MATH463 | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Amin Gholampour MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/24/2024	A decent professor indeed. Good lectures, reasonable homework and exams, and very flexible and helpful office hours. Amin clearly knows the content very well, and also good at explaining. Does examples in class which is similar to hw. He has office hour basically every day. He is friendly and patient, answers questions in class whenever someone asks. It is important to do hw on time. His hw emphasis on the important parts and can use as a good review of the recent content. If you have question, simply go to office hours and you can get the help you need.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/27/2024	Great professor and interesting class. Lectures are clear and plenty of examples are provided. The homeworks are very manageable, both in terms of time and material, but it's important to go to class because the lectures are a lot better to learn from than the book. (Professor Berhanu also does some things different than the textbook.) Finally, the exams are easy to prepare for with the study guides he gives, and there's always at least one class of review before each exam.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/15/2024	Professor Berhanu goes into a lot of detail with each topic, giving a lot of examples for everything that he covers. He also makes sure to spend time reviewing practice exams before each midterm/final, which has been very helpful throughout the semester. Overall, Math463 has been a very enjoyable class in which I have learnt a lot, and I would recommend taking it with professor Berhanu.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/15/2024	Professor Berhanu is a wonderful teacher. His class can be a little fast paced at times. It is very important to attend lectures! His classes are fair, he is extremely knowledgable, and he really cares about his students. Make sure to attend class though : )
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/15/2024	Dr. Berhanu made complex analysis incredibly interesting, and he is clearly very passionate about the subject. He is a clear lecturer and knows the content--complex analysis is what he studies. Homeworks and tests were very reasonable, and he also decided to add a midterm to the original two, so that the lowest of three midterms is dropped.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting a C- Anonymous 04/09/2024	Got a poor grade but I mostly attribute it to my own fault. There are certainly easier 400-level MATH classes than MATH463, but there are also harder ones. I felt Professor Berhanu was fair, kind, and engaging. He explained the concepts well. I did quite poorly on the exams, but when getting my grades/feedback back, I understood my mistakes and they felt fair. Stuff that we had covered and I only missed it due to lack of studying on my part. Never felt like it was something we didn't cover enough in lecture or anything like that, so I would say his exams are fair.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Anonymous 02/22/2024	He is a decent lecturer, and clearly knows the course materials but requires every student to go to all of his lectures although there are no participation points. He is a very bad grader, if you don't go to his lectures and he remembers you, he will grade your exams poorly even if your answers are correct but not the exact same solution he gives and then blame you for not going to every lecture.
Richard Wentworth MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2024	Great professor. Complex geometry is key to his research, so he's a great option for this course in particular, especially if you want a math over applications POV. Homework match exams reasonably with one or two more conceptual or abstract questions that are more from the lectures. His testbanked exams were also similar. His lectures followed Brown & Churchill's book pretty closely for the most part (Ch1-9), but he'd include lots of extras like Wirtinger derivatives, Cauchy's theorem in terms of homotopies, etc. Was very willing to answer questions and do review. The final grades were curved nearly 20%.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A brianburns44 12/25/2023	If you want to take MATH463, I would really recommend doing so with Dr. Berhanu. I don't know what goes on in other sections, but based on their finals I believe Berhanu gave a more enriched complex analysis experience. It was pretty hard and the midterms have 50-65% averages (with no curve), but the final was very easy and most of the class did well. If you are a math major who wants a more rigorous approach to undergraduate complex analysis, Berhanu is your guy. One minor complaint I have is he moves quite fast, but to be fair he is always very willing to answer any questions.
Richard Wentworth MATH463 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2023	On the dim side, exams are freaky hard and weighed a lot more than the homework (which is actually easy for the mostly part), and we aren’t allowed cheat sheets but there are way too many theorems, lemmas, and formulas to remember. On the bright side, he is not a bad lecturer, however, and he curves a lot if the class is not doing well. Even if it looks like you’re failing, talk to him to see how he thinks you are doing. I thought I might fail or barely pass with a C-, but my final grade of D go curved up to a B! Jus
