James Conway

This professor has taught: MATH120, MATH141, MATH141H, MATH240, MATH241, MATH246, MATH310, MATH341, MATH402, MATH403, MATH405, MATH410, MATH430, STAT400

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James Conway MATH240 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/25/2025	Conway is overall an awesome professor! Take him if you can! I never went to his lectures because he provided dense lecture notes online, plus his lectures were recorded too (though the quality isn't that good but I check it out from time to time if I don't understand the notes). You don't have homework assignments but rather 4 major MATLAB assignments that you can work with a group, and are quite do able in my opinion. There are quizzes almost every week on a set day during discussion (except exam weeks). I personally didn't do well on them because I was having a rough semester, but looking back on it, it's actually pretty easy if you spend time every week looking at the new material and doing some practice with it. I actually ended up doing better on exams, and yes like others said, Conway tends to be asking nitty gritty questions, but it's just like 1-2 questions, and I personally found his exams to be easy and do able. Given his nitty gritty nature, take that as an advantage because I realized that I actually understand linear on a very deep level (and you definitely want this if linear is a core part of your major, I'm talking to you guys cs majors hahaha). And he preps for the final really well too given this nature. He's really kind and funny and approachable, he's just awesome!
James Conway MATH240 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/24/2025	Conway is overall a great professor! I didn't go to his lectures because it seemed pointless to me, especially when his lecture notes were dense and provided online (even the recordings too, though the quality isn't that good). I personally found his quizzes to be a bit challenging to me, but looking back at it, I realized they were actually darn easy, it's just that I was having a rough semester. Exams, unlike what others have said in the reviews, are actually pretty do able and easy (I always end up doing much better on the exams than on the quizzes). Yes he does test you on the nitty gritty concepts, but I actually kinda liked that because Conway will do an amazing job teaching you linear on a deeper level, and helping you get a deeper intuition behind it (and it's just like 1 or 2 questions at most that are like nitty gritty, most are just general linear exam questions to expect). You will definitely want this kind of professor if linear is like a core/key foundation behind your major (a la computer science). You also don't get any weekly homework assignments but rather 4 major MATLAB assignments that you can work with a group. They aren't that bad and it's kinda do able too. He is very nice and approachable, and funny too. Definitely take 240 with him it's worth it.
James Conway MATH430 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2025	He's good. There's not much else to say. He's passionate about the subject, his lectures are interesting, the exams aren't too hard, and the final project at the end (in place of a final) is an interesting departure from a typical math class. The final project is simply to research anything related to geometry and give a presentation on it. I chose to research some topics in computer graphics, as I wanted to depart from the theoretical course material into something more applied, and it turned out well. Other students continued in a more theoretical direction, and that worked out well also. The class is highly theoretical, sometimes a bit esoteric, but it sets you up with a good basis in geometry. If you have an interest in theoretical geometry then take him, it's a great introduction to the subject, far more fun and interesting than high school geometry.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/15/2025	Great Professor, teaches you what you need to know and exams are extremely fair. highly recommend doing recommended textbook problems to not fall behind for exams, since there is no homework. Examples in class are limited due to the amount of theory in the course, so some repetition on your own is needed but the content is not that bad.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/06/2025	My glorious king. Easy to follow along lectures and makes concepts interesting and easily digestible. By no means is it an easy class, but Conway makes the experience much MUCH more enjoyable.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/30/2025	Pros: He posts lots of resources, so it’s easy to catch up if you miss some lectures (lecture recordings and copies of notes are posted). Very reasonable exams and Matlab projects, also you can work in groups on the Matlab projects which is nice. He went over a lot of example problems in class, and explained them well. Cons: Sometimes he made small mistakes while doing examples during lecture, which is generally not that bad but I think it made the lectures unnecessarily confusing for some people.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/30/2025	Professor Conway was a overall good and understanding professor. I wish he included more examples in class to help us understand but the topics weren't that difficult and he explained them in an understandable way. I had to do a lot of self study and working with others to truly understand this class but overall it wasn't that bad. The final exam kicked my butt though, so be ready for that.