James Conway

This professor has taught: MATH120, MATH141, MATH141H, MATH240, MATH310, MATH410, MATH430, STAT400

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James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2023	Conway was an amazing professor. Recorded, and posted notes (if he doesn't simply email him and ask), and he answered questions well. To me, it was really easy to learn in his class and his practice exams prepared you well for every and any exam he gave, tho series was a pain. Would 10/10 recommend. He does his best to respond to emails even late at night and makes a weedout into a very manageable class. NO QUIZZES. Cons: He could go fast at times during his lectures. The course overall is TA dependent (not in his control), while it is doable, most of your actual learning will happen in discussions as worksheets often mimic exams. A good or bad TA is a big factor in whether you succeed or fail. My TA was amazing, a goat, and he, as well as Conway, are why I was able to do well.
James Conway MATH310 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/19/2023	Professor Conway is a great teacher! He makes the homework’s a little bit tougher so that you can do well on the exams, and he does a great job of breaking down hard proofs and concepts into a framework to do similar proofs(like exam questions). There are no trick questions. It’s a lot of work, but definitely a top tier professor
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/17/2023	Recorded lectures, relative easy and fair exams, good at teaching content. Highly recommend
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/17/2023	Conway had great lecturers and showed example problems in his notes which greatly helped me understand the content. His tests were reasonable and I usually got a B on them. He is transparent about what his exams will cover and his problems aren't too confusing to understand. He seems like a nice guy who truly cares that his students understand the course. I will say what made this course even better was my TA. She was very responsive and the way she reviewed the topics in discussion was easy to understand. Make sure to use the umd test bank and read the textbook when studying and you should be okay in this course.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/13/2023	Conway is amazing. Great lecturer, fair exams, RECORDS HIS LECTURE <3 and truly a sweet and kind professor. I did pretty badly on the series exam, but besides that, I averaged between an 86-92 on the other three exams, and the averages for Conway's class were pretty high as well (usually high C/low B range, which is amazing compared to other calc II sections I talked to!). He is also SUPER accommodating, before our second exam I was extremely overwhelmed and had awful migraines - and very last minute (I believe 12/13 hours before the exam?) emailed him asking if there was any possible way I could take the exam sometime the following week and explained my situation. Conway responded within 10 minutes of that email and was EXTREMELY understanding, and seemed to genuinely care, and I haven't been able to say that for many of the professors I've had so far. The one thing about this class is that your grade depends ENTIRELY on your exam performance (350 for the four exams + 200 pt final + 50 HW pts + 50 discussion work pts), so one bad exam kind of makes or breaks your grade and for me, that was the series exam <3 :( Overall, GO WITH CONWAY!!! He gives you everything you need to succeed AND ACTUALLY WANTS YOU TO SUCCEED!!!
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/13/2023	I'll keep this short and simple, and give the info that I would want from someone who uses planetTerp. Pros: • Reasonable Exams (provides practice exams which almost replicate the questions, just different numbers for the most part) • Very nice and open to questions, always readily available through email • Good lectures that are recorded too! • Verbally understandable unlike some professors • No weekly quiz's, instead their worksheets (still for a grade tho) Cons •Does not curve, at all. What you see on the syllabus is what you get, no exceptions. Overall I'd recommend very much so, as someone who's taken the class twice already:/ MATH141 is a weed out class, in other words it's going to drop kids from their major and path, if you ask for help when you need it and also use orgchemtutor you will be fine.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/11/2023	Conway is a great professor who teaches math the way it's actually supposed to be taught. At times he made me forget the reputation Calc 2 has at this school. He doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to teaching topics and not only clearly explains what it is we are learning but actually goes over examples problems and how to solve them. Homework was never too hard and the exams were also pretty similar to the practice exams so I would highly advise doing those. Contrary to most people's experience, my one gripe with the class was my TA, who was overall pretty unhelpful. Even for review discussion he would be super stingy about helping you solve questions despite my being pretty obvious about not having a clue how to solve the problem. Even with a bad TA discussions aren't too bad if people in your section work together or you press the TA hard enough. Not sure if he does curves or not as the semester isn't over yet, but you do get your lowest 3 discussions and homeworks dropped, and your lowest exam gets dropped by half. Definitely a fair class by normal standards and probably one of the easier ones by UMD Calc 2 standards.