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	Prof. Berhanu is a really good and passionate teacher. He takes the time to not only give proofs for theorems, but also gives motivation and intuition for everything covered in the class. He clearly knows the material really well, and answers all questions really well. He gives plenty of time for exam reviews (1-2 periods dedicated to review), and the exams are extremely fair. If you do any of the practice material he posts, you should expect at least a B+ to A- easily. Highly recommend, especially for anyone who is curious about complex analysis or calculus.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/12/2023	He is a very engaging lecturer! He did a really good job showing how important the theorems actually were and describing how you might apply Complex Analysis. He does sometimes mumble a little, and the pace is really fast, but that's just because there's a lot of material to cover. The course is difficult, but I think the difficulty came entirely from the content, not from the professor. He gives tons of in-class time to review. Make sure you try all the HWs and practice problems as soon as you get them so that you can ask questions before he covers new material. Exam grading definitely isn't soft, but he drops your lowest exam (out of three) and the final course grade will get curved. If you are the kind of person who likes to skip class or be late, don't take 463 with Berhanu. Attendance is mandatory in order to succeed.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Anonymous 12/09/2023	02/09/23 review is accurate. He is self-centered and makes you feel stupid for asking questions. There are a few favorites he has in class who he clearly treats differently from other students. If two students try to answer a question in class, one of them being a favorite, he will pretty much disregard the answer of the other student, even if it is correct. He goes unnecessarily fast in class and covers the board while he is writing, with no intention to pause and explain what he has written while he was covering it. So you are always playing catchup in his class if you sit in a seat with a poor angle to the board. If you ask a question about a problem that was already done previously, he will not answer it and tell you to look back at your notes (but sometimes the whole point of the question is to clear up the misunderstandings you have about the problem which has been scribbled into your notes to keep up with the pace of the lecture). It almost seems like he wants you to struggle a bit in terms of following along with the lecture. Very conceited personality and reluctant to admit his mistakes when a student points them out in class. I have no idea why people like him sign up to become a professor. They show no care for whether students actually understand the material or not.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2023	He is very very good at explaining all the proofs in complex analysis and he is a very nice person and encourages all the students to participate inside his class. His exams and homeworks are all very very very fair and you definitely will be able to do them if you put in the work. Overall this course had very insightful theorems and results that make it definitely worth taking..
Richard Wentworth MATH463 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/19/2023	Excellent teacher, one of if not the best teacher I've had in Maryland. Makes rough material understandable and gives a good intuition. HWs are great and relevant and exams feel fair and very doable.
Allan Yashinski MATH463 Expecting an A+ andruepabloske 05/24/2023	Allan was a great teacher! He explains concepts clearly, has fair exams (though they’re not a walk in the park), and he’s a really approachable and nice dude. I would definitely take another class with him.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/16/2023	Really enjoyed taking 463 with Professor Berhanu. He often uses a more simplified way to solve problems compared to the book, so make sure to attend classes. There was more focus on intuition than computation, which I really enjoyed. And he would often re-derive a theorem required by a problem, which helped with understanding the intuition behind them and ultimately avoid memorization
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2023	Prof. Berhanu is very knowledgeable and passionate about complex analysis, and it definitely enhanced the course a lot. The exams weren't too difficult, and they covered exactly what was taught in the course. His explanations were very clear, and he did a good job breaking down the thought process behind solving certain problems.
Shiferaw Berhanu MATH463 Anonymous 05/15/2023	Explains concepts very well, definitely learned a lot in lectures. Gave us an extra exam in order to replace the lowest test score. Overall, exams were fair and class was enjoyable
Allan Yashinski MATH463 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/06/2023	He is a good teacher and content isnt too hard he explains the stuff well
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Expecting an A- fiftyseven 12/25/2022	Mellet is a great math professor. He teaches the content very well and is pretty by-the-book if you end up wanting to refer to the textbook for anything as review or just because you missed something. Though I did find that he taught the concepts better than the textbook and the textbook sometimes neglected some of the edges where he expanded. The homework is fine, I personally it a little tedious at times but they did teach the concepts well and as others have said they very accurately reflected what was on the exam. I will note that he does review the homework rather in-depth which can be very nice if you were confused, though I personally got a little bored during it. Overall, I'd highly recommend Mellet - he made the class interesting and taught it not just very well, but noticeably better than the textbook, which a lot of professors aren't able to do.
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2022	Mellet is easily the best math professor I've had at UMD so far. I have zero problems with his accent (in fact, it's kind of endearing). He teaches so damn well, and his lectures are so well-organized and explained. The homeworks are super helpful and build up perfectly to what's on the exam. He's honestly such a breath of fresh air compared to other professors in the department; he's a wonderful person too! Partial credit is, as another reviewer mentioned, quite generous. Really appreciated this class and how straightforward and interesting Mellet made it.
