David Hamilton

This professor has taught: MATH140, MATH141, MATH141H, MATH241, MATH241H, MATH246, MATH410, MATH411, MATH462, MATH463, MATH660, SURV410

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David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/04/2023	worst professor ive ever had. 1 midterm only. sucks that this semester we dont even get a TA to teach us. useless lectures useless notes. only saving grace might be that he drops the midterm if u do better on the final. do not do not take him unless you can actually teach yourself the course
David Hamilton MATH246 CsGetDegrees 11/30/2023	If I could give a 0, I would. Alas, he gets a 1. Differential Equations is already a difficult subject to begin with, so a bad professor is just the icing on the cake when it comes to how difficult a course can be. If you aren't good with understanding the WHYs of Math, avoid at all costs. First of all, you only get one midterm in the BEGINNING of the semester. There is a make-up, but be cautious. Whatever grade you receive on that mid-term replaces your original grade, even if you did worse. He does bonus quizzes (6-7) over the course of the semester, but to be quite honest your only saving grace is doing well on the final. The good news is that because everyone does so bad, the odds of a curve is super duper high. I heavily recommend going to MATH246 GSS and researching the topics based off of the website he tells you to use. Self-teaching is the only possible way to passing this class, best of luck. I truly don't even know what grade I have in the class or what to expect at this time, I just want to pass and move on with my life at this rate.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/11/2023	Hamilton is honestly the worst professor I've ever had. I have literally never, ever struggled in a math course before. Hamilton changed that. He is so bad at explaining things and rushes through so many examples without giving students time to think. He makes students feel stupid for asking questions and is overall just awful. Half the problem is how fast he goes through examples/theorems/explaining new concepts. To someone who is learning new material, examples need to be slowed down so we can think through the problem. Instead he goes at a pace that only makes sense if you already know the material. The notes he sends ahead of schedule are awful. Often they have gaps where he solves problems, but you never know how much space each problem will take so its hard to take notes on paper. Notes are very unclear, have mistakes, or lack important info and often do an awful job of explaining the content. Honestly, I don't know if Hamilton can even improve his instruction enough for the course to be ok. I think he should just be fired. Yes, fired. I have never had a professor this bad. If he is your only choice, I think you should just wait until another semester.
David Hamilton MATH246 Anonymous 05/10/2023	He said don't come to my office hours because I don't answer private questions LOL
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/05/2023	Complicated for the sake of being complicated. When you eventually go and learn on your own I recommend Justin’s notes(though I believe not all stuff is covered and have some blind spots in topics). I will say however that the only redeeming thing is that his grading structure gives people who are able to learn sufficiently on their own get an easy A. As their is not much work at all you just have to be very prepared for the final and midterm.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/07/2023	Abominable lecturer, which he freely admits, and is no help at all to the students. Anything you learn in this course will be from self studying. In fact, it would just save you time not to come to class if you have the misfortune of getting stuck with this awful professor. 0/5.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/29/2023	Hamilton is a bad lecturer who actually confused me more than he taught me. You're much better off reading Justin's notes or watching youtube videos. Some days I feel like his lectures actually took knowledge out of my head. When our class did poorly on his exam, he blamed us for being lazy and told us that it was an easy exam. The class average was a 56 and the highest anyone got was an 84. Hamilton was also rude to us at times during lecture. Hamilton was a bad teacher who was unwilling to improve. The only reason I rate him two stars is because he was a very lenient grader, although he had to be for people to actually pass his class.
David Hamilton MATH246 Anonymous 01/27/2023	If I could put 0 stars I would. Don't take his class. His lectures consist of complicated examples instead of actually teaching the content, as if he expects students to learn the content beforehand. He uses complicated notation, doesn't stop for questions, and is not nice.