James Conway MATH141H Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2023	Professor Conway's class, despite being an honors level course, was one of the best classes I've ever taken. Professor Conway is very kind and totally willing to explain things again if students don't understand something. He is also very helpful in office hours if you go. He does go kind of fast in class so you might end up writing stuff down without having time to understand it so I recommend reading over your notes after class and making sure there isn't anything you need him to explain in office hours. Aside from that, he is a great professor and I would totally recommend him.
James Conway MATH310 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2023	I absolutely loved Conway. He is really good at breaking down proofs and making things easy to understand. He goes at a nice pace in his lectures, fast enough you don't fall asleep but slow enough to understand what he is talking about. He cracks some jokes in class, and creates a very collaborative feeling in his class. He is super responsive and incredibly helpful. His exams were very fair, sometimes taking problems straight from the homework. The homeworks are hell, but if you really work on them and try to get it you barely need to study for the exams. He actually encourages you to get help with the homework by working with classmates or even going on the internet. That said, starting the homeworks early makes all the difference. The homework is graded pretty strictly (may have had more to do with my TA), but the exams aren't so bad. The worst homework and quiz is dropped. He's also just like... a reasonable guy. He once wrote the due date for a homework is midnight on Canvas, but on Gradescope it was actually due at 9:30 am that day. Some professors would say tough luck, but when it was brought up in class he corrected the problem and let everybody turn it in on the later time. I also heard from classmates that he was really good with accommodating different issues students may have. This is a hard class and it involves a lot of work, but he made it very manageable. I highly highly recommend him for 310.
James Conway MATH141 nalomar 05/04/2023	One of the best Math professors I have had at UMD. Responds instantly to emails. He goes at the perfect pace in classes. All lectures are recorded and posted. Exams are very fair.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/04/2023	Lectures are recorded and his style of teaching is very nice. He responds to emails fairly quickly which is another plus. As long as you know the content he's teaching the exams are pretty fair. Would recommend you take him if you ever have the chance to.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/29/2023	Conway is a great professor honestly, he responds very fast to emails and tries his best to answer questions during OH. Lectures are recorded so you don't have to show up to class, but make sure you listen to the lecture recording rather than just writing what you see. His exams are easy enough if you do the practice exams because everything on the practice exams that he posts, will be tested on the actual exam so just study the concepts.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/08/2023	Amazing professor! Really good at explaining stuff and his exams are easy too.
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/26/2023	Goat.
James Conway STAT400 Expecting a D Anonymous 01/19/2023	You will have 3 exams in this class midterm 1, midterm 2, final they account for 90% of your grade. If you fail one of the midterms the final exam is worth 70% of your grade. Lectures were extremely boring and exams were really hard. TA's were great but they did everything for this class. Would recommend you take this diff prof especially someone been at university longer
James Conway STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2022	I'm happy with Conway. The semester and notes were fairly straightforward and he always posts lecture notes online. Some points were harder for me to grasp (mainly around point estimation) because it felt like he did examples but didn't really explain the process that well. However, the TA's generally did a great job covering the macro view of some topics that helped to balance this out. The exams were generally pretty fair (although without practice exams this semester it was a bit harder to know what to expect but he said this would change for future classes because this was his first semester). The first exam was a bit too hard based on the distribution but with the final overriding the lowest midterm, that wasn't too big of a deal. Overall I would recommend, he is a really friendly guy who does a pretty good job with the straight forwardness of the content and making sure you knew what to be ready for on the exams (and allowed cheat sheets and a calculator for midterm 2 and the final).