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2025	TL;DR: MATH246 can be a tough class, but Conway is probably one of the best teachers to take it with. Really made it so this was one of the classes I didn't have to worry too much about the class during the semester Pros: - The three Midterms were very similar to the material we covered in class and the practice problems he said to do. Nothing felt unfair, and it felt like we had covered all the material at some point. - He has a good grading schema for exams, where your lowest midterm grade is worth 8%, and your other two midterms are worth 17% - There were weekly quizzes, but our discussion section gave the quizzes at the end of discussion, so the quizzes felt fine - There were a few Matlabs, but for the most part these just help boost your grade - For the most part, he's a pretty solid lecturer. He explains things really well, records all of his lectures, AND posts his handwritten notes - He ended up curving the class at the end of the semester by one letter grade (A- to A, B+ to A-. etc.) I'm pretty sure the sole reason this happened was because of how hard the final was. Cons: - This is just a personal preference, but lectures can feel a bit boring or slow at times. - The common final was absolutely horrible, the worst final I've taken in my entire college career.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2025	Conway gets straight to business during lectures, not that you really need to go to anyway. Posts lecture videos + notes. He has exam review lectures. The questions on the exams are very fair and expected. Curves the final grade which bumped me from an A- to an A.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2024	Hands down the best math prof I have had so far. Lectures were a perfect mix of theory as well as applications, with a more heavy interest on applications which helped greatly on exams. Super kind during lectures and office hours. Exams were always fair the and matlabs were not too difficult thanks to the matlab slides he provides. Overall a great experience as his student, definitely take him if the opportunity is there.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2024	This may be a problem with the course in general, but the textbooks used were almost useless, the lectures were quite surface level to the point where you essentially had to rely on memorization to solve the problems that were asked, and the final was based almost entirely on the stuff that required the most memorization. Also, the professor was quite difficult to ask questions to, and most times when I asked a question he would give a half answer.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2024	246 is a difficult class with so much content, but Conway makes it manageable. He lectures very clearly and he goes through many example questions. There are 4 Matlabs, but each took no more than 30 minutes. Midterms felt very fair. This may be an issue across 246 due to the amount of content, but it often felt like Conway would lecture too fast and it felt difficult to keep up with him. I'd look down at my notes for 5 seconds, and by the time I'd look up, he'd written a whole page on his iPad. Another issue with 246 (not necessarily with Conway) is that I felt way too rushed on the final exam, along with many of my peers. Multiple people I know couldn't finish it because there were so many questions.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2024	Conway is very helpful to those who ask and is very patient. He's one of the best professors I've had at UMD. For Calc 3 we had 3 entire class classes for final review and at least one for each of the three exams. You don't even need to go to discussion because he teaches so well.
James Conway MATH430 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2024	MATH430 with Dr. Conway is one of my favorite classes I've taken. This is coming from someone who only took MATH461 last semester, whose only experience with proofs were CMSC250 and CMSC351, and who generally had only a passing interest in mathematics before taking this class, as I'm an engineer first and foremost. I mostly took this class because I had a passing interest in non-Euclidean geometry for several years, and I thought it would help me learn how to think for the proof-based math class I needed for the math minor, which I added this summer for personal reasons. While I can't say for sure whether the latter was fulfilled, as I still generally struggle with thinking like a mathematician in the way many of my classmates have probably been doing for years, I can say that this class was the perfect gateway for me to really start caring about mathematics. I really like Dr. Conway as a lecturer. Particularly for MATH430, he knows the subject extremely well, and since the class is an elective primarily intended for math students, he can easily tailor the lectures and content accordingly. Lectures can be a bit quick, but he posts lecture notes and recordings. He posted the ELMS page about a month before the class started, and I attempted to do the homework before the class started. I failed at this, but going to class helped me a lot with figuring out how to do them and knowing what he expected from our submissions. We covered a variety of topics, but the main ones were straightedge and compass constructions, Hilbert's axioms, finite and infinite projective geometries, isometries, and hyperbolic geometry. They might seem mundane just listing them out, and Euclidean geometry in particular is something I really didn't care about before coming into this class. However, and I don't really understand why, but I enjoyed everything we covered. Nothing in this class was nearly as mundane as everything in my high school geometry class, for example. The grade is split up between 20% homework, 25% for 2 midterms, and 30% for a final project (10% presentation, 20% written). For each homework, we were given a couple problems and were assigned a few of them to turn in (usually the easier ones, but there were some tricky problems here and there). I spent many hours on these, particularly homeworks 4 and 5, but that's just me being unable to see the line of reasoning for proofs. For