Dmitry Dolgopyat

This professor has taught: AMSC670, DATA400, DATA601, MATH424, MATH452, MATH642, MATH643, MATH670, MATH671, MSML601, STAT400, STAT410, STAT600, STAT601, STAT650, STAT818J, SURV410

Sort By:

Information	Review
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/21/2024	Dolgogyatt is a wonderful professor. I can't understand his accent but the class was not too bad.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/16/2024	If you are someone who likes learning things on your own, this professor is perfect. He makes all of his weekly quizzes EXACTLY like one of the homework problems, just with changed numbers. He also has quiz drops at the end of the semester if you mess up somehow. He also bases the exams EXACTLY like the practice problems he provides, which is extremely helpful. He lets you take notes into exams. TAs are amazing too. Great professor, went to 2 lectures than never again, but extremely fair class, everything was known ahead of time.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/19/2024	I had Dmitry for STAT400, and it was definitely harder than what my friends said the other professors were like. However, it was far from impossible. My advice: 1. Attend lecture, sit in the front row, and try to follow along as best as you can. This is helpful especially before the tests, because he will often give hints about what will be on them and what to focus on. I find that a lot of the people complaining about Dmitry barely ever went to lecture.... and it doesn't usually turn out well for them. 2. Before class, I always read the textbook section, which made following along with him during lecture a lot easier. 3. Make sure you understand the homework, since the quizzes are on questions from the homework. If you understand the homework, the quizzes (which are ~30% of your grade) are basically a free grade boost. 4. Make at least one friend in the class, and you can work through the practice problems/homeworks/study together. Some other notes: Dmitry is very generous with grading -- people say he doesn't curve, however 95% and above is an A+, and he drops the 2 worst quizzes out of your 10-11 quiz scores. His practice problems are hard, but they prepare you for the test very well because the tests are FAR easier. Dmitry will never throw you a curveball on any test -- they are all very fair and reasonable. On the tests themselves, he gives generous amounts of partial credit if you show your work or even so much as just explain what you would do/your thinking. Dmitry is very passionate about statistics, although he isn't the best at teaching, especially to beginners. I think this is partially because he is extremely intelligent about the subject. But, people are super dramatic about the difficulty of this class. I am no math genius, but with a little bit of work, I was able to comfortably get a good grade. Also, he is a lovely person. And he's written several books! Cool!!!!
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/31/2023	Halfway through I stopped going to lecture at all. He’s very knowledgeable and by no means incompetent, but his lectures are so confusing and unbearable I couldn’t bring myself to understand anything. At least everything’s on WebAssign so it’s pretty easy to self study
Dmitry Dolgopyat DATA400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/25/2023	Lectures are very difficult to understand, focuses too much on the underlying theory leaving you really confused on what he's trying to explain. 9 times out of 10, after self studying I realize that the content is actually not that hard, he's just not very good at explaining. Most people skip the lectures and do fine. His tests, quizzes, and homework are actually pretty reasonable and he is pretty generous about how they are graded. You can pass this class if you work hard, but I can definitely say there's easier professors to take.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2023	His lectures are generally unhelpful, and I basically stopped attending after the first midterm. You will end up teaching yourself a good bit of the material. Despite this, the TAs are very helpful, and the practice materials (non-graded worksheets and sample midterm problems) are good preparation for the exams. Said exams are often easier than the practice and as long as you keep up with the homework and work through/understand how to solve the sample problems, you will probably be fine. He also lets you have one sheet of notes for each midterm and three sheets for the final.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2023	If your expecting to learn everything from lecture than your out of luck cause they aren't good. Besides that the course structure is good. Quizzes worth 30% of your grade are just pulled from the homework due the previous week. The exams questions are just the easier examples from the textbooks. Overall if you don't mind teaching yourself and you put in a decent amount of effort getting an A shouldn't be that hard.
