Hussain Ibdah

This professor has taught: MATH135, MATH136, MATH141, MATH141H, MATH241, MATH246H, MATH410, MATH462

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Hussain Ibdah MATH135 Anonymous 12/10/2024	Over-complicated topics. I thought he was nice at first, but then he said I would fail the exam because I didn’t understand a certain topic he taught. When I mentioned that I didn’t really understand, he tried to claim that I hadn’t attended class, but then stopped himself when he remembered seeing me in class often. Interestingly, that topic ended up being the one where I got the full number of points****. I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with the question—others in the class also said he never really taught it, and they didn’t understand it either. Literally, pick any professor other than him.
Hussain Ibdah MATH135 Anonymous 12/05/2024	Over-complicated topics. I thought he was nice at first, but then he said I would fail the exam because I didn’t understand a certain topic he taught. When I mentioned that I didn’t really understand, he tried to claim that I hadn’t attended class, but then stopped himself when he remembered seeing me in class often. Interestingly, that topic ended up being the one where I got the least number of points correct. I wasn’t the only one who had trouble with the question—others in the class also said he never taught it, and they didn’t understand it either. Literally, pick any professor other than him.
Hussain Ibdah MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2024	I took MATH135 so it was a lot easier compared to other math classes. I do think he can overcomplicate certain topics, so I spent most of my time learning on my own. The exams were not too difficult, and they reflected what we learned in class. However, I will say he does not really offer practice exams, his version of practice exams is through quizzes on ELMS. I wasn't really a fan of this. But other than that, he is a nice guy, just not that great at teaching. I really didn't spend too much time on this class each week. His homework is easy. His discussion worksheets are a little challenging but you're able to work with a group on them. Also - He did replace your lowest midterm score with your final score (if your final grade was higher)
Hussain Ibdah MATH135 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/19/2024	He's okay for 135, I took calc before I took 135 and also took AP stats so material wasn't difficult but if there is another professor available I would say take them instead. He wants his students to succeed and has plenty of assignments and opportunities to inflate your grade, even weighing down your lowest midterm if you do better on the final, he also posts a lot of review materials and would even hold weekly sessions explaining topics. Towards the end however, he would get frustrated if you would ask questions which made him feel slightly unapproachable, the TA's are very nice though!!
Hussain Ibdah MATH135 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/14/2024	He's an alright guy but his class kinda sucks ngl. His lectures are pretty boring and hard to see since he uses the chalkboard and he writes from his notes basically copy and paste, his handwriting isnt that good so if ur far away from the board its even worse. If you can read his notes they are actually pretty good there isnt too much exam content and you can basically get all the material without going to class. I put in minimal time studying and I barely got an A- with a tiny curve of like 2%. If ur like me and have a good base of general math and some general bio knowledge its a pretty easy B/A-. This was his first year teaching this class for me.
Hussain Ibdah MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	MATH410 with Dr. Ibdah was a solid experience; while we had occasaionally difficult homeworks (though he always provided solutions after the due date, which I really appreciated) and the exams had averages and medians in the 60s-70s, he gave a generous curve. Grades aside, I liked the way he taught and his notes were comprehensive. He is very kind and genuinely cares about the success of his students (e.g. always made himself available for office hours).
Hussain Ibdah MATH410 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/11/2024	Probably the worst professor I have ever had. Completely fails to engage students during lectures. He is disorganized, constantly had to delay an exam and couldnt get through all the material by the end of the course. His first exam had typos that changed the questions and one question said, and I quote, "make sense of the function". This is in a proof based math course. His handwriting is completely illedgible which means you cannot catch up on lectures if you miss something and cannot use his notes at all. Why this man is allowed to teach the most notoriously challenging math class at UMD is beyond me.
Hussain Ibdah MATH135 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/08/2024	Dr. Ibdah takes criticism well and works to make sure his students understand the content. He will explain topics again during lecture if it is unclear and always asks the class if they need more clarification. He openly takes questions and responds to emails quickly. He posts his lecture notes for every chapter and his exams are very fair. I have never seen a topic or question I did not do in class or for a quiz. He replaces your lowest exam grade with your final grade if it benefits you as well. The way he explains topics was difficult to understand, making his lectures not as useful to me.
Hussain Ibdah MATH410 Expecting an A- surgeon 12/22/2023	Will start off by saying that the class was small making communication much easier. I also think it was his first time teaching analysis so things were a bit less organized than normal. Lectures were usually him going over some important theorems. The weekly homework took me forever at first, like 12-15 hours, but it eased up over the semester. They were also graded not too harshly but they still have to be somewhat rigorous. I think his notes were a pretty good reference if you can read the handwriting. The exams had averages in the 60s but he gave opportunities to make up points. I'm not sure how this compares to other professors but in general MATH410 is very challenging but doable and that's how it went.