most people taking this class, these should be pretty easy, as even I scored nearly 100% on all of them. Midterm 1 was also pretty easy in my case, but I think Dr. Conway may have gone a bit easy on grading that one. I personally don't feel my answers for the first two questions were really well-formed, as 50 minutes turns out to be not enough time for me to properly think about problems, but I still somehow got above the median, which was 38.5/40. Midterm 2 was not my greatest moment to put it lightly, as I didn't prepare for it nearly as much as I needed to, and November was generally not my month. The final project was very interesting, as we needed to write on and present a topic of our choosing, as long as we could find a good relation between our topic and geometry beyond the scope of the class. We had a variety of topics in our class, and Dr. Conway provides a list of suggestions to help choose a topic. There are deadlines for a project proposal and written draft weeks before presentations start to keep us from doing it all in the last minute, which is appreciated. As for something I wasn't a huge fan of, it was our required textbook. Dr. Conway mentioned several times that our required textbook (The Four Pillars of Geometry by John Stillwell) is below the level of our class, which I tend to agree with. It's a fine textbook for the Euclidean geometry section of the course, but it seems to just cover the baseline of what we need for non-Euclidean geometries in the last section of the book, and isn't really a proper overview. We didn't even use the book for Hilbert's axioms. The problems in it are fairly easy all things considered, but particularly for non-Euclidean geometry, they aren't representative of what we'd see on exams. Meanwhile, they were the majority of required problems in the last two homeworks. This was evidently not a problem for most people in the class, as the class collectively did well on both exams, so my word should be taken with a grain of salt. Overall, I just really liked this class, and I highly recommend anyone with even a passing interest in any topic in this course to take it with Dr. Conway. It's not especially difficult, and the final project alone pretty much guarantees that there is something to take away from the class for most people.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2024	Conway is an amazing professor for differential equations, I don't think there are many better options than him. Pros: - Responds to emails so fast for any questions you have. I have emailed him multiple times in the semester and he responds in minutes some times which I don't see in a lot of professors. - Records all lectures + posts his notes. His notes help a lot and he does good practice problems that are similar to the exam. He also explains concepts pretty nice - There are 3 exams, and he makes your lowest exam only 8% of your grade with the other 2 being 17%. They are all very fair and not difficult at all - Weekly quizzes are very free. The TA's will basically go over problems that are very similar to the quiz before the quiz so it's no surprise at all. He drops the lowest 2 too so only 8/10 count. - MATLABS are also free and are a nice grade boost Cons: - Final exam was horrendous ngl. This isn't Conways fault since the final was made by all the professors and there's like 5 or 6 of them. Luckily, Conway did curve the grades by one grade boundary. - No practice exams I would 100% take Conway again for any future math classes.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2024	Professor Conway was great! I barely went to class, but since he uploaded all of the notes and recorded the class it was really easy to keep up with the class. The quizzes every week were really straightforward, and the TA would go over the content right before. The exams were very straight forward as well and the averages were high (in the 80's). The final was co-written by all of the professors in the department, but he went through and made sure that everything was written in a way that was consistent to how he writes his exams. Additionally, he gave out small hints about the final so we wouldn't have to study/memorize unnecessary things. The average on the final, ended up being pretty low but he curved overall grades up one grade boundary. He provided lots of relevant practice problems (exams from past professors and textbook problems). He also was very quick to respond to emails, and very fair with his grading. A couple times I emailed about a regrading request that was denied by a TA, and he took a look himself and gave me back the points and apologized for the TA having been out of line with their response to me. Also, right before the final I saw that something on my first exam had been graded wrong. I emailed him asking if it was too late for a regrade and he made sure the question was looked at and I got my points. My only few criticisms are that sometimes I wished that he would post something written by him so I could see what it would look like before the exam. However, he gave us tests that were written similarly from other professors, so it's not like we were blind sighted walking into the exam. I also feel like because his exams were relatively short, if you didn't know something on one question your grade was pretty heavily impacted.