David Hamilton MATH463 Anonymous 12/17/2022	Not a bad professor but I must say that most of the time, everything he was saying was going over my head. Even if something starts to make sense, eventually, he drags it somewhere and.... that's just it...you get lost. The H.W problems are unlike most things you'll encounter in other Complex Analysis/Variables textbooks, so if you don't understand how to do those, then good luck to you. But seriously, he'll go through as many H.W. problems as he can in his weekly/bi-weekly review Zoom sessions. The exams aren't so bad and if you don't do well on the mid-term, you can always try to bring your score up by doing well on the Final (which replaces the mid-term score by taking 1/2 of the final exam's grade). One thing that is crucial for this class is to know some basic proofs, if you don't know any of them - prepare to work yourself on understanding how some things just MAKE SENSE! I highly recommend tackling this after MATH310 - but it's not impossible to get through this class without ever having gone through any proofs at all. Hamilton will try his best not to fail you if you're taking a 400-level class with him, I'm not sure if the same applies to his lower-level classes though. [PROTIP: His final exams are all available on TESTBANK, utilise them as you wish whenever the time comes - a few of the questions on the final were literally pulled from his previous ones from like 5 years ago].
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 10/13/2022	He isn’t bad at all. He just speaks to the class as if we all know exactly what he’s talking about. He is helpful and will help pass you if you put in the work by going to office hours. During office hours he breaks everything down for you. You have a 70% chance of passing his class if you show up, attend office hours, and try your best.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/06/2022	Listen. You can get through his class. But only if you know you have the motivation to put in the work to watch other people's lectures outside of class and practice. He is hard to understand, especially in a class of people just trying to pass and not necessarily looking for high level math conversations. His notation and wording is not beginner friendly. I have never attended lecture, its only necessary for the review sessions(he tells you exactly what will be on the exam). Also, the Matlab projects weren't cool: it was complex coding handed to a lot of kids with 0 zero experience and we were provided no help whatsoever. Its a rough time, if you have to take him I would make sure you have the time for it. Certainly don't do it with a high level of credits.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 01/06/2022	He is overall a good professor. He doesn't really know how to break the material down for others to understand and only explains the way he knows best. If you go in for office hours that is where you'll be able to understand everything because he breaks down the proofs even more (showing more steps). I remember there being about 3 questions on the midterms and they are kinda like hit or miss. If you get 2 questions completely right then you pass the exam. His exam reviews are helpful in a sense because it is set up just like the exams. All in all, if you pass 2 exams you basically pass the class. There is also a huge curve but I'm sure that is only if he sees that you are really trying to understand the material.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/25/2021	I'll admit Hamilton is really bad at lecturing and you will spend a great deal of time self studying. However, his grading scheme and review lectures are his saving grace. If an exam grade is higher than the previous exams grades, then all previous test grades are replaced with the higher one, this includes the final. You can go from failing the class to getting an A just from the final if you studied hard enough. His review sessions are similar to the test, just be sure to write it all down. He goes quickly and won't send out review notes. MATLAB projects are fairly difficult, but the lowest grade is dropped. Quizzes range from really easy to really difficult for some reason, but they are open note / take home and seemed to be graded mostly on completion. I recommend keeping up with the optional homework (Which comes with answers) it's how I managed to do well in the class. I would avoid Hamilton for his awful lecturing if you can, but if you get stuck with him it's not the end of the world. Grading and tests are fair and you can get by just fine with some self studying. Also he has a cool Australian accent, wears a leather jacket, and has a dry sense of humor which almost makes his lectures bearable to go to, almost.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2021	Normally I try to be nice in teacher reviews. For Hamilton, though, I feel I must make an exception. Throughout the course he was condescending and rude to students and even to colleagues. Also, his lectures were often unclear, which meant that a lot of students were stuck trying to learn diffeq entirely from the textbook (which was also largely incoherent). If you care only about getting a decent grade with minimal effort, he may be the professor for you. If you actually want to learn diffeq in an enjoyable environment, though, steer clear.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2021	Honestly, before taking the third midterm, I would have given Hamilton 1 star. He's disrespectful to students and seems to get ahead of himself while lecturing. When he goes over example problems, he chooses complex problems outside the scope of the class and skips multiple steps in his explanations (for example, he'll just look at a matrix and "guess" the eigenvalues without explaining his process). He frequently insulted people's intelligence and savagely berated a girl who came to solve a problem with the projector in front of the entire class. The only reason I'm giving him 3 stars is because the content he covers in class, and the reviews he does before exams usually follow exactly what will be on the exam and final. Usually the same types of problems with only numbers changed. I only realized this after heavily studying his review materials before midterm 3, and I got a 90.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/22/2021	From first day knew Hamilton is a wreck of a teacher. Didn't respect student concerns. Lectures skip a lot of steps. All in all he's hard to learn from. The only reason I can solve differential equations is from another teachers notes that were posted online. He does have a policy that the final can count for everything though which is blessed. Went from a 26% in the class to a B with one test.