David Hamilton MATH463 Anonymous 12/17/2022	Not a bad professor but I must say that most of the time, everything he was saying was going over my head. Even if something starts to make sense, eventually, he drags it somewhere and.... that's just it...you get lost. The H.W problems are unlike most things you'll encounter in other Complex Analysis/Variables textbooks, so if you don't understand how to do those, then good luck to you. But seriously, he'll go through as many H.W. problems as he can in his weekly/bi-weekly review Zoom sessions. The exams aren't so bad and if you don't do well on the mid-term, you can always try to bring your score up by doing well on the Final (which replaces the mid-term score by taking 1/2 of the final exam's grade). One thing that is crucial for this class is to know some basic proofs, if you don't know any of them - prepare to work yourself on understanding how some things just MAKE SENSE! I highly recommend tackling this after MATH310 - but it's not impossible to get through this class without ever having gone through any proofs at all. Hamilton will try his best not to fail you if you're taking a 400-level class with him, I'm not sure if the same applies to his lower-level classes though. [PROTIP: His final exams are all available on TESTBANK, utilise them as you wish whenever the time comes - a few of the questions on the final were literally pulled from his previous ones from like 5 years ago].
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Anonymous 11/08/2022	Great professor and lecturer. I had no problem with his accent or handwriting whatsoever (honestly barely noticed an accent, and his handwriting is leagues better than most professors). Mellet follows directly from the book, but you won't need it because all of the class material is self-contained within the lectures and homework. The lectures are very organized and if you take good notes you'll have everything you need. He goes over the homework assignments every week after they are turned in which is helpful. The homework and practice exams he gives out are extremely similar to the actual exams, so you never feel surprised by the content, and he's a lenient grader so you won't lose a ton of points for minor mistakes. There were 3 exams accounting for 85% of the course grade. Homeworks account for the other 15%. Given the exams are very fair and he gives out generous partial credit you should be fine. Overall, I would definitely recommend this professor.
Sewon Yang MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/03/2022	Great prof!
Sewon Yang MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/03/2022	Her teaching was impressive and outstanding. Really nice!
Xuemiao Chen MATH463 Anonymous 05/14/2022	His lectures are usually filled with proofs and examples, like any math class, and he sometimes skipped steps in his derivations. This usually lost me for a few seconds, but I was able to look at the textbook and fill in the gaps. Overall, the course isn't too tough, but I think Chen does a wonderful job at not making it more difficult that it needs to be. His quizzes are usually closely related to examples done during lecture or given in homework. The midterm and final were both very close to expected, with maybe one or two questions that require a little bit of creative thinking. Exam questions are about half computational and half theoretical. I think Chen taught this course extremely well and was always very respectful. He's also pretty funny sometimes!
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Anonymous 01/23/2022	He's nice. His lectures are very organized so might come off as a bit dry, but also makes it easy to follow the material. I really didn't think his accent was hard to understand at all but I guess that might vary from person to person. The homeworks clearly matched what was taught in class and the exams clearly matched the homeworks, so everything was very fair.
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/15/2021	Class was easy if you understood calculus, but he had a thick French accent and his voice was kind of monotone, making it hard to pay attention. He dropped the lowest 2 homeworks and had a small curve (89 is an A), but I probably wouldn't take another of his classes because of the boring lectures. If you're a cs major looking for MATH UL concentration, take this class with someone else
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/12/2021	For his online class, Mellet recorded the lectures and gave weekly discussions to go over the homework and answer questions from the class. He's very organized and responsive, always presents the material clearly. There were about 10 homework, 4 midterms and a final. Homework were basically examples from lectures, tests were basically homework problems. I thought the tests were easy as long as you are familiar with the homework problems (so, make sure to go over them the few hours before the tests). Oh and the tests were synchronous, you log onto Zoom with your camera on and then take it. The course was very computational. As a math major I did wish we had more theory. But then it is hard to balance the contents because there were other majors taking the class... Anyway, nothing went wrong and I had a good time. I still prefer his classes in person though.
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Anonymous 12/19/2020	He's a good teacher but he has a thick accent. I don't understand his writing. Do not take his class if you want to study by yourself. His exam was hard and not curved. He has 4 mid exams ,1 final exam, and 10 homework. He dropped the 2 lowest homework. Anyway, DO NOT take his exam if you are an international student.
David Hamilton MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2020	It seems Hamilton gets better once one gets into the higher-level mathematics classes. MATH463 pertains to Hamilton's specialty, which is in complex analysis. I had extremely low expectations due to hearing bad things from other professors, though I must admit I am pleasantly surprised. Hamilton does go rather quick with lecturing on theory. This is because there is a lot to teach in the course, and he often spends time proving material, which can sometimes take more than half of the class. For a course intended to also cater to science and engineers, this can be a serious turnoff if one has never worked with a proof before. Thankfully I had some proof experience when entering the class, so I was able to follow some (but not all) of the more complicated lectures. Thankfully you also do not miss much if the proof itself goes over your head, because Hamilton will usually follow it with a worked example or clever calculation that results from it. The grading scheme for the course was quite lenient. An A was 85% (reduced to 80% after COVID), and there were no plus or minus