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2024	Dr. Conway replied to most of my emails in minutes! Seriously, he is so awesome. Dr. Conway taught so well. Every lecture was recorded and each topic consisted of a good balance between theory and examples/applications. The quizzes were easy. The 3 Matlabs took an hour or so and were not difficult (example code were given, and only minor tweaks were necessary). The midterms did not contain anything unexpected - you will score high on the exams if you do and understand the suggested exercises for each section. The final was somewhat difficult, but this was not Conway's fault because Mellet was the person who wrote it. Conway was very nice and told us what was for sure to not show up on the final. It seemed like Conway wanted to tell us more about what to expect but was unable to because the course chair did not let him :(. All three of Conway's midterms had a good grade distribution, but the final was somewhat skewed. Again, it was not Conway's fault, and to compensate for this, there was a generous curve. Roughly 90 ended up being an A, and 86 an A-. Grading: - 10 quizzes (worth 17%, lowest 2 dropped) - 3 Matlabs (worth 6% each, total 18%) - 3 exams (lowest worth 8%, other two worth 0.17%) - final exam (worth 23%) Just take it with him. Trust.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2024	He is literally the goat. He is super nice, he responds to emails very fast, and very accommodating. The class is a very easy A if you put in the effort to go to his class and do the review problems he says to do. - Records all his lectures + posts his notes online - Weekly Discussion Quizzes (2 lowest dropped and your TA reviews content before the quiz) - 3 Free Matlabs - 3 Midterms (all very fair) - Final was a little difficult but curves the class to account for this
James Conway MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2024	Took diff eq in high school so the class was slightly easier but overall he explained topics well. His exams are straight to the point and practicing the textbook questions he supplies in his ELMS page prepare you enough. Make sure to not take the 8 AM discussion because the TA would explain how to do the problems that the 8 AM discussion got wrong to the later discussions.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/16/2024	I didn't really go to his lecture much but the few I went to in the beginning were definitely great because he explained the concepts really well. I took multivariable calculus in highschool so I stopped going to lecture halfway through and just studied for like 10 mins before every quiz and got almost all 100s. For the midterms I just took a few practice exams and the actual midterms were definitely easier than the practice ones. Definitely a pretty easy class and a great proffessor too.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/15/2024	Absolute GOAT professor. His class was so easy and he is also just a really good lecturer. I went to almost every lecture even though he records because of how engaging he was and how well he explains the concepts. There were 3 midterms but they were so easy. I didn't have to stress too hard for these exams because I just needed to review the notes and do a couple practice problems and I'd be good. The weekly quizzes were also pretty nice because they were easy and they kept me in check by making me study every week although just for 30 minutes. My discussion TA was also goated. Shoutout Eric. He would go over really difficult problems during discussion which helped me understand the concepts and also made the midterms 10x easier. Also the final was much easier than the previous years for some reason. Maybe goat conway had something to do with that.
James Conway MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/05/2024	Quite literally the goat. I would take another course in the math department just for him. He makes this class very fair and it's so easy to keep up and approach him. People are terrified of this course, but its so simple with Jamie. Structure: - 3 mid terms ( Very fair grading, just go over class notes + recommended exercises ) - Weekly quizzes ( TA goes over the content in the discussion before quiz, no prep required, also drops 2 lowest) - 3 Matlabs ( Grade booster )
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/26/2024	My glorious king, where do I start. In all seriousness, he's a great math professor. He records and posts lectures on Canvas, so attending is not necessarily required though. I did find it to be more helpful to go though. He also posts his notes as well. He is obviously very intelligent and breaks content in an easy to digest way. Conway also is fantastic at answering questions during lecture. I personally found found the textbook problems he recommends to be much more difficult than any quiz or exam question. A good rule of thumb is that if you can do the textbook problems, you'll be set for the quizzes and exams. The MATLAB assignments are piss easy if you have any prior programming experience. Discussion is kind of useless, but that just might have been my TA.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/09/2024	Conway makes concepts easy to understand and its clear that he enjoys teaching. He brings a positive attitude to class everyday and I highly recommend taking him.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/01/2024	Had him for both Linear Algebra and Calc 3, and after taking Calc 3 with him, I think his teaching style is absolutely great. Super understanding and patient with his students, and he's always quick to reply to emails. 100% recommend taking a class with him, I would take another class with Conway if I could.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/20/2024	Overall a good professor. Records lectures and uploads notes after class. No participation or attendance points, only need to show up to discussion for the last ten minutes to take the quiz. Quizzes are heavily based on textbook problems, while exams are a mix of lecture and textbook. His explanations usually make sense, however sometimes he thinks it's like intuitive when it isn't for others, so you'll have to read the textbook to figure out another way to do the problems. For the Matlab assignments, if you go to office hours, you will get at least a 90% on it. Regrading requests are very easy to complete and he usually gives points back if you give a logical argument.
