Manoussos Grillakis

This professor has taught: AMSC673, AMSC674, DATA601, MATH241, MATH246, MATH310, MATH340, MATH341, MATH401, MATH410, MATH411, MATH461, MATH462, MATH463, MATH630, MATH631, MATH648M, MATH673, MATH674, MSML601

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Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/25/2024	3 stars is what prof. Grillakis deserves. Not too high or low Pros: - Lenient grading - simplified midterm and final with copycat samples available - no homework except the MATLABs (largely completion grade), which tbf are quite stressful - covers less material than other teachers Cons: - will have to self teach, though there is less to self teach because he doesn't go as in depth on late topics - Not a great lecturer -- too theoretical, not enough practice problems especially considering its a "for eng/sci" course
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/18/2023	Grillakis's classes are completely useless to this course. I attended every day and took notes, yet did not learn a single thing. Most of his classes consist of him looking at his notes, which he posts on canvas, and writing them onto the chalk board word for word. We had one midterm and the material on the exam was not relevant to the class at all. The homework are extremally difficult though he will help you at office hours. That being said a 55% passes the class so if you need to take the class he isnt a terrible choice, just dont expect to learn anything.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2023	Summary: He's nice, but you'll learn a lot on your own. If you're looking for the best grade boost, take him; if you're looking to actually learn, take someone else. Grillakis is a nice guy and if you go to his office hours before an exam, he's helpful. However, lectures are taken exactly from Levermore's notes (Grillakis is very transparent about that), so most of the time he doesn't show the work. The lectures were boring and I rarely understood what was happening. However, I used Justin's notes (search up Justin MATH 246 UMD and his site will pop up) and it was EXTREMELY useful. Your grade is 30% MATLAB (6 in total over the whole semester), 30% midterm (which is only chapter 1), and 40% final (chapters 1-3). The MATLAB was confusing since the textbook is outdated, but if you go to math tutoring for MATLAB, it'll be WAY easier. Also, the TA was very lenient on grading MATLAB and the average score was 23/25 on each homework. The midterm wasn't too bad and Grillakis will send out practice questions for the midterm and final. Since Grillakis writes the midterm, the practice is EXACTLY like the midterm. The final was difficult since it's the same across all teachers. However, Grillakis will curve your overall grade (A+ = 95-100, A = 90-94, A- = 85-89, etc.) so it's super helpful especially since the class is difficult.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/14/2023	Speaking for MATH410 he is typically ranked as the best or second-best option on this website for a given semester. He is incredibly nice, answers all questions, and exams are very similar to previous exams. Also, this semester the final and the one midterm both had one or two problems from the sample exams on the actual exams. Go to class, do the homework correctly, study, and with the low letter-grade cutoffs it is not that difficult to do well. Highly recommend him for MATH410.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/02/2023	There are very few MATH246 professors with good/great reviews so you are pretty much picking the best of the worst. The class is tough and you will need to put in a lot of work regardless of who your prof is. A major tip for this class is to use the lecture notes from Justin Wyss-Gallifent. They are available on his website (alongside notes for other math and CS classes). Honestly, if at all possible I would recommend you take this class at a community college. Grillakis' lectures are rather poor. While not completely useless, I often left with an incomplete idea of what was taught. This may be in part due to the tough course content and not necessarily any incompetence from Grillakis. He does post his lecture slides which are complete, if a little dense. He is helpful during office hours if you choose to go. This class has 5 MATLAB assignments due roughly every 2 weeks. These require the use of an outdated textbook that is not up to date with the latest MATLAB software, meaning some of the content, examples, and solutions are useless. The only good thing is that these were seemingly graded on completion which is the only saving grace for this part of the course. The lowest grades were consistently 22/25 even if you submitted it late or incomplete. There is one midterm worth 30% of your grade. We were given two practice tests which were nearly identical to the actual exam. Do these practice exams and you will be fine. Grading felt fair and he did give plenty of partial credit. The main saving grace for this course, and why I would recommend Grillakis in certain scenarios, is the insane curve for this class. To earn a C- you only need to to get a 55%. If you do the MatLab assignments, which are free points, and do decent on the midterm you will be fine.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/26/2023	The math department at UMD needs serious work. My biggest regret is not taking this class at Montgomery College. I would go to lectures in the beginning but quickly figured it was a waste of time and would instead use the time to study. If I didn't study before the lecture I would have no clue what is going on. His exams range from stupidly easy to difficult but the curve is good. I honestly don't know why Matlab is still a part of the curriculum but the TA that I had would grade them on completion which is good because not once did the prof go over Matlab.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2023	Exams are very fair and similar to the practice exams. As long as you do practice problems from the textbook, you will be prepared for the midterms and final. His MATLAB's are graded leniently, and the built in curve makes it easy to get a good grade.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2023	He honestly isn't terrible. I think a lot of people are too harsh; sure, sometimes he can't explain some concepts that well, but he's helpful during office hours and is genuinely a nice person, he isn't out to get you. His exams are fair (granted I didn't do well on them, in hindsight I clearly didn't do enough practice), and his quizzes aren't too bad. Your lowest 2 quizzes out of the 7 are dropped, your lowest exam grade is dropped, and even though (I think) he doesn't curve the final, he has really lenient grade cutoffs so you're never too stressed about it. I'd say he's better than the average MATH246 professor here, but you do need to put in work to do well.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	Like another reviewer mentioned, grading is done so 85% is an A-, 70% is a B- etc. His exams are hit or miss, some of the questions are similar to the hw but others are kinda wonky. Grading is also hit or miss too, he seems to take the same amount of points of if you make a large or a little mistake. Lecture's are subpar, didn't really learn much from them, which made the hw tedious. If you can teach yourself the material for 410, I guess you'll be okay, but if there's a better option go for that...
