Carol Espy-Wilson

This professor has taught: EDSP652, ENEE322, ENEE408G, ENEE425, ENEE632, LING889D

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Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting a W Anonymous 02/27/2024	Unorganized, frequent miscommunication with the TA, was always a few minutes late to class. She is undoubtedly a titan in the field of signal, but she only seems to care about the grad student population. I'm sure if you had every academic privilege so far, then you will succeed, but for the majority of undergraduate students taking the course with her, it felt like a game you couldn't win. It was a drinking from the firehose for her lectures, and scrambling to find review material. Her lectures didn't align with the textbook, yet her HW problems were all from the book, and she regularly shifted due dates so it became impossible to find a routine to get help from the TA. This course is proof of how negligent the ECE department is regarding undergraduate education.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/01/2024	Took this in 2023, and it was true that more than half of the class (which was roughly 9-10 people) failed. The exams were quite challenging as other reviews have stated but I always thought they were reasonable if you were reading the book and practicing outside of class. Each problem always had a simple and quick solution realizable from looking at the table sheet and understanding the fundamental transform pairs. There was almost no intense math on any of the exams. Dr. Espy-Wilson is by far the best teacher for signals ive ever had, and really emphasizes a visual approach that makes complex topics like sampling, filtering, and LaPlace really straightforward. That being said, if you do not pay attention in class, fall behind, skip, or simply copy the online solutions for homeworks you will fail. If you show up to class, stay on top of the material, do the homeworks legit, and can solve each practice exam you stand to do very well, and the course will strongly prepare you for 400 levels and real life signal processing.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 01/03/2024	Professor Espy-Wilson is a decent professor but I would recommend to avoid if possible. Some of the better aspects include availability outside of class and willingness to slow down/answer questions during lecture. She was accommodating in general so I'd encourage speaking up. Also, there is an emphasis on graphical analysis and she often connects concepts to her active research which helps reduce the abstract nature of the content. It would have been great to see her use Matlab or provide a demo script to students for solving tough homework problems. This course is difficult and everyone knows it. Unfortunately, this professor doesn't provide any lecture materials and doesn't focus enough on the systems level or the problem-solving procedure. Everyone was underprepared for exam day including her; she didn't bring enough exams and then proceeded to hand out some extra exam copies with answers already written in... Be warned - the grading scale is unclear
Carol Espy-Wilson Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/30/2023	Professor Espy Wilson is an incredible lecturer and engineering professor, but unfortunately gets a bad rap due to her difficult exams. Professor Espy Wilson is clearly very knowledgeable and active in areas related to signals and systems. As many other online reviews have stated, if your simply looking for an "A" in 322, Papamarcou is the safer option, ( took him for 222, his exams are consistent from year to year, and he simply reads off a power point). I strongly believe that Professor Espy-Wilson is the better option if you enjoy signal processing and plan to move onto DSP or Communication Theory. Here is my honest review of the course. 1. Professor Espy Wilson emphasized a visual approach of drawing out signals which helped a lot when it came to topics such as convolution, filtering, sampling, and frequency response. 2. While the exams were difficult, I felt they were incredibly reasonable given the homework assignments and topics covered in class. The practice exams were generally easier but prepared you well for the exam. I believe if you are genuinely completing the homework every week instead of just copying the answers from online, you stand to do very well on the exams. 3. All three exams are cumulative, so it is imperative to stay up to date on the content. Many system outputs on later exams may be easier to compute in the time domain with convolution vs. the frequency domain or laplace. 4. All three exams were not that math heavy, and focused more on your understanding of the concepts. Typically for each problem there was a quick (sometimes difficult to see) path to a solution using a transform property/pair from the provided tables or lectures. 5. Professor Espy Wilson follows the book "Signals and Systems 2nd Edition" by Oppenheim extremely closely. The text has many practice problems that are good preparation for the exam. 6. As the course moves on, Professor Espy-Wilson does tend to lecture very fast spending little time on complex topics. This makes it very important to read the book, and ask her to slow down if necessary.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting an F Anonymous 08/07/2023	She is terrible. Has no desire to teach. She teaches the class as if the students are phd students. DO NOT TAKE HER. you will not pass. She does not curve and her practice exams are nothing like the exams she gives out. She is by far the worst professor at UMD. Save your mental health and do not take her.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 07/20/2023	She failed the majority of the class. No hyperbole, she failed more than half the students. Take the course with someone else, especially if you are pursing a career in signals.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 05/30/2023	She failed the majority of the class. Do not take her.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 02/25/2022	Professor Espy-Wilson is terrible. DO NOT TAKE HER. A lot of people dropped/did not pass her ENEE322 class. Her tests are almost impossible. The average on the one of the exams was a 30%. If you can, take the class with someone else. Nobody received an A in the entire class for the semester.