Hussain Ibdah MATH136 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/18/2023	Please, whatever you do, DO NOT take him for MATH136. He made this class 10 times harder than it had to be. Even students in the class that had some background knowledge in calculus would struggle to keep up with what was going on in the class at times. His teaching style is awful. He teaches more so in a review manner instead of actually teaching the content, which makes it harder to grasp the concepts. He also spends a lot of time doing proofs for equations, which wastes time considering we do not need to know them for the tests. Speaking of tests, one plus for him would be that they were similar to the practice ones. The problem was, he would amplify the difficulty of the values given to a degree beyond what we did in class. Asking him questions was not helpful either, considering that he would just make the topic more confusing. People started to ask fewer and fewer questions because of this. In some cases, it seemed that he would attack or blame students for not knowing the content. In reality, a majority of the people in the class would be lost. He always would ask people to speak up but no one would considering that his response would be unhelpful. He also has a tendency to mess up problems MULTIPLE times, which did not help with his teaching style. The majority of the time, the discussion quizzes and worksheets that we would get were unhelpful and stressful. If getting a different professor means waiting for a semester, I would recommend doing so.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 03/10/2023	Not a good prof. Has good intentions, but his exams were extremly unfair and irrelevant to his lectures. Decent curve, but won't really answer questions that well, leaving you more confused.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a C brooke957 02/28/2023	Please do not take this professor if given ANY other option. I took his Calculus II class and it genuinely ruined me. I have always been a fantastic math student, consistently earning A's in every level I've taken. This professor took it upon himself to taint my record. He has awful handwriting on the screen, so much so I'd have to ask my friends what he wrote and even they wouldn't know what it was. His exams were unnecessarily hard; he even put one question on the exam that ended up being unsolvable (oh yeah, he doesn't check his exams and makes them the night before) and the students with that version of the exam had to spend extra time outside of class to retest. I will say he is a very kind guy, and makes the occasional joke, but he cannot teach.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/08/2023	Good professor, it can be hard to understand the course at times, but he is helpful during office hours and his TAs are knowledgeable as well. His notes are all posted on canvas and once you get used to his handwriting, they help understand the material. The only minuscule problem I have with him is that he does not clarify when he is deriving a formula, whereas for the class you only need to know the end result. His teaching style is different but enjoyable.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/08/2023	Amazing professor!! Got an A -- most definitely not an easy A, but still an A
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/02/2023	Hussain Ibdah is a decent professor. Not a great lecturer, but a nice and pleasant guy. Handwriting is rather terrible, but you can figure out what's written in the end. His thought process throughout the lecture can sometimes be hard to follow, but in that case you can just ask a question or request to clarify something, and he always takes time and thoroughly explains anything that's unclear. He posts his notes and the subject of the lectures online. Attendance isn't mandatory, and you can just grasp the material from reading his notes and/or the corresponding chapter in the book. Exams were moderately difficult, quizzes were okay. The curve in the end was pretty nice. If you're not used to such teaching style, you may find taking this class with Dr. Ibdah to be difficult. Otherwise, personally, it was a pretty chill class, not requiring too much time or effort.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/28/2022	Dr. Ibdah is an okay professor to take for MATH 141. As other reviews have stated his handwriting is bad and he lectures fast, but after 1 or 2 lectures you get used to it so its not that bad. He is very nice, accommodating, and willing to answer questions. Personally I enjoyed his teaching style where he derived a formula or idea and then went through examples. Through this I felt like I developed better critical thinking skills. However, I will warn you that you need to really pay attention in lecture because the material is hard in the first place. He does post his notes online which were a life saver. Exams were difficult and not similar to practice exams, however he did curve at the end of the class. If you take Dr. Ibdah I recommend studying a lot from the book as he said he pulled concepts similar to problems from the textbook. Regarding the other reviews- most of the people who took the course this semester were freshmen and are complaining about many things including his teaching style, assignments, and handwriting. Honestly, Dr. Ibdah is just your average college professor and freshmen are not used to being "spoon fed" answers- thus why many people harp on his teaching style. Intro courses have a lot of assignments that's just a fact of life. I have never seen Calc 2 material before and studied a lot for this course, so do not be wary of taking him if you have not seen the material before.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2022	He went through content fast and his writing was sloppy but he was a goofy dude who made class fun most of the time.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/17/2022	I think Hussain is a nice guy, but I would not recommend taking this course with him. The best way to describe his teaching is by using his own words, from an email he sent to our class after the final: "I apologize if my unorthodox teaching methods didn’t resonate with you. When teaching freshmen level courses, I always try to transition you guys from the “spoon feeding” and “recipe learning” techniques used in high school to becoming independent learners who understand, and not memorize the concepts. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t, but I strongly believe this is the way it is supposed to be: part of your college education is not only to learn new material, but also to become independent thinkers." If you want to understand the material, please take any other professor. The only way I managed to pass was by learning everything on youtube.