Dmitry Dolgopyat DATA400 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/19/2023	Clearly a very smart person and knows a lot about the subject. However, he is not meant to be a professor. I was lost in all of his lectures. Office hours were very difficult to figure out. His answer keys for reviews had a lot of errors and were hard to follow and understand. Not sure I really learned anything from this class. The fact that quizzes (30%) are worth more than exams (20%) is what got me a B-.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/18/2023	Smart guy but you can really tell he's not comfortable/doesn't want to teach this class in particular. First day of classes he seemed really uncomfortable and a number of students brought up the fact that they were unable to hear him within the first half of class. Despite this, I still had a hard time hearing him as he chose to wear his microphone around his neck instead of up next to his mouth. As the semester progressed it became clear that lecture was pretty useless as I couldn't hear or understand what he was saying. Although his provided sample questions were relevant to exam questions, they were riddled with typos and occasionally were missing necessary information. Even worse, the included solutions had numerous mathematical errors and steps were not adequately explained. Thankfully, the actual exam questions were free of any serious errors, but typos were still present. If you're happy with self study and a lot of staring at a "solution" wondering which shortcut he used to solve the question in one step, you'll do fine. Also, hope your TA is nice, as 30% of your grade (quizzes) is basically a dice roll on whether or not your TA wants to torture you.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Anonymous 12/17/2023	When I signed up for this professor, I was confident that his accent would not be an issue, and it wasn't. There are many other issues, however. 1) He talks too quietly and too fast. I sat in the front row every single class, and I still couldn't hear a word he said. He only directed his lecture at two people on the right side of the lecture hall. 2) He goes into detail on proofs and details that don't matter. If you're a CS student, you know that STAT400 is not supposed to be hard. In fact, your peers who took the other professors can attest to that fact. Professor Dolgopyat loves to go into detail about the theory of statistics, and if you actually care, that's great. But, be warned that you still won't understand the topics any better. 3) He releases practice problems that stress out the whole class and doesn't go over all the worksheet problems that are actually related to the exam. 4) He DOESN'T CURVE. If you do take this professor, be prepared to diligently read the textbook and complete the worksheets he posts daily. On the first exam I got a C because I only focused on the practice midterm problems he posted and that was a mistake. Good luck!
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/17/2023	He's not a good professor, but as long as you do the homework and do well on the weekly quizzes (which are just a problem from the homework with the numbers changed out) you'll probably be fine, although I would still take it with a different professor since his lectures (all of which I attended) are pretty difficult to decipher.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	These reviews scared me, but you will be fine in this class if you are good at math. Professor has a built in one point curve, quizzes are exact questions from homework, and you get to bring three formula sheets (front and back) to the final. Sure, his lectures are not the best, but you don't need them. His review guide prepares you for any questions you might see on the test.
Dmitry Dolgopyat DATA400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2023	I cannot say enough positive things about Mr. Dolgopyat. From the moment I stepped into the classroom, I knew I was in for an amazing semester. His passion for statistics was infectious and made me excited to learn. One thing that sets this teacher apart is their ability to make complex concepts easy to understand. They have a way of breaking down difficult material into manageable pieces, and their explanations are always clear and concise. His use of real-world examples and hands-on activities made the course material come to life and solidified my understanding of the subject.