Steve Halperin | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 01/23/2024	I agree with the review below, but I would give more stars to Professor Halperin himself -- he's great, and it was truly an honor to have him as a teacher in one of his last semesters at UMD before retirement. His class is well paced and doable if you go to office hours. The perk of taking 310 with him is that it's the only class he is teaching, so his office hours are very accessible. The course material is also accessible through the text that he wrote himself. However, I think I speak for most students when I say I am not a fan of Laurel, who was the grader for this class. She took off an unnecessary amount of homework points that were unreasonable, because when students and I went to office hours, even Dr. Halperin said himself that our proofs were correct. Thank goodness the professor graded the exams.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2023	This class was the easiest course I've ever taken at UMD. Exam questions were taken from the textbook, so as long as you prepared for it, you would get high grades. The grading scheme was generous too. However, his teaching style was hard to follow and understand what he was explaining in the lectures.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/12/2023	It's not often that a professor is THIS middle-of-the-road. He was fine. Not too easy, not too hard, not too fast, not too slow, etc etc. He was acceptable but not exceptional on almost every axis. The main two exceptions were that he was super available in terms of office hours, and the homework grader we got was really bad (hopefully that was just this semester). Plus, all the test questions come from the textbook, which is nice (though maybe not quite as nice as it initially seems). Would recommend, but not strongly.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 01/12/2023	Professor Halperin is an extremely nice guy who cares about his students. The class at first is hard to understand but over time it gets better. Every exam is from the textbook which is really nice. In class it is sometimes hard to understand what is going on. Many people skip class and you can but I recommend you go since many times he goes over hw answers.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2023	Took this class with Kate first and I can tell you its night and day, kate's class will make you put in at least 30 hours each week whereas for this class you really only need to put 5 hours a week
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2023	Easy professor, take this class with him for no struggling.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/03/2023	Easy ass professor.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2023	Homework is the same problems as the exams, IDENTICAL. He even offers extra credit on each exam by dropping a question and making it extra credit.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/03/2023	This class is so easy with him, free A. Exams are literally the homework.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 12/15/2022	Like others have said, exam questions are directly from the homeworks (so you should definitely do them) but his lectures can sometimes be very confusing. He is always available in his office though to go over hw problems and concepts from class.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/16/2022	Great professor to take for a pretty terrible grade distribution of a class. His tests are LITERALLY the same questions as the homework so there should be no reason why you should not get a 100% if not better on each exam(there is extra credit in each exam). This class is mostly self learning the techniques of proofing so if you want a free A and also a pretty decent understanding of mathematical proofing, this is your guy.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2017	Pretty mediocre professor. He doesn't have much respect for his students, the textbook he wrote is convoluted and any issues that come up out of the student's control is the student's fault.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 12/18/2015	In short, he is a great professor. The class is definitely challenging, but he makes it as fair as possible by drawing exam questions only from previous homeworks. He's always willing to answer questions, even if it's the answer to an upcoming homework problem. Definitely go to office hours and have lots of questions. His lectures themselves are not that useful, but really that's because proofs is something I think you just have to learn through practice.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Expecting an A cblumenf 11/05/2014	310 is a difficult course to teach since it's different than any other Math course students have taken. He teaches by doing examples, which isn't always a lot of help, but he makes up for it by answering any questions during class or office hours. The test questions are all taken from the homeworks and the tests are graded on a curve which makes them manageable/easy.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 05/15/2013	His teaching is not nearly as bad as the other reviews make it seem. I think it's just that the content can be difficult to grasp if you aren't used to writing proofs. If you spend a lot of time and make sure to fully understand what he is saying, the exams are not awful and his grading is very generous. He teaches through doing rather than by example, which can be very, very frustrating at first when nothing makes sense, but eventually you'll get the hang of it. I learned a lot in his class!
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 04/24/2013	His teaching style is horrible. His method of instructing is by telling the class to try as many problems as possible without actually teaching them how to prove anything. At one point, all of us failed an assignment and verbatim, he stated that "[he] deduced that it was entirely [our] fault." At one point he was asked to solve one of our test problems on the blackboard and he was unable to do it. I used to be a math major, but I dropped it because of this class. Nice guy, but avoid him at all costs.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 01/31/2013	Halperin made efforts to be friendly to students, but was a horrendous teacher. Never in my career as an undergraduate have I such a terrible learning experience. When presented with problems from the exam, he was unable to solve some of then. Yet, on this same exam, he claimed that it was OUR fault for not learning the material- yet every single person failed this same test. Avoid Steven Halperin at all costs.
Steve Halperin MATH310 Anonymous 12/17/2012	This class was an absolute train-wreck. Steve Halperin is a cool guy, but his ability to teach and prepare you for his tests is more or less like giving students butter knives when there is a gun fight. Absolutely horrible teaching ability + his cryptic book makes 310 an absolute atrocity of a class. And this is not from some one who is bitter... I actually scored really high on all the homeworks and midterms; this was just a high stress class that makes you go insane at times.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
01/23/2024