David Hamilton SURV410 Anonymous 05/19/2021	Took his STAT410 online. Honestly he's quite good for this class. I don't like statistics but Hamilton happens to be a mathematician, so his treatment of the material was closer to my taste, making the course much more tolerable than expected. Grading was pretty lenient, had bonus quizzes to boost grades and stuff. He's not the most passionate lecturer but also not the worst - occasionally cracks jokes (dry...) and because he's very smart, I found it strangely entertaining to watch him deriving formulas while complaining about the textbook. Also from my impression, he does recognize people who regularly show up and keep up with the course. I guess he's not too bad for small classes.
David Hamilton MATH241 Anonymous 05/19/2021	As a naive freshman, I ignored all of the reviews on here before registering for David Hamilton’s MATH241 course in Fall 2019. Biggest mistake ever. On the first day, he jumped between integrals and dimensions and I was completely lost. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying and his handwriting was atrocious. His syllabus was one page and made no sense. After that class, I felt so stupid. I dropped the class immediately that night and was able to snag a spot in Justin’s class. How lucky is that. Justin’s MATH241 class was a delight. Biggest finesse of my college career.
David Hamilton MATH246 Anonymous 05/10/2021	He is the worst professor I have ever had. I learned nothing from him. If your taking his differential equations class use Justin’s notes and mathispower4u. He should be a final option if there are other teachers take them.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/10/2021	NEVER take this professor. He has awful lecture material, is extremely rude to students, and clearly has no passion or ability for teaching. I recommend you take literally any other professor, regardless of their ratings, before you take ANY course with David Hamilton. Prepare to learn diff. eq. completely on your own with no help from a professor. I am utterly shocked that this man has a single rating higher than 1 star, and he deserves less than that even.
David Hamilton MATH246 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/15/2021	Hamilton is a smart guy, however it's apparent he knows you are dumb. He will commonly disregard students questions and make snide remarks towards you if your lucky enough to get a reply. However, you could give him the benefit of the doubt that he's simply as upset about online learning as we are. Regardless he will overcomplicate new topics as they are introduced and expect you to understand it as well as he does. In the end you will pass due to his extremely low bar for grading... Means on tests for this semester were failing grades; to me that says something beyond the students being dumb or lazy.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting a C Anonymous 02/15/2021	Wow CS majors are vocal about this professor and they are not happy. They're discontented with the way Hamilton gives lectures and the whole self-teaching. I guess they were holding out hope for a good shift to online classes. There's even a petition that's garnered 10s of signatures to have the professor changed. Obviously that won't happen but it shows how unhappy they are.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/17/2020	Do not ever take this professor. Bad lectures, impossible tests, horrible hw. Do NOT take him
David Hamilton MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2020	It seems Hamilton gets better once one gets into the higher-level mathematics classes. MATH463 pertains to Hamilton's specialty, which is in complex analysis. I had extremely low expectations due to hearing bad things from other professors, though I must admit I am pleasantly surprised. Hamilton does go rather quick with lecturing on theory. This is because there is a lot to teach in the course, and he often spends time proving material, which can sometimes take more than half of the class. For a course intended to also cater to science and engineers, this can be a serious turnoff if one has never worked with a proof before. Thankfully I had some proof experience when entering the class, so I was able to follow some (but not all) of the more complicated lectures. Thankfully you also do not miss much if the proof itself goes over your head, because Hamilton will usually follow it with a worked example or clever calculation that results from it. The grading scheme for the course was quite lenient. An A was 85% (reduced to 80% after COVID), and there were no plus or minus grades. Additionally, Hamilton takes the best of your final exam grade and your class grade, which consists of five homework assignments and a midterm. The first homework took me a couple of hours to finish, whereas most of the others took five or more. Hamilton doesn't require a text for this class but does offer a suggestion for Saff, which is refreshing. Instead, he uses his own lecture notes on the material, which can be at times illuminating but often contains a lot of shorthand that doesn't make much sense unless you attend