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	When you pick a diff eq professor you are picking the best of the worst. Grillakis' lectures are terrible 80% of the time and you will need to teach yourself most of this class, but his exams are easy and he is a nice person. And the curve is predefined and is really good.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2023	Class is super easy. There's a 10 point curve, one exam is dropped (not counting the final), and two out of seven quizzes are dropped. If you're looking for an easy grader, take him. The notes online for the class are dense but pretty detailed, and you can learn everything you need to know from them. If you're looking for a good lecturer, steer clear away. Super nice guy, but he doesn't know how to teach for the life of him.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	This dude is aight, he isn't exactly great but he's also better than the one star average he currently has for Math246. He's not a good lecturer, he spends most lectures deriving formulas and methods to solve ODE's with hardly any numerical examples. Though I think this is only his second or third time teaching 246, so I'll give him some slack. I left lecture confused many times, however, I found the material of this class easy to teach to myself when I didn't understand Grill's lectures. There are many resources on youtube, and also Justin's notes, that taught me a lot better than Grill did. I'm giving him a three star because the grading scale is incredibly generous, 85 for A- and 75 for B. Also because he tells you the exact sections covered for each quiz and midterm, which aren't that hard to begin with. Overall, if you want an easy 246 professor take him. If you want a deep understanding of the content without having to teach yourself, take someone else.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/15/2023	Grillakis is a terrible lecturer but his class is quite easy, which is the only thing saving him from a 1 star. His curve is very generous, with a 55 counting as a C-. Each grade tier is 5 points instead of the normal 3.33. To add to this, he drops your 2 lowest scoring quizzes out of 7 total, along with your lowest scoring exam out of 3 total. There are also 5 short MATLAB projects. I was able to cruise through most of the class by getting an A+ on the first exam and most of the quizzes. I suspect some of this generosity may exist as a way to make up for his incompetence at lecturing. By the end of the semester most people had stopped attending lectures, myself included in the last couple of weeks. He doesn't really teach, instead he goes through the material on his own and then stares blankly at the students. Sometimes it appears he doesn't know the material himself, as he's not very confident in his calculations. There are extensive online resources available from other professors though, and I used those to learn nearly everything I had to in this class. If you want an easy class take Grillakis. If you want to learn from the professor and not on your own take someone else.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/29/2023	Grillakas is a very nice person and is obviously very smart, but the way he teaches is pretty confusing. He spends a lot of time proving theorems and a lot of his examples are not numerical, which can be pretty confusing. Also, the textbook for the class of just some other professor’s notes, which aren’t helpful at all. Even though he’s not the best lecturer, I think his other reviews are pretty harsh. Overall, even though he’s not the greatest professor, you should be fine in the class if you think you can teach yourself some of the material.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/17/2023	Sure the exams are easy, but please never take this professor. It’s honestly baffling to me how he got this job. He obviously knows what he’s doing, but also doesn’t know how to teach. If I could give 0 stars I would.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/11/2023	He's a bad lecturer. LITERALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND 99% OF WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT. I didn't give him a one-star because of three reasons. His exams and his quizzes are fair meaning that they arn't rediculous. Also, he he curves to where you need a 55% to get a C- and an 85 for an A-. He also is willing to answer questions during lecture and answer emails, though it may take a few days. You can self teach yourself through professor leonard, JG, and other helpful YouTube content creators for diff Eqs.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 03/02/2023	He was a terrible professor. His lectures were straight from the textbook and were dense and very hard to understand and he would get upset if you asked clarifying questions or didn't know how to answer his questions during lecture. By the end of the semester only 10 people in my 200 person lecture were regularly showing up. I learned more from other professors' lectures that they posted online than him. The problem is diff eq is super important for many other classes and I've had to relearn/learn a lot of new concepts because I never really got a good understanding of them from Grillakis.