grades. Additionally, Hamilton takes the best of your final exam grade and your class grade, which consists of five homework assignments and a midterm. The first homework took me a couple of hours to finish, whereas most of the others took five or more. Hamilton doesn't require a text for this class but does offer a suggestion for Saff, which is refreshing. Instead, he uses his own lecture notes on the material, which can be at times illuminating but often contains a lot of shorthand that doesn't make much sense unless you attend lectures. I personally recommend using Brown & Churchill's treatment, as they cover all of the topics Hamilton does in an easily digestible way. Unfortunately, the modern book is expensive, so try to get an older version on Amazon for cheap. Overall, Hamilton's not a bad choice for MATH463. The field of complex numbers is interesting and after lots of theory, Hamilton usually finds time to present applications of the math, which is nice. However, if this is your first upper-level math course or you aren't comfortable with proofs, it may be advisable to take someone else. My guess is he treats his lower-level students like he treated us, which is the reason for such low scores. That's not something one should do. You will need to supplement the lectures with your own practice from a different book if you want to do particularly well in this course. I probably did 4 problems for every homework problem assigned to me, just to ensure I had a grasp on the material.
Vadim Kaloshin MATH463 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/06/2019	Mostly just reads from the textbook. Is a fair grader and gives you a practice exam that is nearly identical to midterms and final.
Patrick Fitzpatrick MATH463 Anonymous 10/22/2015	I am sad to say Fitzpatrick has probably fallen out of his prime. He is definitely not the same man as in these reviews. I'd say he is generally very unorganized in class. The way he writes on the black board is just not organized. Most math professors are organized and provide separate discussions of definition, lemmas, and then theorems. He will just write things scattered across the board. Also, he is unable to do any slightly complex proof without making errors. He probably makes at least 1 error for every proof he does which is extremely confusing because you don't know if you can trust what he writes. Finally, I'd say his handwriting is very hard to read at times. He will omit letters in words and words just become scribbles. He's definitely a kind person, I respect him a lot. He's the guy who wrote the MATH410 textbook, which is just excellent. But I felt this section deserved an update. One thing I noticed is that he seems very pale in class. I think his health may be affecting his teaching.
Raluca Rosca MATH463 Expecting an A akeyser1 09/01/2015	Dr. Rosca is a very good teacher. She explains very difficult concepts systematically and is always available if you have any questions or concerns. Some of the other reviews said her exams were atrocious; I don't think that's fair. Her class is all about mastery and gaining mathematical maturity. If you do the homework and THINK, you'll be fine.
Casey Cremins MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2012	I thought he was pretty good. Never put anything unexpected on quizzes/exams.
Dionisios Margetis MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2011	The reviews below do a good job of summing up Margetis. Phenomenal lecturer. Writes crystal clear, precise notes on the board, making reading the textbook unnecessary. There is a reason he is one of the highest rated professors on ourumd. His tests are really easy, and he drops the lowest grade. As mentioned below, however, he will absolutely destroy anybody asking questions. He can get away with it because he lectures so well, but it is nevertheless really embarrassing when you think you are asking a legitimate question and he rips you a new one. People very soon stop asking questions. In spite of this, I would recommend taking him over any other professor in the department. You will learn the material really well and get a good grade for it.
David Hamilton MATH463 Expecting an A engineeriam 12/24/2010	Dr. Hamilton is a nice, approachable person. His lectures tend to be very fast; at times, I couldn't take down all the class notes before he erased his work. I feel if you have the time to read and understand sections before they are covered in lecture, you can probably follow him better. Otherwise, he doesn't really present the information in a way that can be easily absorbed if you haven't seen the information before.
David Hamilton MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2010	I thought that Hamilton was absolutely brilliant. Although some may say that his lectures are a little convoluted, they are actually quite easy to follow if you skim the appropriate book section before class. He is a genius of complex analysis and can boggle your mind with the depth of his knowledge on math and history. His midterm was so easy it was a joke, and the final ended up to be take home which was actually pretty hard. Overall this class was pretty interesting and has a lot of applications to many subjects in engineering. Another point, I do agree with what mreese has to say about Hamilton. I could tell that he gave preference to the kids who were doing well in the class, although probably not as pronounced as it would be in 246.
Antoine Mellet MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2009	"You take ze z-zeero"...Yes, Dr. Mellet has an accent, but it doesn't really make him difficult to understand at all. In my opinion, it made the class slightly more enjoyable. I have had professors with worse accents. Additionally, Dr. Mellet does a more than satisfactory job explaining material thoroughly, working examples, and addressing questions. Some positives: Homeworks are posted online, the material never strays from the book, and his exams never have anything on them that is unfamiliar. If you do the homeworks, you can ace the exams. Going to class is probably superfluous. Some negatives: If you're looking for exciting and rigorous academic challenge (I hear that's what college students are looking for these days), then stay away. Don't expect class to be anything more than an extension of the textbook.