lectures. I personally recommend using Brown & Churchill's treatment, as they cover all of the topics Hamilton does in an easily digestible way. Unfortunately, the modern book is expensive, so try to get an older version on Amazon for cheap. Overall, Hamilton's not a bad choice for MATH463. The field of complex numbers is interesting and after lots of theory, Hamilton usually finds time to present applications of the math, which is nice. However, if this is your first upper-level math course or you aren't comfortable with proofs, it may be advisable to take someone else. My guess is he treats his lower-level students like he treated us, which is the reason for such low scores. That's not something one should do. You will need to supplement the lectures with your own practice from a different book if you want to do particularly well in this course. I probably did 4 problems for every homework problem assigned to me, just to ensure I had a grasp on the material.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/25/2020	I don't he's as bad as most reviews would lead you to believe. He isn't the best teacher and can definity be hard to follow. But he does go over exactly what every question on the exam will look like the lecture before the exam (so don't miss that review). It's literally the same question with different numbers. So you usually know how you'll do exam before. Also all of his quizzes and homeworks are extra credit which help a lot.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/18/2020	Hamilton is legitimately the worst professors one could ever have for a Calculus III class. He teaches very little of the material in a coherent manner, as his primary teaching style is writing formulas or diagrams on the board and expecting us to understand what he is conveying. His assignments generally consist of long MATLAB assignments that have minimal relevance to the course at all, many of which are so confusing that the TAs themselves do not know how to solve them. I knew his teaching was bad, but I did not realize how truly awful it was until I sat in on one of Dr. Long's lectures and realized the meaning of a competent Calculus III professor. There are times I wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat after having a nightmare that I am in Hamilton's class again. Learning how to do multivariable calculus is not something you will achieve if you have this professor, and I deeply urge you to find literally anyone else. If you do have the unfortunate situation of taking Professor Hamilton, I wish you the best of luck. I'm quite sure you will need it.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/15/2019	Hamilton is not great. However if you think you can self-teach and have the motivation to go to his review sessions before tests and go to all discussions, you can succeed. His teaching style is very theoretical, which explains why many students (myself included) struggle in his classes. When it comes to test prep...GO TO THE REVIEW LECTURES!!!! He does problem by problem that mirrors what is on the midterm/final. I started the semester with a D, and worked my way to an A+.
David Hamilton MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/30/2019	Worst professor I’ve ever had avoid at all costs! Doesn’t do +/- grades so you’re screwed if you’re right below the mark. Lectures are awful and only end up confusing everyone because of the massive disconnect between the content he teaches in class, the homework’s, his exams, and even a disparity between his exams and other professors exams. I would give zero stars if possible.
David Hamilton MATH241 Anonymous 12/13/2018	Do not take him for 241. The homework assignments he gives do not relate to things that we have done in class. He does not curve even we everyone does poorly. His lectures are dry and he does not explain the content very well. He does not post grades on elms. Overall just a miserable class.
David Hamilton MATH411 Anonymous 12/21/2017	Pretty good for 411, just makes it hard when his lectures are so different from the book material, and he covers a lot. I didn't learn a ton in lecture, but they were interesting (best to learn the material beforehand which I didn't usually do). He's an engaging guy. Usually nice enough. Exams were pleasantly fair. Nice grading system.
David Hamilton MATH141 Anonymous 12/17/2017	Possibly the worst professor I have ever had. Hamilton scrawls the lecture material on the blackboard without explaining what the hell he's doing. Not that it matters really, you can hardly hear him anyway and his handwriting is unreadable. He went through the material backwards, so we did difficult chapters like sequences and series first. Several of the chapters were designed to build on each other so it was a mess. I have no fucking clue why the class is structured this way. So many people dropped out that my discussion session shrank from 25 people to maybe 5 on a good day.
David Hamilton MATH241H Anonymous 12/14/2017	Plain terrible. He gave out an insane amount of Matlab compared to the other teachers, and he is the worst teacher. Only able to do well b/c I took multi in high school.