I agree with the review below, but I would give more stars to Professor Halperin himself -- he's great, and it was truly an honor to have him as a teacher in one of his last semesters at UMD before retirement. His class is well paced and doable if you go to office hours. The perk of taking 310 with him is that it's the only class he is teaching, so his office hours are very accessible. The course material is also accessible through the text that he wrote himself. However, I think I speak for most students when I say I am not a fan of Laurel, who was the grader for this class. She took off an unnecessary amount of homework points that were unreasonable, because when students and I went to office hours, even Dr. Halperin said himself that our proofs were correct. Thank goodness the professor graded the exams.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2023

This class was the easiest course I've ever taken at UMD. Exam questions were taken from the textbook, so as long as you prepared for it, you would get high grades. The grading scheme was generous too. However, his teaching style was hard to follow and understand what he was explaining in the lectures.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/12/2023

It's not often that a professor is THIS middle-of-the-road. He was *fine*. Not too easy, not too hard, not too fast, not too slow, etc etc. He was acceptable but not exceptional on almost every axis. The main two exceptions were that he was super available in terms of office hours, and the homework grader we got was really bad (hopefully that was just this semester). Plus, all the test questions come from the textbook, which is nice (though maybe not quite as nice as it initially seems). Would recommend, but not strongly.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
01/12/2023

Professor Halperin is an extremely nice guy who cares about his students. The class at first is hard to understand but over time it gets better. Every exam is from the textbook which is really nice. In class it is sometimes hard to understand what is going on. Many people skip class and you can but I recommend you go since many times he goes over hw answers.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/03/2023

Took this class with Kate first and I can tell you its night and day, kate's class will make you put in at least 30 hours each week whereas for this class you really only need to put 5 hours a week

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/03/2023

Easy professor, take this class with him for no struggling.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/03/2023

Easy ass professor.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/03/2023

Homework is the same problems as the exams, IDENTICAL. He even offers extra credit on each exam by dropping a question and making it extra credit.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/03/2023

This class is so easy with him, free A. Exams are literally the homework.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
12/15/2022

Like others have said, exam questions are directly from the homeworks (so you should definitely do them) but his lectures can sometimes be very confusing. He is always available in his office though to go over hw problems and concepts from class.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/16/2022

Great professor to take for a pretty terrible grade distribution of a class. His tests are LITERALLY the same questions as the homework so there should be no reason why you should not get a 100% if not better on each exam(there is extra credit in each exam). This class is mostly self learning the techniques of proofing so if you want a free A and also a pretty decent understanding of mathematical proofing, this is your guy.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2017

Pretty mediocre professor. He doesn't have much respect for his students, the textbook he wrote is convoluted and any issues that come up out of the student's control is the student's fault.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
12/18/2015

In short, he is a great professor. The class is definitely challenging, but he makes it as fair as possible by drawing exam questions only from previous homeworks. He's always willing to answer questions, even if it's the answer to an upcoming homework problem. Definitely go to office hours and have lots of questions. His lectures themselves are not that useful, but really that's because proofs is something I think you just have to learn through practice.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Expecting an A
cblumenf
11/05/2014

310 is a difficult course to teach since it's different than any other Math course students have taken. He teaches by doing examples, which isn't always a lot of help, but he makes up for it by answering any questions during class or office hours. The test questions are all taken from the homeworks and the tests are graded on a curve which makes them manageable/easy.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
05/15/2013

His teaching is not nearly as bad as the other reviews make it seem. I think it's just that the content can be difficult to grasp if you aren't used to writing proofs. If you spend a lot of time and make sure to fully understand what he is saying, the exams are not awful and his grading is very generous. He teaches through doing rather than by example, which can be very, very frustrating at first when nothing makes sense, but eventually you'll get the hang of it. I learned a lot in his class!

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
04/24/2013

His teaching style is horrible. His method of instructing is by telling the class to try as many problems as possible without actually teaching them how to prove anything. At one point, all of us failed an assignment and verbatim, he stated that "[he] deduced that it was entirely [our] fault." At one point he was asked to solve one of our test problems on the blackboard and he was unable to do it. I used to be a math major, but I dropped it because of this class. Nice guy, but avoid him at all costs.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
01/31/2013

Halperin made efforts to be friendly to students, but was a horrendous teacher. Never in my career as an undergraduate have I such a terrible learning experience. When presented with problems from the exam, he was unable to solve some of then. Yet, on this same exam, he claimed that it was OUR fault for not learning the material- yet every single person failed this same test. Avoid Steven Halperin at all costs.

Steve Halperin
MATH310

Anonymous
12/17/2012

This class was an absolute train-wreck. Steve Halperin is a cool guy, but his ability to teach and prepare you for his tests is more or less like giving students butter knives when there is a gun fight. Absolutely horrible teaching ability + his cryptic book makes 310 an absolute atrocity of a class. And this is not from some one who is bitter... I actually scored really high on all the homeworks and midterms; this was just a high stress class that makes you go insane at times.