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2022	Certainly not the greatest professor I have had but I found him to be better than what most of these other reviewers described. First of all he is very generous with his curve with 85% being an A-, 70% being a B- and 55% being a C- on top of dropping 1/8 HW’s and 1/3 exams. The exams were not crazy difficult with a lot of problems being very similar to either the hw or the (ungraded quizzes he gives out). The final was extremely easy too in comparison to the exams. His lectures are definitely the worst part however. His handwriting is good and his accent is pretty mild in my opinion but he tends to go on tangents and can be pretty confusing. For the homework I felt I had to teach myself from the book and learn from online resources often as I had not learned from class. It’s definitely a doable class though and if you put in a reasonable amount of time then you should be able to get a decent grade with the aforementioned curving.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/25/2021	Not a great professor. Lectures were barely relevant to the homework and he put way to much time into topics that never were covered in exams. ELMS was horribly managed, with Grillakis just uploading notes and writing down what was talked about in class on the front page. Exams aren't bad and the grading scale is generous, but that doesn't make up for how miserable your experience will be with this guy.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/19/2021	The only reason I am expecting the grade I am is because I thought the exam material was easier than everything he did in class. If you are very capable of teaching yourself all of the content required, then I would recommend this class because of the relatively easy exams. If you require your professor to put any ounce of effort into the class (which is entirely reasonable and shouldn't be too much to ask for), do your best to find someone else. This man did not care about our class at all. Any communication that he had with us would be a maximum of 5 one syllable words. The review that he gave to us and posted for the final exam was just a compilation of all of the non-graded homeworks that he had already given us throughout the class, and they didn't even have any answers attached to them. He read word for word from someone else's notes for the entire class and called it teaching. Some reviews say he didn't go over any examples, which I would have to disagree with. He did go over examples, they were just rarely helpful. I went to every single lecture and consider it a huge waste of time. I never walked out of the lecture understanding anything that he went over. There are plenty of online resources that you can use, so if you think you can teach yourself all of the content, then I would recommend this class.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2021	Absolutely avoid for diffy q. Lectures are completely pointless as he speaks quietly and doesn't go over a single example problem. Doesn't help at all when the course is already very theoretical. By October lecture attendance was about 25% of the start of the semester. Exams and quizzes vary so much where some are extremely easy and some are extremely difficult. It basically comes down to how well you can teach yourself the material. Textbook (online notes) is very hard to read so I would recommend using Justin's notes. Only problem is that not all of the course is covered in Justin's notes. They usually suffice but sometimes you'll have to bite the bullet and read the online notes. Overall Grillakis did the bare minimum throughout the entire sem. ELMS was hardly ever up to date (syllabus said exams 1 2 3 would cover "??"), grades took months to get posted, a complete mess. I believe Fall 2021 was Grillakis' first time teaching 246 because he had no reviews or grade data at the start of the semester but he certainly fumbled on this one. Absolutely avoid.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2021	Don't consider Grill for 246. His lectures are absolutely pointless to go to, as he spends the entire class deriving formulas and barely goes over any actual examples. Difficulty on exams and quizzes ranges from stupid easy to stupid difficult and you never know what you're gonna get. Doing well in this class was pretty much entirely based off of how well you can teach yourself the concepts. The Matlabs are also insanely difficult with neither the professor nor the TAs offering much help or guidance with them. The only redeeming thing about the class was the generous grading scale, where a 55 is a C-, a 75 is a B, and an 85 is an A-, but with the difficulty of this class, you'll probably find it saving your grade more than it allowing you to get an easy A.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Anonymous 12/15/2021	Terrible professor. Exams are nothing like what is taught in the class. Watched 10 minutes of Alice Wang's review and learned more than Grillakis teaches in 2 months.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2021	The professor is a nice guy but I recommend finding another professor if your going to take this class. The exams are easy(they are mostly similar to what you will see in the homework) but he just reads off from the online notes(which is our textbook) in lecture and to be honest I think I have learned more from the TA.