James Conway MATH403 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2024	Professor Conway was great for MATH403. This class was very interesting and challenging, and professor Conway was very supportive of our learning. Multiple grading options were provided for this class, with the one that gave you the best score determining your grade. The standard grading option was 20% HW, 50% midterm exams (25% each), 30% final exam. Pros: - Very good lecturer: Went through all the details of theorems and gave plenty of examples. I never felt anything was unclear. - Good homework: The HW problems were relevant and challenging. There were 9 HW assignments in total but I always felt there was plenty of time to complete them. Lowest two HW grades are dropped. - Fair exams: The exams were all pretty fair. All the material in exams was covered in lecture. While they were pretty hard, it was representative of the overall difficulty of the course itself. The exams were graded relatively quickly as well. - Posts notes and lectures on ELMS: All of the content that the professor covers is on ELMS. If you miss something in lecture, you can always rewatch it online. - Personable and friendly: Very willing to help and answer any type of question. Clearly very invested in the students and the course content. Listens to student feedback and adapts. Cons: - Nothing comes to mind. Overall, I highly recommend Professor Conway for MATH403.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2024	Professor Conway is the absolute best. He is an amazing lecturer and always explains things very clearly. His proofs for formulas are unnecessary for you to know, but they helped me understand concepts more. The quizzes (9) were definitely harder than the exams, but just make sure you really understand the topics being tested. His exams (4) were pretty fair and made me feel prepared for the final. He also made the worse exam weigh only 5%. He is a funny and approachable guy and is always happy to help during office hours.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/17/2024	Records every lecture, reviews before every exam, no graded homework, drops 2 lowest quizzes and makes the lowest exam worth like 5%, provides practice exams and solutions. He's a great professor and explains things very well. 0 notes, every prof should try to be like him.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/15/2024	Nice professor. Records all lectures and posts notes that are easy to understand. 4 tests all out of 50 points: the lowest is weighed 5% while the other three each are weighed 15%. There's three matlab assignments where you will turn in the entire code into gradescope (HAVE A TA CHECK IT!!) and the average of the three matlabs weighed 15%. There's 9 quizzes and the average is weighed 15% with the final being 20%. DO TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS!! They will prepare you for the quizzes and tests so highly recommend. The final this semester was brutal but it seemed to have been graded pretty nicely because the average was about a 70. He did do an additional curve of about 5% at the end of the semester. Overall, great prof and no complaints. Def take him if you can.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2024	Professor Conway is a good person to take Calc III with. He goes through every textbook section you need to know in his lecture on his iPad. He records his lectures and posts his written iPad notes. He is accommodating when unexpected issues arise, such as retaking a discussion quiz with a valid UMD excuse. Although having 4 midterms can be tough, he makes it reasonable with 3 being worth 15% of the grade and the worst test being only 5%. He speaks very clearly and likes to crack jokes every once in a while. Of course, an A has to be earned in Calc III through hard work and attending discussion section quizzes, but overall Conway is a great professor to take a math course with. He won't throw any crazy curveballs at you. If I had another math class I needed to take at UMD, I would look to take it with Conway.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/09/2024	good teacher, very clear lecturer. bad grades like mine are usually because of student error or laziness.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/08/2024	Solid professor, I enjoyed his class. Exams are very fair and there's consistently a week's turnover to receive grades. He's also very approachable. Take Conway if you can - the subject may be challenging but he knows how to make it more comprehensible and easier to understand.