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/29/2019	Prof. Espy-Wilson is an amazing teacher, as in she is very good at teaching the material in a way that makes sense. Unfortunately, she gets a bad reputation because her exams are challenging. However, if you study the old exams, which she will provide and go over, you stand to do very well on her exams. Additionally, make sure you clarify any doubts or questions as soon as they arise; concepts in this course build on each other and poor understanding of earlier material will most definitely become a problem down the road.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/14/2018	Professor Espy-Wilson is very nice and I feel like she gets a bad rap, though these other reviews are certainly accurate. In office hours, she was very helpful and accomodating. She teaches fast, but it's all in the book, and she's more than willing to help if you're stuck or confused. Make no mistake though, this is a very difficult course, and her tests make things very frustrating. That being said, the whole class was curved (pretty heavily actually), so the end grade is pretty much just a representation of how well you did compared to your classmates. From my experience, here's how the workload was: Studying like any other class will earn you a C; Studying very hard (or in my case, harder than you ever have) will get you a B, and selling your soul to the Signals Gods gets you an A. The tests are impossible, so much so that even those people who usually get 99% on an average of 50% were also doing poorly. All that being said, if you just care about a grade, Espy-Wilson is not for you, it might be better to put this class off rather than try to suffer. But if you want to master signals, than she is for you. IMO someone who got a B with her likely knows more than someone with an A in Papamarcou. I consider it a high risk, high reward class, so take it ONLY if you are willing to 'do the gauntlet'.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 12/16/2017	Extremely nice, very knowledgeable, and actually pretty accommodating, though she does not like to give points back so don't even try. The tests are worth 90% of your grade, so you should probably do well on them right? Too bad! The tests are nothing like the practice ones and the hw was given by our TA, so it wasn't really that helpful to learn what to expect for any exams. The practice midterms she gave left me pretty confident of doing well, only to get absolutely blindsided by something i've never seen before. If you're thinking that it's just me, consider this: The average for midterm #2 was a 39%, with a low of 2.5% and a HIGH of 59.5%. Not even one person was able to get >60%. To make it worse, she said this was an IMPROVEMENT from the last semester! Though she says she curves heavily, so hopefully that can rescue literally all of us. Based on what she said in class and office hours, it sounds like she really wants students to come to her office hours, though they seemed to me to be of marginal benefit. When it comes to 222 or 322, take Papamarcou. Period.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/29/2015	She moves very quickly through the material and does not care if you have questions. Also, the exams are nothing like the past exams, so study everything. If you miss class, she basically recites the book word-for-word, so you will be fine if you just read the book. I would definitely recommend avoiding her.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2014	Professor Espy-Wilson is a really nice person but like all the other reviews the test are nothing like the homework's or quizzes, if you need help understanding the material i would definitely go to the TA's. The test averages are very low and there is a curve at the end of the semester so if you wanna know how well you're doing you have to go to her in person. She teaches the lectures pretty well since the book is old and some of it is hard to understand. I would avoid her if possible mainly because of her tests, but if you know the material very well you should do well with her
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 01/28/2011	Pros: Good lecturer, although she goes a little too fast most of the time and seems stressed out sometimes I really liked the idea she had of how the course should be taught. She emphasized visual understanding of the actual concepts and practicality of problems, rather than just doing math without context She does curve the final grades Cons: She does not put enough time into other aspects of the class outside of lectures. For example, she has the TA make the quizzes and HW's, which ends up meaning that it's very hard to be prepared for her tests, which she makes. This is the first EE class I've had for which the TA assigns the hw rather than the professor, and it is definitely a bad system She has a tendency to put people on the spot during lecture, which can be very uncomfortable Her grading of exams is shoddy at best, and she is reluctant to give more points on regrades. Often her grading mistakes or poor exam questions are based on mistakes or confusions that are present in her lectures Overall I think that the way she teaches the material is very true to the engineering spirit and makes up for most of her bad points, but you must be prepared to be frustrated at your grades sometimes. It is possible to do well in her class though with lot's of studying and hard work. Make sure you can do problems quickly too since the exams are too long for the given time sometimes
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Anonymous 12/03/2010	Although she is a very nice person she does not care much about student concerns. Lectures help the homework but they have almost nothing to do with the tests. Sample exams are nothing like the actual tests either. Exam questions are hard to understand since they pop out of nowhere. Overall, she is a nice person but she makes the class way too hard and towards the end of the semester you feel no motivation to take more signals classes.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/29/2009	+ She is a nice person. + She is very clear during lecture. - Her exams are nothing like previous exams, homework, or anything that she does in class, which makes this class very difficult.
Carol Espy-Wilson ENEE322 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2009	Overall, this professor is very clear in teaching the basics in signals and systems. Her tests are difficult(not that the subject isn't) and long so your going to have to do more difficult problems for practice. Otherwise, I have no complaints.