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Anonymous 12/09/2021	Truly do not understand any positive review here. DiffEQ is supposed to be an easier math class. This man does not teach you ANYTHING. No examples, no guidance, matlab projects are irrelevant and unnecessarily difficult, TA's do not teach nor do they even have a fucking clock in their classrooms. By the end of September, half of the people still attend the lectures. By the end of October, 10% do. He will finish talking about (not teaching) the material for your next exam by the time you are taking the current one. Too bad Justin isn't teaching this class. His notes are helpful but do not align with Levermore's shitty textbook. Levermore's textbook is what you will be using and it is too convoluted and is written in a demeanor that feels like this mans was trying too hard to make it "difficult." This class should be taught in a straight-to-the-point fashion. Instead, you are left to teach yourself shit that you won't end up understanding. Exam 1 and 2 are awful but Exam 3 is fucking terrible. We took exam 2 right before thanksgiving break and exam 3 the week that we got back. I fucking hate teachers that coast their ways to a decent salary. A good teacher should try their best so that their students succeed. All of us come from rigorous majors and know how to tackle difficult courseloads... but everyone in this class, except for the 10 kids who are either retaking this class or have no social life, is struggling. Don't fucking tell me that I should have studied more because, like everyone else, I know how to fucking apply myself. I am extremely disappointed with the way this class was "taught." Take this class at Montgomery College if you want to survive.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/03/2021	Avoid at all costs for diffeq. Does not do a single numerical example all year. Exclusively does symbolic examples. TA's and prof are never on same page. Lectures are useless and you'll just end up teaching yourself everything. Also the matlab assignments have 0 guidance or relevancy to the material all year.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/20/2021	His lectures are somewhat hard to follow, I ended up watching Justin's videos and reading the textbook, but the exams were fair and graded somewhat easy
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2020	Personally, I learned absolutely nothing from his lectures. He added in a lot of extra physics applications that were irrelavant. I never paid attention in class, I just watched Justin's youtube videos to learn the material and then used the practice problems from my TA to study. However, he is a pretty easy grader and I still got very high grades in the class so depending on your style it may be worth it.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A umdstudent420 12/16/2020	Very fair grader, but his lectures are useless unless you are math major as they are very theory heavy and more complicated than they need to be.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/27/2019	Terrible lecturer. He knows what he's talking about but he keeps everything way too theoretical. By the end of the semester, only around 10% of the class was going to lecture. The only saving grace was that the exams weren't too hard
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2019	Lectures can be a bit hard to follow, but class is easy. No required attendance or quizzes. 3 exams during semester, lowest of which is dropped. Exams are very easy
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/15/2019	This guy is a terrible prof. I took an intro level linear algebra in high school and enjoyed it greatly but i was unable to get credit for it because it wasn't ap. Then i took math461 expecting to further my knowledge on a topic i already enjoyed. I start the semester going to every lecture but it soon became apparent there was nothing to be learned from this man. I now skip every lecture relying completely on teaching myself. Admittedly the tests aren't hard and the hw is very easy, but don't expect to learn much.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2018	Not a great lecturer; talks really quietly into the board as he writes in his (truly impeccable) handwriting. He also is not good at communicating information effectively to the class. Probably the only good thing about his teaching is that he is somewhat helpful in office hours. Even so, he merely tells you the answer. He seems pretty uninterested in actually helping students get a deep understanding of the material. His exams are hard, not completely reflective of homeworks, and he is stingy with partial credit. He also maintained almost no contact with his grader, who sucked - didn't finish grading the last 2 homeworks before the last midterm or the final.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/15/2018	guys bruh like I literally got a 29% on his exam bruh, the class average was literally 48%, I left like 3 questions blank basically. Good news is the class is curved like Messi curves his freekicks so it'll bring my absolute poop grade to passing. Man is a nice and responsive guy but does not teach in his lectures.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Anonymous 12/13/2018	the guy's smart, but his lectures are way too theoretical and boring. i mean yeah linear algebra is pretty conceptually based, but his lectures were so boring and counter intuitive. like the first thing we should learn is how to RREF, but one the first day he basically just did RREF examples without even explaining what the hell was going on. honestly one of the worst lecturers for a MATH240 equivalent, seems much better at teaching real math400s his grading is the nicest part, and there was extra credit as well. but as of now, the averages for the tests were high 60s, and then one below a 50%. he literally put a problem that was from the next chapter on one of his tests, and even with the generous grading the class should still be technically curved, considering that if you got the average on every test you'd have a 60% in the class, which is barely passing by most standards(C-). take this class if you're willing to really learn on your own and get a really good grasp of linear algebra. otherwise,go take 240 and have better professors actually teach you how to do most of the crap.