David Hamilton MATH141 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/13/2016	For David Hamilton Taking this class with Hamilton is the worst mistake I have made in a long time. I ignored the bad reviews and thought I could handle it. Don't be like me.
David Hamilton MATH140 indoleEntheogen 06/10/2015	David Hamilton review: don't bother, save yourself while you still can. He does not want you to be successful as a scientist/engineer/whatever you're going for. he always says in a condescending way: "you want to be scientists and engineers? this should be easy" as though you should have entered calc 1 already an expert... that's his job to make it easy by the end of the semester. his tests could not possibly be less reasonable. literally any other professor would be better for your future endeavors and GPA
David Hamilton MATH141 Anonymous 03/16/2014	A word of warning - I made an account on OurUMD JUST so I can say this to future students. If you are signing up for David Hamilton, the math professor, do not be fooled by the OurUMD rating which has numerous reviews for a physics teacher. Go to ratemyprofessors and look at his reviews. Those are spot on, I don't even need to say anything else.
David Hamilton MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/26/2014	This review is for David Hamilton, the math professor. I had math 140 and math 141 with Hamilton, and I got an A in both courses. My success had absolutely nothing to do with Hamilton's teaching abilities because he has none. He has a point system where you receive 1 or 2 points for correcting a mistake of his or answering a question, but if you answer incorrectly he'll laugh condescendingly at you (I never answered any questions because of this, screw the points). Hamilton never makes it clear exactly what he is teaching at any moment, and often quickly goes through proofs, skipping steps, making it difficult to follow. He also likes to erase the previous board before you can finish copying instead of using the other two blackboards. I gave him 2 stars instead of 1 because of his grading method. He gives 3 exams, each with a makeup exam the following week which can replace the previous grade. Because of how low the average was on the first two exams (both in math 140 and 141) he allowed the exam 3 grade to replace the grade for exam 1, and the exam 3 makeup grade to replace the exam 2 grade, which certainly helped a lot of students. In both math 140 and 141 I decided to focus on his notes rather than the textbook before exam 1 (don't ask me why I made the same mistake in 141), and I only scored a bit above the average. After that I strictly took notes from the textbook while skipping most lectures and got A's on the rest of the exams. Conclusion: Hamilton is a poor professor, though he can be funny at times. If you are willing to study from the textbook and like the grading method I described, I'd recommend taking him. If you like to actually learn from your professor (imagine that), stay away. I'd recommend someone like Justin Wyss-Gallifent.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/31/2013	I had Hamilton for 410, so this review probably won't be relevant for 100-level or 200-level lectures because of the differing class sizes/content/structure of the course. He was not terrible, nor was he terrific; he was satisfactory and nothing else. Lectures: His lectures weren't particularly valuable. I always went since the course wasn't to be taken lightly, but the only time I ever found myself consulting what I had written down in lecture was when he solved one of the homework problems in class. Otherwise, I'd teach myself the material by reading the book/the notes he sent to us via e-mail(which he would do if he found the book to be too convoluted, but I often found his notes more confusing than the book). Homework: His homeworks were fair, just problems out of the book. I found that they took several hours in the beginning of the semester (like 4-5), but by the end of the semester, once I had gotten used to the course, they took about two hours. Just get a group of three/four together to work on them once a week and you should be fine. Do as many as possible yourself before that, though, or else you won't benefit from the homework, which was the only work outside of the tests. Tests: The tests were designed so you could pass, especially the final. Basically, 30% of the test was true/false, two medium difficulty questions (20 % each), and one tough question (30 %, might be a choice between two problems). He also added 10 percent to the two midterms, just cause. The only way you didn't pass the class is if you REALLY didn't know your shit, so you should get through it the first time even if you struggle. As far as his character goes: yeah, he's pretty arrogant, but the description two posts below is an unfair exaggeration. I found his personality tolerable. I heard rumors that he's a misogynist, but I never noticed him treating women any different than men. He's not the most personable person, but he's fair and lenient. All in all, he's a solid professor, and if you can handle the course material, you'll get through it just fine.