James Conway MATH341 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2024	Just to preface, he is an amazing professor: very intelligent, explains things excellently, challenges students but not ridiculously, and is generally very nice and respectful to all students. Pros: - Again, Conway is a very nice, respectful, and kind teacher who will take the time to help you as long as you show an effort and desire to learn - He entertains any question, no matter how silly or how far-fetched, and will give his best answer (which is usually a great response) - No big ego, so he genuinely enjoys being called out on mistakes and encourages students to do so - At least for MATH341, holds office hours a lot and will make sure you are helped - Gives extra practice problems on HW, which are usually pulled as that week's quiz question - Regarding quizzes, they are usually reasonable and are related to the crux of that week's material - For exams, usually gives problems that are either quiz, HW, or extra practice problems (making them easy to prepare for) - Goes through several examples so we can understand how things work out from Theorems and such - During office hours, he will answer questions without merely giving away answers Cons: - The only bad thing is that there are times when he can go quite fast, but this might be just because of the course MATH341 Ultimately, there are only really good things to say about James Conway and how he teaches MATH341, not only would I recommend taking him for this class, and just in general, but also that you should look forward to it because he will make the class intriguing, if you are looking for a bit of a math challenge, and will also assure that no part of it is necessarily unreasonably hard.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/13/2024	Jamie Conway is my hero. Take his class. Records every lecture, suuuuper lenient about making up work if you have any conflicts, are sick, or anything else. Also a genuinely nice guy who cares about his students and is happy to answer questions.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/06/2024	Professor Conway is a really nice guy and his lectures are pretty easy to follow. His last lecture before the exams were always reviews and these really helped clarify questions. The worksheets given in discussion were absolutely useless, but I think these are given by the math department. Worksheet grades were honestly the only thing bringing me down, but these are graded entirely by the TA which you don't have control over. The first three exams went really well, but the last one has a really low average and most people don't do well on it. Conway also makes your lowest exam score out of 50 instead of 100. The final was BRUTAL. I refuse to believe that all the math professors make the finals because if they did Conway should have mentioned that his students had not seen a single thing from the final. We were asked to do things we had never been asked before, and as someone who did pretty well up until the final I simply did not know what some of the questions were asking. Prior to the final being put in, I had an A-, after the final was put in I had a C-. It was absolutely ridiculous given that my midterm average was a 85. The average for the final was around a 50 and all Conway did was curve the class maybe 7 percent. He also refused to boost grades after that. This was my second time taking Calc 2, so Conway was better than the last person I took it with, but I honestly think he needs to make the midterms harder to prepare us for the final, or advocate for reasonable questions being put on the final.
James Conway MATH241 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/14/2024	By far one of the best teachers I have had. Extremely understanding, helped me to work around scheduling conflicts, and very reasonable workload. Matlab assignments are given plenty of time, exams are fair. Very good teacher and interesting to listen.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/13/2024	Professor Conway was a very good teacher and explained everything well. While certain information did not feel necessary, he made sure to get us all the information we would need. (He did show how to get the formulas we needed to memorize, and that process was not important to know.) His exams are very fair and he let us know what we would need to study beforehand. (Ex. one question on volume, one question on integration by parts etc.) However, because his exams were very fair, this made the common final seem much more challenging and many people were unprepared for this. Despite the numerous hours of studying for the final, the rigor made many people's grades drop by significant amounts. Overall though, Professor Conway is a very good professor who welcomes questions and is responsive to emails and when you attend office hours. The discussion worksheets were extremely challenging, however multiple end up being dropped and you can work with the people around you to figure them out!