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/13/2018	Very poor instructor, does not explain what he is doing when teaching a new subject. Tests are very difficult with many true false questions in which you have to prove why it is true or false. He will teach out of order from the text book and will be teaching many sections ahead of what is relevant for an upcoming exam. I highly recommend choosing another instructor.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2018	Grillakis gets a lot of average reviews because he gives easy tests and a nice curve. However, if you want to actually learn something, and you're not in the top 1-2% of students who pick up material instantly, then expect to do a lot of work yourself. For MATH461, he teaches in the largest lecture hall in the Armory, without a microphone, and speaks at barely above a whisper. For comparison, there's some guy who sits in the fifth row or so who always eats takeout during class and his chewing and burping is louder than Grillakis's lecturing. Furthermore, Grillakis is unclear about what material he teaches simply because it's cool to know and the material he expects us to know for exams. His lectures seem like he's just rambling and he does not indicate clearly when switching between topics. He also does very few practice problems. Although some of the TAs are actually very good, Grillakis does not communicate well with the TAs about what material is being covered in lecture and what might be on the test. We also were not provided with sample or practice exams. It's impossible to know the difficulty, length, and even what concepts will be tested on the exams. Like another review said, the grades are only based on three midterms (lowest gets dropped) and the final. Later in the semester, he informed us there would be MATLAB assignments for extra credit. If you want to learn the material on your own and get a pretty easy A, take Grillakis. Otherwise, avoid Grillakis for MATH461.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Anonymous 11/21/2018	Grillakis uses the textbook heavily, so if you read that you should be fine. He is very generous in his grading, offers extra credit assignments, and drops your lowest exam grade. Not a fantastic lecturer, as lectures can be dry and uninteresting. Overall though, he is a decent professor and I would take him again.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH461 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 09/11/2018	The worst professor I’ve had at this school, and that’s saying a lot because most professors here have been really bad. He comes to class without a mic in a large lecture hallway in the armory, practically whispers, writes illegibly on the board, and seems to directly take definitions from the book and write them down without a single example. Really bad.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/29/2018	Grillakis uses the textbook so everything you need to learn in 410 is in the book. His class is droll but informative and he is very understanding about sickness and family matters.
Manoussos Grillakis Expecting an A justforreviews 07/25/2015	I took Grillakis' class when Justin's filled up and Margetis' class could not fit with my schedule. I was a bit weary about his class because he had a good grade distribution but very average ratings, which is a sign of grade curving. When I first sat through Grillakis' lecture, I immediately noticed that he was a peculiar small man with extremely neat handwriting. Grillakis speaks very softly into the mic, half the time I thought it was off the whole time, so make sure to sit close to the front. The beginning of the class is fairly easy, Grillakis breezes through the lectures without confusing many people and the first exam is super easy. However, as the class progresses, the material gets tougher and his explanations get vague. A lot of people stopped showing up to class and instead relied on the books and their TA's, and I did this a few times because his lectures got so boring and I didn't really understand what he was saying.The bright side about attending lecture is that he takes beautiful notes, the bad part is that he goes too fast with several jumps and hardly EVER provides examples. I recall once someone asking him to do a Stokes theorem problem and he straight out refused, we were all pretty shocked since this was one of the harder topics of the class. In terms of grading and his exams, he dropped the lowest out of four exams and dropped the lowest 3 quizzes out of eight. I realized there wasn't much curving, his grading system allowed for A's and B's. His exams have straightforward problems, but can be very physics related (which I didn't like much compared to others). Grillakis also does not wait to start lecture, he arrives to the room at least 10 mins early and once he cleans the board he looks around awkwardly and begins his lecture. This was difficult for people because if you are exactly on time, chances are he already started. Another thing is that he doesn't really follow the chapters of the book, for the last half of the class I was very confused with what chapter we were on but as long as you follow his topics and match them with the ones on the book, you should be okay. In short, his class required a bit of work. I got high B's on the exams and aced all the quizzes, and that allowed me to get an A. It is not impossible to get an A but you might have to work for it by going to office hours and going to discussion. My TA was Nick Thieme and he was great!