Amin Gholampour
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
06/24/2024

A decent professor indeed. Good lectures, reasonable homework and exams, and very flexible and helpful office hours. Amin clearly knows the content very well, and also good at explaining. Does examples in class which is similar to hw. He has office hour basically every day. He is friendly and patient, answers questions in class whenever someone asks. It is important to do hw on time. His hw emphasis on the important parts and can use as a good review of the recent content. If you have question, simply go to office hours and you can get the help you need.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/27/2024

Great professor and interesting class. Lectures are clear and plenty of examples are provided. The homeworks are very manageable, both in terms of time and material, but it's important to go to class because the lectures are a lot better to learn from than the book. (Professor Berhanu also does some things different than the textbook.) Finally, the exams are easy to prepare for with the study guides he gives, and there's always at least one class of review before each exam.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/15/2024

Professor Berhanu goes into a lot of detail with each topic, giving a lot of examples for everything that he covers. He also makes sure to spend time reviewing practice exams before each midterm/final, which has been very helpful throughout the semester. Overall, Math463 has been a very enjoyable class in which I have learnt a lot, and I would recommend taking it with professor Berhanu.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/15/2024

Professor Berhanu is a wonderful teacher. His class can be a little fast paced at times. It is very important to attend lectures! His classes are fair, he is extremely knowledgable, and he really cares about his students. Make sure to attend class though : )

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/15/2024

Dr. Berhanu made complex analysis incredibly interesting, and he is clearly very passionate about the subject. He is a clear lecturer and knows the content--complex analysis is what he studies. Homeworks and tests were very reasonable, and he also decided to add a midterm to the original two, so that the lowest of three midterms is dropped.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting a C-
Anonymous
04/09/2024

Got a poor grade but I mostly attribute it to my own fault. There are certainly easier 400-level MATH classes than MATH463, but there are also harder ones. I felt Professor Berhanu was fair, kind, and engaging. He explained the concepts well. I did quite poorly on the exams, but when getting my grades/feedback back, I understood my mistakes and they felt fair. Stuff that we had covered and I only missed it due to lack of studying on my part. Never felt like it was something we didn't cover enough in lecture or anything like that, so I would say his exams are fair.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Anonymous
02/22/2024

He is a decent lecturer, and clearly knows the course materials but requires every student to go to all of his lectures although there are no participation points. He is a very bad grader, if you don't go to his lectures and he remembers you, he will grade your exams poorly even if your answers are correct but not the exact same solution he gives and then blame you for not going to every lecture.

Richard Wentworth
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/04/2024

Great professor. Complex geometry is key to his research, so he's a great option for this course in particular, especially if you want a math over applications POV. Homework match exams reasonably with one or two more conceptual or abstract questions that are more from the lectures. His testbanked exams were also similar. His lectures followed Brown & Churchill's book pretty closely for the most part (Ch1-9), but he'd include lots of extras like Wirtinger derivatives, Cauchy's theorem in terms of homotopies, etc. Was very willing to answer questions and do review. The final grades were curved nearly 20%.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A
brianburns44
12/25/2023

If you want to take MATH463, I would really recommend doing so with Dr. Berhanu. I don't know what goes on in other sections, but based on their finals I believe Berhanu gave a more enriched complex analysis experience. It was pretty hard and the midterms have 50-65% averages (with no curve), but the final was very easy and most of the class did well. If you are a math major who wants a more rigorous approach to undergraduate complex analysis, Berhanu is your guy. One minor complaint I have is he moves quite fast, but to be fair he is always very willing to answer any questions.

Richard Wentworth
MATH463

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/21/2023

On the dim side, exams are freaky hard and weighed a lot more than the homework (which is actually easy for the mostly part), and we aren’t allowed cheat sheets but there are way too many theorems, lemmas, and formulas to remember. On the bright side, he is not a bad lecturer, however, and he curves a lot if the class is not doing well. Even if it looks like you’re failing, talk to him to see how he thinks you are doing. I thought I might fail or barely pass with a C-, but my final grade of D go curved up to a B! Jus

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/16/2023

Prof. Berhanu is a really good and passionate teacher. He takes the time to not only give proofs for theorems, but also gives motivation and intuition for everything covered in the class. He clearly knows the material really well, and answers all questions really well. He gives plenty of time for exam reviews (1-2 periods dedicated to review), and the exams are extremely fair. If you do any of the practice material he posts, you should expect at least a B+ to A- easily. Highly recommend, especially for anyone who is curious about complex analysis or calculus.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/12/2023