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a C Anonymous 02/08/2024	Dr. Conway: His teaching strategy is to derive every equation, and unless you are a math major, I don't see the point in it. It would be a better use of time if he spent more time on examples then derivations. However, he stayed on schedule, and was able to cover all of the material. His exams also text to be relatively straight forward if you know what you are doing. MATH141: This class has a lot of material and is very difficult. If you have the opportunity to take it at a community college, I would recommend that. The quizzes during each discussion are the worst since they tend to cover material to a degree we did not reach in class. The final exam was also impossible.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/20/2024	Conway's first time teaching MATH240 was a mixed bag. The good -- very nice guy. Will crack a joke here & there and makes himself approachable. Hires excellent TAs, seriously, they made discussion so worthwhile. All lectures are recorded, all notes are posted to Canvas. MATLABs are straightforward, as are the weekly quizzes. His notes, while hindered by bad handwriting, are VERY thorough. This is where Conway distinguishes himself: you will understand linear algebra in greater depth from him than anyone else. His lecturing is excellent, and his answers to questions are very clear. Critiques -- He's harder than the other professors. His teaching style focused more on abstract and theoretical understanding, not practical examples or more straightforward explanations. It's a perfect example of "doing too much." This means that he will test you on that one bullet point he scribbled down while talking about that one proof. Our exam averages were consistently lower than the other teachers, and this is why. Additionally, his notes feel overstuffed sometimes. He will write down mathematical proofs that fall outside the scope of the course. I also feel like he moved too fast sometimes; he would often finish a section early and then just go off on a tangent and write more to fill the time. I think cutting out the filler & writing slower/more legibly to correct the pace would be sensible, as I don't like feeling like I have carpal tunnel 30 minutes into lecture... I like Conway as a person and I can appreciate how he encouraged a truly comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. But he is not for everyone and demands more from you than I initially expected. He is very receptive to student concerns, and I think he'll improve in future semesters teaching this class.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A- djacobs 01/18/2024	Going into this class, I was pretty nervous because I don't consider myself particularly math inclined. But Professor Conway made calculus 2 bearable. He always answered my questions and his office hours were really helpful. If you do the practice exams and follow the class notes, you'll be fine on the exams. The web assigns tend to be a lot more difficult than the real exam, which is better than having it the other way around. Overall, as a non-math person, this class was manageable!
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2023	This class is much more difficult than it needs to be, and that's the mentality you need to enter it with. But Dr. Conway makes it much more manageable. Yes it will take you hours each day between lecture, homework, discussions, and studying, but if you go to lecture his quizzes are extremely straightforward, and fair. He is one of the few professors that cares more about your understanding of the specific concept than trying to make you regurgitate algebra which makes it so much better. He is a great lecturer, and extremely nice and helpful at office hours. WARNING!: you WON'T be prepared for the final, the quizzes are much easier so make sure to really do well on all 4 midterms before going into the final.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/18/2023	Great professor and good guy in general. His midterms were more than fair (around an 80% average on all of them except the last one) and he does a good job explaining topics in lecture. He does like to go into complicated theory in lecture sometimes but it technically doesn’t hurt to have a deeper understanding of the concepts. He drops your worst 3 homeworks and discussion worksheets as well as cuts your worst midterm in half. I also think he curves final grades a bit as my grade jumped a full letter grade. MATH141 is pretty brutal at UMD but Conway does a good job at preparing you to succeed.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/16/2023	Great and friendly professor! The class is quite hard and requires you to remember many topics from previous classes. Pros: Recorded lectures and notes (on ipad!), legible handwriting, easygoing, punctual, and easy-to-understand prof, lowest 3 hws/worksheets dropped + lowest exam halved which did wonders for my grade, very fair exams with high class averages (except for the final), fast responses to emails (and accomadating when sick), fast grading for exams (within 1 week), CURVE! (but highly depends on your class + exams) Cons: Webassign formatting kinda sucks, class is fast paced + you have to put in the hours, surprising amount of memorization :/, certain topics are much harder than others, i was not at all prepared for what was on the final (the final was nothing like the exams we had in class, likely because the department wrote it), some worksheets were super difficult Advice: Practice problems + practice exams!!! Do the problems in the textbook and check your answers with the textbook answers. And try on the homeworks and worksheets, they will help you actually learn the content since there are only so many problems that can be covered during lecture. Talk to Prof Conway if you're struggling, he seems like a very approachable professor and he is also quite funny which makes the class bearable. My grade was saved by the curve since the final average was really low (like 60%). I literally got a 50% on the final and got a B-. Prof Conway says he does not curve individual assignments and only looks at the final grades to see if he should curve so definitely don't rely on it. This class was a rollercoaster of emotions for me and I almost got weeded out but I would recommend.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting an A bermudarhombus 12/16/2023	Conway is incredible, he's an engaging lecturer, a fair grader, and is genuinely understanding if you forget to give an assignment .