Manoussos Grillakis MATH340 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/24/2015	I found Prof. Grillakis to be quite good for MATH340. His handwriting is incredibly neat, and in a small classroom his accent and volume is not an issue (I can't speak for the larger classes like MATH241). He tends to go quite fast through the notes, and sometimes it can be a tad difficult to follow, but he's very clear in office hours if you have any questions. There are 8 HWK assignments but he drops the lowest score, and his grader was pretty fair. They can be pretty long, though. There are two tests and a final, with your lower score counting for only a half test grade. Overall the tests are not bad, and cover what was covered in class. There are even some hints sprinkled in on some questions. He sends out reviews of notes and problems before tests, which are also in his impeccable handwriting (seriously, it's ridiculously neat). Overall he may not be great at lecturing, but I think he deserves five stars for his helpfulness in office hours, fairness of assignments, and the fact that in smaller settings the issues people had below (volume, accent, etc) are not really issues. I would gladly take another course with him.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH340 Expecting an A+ Jack4112 03/13/2015	Grillakis is one of the nicest professors I have ever had. He is extremely smart and can answer any complicated questions within matters of seconds. I would definitely recommend taking Grillakis for any math courses.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH340 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/21/2015	One of the best professors in UMD. Extremely nice in officer hours. Has the highest average for almost any courses.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH340 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/09/2015	Grillakis is a wonderful professor. His lectures can be a little bit dry, but he knows the material front and back. We actually finished the material in mid-November, and spent the rest of the time going over applications to physics (his math area). His office hours are among the bast I've seen. He'll help you with anything, explain anything, with hardly a second's hesitation. He posts a good deal of notes and practice problems through ELMS. The homework is relatively tough, however he drops the lowest score of the 8. Tests are uncurved, however he counts the lower score for half (60 pts versus 120, etc). The grading system is fair - he apparently gets good TA's. Mine at least was a really nice guy who graded very fairly. In short, if you are the student who wants to take 340, he's the professor you want. 340 is theoretical, and so is he. It can be tough at times, because he doesn't always explain practically, but if theory is not too daunting, his class is amazing.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2013	Poor lecturer. Barely a curve. nice guy. hard exams no more cheat sheets given. find another professor
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting a B+ parade 12/22/2013	Very poor lecturer, I still go to lectures but I feel like there was no point going in the first place. I absorb very little information from his lectures. His notes are very unclear as well. I ended up going to D. Margetis's lectures instead, however Grillakis's test are EXTREMELY fair, he sends out a review before each test, and if you understand the review you should be able to get a good grade on test. He is lenient and easily awards you back points if you feel like you were graded harshly.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/21/2013	He seemed very nice, but as mentioned before his lecturing was not great. He did focus on theory, but often gave examples. I still found them helpful and he did try to help his students succeed. My TA was great and reexplained certain topics. His exams were for the most part relatively simple and fair. He curved the grades at the end.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A cheesecake 12/15/2013	Very nice teacher, but a pretty poor lecturer. I learned very little and ended up going to Margetis's lectures because I didn't have class during Margetis lectures. Grillakis is a very cool dude and will give points back on your tests if you think TAs gave too little partial credit.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2013	Terrible, terrible, terrible lecturer. Not worth going to lecture if you have him. If you can't teach yourself the material or if you do not have good friends that can teach you, you are sunk. He is a really cool guy, and is pretty approachable, but he cannot teach..period. Now, his handwriting is neat, so his drawings are always clear, but even with that you can't follow him at all. He will say "Is it clear what I did here" a good thousand times a semester, even though it is evident a handful of people have any idea what he did. Do yourself a huge favor and waitlist Justin, even if 40 people are ahead of you.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Anonymous 05/10/2013	DO NOT TAKE GRILLAKIS!!! He is a very nice person who wants to help you out, but he is probably one of the worst lecturers that you will come across at this University. He focusses way too much on the theoretical side and the stuff that is not important. He also focuses on teaching the concepts rather than doing examples. He will also make you fall asleep with his monotone voice. On a positive note, Tests are very fair and pretty easy. He is also VERY generous with regrades. In fact, this semester, he only gave out 550 points tests (4-100 point midterms, lowest counts for 50% and a 200 point final) and matlabs. This kind of sucks because there are no HW or quizzes to buffer your grade. The thing with Calc III is that it is pretty much easy to teach yourself all of the material. I guarentee you, IT IS NOT WORTH COMING TO CLASS IF YOU HAVE GRILLAKIS!!! It will just be a waste of your time. Try to get a good TA, or be prepared to teach yourself the material.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH340 Anonymous 04/21/2013	Make sure to pay attention. It'll be hard because his accent is kind of rough, and he speaks relatively quietly. However, he has incredibly neat handwriting and very nice diagrams. However, since this is multi-var calculus, it can be just gibberish if you copy down with no context. His graders were kind of harsh so make sure not to make careless mistakes. His tests were very fair, and he drops the lowest one too! Make sure to do the homework and not procrastinate. The weekly homework assignments can become huge, but they'll help with tests. I regret not trying hard enough on the homework since it would have helped me prevent harsh deductions from my test grades from simple mistakes.