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 12/14/2023	He's a good person, and a brilliant mathematician, but avoid at ALL costs. Don't be fooled by the people are saying that he wasn't that bad. He's absolutely horrendous. He couldn't teach if his life depended on it. Like people have pointed out, you will learn nothing in lecture, you just have to teach yourself. Since I do best by mostly learning by instruction, I am about to fail this class. Usually, I take responsibility for not performing well, but honestly, it's not on me at this point for this class. And I know some will say, "well its college in the real world nobody will hold your hand", to which my response is to shut up because I'm paying money to learn here, not to just skip lecture because it's a waste of time. This professor is a good example of increasing tuition costs but the decreasing educational standards we get. It's clear that UMD isn't paying this man enough to care about his class, as if you do see his lectures, he will literally go at his own pace as if he's just reviewing the information to himself. And that's if you can understand him. If you need some sort of instruction and want to go to UMD to actually learn, like me (and most students), I'd stay away from this class. His exams are easier than his practice exams, but his practice exams are very sloppily done. He posts the solutions, where there's spelling and arithmetic errors everywhere, and formulas are pulled out of nowhere. What he needs to do is get himself (or preferably a TA) to go through each question in the practice exam solutions, and record it. The actual questions are just so difficult and combined with his sloppiness in writing the solutions, it's just not good. Like I said, its a testament to how he's simply not getting paid enough to care. Also, no curving will be done at all, and don't listen to the responses who say his exams and practice exams are "mirror image copies" they are different and dont always test the same stuff. The quizzes are a lot more similar however. Over all, stay away, unless you're fine with teaching yourself and deciphering his practice exam solutions.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2023	Lectures too hard to understand. Accent unable to decipher so can't understand half the information that is being taught. Sometimes handwriting is illegible and you can't actually see what he is writing even though I sat at the front of the classroom. He has a habit of speaking and then his voice fading out and then says one syllable loud then fades out again. Sample problems for exams are extremely difficult and don't even represent the exams although the exams are easier than the sample problems for them.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2023	So Professor Dolgopyat is very knowledgeable and approachable, but is just not the best teacher. This class ended being a lot more stressful than I believe it should have been. The concepts, if relayed well, are fairly straightforward. The issue is that his lectures are often confusing. He does do examples, but often not to the extent as would be helpful. I had to put in a lottt of work to do well on the exams. I went to office hours, asked questions, and more. He is very willing to help if you go to office hours. If you don't want to read all this lol here is a quick pros/cons list: Pros: - weekly quiz is always 1 question exactly from the Webassign hw - sample problems for exams are good practice but are usually super hard, but... actual exams ended up being more straightforward - drops 2 lowest quizzes - TA's were livesavers answering questions on Piazza - final exam is same weight as regular midterms - he creates chapter summaries before exams and posts quiz and exam solutions on ELMS afterwards Cons: - confusing lectures - sample exam problems are super different than the Webassign hw's and usually very hard. they always had problems out of left-field that we had seen no examples for. some of these problems my TA didn't even know how to do at first. also there are often lots of errors in the answer keys for these sample problems. Overall, if you can get another professor I would recommend doing so. However, this class with Dmitry is doable if you are committed to putting in a lot of effort.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Anonymous 12/13/2023	Pathetically worthless lecture. His class is effectively in 3 segments, The homework and weekly quizzes in the discussion, which are closely aligned The exams which he gives you a review sheet for (that are pretty close to the exams themselves) And worst of all, his lecture, which has nothing to offer and no connection to any other content Unintelligible lectures that are barely related to the actual graded course content, so if you do get stuck with him be ready to self-study everything.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2023	He is not the best lecturer as the other reviews say. The worksheets he posts usually have errors in the solutions and you have to ask on Piazza whether the mistake is in the worksheet or something that you did wrong. The material isn't too bad, but it piles up on you quick. Now, I did come in having taken AP Stats so a couple of the topics towards the end of the course were familiar to me that wouldn't be familiar to people who haven't taken AP stats. In terms of grades, there is a weekly webassign that all together is worth 10%. There are weekly quizzes where they choose a random question from the previous webassign and all together is worth 30%. Additionally he drops the lowest two quizzes and homeworks. Three exams(2 midterms and 1 final) are all worth 20%, and in my opinion, significantly easier than the stuff we do in class. I would recommend finding a study group for the exams, and doing all the practice problems he assigns. If you do that, the midterms should be fine and you'll end with a decent grade in the class. However, if you don't have much experience with statistics, you'd be better off with a different professor.