He is a very engaging lecturer! He did a really good job showing how important the theorems actually were and describing how you might apply Complex Analysis. He does sometimes mumble a little, and the pace is really fast, but that's just because there's a lot of material to cover. The course is difficult, but I think the difficulty came entirely from the content, not from the professor. He gives tons of in-class time to review. Make sure you try all the HWs and practice problems as soon as you get them so that you can ask questions before he covers new material. Exam grading definitely isn't soft, but he drops your lowest exam (out of three) and the final course grade will get curved. If you are the kind of person who likes to skip class or be late, don't take 463 with Berhanu. Attendance is mandatory in order to succeed.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Anonymous
12/09/2023

02/09/23 review is accurate. He is self-centered and makes you feel stupid for asking questions. There are a few favorites he has in class who he clearly treats differently from other students. If two students try to answer a question in class, one of them being a favorite, he will pretty much disregard the answer of the other student, even if it is correct. He goes unnecessarily fast in class and covers the board while he is writing, with no intention to pause and explain what he has written while he was covering it. So you are always playing catchup in his class if you sit in a seat with a poor angle to the board. If you ask a question about a problem that was already done previously, he will not answer it and tell you to look back at your notes (but sometimes the whole point of the question is to clear up the misunderstandings you have about the problem which has been scribbled into your notes to keep up with the pace of the lecture). It almost seems like he wants you to struggle a bit in terms of following along with the lecture. Very conceited personality and reluctant to admit his mistakes when a student points them out in class. I have no idea why people like him sign up to become a professor. They show no care for whether students actually understand the material or not.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/29/2023

He is very very good at explaining all the proofs in complex analysis and he is a very nice person and encourages all the students to participate inside his class. His exams and homeworks are all very very very fair and you definitely will be able to do them if you put in the work. Overall this course had very insightful theorems and results that make it definitely worth taking..

Richard Wentworth
MATH463

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
10/19/2023

Excellent teacher, one of if not the best teacher I've had in Maryland. Makes rough material understandable and gives a good intuition. HWs are great and relevant and exams feel fair and very doable.

Allan Yashinski
MATH463

Expecting an A+
andruepabloske
05/24/2023

Allan was a great teacher! He explains concepts clearly, has fair exams (though they’re not a walk in the park), and he’s a really approachable and nice dude. I would definitely take another class with him.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/16/2023

Really enjoyed taking 463 with Professor Berhanu. He often uses a more simplified way to solve problems compared to the book, so make sure to attend classes. There was more focus on intuition than computation, which I really enjoyed. And he would often re-derive a theorem required by a problem, which helped with understanding the intuition behind them and ultimately avoid memorization

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2023

Prof. Berhanu is very knowledgeable and passionate about complex analysis, and it definitely enhanced the course a lot. The exams weren't too difficult, and they covered exactly what was taught in the course. His explanations were very clear, and he did a good job breaking down the thought process behind solving certain problems.

Shiferaw Berhanu
MATH463

Anonymous
05/15/2023

Explains concepts very well, definitely learned a lot in lectures. Gave us an extra exam in order to replace the lowest test score. Overall, exams were fair and class was enjoyable

Allan Yashinski
MATH463

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/06/2023

He is a good teacher and content isnt too hard he explains the stuff well

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Expecting an A-
fiftyseven
12/25/2022

Mellet is a great math professor. He teaches the content very well and is pretty by-the-book if you end up wanting to refer to the textbook for anything as review or just because you missed something. Though I did find that he taught the concepts better than the textbook and the textbook sometimes neglected some of the edges where he expanded. The homework is fine, I personally it a little tedious at times but they did teach the concepts well and as others have said they very accurately reflected what was on the exam. I will note that he does review the homework rather in-depth which can be very nice if you were confused, though I personally got a little bored during it. Overall, I'd highly recommend Mellet - he made the class interesting and taught it not just very well, but noticeably better than the textbook, which a lot of professors aren't able to do.

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/20/2022

Mellet is easily the best math professor I've had at UMD so far. I have zero problems with his accent (in fact, it's kind of endearing). He teaches so damn well, and his lectures are so well-organized and explained. The homeworks are super helpful and build up perfectly to what's on the exam. He's honestly such a breath of fresh air compared to other professors in the department; he's a wonderful person too! Partial credit is, as another reviewer mentioned, quite generous. Really appreciated this class and how straightforward and interesting Mellet made it.

David Hamilton
MATH463

Anonymous
12/17/2022

Not a bad professor but I must say that most of the time, everything he was saying was going over my head. Even if something starts to make sense, eventually, he drags it somewhere and.... that's just it...you get lost. The H.W problems are unlike most things you'll encounter in other Complex Analysis/Variables textbooks, so if you don't understand how to do those, then good luck to you. But seriously, he'll go through as many H.W. problems as he can in his weekly/bi-weekly review Zoom sessions. The exams aren't so bad and if you don't do well on the mid-term, you can always try to bring your score up by doing well on the Final (which replaces the mid-term score by taking 1/2 of the final exam's grade). One thing that is crucial for this class is to know some basic proofs, if you don't know any of them - prepare to work yourself on understanding how some things just MAKE SENSE! I highly recommend tackling this after MATH310 - but it's not impossible to get through this class without ever having gone through any proofs at all. Hamilton will try his best not to fail you if you're taking a 400-level class with him, I'm not sure if the same applies to his lower-level classes though. [PROTIP: His final exams are all available on TESTBANK, utilise them as you wish whenever the time comes - a few of the questions on the final were literally pulled from his previous ones from like 5 years ago].