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting a B grumble 03/07/2013	Grillakis is a professor who really knows his stuff and thinks that you should be just the same. He'll often charge through problems in a satisfactory manner BUT ONLY IF YOU CAN KEEP UP. He doesn't always explain his steps and goes through his explanations very methodically but that's not a bad thing for everyone. Keep in mind that he's also kinda boring. Personally, I almost never understand a thing he says in lectures and I usually just wait until the discussion section the next day to learn. I had Maxx Cho as a TA and you really had to be an idiot not to understand the material he teaches. Overall, the class itself isn't too difficult. There's a lot less material than there was for MATH141. No HW, no quizzes, 4 (or 5) Matlab assignments, and a couple exams.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH340 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/01/2013	While I found Grillakis's lectures to be a bit boring, I was always impressed with how well he know his stuff. The moment anyone asked a question, even a difficult one, he always knew where they were going and could answer it satisfactorily. In general, his tests were pretty fair. Most had only two or three questions, with several parts each. Each part of a question built up to some sort of conclusion ("What can you draw from this?", something like that), which made the questions a bit easier. As long as you could figure out a few of the parts, you could often fill in the blanks for the rest. His general policy for the course was to drop one of our five tests. However, after accidentally putting content from Chapter 6 on our Chapter 5 test, he quickly agreed to drop that one as well (and actually seemed to feel bad). Grillakis seems like the type of professor that actually wants all of his students to succeed, and is very willing to do his best to make sure that happens.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH411 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/23/2012	Grillakis is a well-dressed man who knows this class in and out. Lectures are spent proving theorems, often differently from how the book does it, which can be helpful. Grades are the average of your homework grade (lowest of 7 dropped), your midterm average (lowest of 3 dropped), and your final exam score. Homework is often either plug-n-chug application or intense proof that you may need to go to office hours for help on. However, there is at least a week and a half between due dates, so you always have enough time to complete the assignments. Exams are basically a practical application of the material you learn. He does not put dense proofs on exams, but rather he tests your basic and superficial understanding of the techniques you learn in class. Exams can be tricky, but they are very doable and very much test your understanding of the material. Just as was said in the review below, this class is essentially a multi-dimensional extension of 410. Some of the concepts are very arcane and difficult to grasp (example, proving Stokes Theorum and boundary proofs with Jordan Contents), but Grillakis is great at explaining these concepts.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH140 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/30/2012	He's an OK professor overall. My semester was the first that he taught 140. His lectures definitely aren't a thrill, but they are worth attending. Based on my friends who took other professors for this course, Grillakis is definitely one of the fairer ones in terms of the makeup of exams and the scheduling of WebAssigns. He's also a very nice and understanding guy. PS: I found the reviews given by other professors before exams to be very helpful for studying.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH462 Expecting an A+ zhangsta 09/04/2011	He has the neatest handwriting in the world and his lectures are very organized. He explains concepts fairly clearly. Homeworks typically took a long time to finish, and quizzes were usually relatively simple compared to the homework. However, his final was much harder than anything we had done for homework or quizzes so you really have to know your stuff for the final.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2011	This professor has some of the neatest chalkboard handwriting I have ever seen. This really help when taking notes and drawing 3D diagrams. He is a good professor even if he does talk in monotone most of the time. He is very kind and is very approachable if you have a concern about your exams. He allows one page of notes on the exams (except the final). The matlab assignments are incredibly easy as it is mostly just copying and pasting what they give you. However some symbols don't copy over correctly and might throw an error if you don't catch them. Overall he is a very fair professor and would recommend him. He not the best professor I have seen but he is a pretty good one.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting a C SirSlacksALot 05/10/2011	Lectures honestly put me to sleep. He wasn't engaging in the material, which made it cumbersome. However, he makes up for this with his grading policy. He drops your lowest of the four exams, and we had eight quizzes and he dropped the lowest three. Homework is graded on completion. A flaw in his style is that he allows one page of notes for every exam, but not on the final. So if you train yourself to rely on the notes, your setting yourself up to fail. Average Professor, student-oriented grading system.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A Kevin Garcia 04/25/2011	Compared to most of the math professors at UMD (excluding Justin, of course), he's great. He's clear, concise, and relays the information in the book well. He doesn't just recite the text verbatim. He has very good handwriting, making the 3-d concepts easier to understand. Has a slight accent, but doesn't get in the way. He does tend to be a bit monotone and he likes to start every lecture with, "Let me remind you..." For the exams (excluding the final), he allows you one page of notes for reference. If you have a good TA, there's no way you'll less than ace every exam. He's extremely friendly and very laid-back when it comes to grading and his approach to teaching. I chose him as my faculty adviser this semester, and he helped me greatly. If Justin is unavailable, take 241 with Grillakis.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2010	Great class, great professor, easy A. He drops the lowest 2 of the 12 quizzes, and the lowest 1 test of the 4 chapter tests. He also curves this class, which makes it very easy to get an A. His TA's aren't helpful at all, however, the homework is mainly graded on completion and if you have a nice TA this should be a guaranteed 100 points. The first three tests are easy, but the last test is very hard, so if you need this grade you may want to study for the last test. The final is okay, but luckily I needed around a 60% to get an A in the class, so no worries.
