encryption and holomorphic encryption. You could always count on one homework assignment every week with a coding assignment. It was very reasonable and the homework definitely improved my understanding of the content.

Jeffrey Adams
MATH456

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/13/2021

Nice guy, real smart too. Super accommodating. He would push back deadlines if the class complained about the hw being too long. In lectures, he writes on a tablet, records and shares lecture notes. He is effective in communicating the ideas without having to make things too rigorous. Questions from students were taken seriously and Adams would spend a considerable amount of lecture time explaining/investigating the ideas (you may or may not like this). Office hours were helpful, and he tries hard to help clear any confusion the class had. Tests were takehomes and easy (a little long though, still reasonable), so the averages were around 90/100. Like the person below said, final was optional. In the end, I think the vast majority of the class got A's. He decided to not give +/- grades because of the pandemic. Overall, zero stress and a lot of fun. Definitely recommend his classes.

Lawrence Washington
MATH456

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/24/2019

Amazing professor and amazing class! He is a world renowned expert in number theory and cryptography and he ensures you learn the material on a deep level. At the same time, he is incredibly nice and doesn't make the class too hard - the tests are very fair and often ask questions from the homework. Also it's worth mentioning that because Dr. Washington is a math professor, he does not assign any programming tasks/projects, unlike some CS professors who teach this course.

Lawrence Washington
MATH456

Expecting an A
zaqu413
05/16/2013

Lecture: If you buy the book you probably don't need to go to lecture since he pretty much just teaches from the book. HOWEVER, he was great at explaining things, this is one of the first courses I have taken where I can come home from class and do the homework without having to read the book first, sometimes I didn't even need to look at my notes! He is also really nice and not uptight like some of the other professors. Protip: He brought us chocolate on the ~3rd to last day of class when we were doing secret sharing schemes, if you cracked the code you got chocolate. Be there! Also he has some good stories/history of crypto stuff. So go to class! Use the book as a backup. Book: It was written by him, so if you miss class no real need to fret. No answers in the back of the book though, but you can find some of them online. HW (~25% of final grade): Wasn't too bad, generally one or two challenge problems, the rest were straightforward. There are MATLAB/MATHEMATICA problems for about half of the homeworks. They are also very straightforward (Tip: the back of the book has an appendix that tells you exactly how to do most of these kinds of problems). Exams: 2 Midterms ~40% Final ~35% He posts about 4-6 exams from past years so you can study for each exam. If you can do all of those and the HW you are good to go for the exam. I feel that the final was a little easier than the midterms, but none of them were truly difficult if you did the previous years exams without struggling. He lets you be a tiny bit less rigorous compared to most math professors. Taking this course before/after/concurrently with CMSC414 seems to be a good combo as one will reinforce/prepare you for the other.

Lawrence Washington
MATH456

Expecting an A
keyoung
05/24/2011

This class is very easy to get an A if you put in the work. Dr. Washington gives 3 past exams before each midterm. The homeworks are long but really help and are good practice for exams. Dr. Washington is an excellent lecture, funny, responsive to students' needs and knows the history behind crypto which is really interesting. He wrote the book so your notes look just like the book. If you missed a class just read that section in the book. Great elective course. Awesome prof.

Lawrence Washington
MATH456

Expecting an A
xenonscreams
05/20/2010

Larry Washington is a great professor. He makes everything engaging and makes it easy for students to learn. Exams in this class were very fair. They were easy to get a B on if you knew the material at all; getting an A generally required thinking outside of the box, as there was usually a question that was a bit of a curveball. Homework was a little time consuming, but definitely helped you understand the concepts you needed to know for the exams. Most importantly, the class was fun and I think our entire class learned a lot. You're probably at a little bit of an advantage if you've taken number theory, but if you haven't it's definitely not a big deal as it's covered quickly during the course. Definitely take his classes.

Reviews for MATH456