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2023	Professor Dolgopyat is not as bad as the other reviews state imo. Sure, he has an accent which it makes it hard to understand him sometimes. But, going to lectures did help if I paid attention. He explained the concepts well and went through a ton of examples. Quizzes are also based of the homeworks, so as long as you do the homeworks you can get a 100 on every quiz. Exams were also much easier than the practice exams so I felt well prepared for each one. Overall, you can definitely survive this class and even do well if you put in the work. If there’s better professor, take them but Professor Dolgopyat is not bad.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2023	If you enjoy illegible handwriting, unintelligible rambling in a heavy Russian accent, then this class is for you. While in lecture I spent more time trying to decipher his hieroglyphics on the board than actually learning anything stat related. He rarely uses a microphone, plus He's in the armory so it's already pretty awful. The homework and quizzes are also entirely separate from the midterms and final, which are also separate from the lectures. The textbook is not the best either, although my TA was very helpful. The only good thing is that the practice midterms are very close to the real thing.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2023	as a person he's clearly really smart and has great subject knowledge but unfortunately that means a lot of stat400 concepts seem like common knowledge to him so he doesn't explain them too well. also does way too many proofs which makes the class much harder to understand. if you've taken ap stats the second half of the course should be pretty easy for you but overall if you can find a different professor pick them lol
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/02/2023	I feel that Professor Dolgopyat gets a bad rap sometimes from students who never attended lecture beyond the first week. After the first week, only the first two rows are filled consistently. But if you genuinely try your hardest to understand what he's teaching, you will be ok. It will be difficult, and you have to put in some hefty work on your own, but actually attending lectures really helps. Professor Dolgopyat runs through examples, and his medterms were always easier than the crazy-hard sample midterms he gave out, so I always felt prepared. His grading is very lenient too, with him dropping your two lowest quiz grades. Quizzes are based on that week's homework, so you know to expect 1 of 10 questions, and can study accordingly. Overall, not a terrible class. Give Professor Dolgopyat a chance, and you can survive this class.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Anonymous 11/30/2023	hes not a very great professor. his lectures are impossible to understand. showing up to his lectures makes this class harder than it should be so you will be stuck self-studying for everything. the material itself would not be too bad if he was a decent teacher.
Dmitry Dolgopyat DATA400 Expecting a C- Anonymous 11/22/2023	I just want to make something very clear first: Dmitry is clearly a brilliant man and knows what he's talking about... He's just not a very good lecturer. If you're going to take this class, I hope to you're comfortable with reading chapters out of a textbook to teach yourself, because that's all your semester will consist of. I stopped going to his lectures because I realized that teaching myself the material from the textbook was genuinely a more productive use of my time. Dmitry's midterm study material (practice exams) are a 50/50 when it comes to how similar they are to the actual exams (first midterm -- actual exam was easier than practice; second midterm -- actual exam was on par with practice in my opinion), so it's stressful to try and figure out whether it's over for you or not, while doing the practice exams. I'm the type of person to find the positive in every terrible situation, so I'll try to do the same here. You get weekly homework assigned to you on Webassign, and honestly, I'm always able to knock those out within around 1.5 to 2 hours, and the problems are straightforward enough such that you're able to read the textbook and (mostly) know what to do. Not only that, if you genuinely and honestly do well on the homework assignments, the weekly quizzes are easy, since they're pulled straight from the homework (albeit with different numbers). Yeah, that's it... Whoever you are reading this, if you're like me and took this class due to lack of openings in other sections, I wish you the best, and I believe in you :) If you're reading this and you have other options for professors, please please please take them instead.