Manoussos Grillakis Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2010	Professor Grillakis is a really nice guy but for my calculus 1 class he wasn't very effective. I had trouble understanding what he was telling us because, as a calc one student, I had very limited knowledge of calculus. He's obviously brilliant but his teaching style wasn't ideal for students who were just learning fundamentals of calculus. His exams and quizzes were unpredictable but he did drop one of three exam and two of twelve quizzes. He taught us much differently than other 140 classes so when it came to the uniform 140 final, our entire class was lost.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A mreese 12/15/2010	Grillakis is a very nice guy, but not a particularly engaging or effective teacher. I went to every lecture hoping that for once, I wouldn't have to pull out my textbook and start taking notes on my own. Unfortunately, he never failed to nearly put me to sleep, and I would sit in class reading about whatever topic he was making unnecessarily complicated. Everything I learned was from my TA or from the book. Other than that, the quizzes and tests were very fair, as was his grading policy.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2010	He seemed like he knew what he was doing, the tests and homeworks were pretty standard, but he was really boring. He talks kind of softly into the board, and pretty much writes everything he says down (which is also all in the book). There was nothing particularly terrible about his class, but it was hard to pay attention for the whole 50 minutes, especially when the proofs were complicated.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH411 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/29/2010	Grillakis is an effective professor (not great, but definitely a competent teacher). He will answer your questions directly when asked, and his proofs are generally easy to follow, though there are exceptions (not that this is his fault, as some of material is simply a bit complex to get in one go during lecture). His tests were well written - they were definitely short enough to be completed in an hour, but the questions were thorough in covering the content being tested. Also, the questions ranged in difficulty, so the exams weren't devilishly hard or too easy (though the exams certainly seemed easy when I was taking them, because I wasn't paying enough attention to some of the subtleties of some questions). Also, importantly, Grillakis was very responsive to student concerns about the shifting homework schedule after the week of snow, and the work load was never impossibly heavy. MATH411 isn't too bad, basically an extension of 410 into multiple dimensions. You can pretty much expect to do as well in 411 as you did in 410.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Anonymous 12/01/2009	There is no way this guy is a 5 star professor. He is an average math professor, not the best, not the worst, just average. I learned little to nothing in the lectures I stayed awake in...I learned most of the material on my own. There is a quiz every week in discussion which usually isn't too bad. The exams have been mostly fair...just do the suggested homework problems on the syllabus.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/02/2009	suggested hw only. easy quizes. drops lowest test. tests are fair but might be long. look for simplification tricks. classes are all proofs with abstract examples. some number examples would help a lot but that's done in recitation so you really can't ask for anything more from him. he's a good prof with a well run class.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH141 Expecting an A gundamwing4132 05/01/2008	Exams and hw were fair. Slightly heavy accent but very helpful teaching sytle.
Manoussos Grillakis MATH411 Expecting an A almostdone 12/05/2007	I went into this class a little worried because of its reputation as one of the hardest at UMD. But Dr. Grillakis made this class both fun and simple. There is homework every week and 3 tests. The homework can be challenging sometimes but Dr. Grillakis is very helpful and alot of students go to him weekly for help. He also was very clear for what we had to know for tests. Overall if you found 410 easy, 411 with Grillakis is just a little bit harder but it is definitely not hard to get an A.