David Hamilton MATH140 Anonymous 05/16/2013	No webassign. Gives double amount of homework than other professors. His lectures can get boring and its hard to understand what he is saying at times. Its easier to read from the book. His exam system in horrible imo. He gives 3 midterms and one final. Each midterm has a makeup one week later which includes another section. Most people dont do well on his exams. This is his way of giving them another chance. However, how would giving more exams help people out?! Just curve the exams if you want people to do well. He takes the higher grade of the two. Exams are usually only four questions so make sure you dont mess one up. Read the book and look up stuff online. He gives points for correcting his mistakes during lecture but they wont help you much.
David Hamilton MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/23/2012	Professor Hamilton is a genius and knows analysis like nobody's business, but he has a difficult time communicating this knowledge to his students. In class, he works proofs very quickly in an extremely convoluted fashion that is generally impossible to follow. He makes plenty of assumptions and skips many steps in his proofs that make his lectures so incoherent that you almost wish you didn't go. Although he doesn't understand that the average MATH410 student isn't a bonafine genius, he is still very nice and pretty approachable to answer questions. For Fall '09, the class was MWF at 2pm and was basically structured like this: Monday and Wednesday he would teach new material (i.e. go through proofs of basic theorums) and Friday he would go through any problems on the newest problem set that we had questions about (he would actually just do the problem for you, which was great), and that problem set would likely be due the following Monday. He does not answer many homework questions outside of class because he wants you to ask it during lecture so that everyone has a chance to hear it. The class has 2 midterms, a cumulative final, 9 homeworks (highest one counts double), and two bonus homeworks if you choose to do them. You grade is the maximum of your homeworks&midterms grade, or your final exam grade. Exams are VERY easy and test your basic understanding of the material. Homework is very challenging and you will likely need to seek help to complete it. Overall medium professor, but good enough for this class.
David Hamilton MATH141 Anonymous 12/04/2011	Hamilton's teaching style was awful. He is a terrible teacher on most accounts, but between the amount I remembered from high school and my wonderful TA, Andrew Brandon, I was able to do well. His tests are more frequent than the other teachers' tests are, so there is less information to remember, but the tests are harder. Apparently, this will help us on the uniform final, but I have not taken it yet. He is also terribly condescending.
David Hamilton MATH140 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/09/2011	Half decent lecturer but I got burned because I could never get used to his teaching style. Very convoluted lectures though he can be a nice guy when he wants to (blew up in our lecture a few times and yelled for seemingly small stuff). Had a friend who took him for 141 and he changed up their exams on them without much warning. Didn't care for him either way but at least he's better than Francis Gulick....
David Hamilton MATH140 Hosea 05/01/2011	Hamilton was often very fast paced in his lectures. He seemed very condescending in his emails at times, but he knows what he is talking about. However, once you get lost, it's hard to get back on track. He also has this system where you get points if you correct a mistake he makes. However, when you're absorbing new information it is very confusing to have to deal with mistakes made when you're trying to learn the right way to do things. He also gave out many bonus quizzes and points which boosted your grade. However, this semester he did give a test the day after spring break and the average was like a 12/40. In the end it just comes down to intuition in my opinion. Pros: Approachable in person, easy to get points, gives out bonus quizzes Cons: Difficult to follow
David Hamilton MATH463 Expecting an A engineeriam 12/24/2010	Dr. Hamilton is a nice, approachable person. His lectures tend to be very fast; at times, I couldn't take down all the class notes before he erased his work. I feel if you have the time to read and understand sections before they are covered in lecture, you can probably follow him better. Otherwise, he doesn't really present the information in a way that can be easily absorbed if you haven't seen the information before.
David Hamilton MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2010	I thought that Hamilton was absolutely brilliant. Although some may say that his lectures are a little convoluted, they are actually quite easy to follow if you skim the appropriate book section before class. He is a genius of complex analysis and can boggle your mind with the depth of his knowledge on math and history. His midterm was so easy it was a joke, and the final ended up to be take home which was actually pretty hard. Overall this class was pretty interesting and has a lot of applications to many subjects in engineering. Another point, I do agree with what mreese has to say about Hamilton. I could tell that he gave preference to the kids who were doing well in the class, although probably not as pronounced as it would be in 246.