Dmitry Dolgopyat DATA400 Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/08/2023	He can't teach for the life of anyone. His sample problems, solutions, and everything else he has ever laid his hands upon are unreliable. Better to drop the course than have this teacher. Run far away. Not worth it. Will screw up your GPA. Doesn't curve.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/05/2023	He appears to be very knowledgeable about his subject, however he is not a very good teacher and is frankly a very poor lecturer. Much of the lecture is spent with him progressing rather quickly and confusingly through highly complex mathematical proofs for various statistical equations that are completely unnecessary to understand the content of the course, thus resigning his students to an annoying state of frustration at being more confused at the end than they were at the beginning. Most of the material is relatively simple to understand if taught well, primarily consisting of calculating probabilities and working with a couple of different statistical distributions based on their means and standard deviations; however he makes everything so much more complicated and harder to understand when it does not need to be that way. On top of this, he has an incredibly thick accent and the tendency to speak progressively softer as if he is fading away from reality into the cloudy mathematical recesses of his brain. All in all, I found it much more informative to read the textbook and teach myself the material than learn via Professor Dolgopyat's needlessly complex and confusion-riddled lectures.
Dmitry Dolgopyat DATA601 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/20/2021	You better teach yourself, he speaks English with a very thick accent which confuses me all the time. Homeworks are hard if you don't work with others(who are smarter than you).
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT410 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/04/2019	Can't understand his teachings at all
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT410 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/17/2018	His lectures are useless. You'll basically be learning the material entirely on your own. Also, the average on our final was a 56% and he STILL didn't curve. I urge anyone to take STAT410 with someone else or STAT400.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/06/2016	You will not learn anything from his lectures. He will spend all of the time writing down formulas and answering questions without any explanation The worst professor ever. Avoid at all cost.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/22/2014	The professor was okay for Stat400. He seemed very nice and wanted to help. However, his lecturng was not good and only a very small amount of people attended. He puts sample responses on Elms before the midterms and final which are very helpful. He also has homework solutions which help teach you the material and prepare you for the weekly quizzes, a generous 40 percent of your grade.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT400 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2014	He is impossible to understand. He speaks very quietly, has a thick accent, and is overall a poor lecturer. Lecture is awful, and the majority of the learning in this class is done on your own or in discussion. I had an excellent TA which made discussion tolerable, but I've heard from friends in other sections that several of his TA's are not good. Grading-wise, this class isn't difficult. Weekly quizzes are usually taken directly from homework problems, and the exams were basically mirror images of the practice exams we were given.
Dmitry Dolgopyat Expecting an A Anonymous 11/04/2014	You should take this class with anyone else. Seriously. Dolgopyat is the worst lecturer I have had to date in any class. He makes this class far more confusing than it has to be in lecture; the material itself isn't difficult. It's just probabilities, means, and standard deviations, but Dmitri will give you overly complicated formulas and actively confuse you. That's not to mention that he lectures through a thick accent and monotone mumbling, so he is very hard to understand or pay attention to. We're halfway into the semester, and only 30 kids show up to the 200 person lecture anyone because the lecture is almost useless. If you have this class with him, you are better off teaching the material to yourself or with friends on your own time than going to lecture.
Dmitry Dolgopyat Anonymous 12/13/2013	The review below does a good job of highlighting the fact that he does not speak clearly at all. His accent and his tendency to speak very softly makes it extremely hard to understand anything he's saying. This translates into being a very poor professor overall, and he tends to go over the problems, so fast that going to the lectures accomplishes literally nothing. Most of the class ends up just studying the entire course out of the book since he does not help at all. The weekly quizzes are 40% of your overall grade, which means if you have a bad TA who does not speak english then you are screwed. I would say that Prof. Dolgopyat is not a good professor for this course, and he does not curve since he does not care about his students one bit. Try to take this course with someone else besides him; this class will be much easier with anyone else.
Dmitry Dolgopyat STAT410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2011	Though Prof. Dolgopyat is not the best lecturer (he tends to speak very fast or very low) he does make up for it by providing a wide array of problems, and goes over each one thoroughly. Most people in the class earned an A with a couple almost failing because they were a little too cocky (ppl who scored A's on exams) and decided not to do the HW (worth 25% of grade). He did give them a pass but I don't know if he will do that in the future. All in all three exams and HW is not much to stress a person out but be warned, if you can't follow what the prof is writing on the board without listening to them explain it then you will not fair well in his class. As I've said before he doesn't speak clearly.