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Anonymous
11/08/2022

Great professor and lecturer. I had no problem with his accent or handwriting whatsoever (honestly barely noticed an accent, and his handwriting is leagues better than most professors). Mellet follows directly from the book, but you won't need it because all of the class material is self-contained within the lectures and homework. The lectures are very organized and if you take good notes you'll have everything you need. He goes over the homework assignments every week after they are turned in which is helpful. The homework and practice exams he gives out are extremely similar to the actual exams, so you never feel surprised by the content, and he's a lenient grader so you won't lose a ton of points for minor mistakes. There were 3 exams accounting for 85% of the course grade. Homeworks account for the other 15%. Given the exams are very fair and he gives out generous partial credit you should be fine. Overall, I would definitely recommend this professor.

Sewon Yang
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/03/2022

Great prof!

Sewon Yang
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/03/2022

Her teaching was impressive and outstanding. Really nice!

Xuemiao Chen
MATH463

Anonymous
05/14/2022

His lectures are usually filled with proofs and examples, like any math class, and he sometimes skipped steps in his derivations. This usually lost me for a few seconds, but I was able to look at the textbook and fill in the gaps. Overall, the course isn't too tough, but I think Chen does a wonderful job at not making it more difficult that it needs to be. His quizzes are usually closely related to examples done during lecture or given in homework. The midterm and final were both very close to expected, with maybe one or two questions that require a little bit of creative thinking. Exam questions are about half computational and half theoretical. I think Chen taught this course extremely well and was always very respectful. He's also pretty funny sometimes!

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Anonymous
01/23/2022

He's nice. His lectures are very organized so might come off as a bit dry, but also makes it easy to follow the material. I really didn't think his accent was hard to understand at all but I guess that might vary from person to person. The homeworks clearly matched what was taught in class and the exams clearly matched the homeworks, so everything was very fair.

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/15/2021

Class was easy if you understood calculus, but he had a thick French accent and his voice was kind of monotone, making it hard to pay attention. He dropped the lowest 2 homeworks and had a small curve (89 is an A), but I probably wouldn't take another of his classes because of the boring lectures. If you're a cs major looking for MATH UL concentration, take this class with someone else

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/12/2021

For his online class, Mellet recorded the lectures and gave weekly discussions to go over the homework and answer questions from the class. He's very organized and responsive, always presents the material clearly. There were about 10 homework, 4 midterms and a final. Homework were basically examples from lectures, tests were basically homework problems. I thought the tests were easy as long as you are familiar with the homework problems (so, make sure to go over them the few hours before the tests). Oh and the tests were synchronous, you log onto Zoom with your camera on and then take it. The course was very computational. As a math major I did wish we had more theory. But then it is hard to balance the contents because there were other majors taking the class... Anyway, nothing went wrong and I had a good time. I still prefer his classes in person though.

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Anonymous
12/19/2020

He's a good teacher but he has a thick accent. I don't understand his writing. Do not take his class if you want to study by yourself. His exam was hard and not curved. He has 4 mid exams ,1 final exam, and 10 homework. He dropped the 2 lowest homework. Anyway, DO NOT take his exam if you are an international student.

David Hamilton
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/16/2020

It seems Hamilton gets better once one gets into the higher-level mathematics classes. MATH463 pertains to Hamilton's specialty, which is in complex analysis. I had extremely low expectations due to hearing bad things from other professors, though I must admit I am pleasantly surprised. Hamilton does go rather quick with lecturing on theory. This is because there is a lot to teach in the course, and he often spends time proving material, which can sometimes take more than half of the class. For a course intended to also cater to science and engineers, this can be a serious turnoff if one has never worked with a proof before. Thankfully I had some proof experience when entering the class, so I was able to follow some (but not all) of the more complicated lectures. Thankfully you also do not miss much if the proof itself goes over your head, because Hamilton will usually follow it with a worked example or clever calculation that results from it. The grading scheme for the course was quite lenient. An A was 85% (reduced to 80% after COVID), and there were no plus or minus grades. Additionally, Hamilton takes the best of your final exam grade and your class grade, which consists of five homework assignments and a midterm. The first homework took me a couple of hours to finish, whereas most of the others took five or more. Hamilton doesn't require a text for this class but does offer a suggestion for Saff, which is refreshing. Instead, he uses his own lecture notes on the material, which can be at times illuminating but often contains a lot of shorthand that doesn't make much sense unless you attend lectures. I personally recommend using Brown & Churchill's treatment, as they cover all of the topics Hamilton does in an easily digestible way. Unfortunately, the modern book is expensive, so try to get an older version on Amazon for cheap. Overall, Hamilton's not a bad choice for MATH463. The field of complex numbers is interesting and after lots of theory, Hamilton usually finds time to present applications of the math, which is nice. However, if this is your first upper-level math course or you aren't comfortable with proofs, it may be advisable to take someone else. My guess is he treats his lower-level students like he treated us, which is the reason for such low scores. That's not something one should do. You will need to supplement the lectures with your own practice from a different book if you want to do particularly well in this course. I probably did 4 problems for every homework problem assigned to me, just to ensure I had a grasp on the material.