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/15/2023	He explains concepts super well. Lectures can be a lot cause he needs to go semi-fast to cover all the concepts but he records everything and posts his notes if you need to look back on them. He's also very approachable during office hours and will help you with any concept you're struggling with. The exams were overall pretty fair and he would outline what the general topics of the questions would be before the exam and emphasize what we really needed know. Sometimes homework questions and worksheet question would be overly difficult but I feel like that was more on the department rather than him. The final was pretty tough and the average was really low because he wasn't the one to write it which I think is a bit unfair as the students in the sections with the professor writing the exams have an advantage, but again thats on the department. Overall, calc 2 is a weed out and is bound to be difficult and time consuming, but if you put the work in you should be ok!
James Conway MATH240 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/14/2023	I had a really bad experience in this class. I thought the content was taught in an incredibly unintuitive manner (generally a theorem given with no intuitive context or explanation). There wasn't so much of an effort to give a real grasp or feel for the concepts and everything felt like it was supposed to be retained in isolation which made it hard because linear algebra is a very connected topic. Also the exams were out of 50 so every small mistake you made was amplified tremendously and then review materials were quite different from what the test looked like and asked for. Additionally, the distribution of concepts on the test did not match the way things were emphasized in lectures or quizzes so it felt very nitpicky. A bad time for sure. Would not recommend.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2023	Conway is a very thorough teacher! I enjoyed his lectures and the consistent posting of notes/recordings of lectures was especially useful if you aren't able to make it to lecture. His office hours are also very useful - he takes the time to whiteboard out any problems you might have questions on and explain it to you patiently, step by step. He does have a tendency to value conceptual questions on assessments, which did make the course a bit more difficult, but overall, he's an excellent teacher!
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2023	Phenomenal professor. Lectures are engaging, and Conway is very approachable and willing to help. Would highly recommend.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2023	His quizzes are very easy. The TAs will teach you everything you need to learn right before the exam. But he focuses too much time explaining the behind-the-scenes logic and does not do enough example problems in class. He also goes over everything too quickly. The textbook is amazing though, which is why I was able to self-teach myself. The exams are also fair.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/11/2023	I'm currently taking Conway and I think that overall he is a good professor. The exams are fair and the quizzes are really easy. The only gripe I have with him is I feel that his notes and lectures aren't the best. It might just be me, but I have found that when I watch some of my friend's professors I understand the material a bit better. Overall, I'd recommend taking him his class is not hard enough that you'd have to worry about failing, but I think if you are looking to get an A in this class be prepared to do a lot of studying outside of the resources he gives you.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/09/2023	Records all lectures and exams are very similar to the practice.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/08/2023	I honestly think that Prof. Conway might be slightly overrated. I had him for MATH240 and his lectures were very informative and he made sure to cover the breadth of each topic. But he rarely would cover examples and when he did he would make them very confusing. I took linear in high school and I would say the course is very manageable but having a good TA makes it ALOT easier. I had Josue and he is amazing. 5 stars. Conway is by no means a bad choice, and his exams are very fair, but be prepared to do some extra work outside of lecture.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2023	A lot of these review say Conway is a great professor and even though I do agree but there are some things that may make this class hard for some people. The main thing about his class is that 75% of the final grade is exams, that puts a lot of emphasis on the tests, but the way conway teaches is very theory based, he goes into a lot of detail explaining how formula works. This means that during class he does not go through a lot of practice problems. The exams on the other hand are 100% problems with almost none focusing on the theory behind the formulas. If you want an in depth understanding of lin alg this IS the class for you, but the main problem with this class is that his lecture content and tests don't align well. On top of that he teaches at a really fast speed which makes taking notes and listening at the same time a bit hard. Other than that the quizzes are really easy, he records his lectures, posts his notes, and posts grades to canvas as well as gradescope. If your TA gives good practice problems then this class should be pretty easy, but mine didn't really give a lot of practice problems as I don't know how much it would help.
James Conway MATH240 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/29/2023	THE GOAT!!!! Quizzes and exams are easy, matlabs can take some time but are fair. Records everything. Honestly you don't even need to go to lecture or discussion, just doing the homework will prepare you enough for the exams and quizzes. Also the homework is optional. Only downside for me is that he spends a lot of time explaining how specific formulas or concepts work, which could be seen as a good thing if you really want a deep understanding, but is unnecessary for the assessments.
James Conway MATH141 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/04/2023	Great professor! Explains everything really well and is happy to answer questions and provide help. Also records all lectures and posts to canvas which is really helpful. Would definitely recommend taking his class.
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.