David Hamilton MATH246H Expecting an A mreese 12/16/2010	This review is for David Hamilton, the math professor. As much as I want to say Dr. Hamilton is an inefficient lecturer, it was probably not his fault that students in 246H had to do a lot of self-study to do well in the class, as there is no discussion and tests are biweekly. Hamilton moved fairly quickly through theory, and spent a good amount of time doing example problems which illustrated concepts well and were good practice. The reason I am rating Hamilton poorly is that he did not treat students equally with respect. I wasn't doing extremely well in the first half of the course (B exam average), and whenever I asked him a question he would dismiss it by discussing something completely unrelated as if to humiliate me. On one occasion he loudly remarked that I did "not so good" on an exam when I got 85% and the average was 50%. In the second half of the course I got perfect scores on the exams and Hamilton suddenly cared about the questions I was asking. There were a couple other students whom for whatever reasons he did not favor, which he made quite clear. I'm not sure why he disliked me, because I wasn't even doing poorly. Hamilton is a decent teacher, but I do not find his behavior towards me acceptable. About the class itself: The first three Matlab assignments are longer than the ones given to the regular sections. These Matlab assignments are not at all like those assigned in Math241 (those are trivially easy compared to these). It is also quite difficult grade-wise to get an A in the class. You can mess up on one test (of 6) since the lowest is dropped, but there is no curve otherwise, and the final is weighted heavily (40%). The class average on the final was 83%. About half the class received an A for the semester.
David Hamilton MATH140 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2010	This is a potentially easy math class compared to others, but Hamilton is an inadequate teacher! There's no webassign. He assigns problems from the book, about 20 for each section. The homework is optional, but the TAs do occasionally collect homework from a specified section and the test questions come from the homework, so it's a good idea to do the homework. Tests are fair because, like I said, problems come from the homework and examples in lecture. He also has this policy where if you answer a question in class or correct one of his mistakes, you get one bonus point. I believe that the max is 25 per semester. In addition, there's a final's option, in which your final test grade will be used to replace your final course grade if it happens to be higher. While there's plenty of opportunities for getting a high grade, I've found that Hamilton is not such a great lecturer. You're better off reading the textbook yourself. Half of the class doesn't even take notes. He jumps all over the place and doesn't stop to explain each step. Bottom line: Tests are fair. If you're willing to self-study, this course is for you.
David Hamilton MATH141 Expecting a C Anonymous 01/10/2010	Professor Hamilton never seemed to care whether or not the class kept up with him during his lectures. He seemed to do what would have made him learn, as a mathematician, rather than what I felt I need to learn, as a science major.
David Hamilton MATH410 keyoung 01/04/2010	Everything Musick Video has posted is a great summary of prof Hamilton and his 410. Even though his lectures were difficult to follow and he often went off on tangents his exams were so easy. The Friday review sessions were great and when prof Hamilton graded the hw he just glances and gives 10s. His grading system was also grade because you just need to secure an A before the final and only need a 50% on the final. It's very easy to get the A with the midterms and HW's and 2 bonuses. The final was a lot more difficult than the midterms, so don't plan on just getting an A on the final. Great Prof for 410
David Hamilton MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/29/2009	Professor Hamilton is great. Very clear with enough humor to keep things flowing. Very fair grading system which allows you to work up to an A grade. System of tests every two weeks and TA quizzes is tough but it keeps us on the ball. This paid off with a class average of 87% on the last test.
David Hamilton MATH462 Expecting an A BetsyJ 10/09/2009	Superb teacher. Made us understand very hard material. Very fair and clear.
David Hamilton MATH141 Expecting a B ddaily 04/28/2009	Dr. Hamilton is a decent lecturer. Easy to understand and presents the material very well. As long as you do the homework in this class you should do fine on his exams and quizzes. He also has a nice policy regarding finals that can really help your grade at the end of the year.
David Hamilton MATH221 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/09/2008	Not a bad teacher, have had better math teachers but he is very fair and open for questions.
David Hamilton MATH221 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/04/2008	Dr. Hamilton is a good math teacher. I normally have a lot of trouble with math, but having Dr. Hamilton helped. He does problems on the board and takes questions, which is helpful. He moves a bit fast but as long as you can pay attention (which is hard sometimes), you can follow what he is doing. I thought he was an effective teacher with fair tests.