James Conway STAT400 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/24/2022	Good professor but could not care less about stat, teaching 3 classes simultaneously so his lectures were word for word the textbook. Recommend Mestiyage instead of Conway 100%
James Conway STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2022	Prof. Conway is the most responsive instructor that I've met. His lectures are okay, he's making jokes sometimes. The homework was short, and the exams were fair following his practice review. I would haven't gotten a perfect 4 without his help.
James Conway MATH140 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2022	Conway was pretty good. I think his best quality is how accessible he is. Responds fast to emails and on piazza. He is also incredibly helpful in office hours and is willing to take the time to make sure you know a concept well. I think his exams were pretty fair as well. The first one did not go so well, but he allowed it to be replaced by our final, which helped in the end. My only main negative is that he did not provide us practice exams, but this made sense as it was his first sem teaching and he tests differently compared to other profs. Overall, I enjoyed the class
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2022	very easy to follow. Extremely clear grading criteria and tells us what we have coming up for the week before each class so students are on top of things. about 7 quizzes total and three midterms and one cumulative final exam. quizzes and exams are pretty easy if you follow the lecture. no curveball questions. First time I've ever really enjoyed a math class.
James Conway STAT400 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/20/2022	Terrible lecturer. He will spend 20 minutes going over a topic only to say it won't be on the exam. His notes are very disorganized and hard to follow. Although his exams and HWs were fair, I taught myself most of the material. I felt this class would have been an easy A had he been a more organized lecturer. Would recommend taking someone else if possible.
James Conway STAT400 Expecting a B Justacoder 12/20/2022	Straightforward professor. His lectures follow the text book so as long as you read and understand it you should be fine. Homeworks are fair and exams are fine. First exam scores weren't very great so he allowed cheat sheets and calculators moving forward which helped alot. My only complaint is that he pushed to cover more material than we really needed to. We went a chapter farther that what most other classes reach. The last chapter was a bit long so learning it right before the final was not ideal.
James Conway STAT400 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2022	best at office hours; fair tests and teaching practices
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2022	I failed AP Calculus in high school. Professor Conway actually taught me how to understand calculus. It was very easy to follow the processes, which I didn't understand at all in high school. The notes may be straight from the textbook, but he simplifies them in lecture (ex. all the steps he writes out are easy to follow versions from the textbook). He is a super genuine, nice guy, and very understanding. Lectures are not recorded unless the lecture if on Zoom or he cannot hold the class in-person, but he does post his notes online, which I have found to be easy to follow despite the lack of lecture. Quizzes and exams are very similar to homework material and in-lecture practice problems. The practice problems given in discussion are much more difficult than the quizzes and tests, but are immensely helpful (they are also optional). He responds very quickly in emails, and is very approachable in-person.
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A+ cwill04 12/08/2022	I found the class super easy to follow. He really just reads out the textbook and does problems as we take notes but questions are always welcomed. I think Conway is a nice guy and very understanding when things go wrong. Tests are straight forward and discussions just consist of practice problems and short quizes.
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/08/2022	First year I can actually understand math. His lectures can drag on, and he can sometimes overexploit the content, but the notes are thorough. I usually would not pay attention in class, but use notes and the textbook to understand. Super nice guy, approachable, and likes math puns. Reviews are tough, but exams are overall very decent.
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/08/2022	Very approachable, teaches things pretty slowly which is nice so if you get behind you can catch up easily. Exams and quizzes are much easier than the practice and homework problems. He made a tough class not too bad, would definitely reccomend.
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2022	Great at answering questions and he's very approachable and responsive. I found that he sometimes went slow in class but it was worth it since it clarified the material well and he went through each problem step by step. Unlike some math teachers, he was not out to trick you. (Definitely recommend taking if you're Jewish and keep the holidays because you get off for the holidays and just have to watch a video).
James Conway MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2022	He's a very approachable guy if you utilize his office hours and also a quick responder. That being said, his teaching style at least in my opinion was not very helpful. The class was basically consisted of him being on his ipad rewriting the textbook word for word. I mostly had to learn the material on my own. Apart for his teaching style, the class material is straightforward and he's very understanding of situations.