Vadim Kaloshin
MATH463

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/06/2019

Mostly just reads from the textbook. Is a fair grader and gives you a practice exam that is nearly identical to midterms and final.

Patrick Fitzpatrick
MATH463

Anonymous
10/22/2015

I am sad to say Fitzpatrick has probably fallen out of his prime. He is definitely not the same man as in these reviews. I'd say he is generally very unorganized in class. The way he writes on the black board is just not organized. Most math professors are organized and provide separate discussions of definition, lemmas, and then theorems. He will just write things scattered across the board. Also, he is unable to do any slightly complex proof without making errors. He probably makes at least 1 error for every proof he does which is extremely confusing because you don't know if you can trust what he writes. Finally, I'd say his handwriting is very hard to read at times. He will omit letters in words and words just become scribbles. He's definitely a kind person, I respect him a lot. He's the guy who wrote the MATH410 textbook, which is just excellent. But I felt this section deserved an update. One thing I noticed is that he seems very pale in class. I think his health may be affecting his teaching.

Raluca Rosca
MATH463

Expecting an A
akeyser1
09/01/2015

Dr. Rosca is a very good teacher. She explains very difficult concepts systematically and is always available if you have any questions or concerns. Some of the other reviews said her exams were atrocious; I don't think that's fair. Her class is all about mastery and gaining mathematical maturity. If you do the homework and THINK, you'll be fine.

Casey Cremins
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/23/2012

I thought he was pretty good. Never put anything unexpected on quizzes/exams.

Dionisios Margetis
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/11/2011

The reviews below do a good job of summing up Margetis. Phenomenal lecturer. Writes crystal clear, precise notes on the board, making reading the textbook unnecessary. There is a reason he is one of the highest rated professors on ourumd. His tests are really easy, and he drops the lowest grade. As mentioned below, however, he will absolutely destroy anybody asking questions. He can get away with it because he lectures so well, but it is nevertheless really embarrassing when you think you are asking a legitimate question and he rips you a new one. People very soon stop asking questions. In spite of this, I would recommend taking him over any other professor in the department. You will learn the material really well and get a good grade for it.

David Hamilton
MATH463

Expecting an A
engineeriam
12/24/2010

Dr. Hamilton is a nice, approachable person. His lectures tend to be very fast; at times, I couldn't take down all the class notes before he erased his work. I feel if you have the time to read and understand sections before they are covered in lecture, you can probably follow him better. Otherwise, he doesn't really present the information in a way that can be easily absorbed if you haven't seen the information before.

David Hamilton
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/22/2010

I thought that Hamilton was absolutely brilliant. Although some may say that his lectures are a little convoluted, they are actually quite easy to follow if you skim the appropriate book section before class. He is a genius of complex analysis and can boggle your mind with the depth of his knowledge on math and history. His midterm was so easy it was a joke, and the final ended up to be take home which was actually pretty hard. Overall this class was pretty interesting and has a lot of applications to many subjects in engineering. Another point, I do agree with what mreese has to say about Hamilton. I could tell that he gave preference to the kids who were doing well in the class, although probably not as pronounced as it would be in 246.

Antoine Mellet
MATH463

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/17/2009

"You take ze z-zeero"...Yes, Dr. Mellet has an accent, but it doesn't really make him difficult to understand at all. In my opinion, it made the class slightly more enjoyable. I have had professors with worse accents. Additionally, Dr. Mellet does a more than satisfactory job explaining material thoroughly, working examples, and addressing questions. Some positives: Homeworks are posted online, the material never strays from the book, and his exams never have anything on them that is unfamiliar. If you do the homeworks, you can ace the exams. Going to class is probably superfluous. Some negatives: If you're looking for exciting and rigorous academic challenge (I hear that's what college students are looking for these days), then stay away. Don't expect class to be anything more than an extension of the textbook.

Reviews for MATH463