Hussain Ibdah Expecting a D- Anonymous 12/17/2022	Pros: -Nice dude -Decent Curve Cons: -Terrible prof. Can't teach to save his life. -Dismal handwriting -Ridiculous exams that were nothing like his practice exams -Too many Webassigns -Hard to understand accent
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Anonymous 12/17/2022	Hussain is a really nice person and he actively tried his best to help students in what ever way he could. However, as a professor, his lectures were down right horrendous. He would make simple concepts completely confusing and much harder than they had to be. His exams were absolutely unreasonable and unfair, being completely unrelated to what we did in class. His handwriting is poor, and the class downright sucked. I feel that some of this is the class itself and not directly his fault, but Hussain could and should have done a much better job teaching. Unless he's your only option, do not take a class with him.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2022	This dude is an absolute clown. All of the negatives from below sum up his teaching style fairly well. The TA's this semester were great and carried most students. I will say the curve at the end of the year was more than generous. I do not recommend taking him if you want a deep understanding of the course material. A+: 95.5 and above A: 88.7-95.49 A-: 87.4-88.69 B+: 80.2-87.39 B: 75.41-80.19 B-: 72.70-75.40 C+: 69-72.69 C: 61.4-68.99 C-: 58-61.39 D: 51-57.99 F: Less than 50
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2022	This professor is unbelievably horrible. He literally acknowledged how terrible his handwriting is and basically just told us to deal with it. His written lecture notes are SO BAD, it's impossible to pick out what the actual necessary information to know is. He makes even simple concepts more convoluted, and my TA is basically the only reason I could make sense of the material. I used to enjoy calculus but this class ruined it for me. If you can avoid taking this class with him, I definitely would. It's not the end of the world, but it definitely will not be a good experience.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/30/2022	This professor does not teach well at all. He is fast-paced and will skip steps he "expects" you to know. If you ask a question, you are more likely to get more confused. He makes mistakes while doing problems, so when he corrects them, you are more likely to get confused. He does examples from the textbook and has no original contributions to the content. His tests are insanely hard for no reason, and sometimes on small details. He doesn't curve individual exams but says he will curve final averages and replace the lowest exam grade with the final exam grade. He does give partial points for problems like every professor but it really depends on his mood on how much each part is worth. There are quizzes every week except the week of an exam. There will be many homework assignments all due on the same date, so you pace yourself accordingly. Any questions about homework are told to be directed to the TAs. His handwriting is terrible (except when he writes on the blackboard (which he barely to never uses)), but he does post all his notes in case you missed class. The class started out with all the seats filled and by the end of the year, it was down to 1/4 of the class attending. I taught myself most of the content. The TAs teach more than he does. Seems like a good guy but can't teach. TAs are the only saving grace for this course. As far as I know, the people that did well in this class taught themselves everything. I don't know about other professors, but avoid him if you can.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/18/2022	This professor does not care if you actually understand the material or not. He moves way too quickly during lecture and completely overcomplicates everything. I mainly learn through Youtube videos and on campus tutors. Everybody in the class is always confused as he does not explain what he writes and skips over important steps he took in the problem. I took Calc II last year and I found the topics were way more simplistic when taught by another teacher. I have no idea how people are taking this class without being exposed to calculus II concepts. The exams are extremely difficult and he uses problems that are not similar to anything we have been exposed to in discussion, lectures, or homeworks. I do NOT recommend this professor. Save yourself.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141 Expecting a C- Anonymous 10/18/2022	He is breaking new records -- from the bottom. I am beginning to seriously think that it might have been better to have just not taken the entire class in the first place, and waited for the next semester, instead of taking Calculus II (Math 141) with him. Not only can't he teach for nuts, he is completely unprofessional. He'll cancel office hours 20 minutes before they are slated to happen. Bombard you with emails, and then with more emails to correct the first round of emails, then even more emails stating that he got "confused" and that the first round of emails was originally correct. I just gave up going to lectures because it was completely impossible to understand anything he was saying. His handwriting, when on a blackboard, is actually readable. Fortunately for you, he will NEVER use the blackboard except in rare circumstances, instead always choosing to write on an iPad in the front of the class. Good luck trying to ready his digital handwriting. Truly should be fired. Completely incompetent. Suffer what you can before taking his class as a last resort. If you don't believe me, then you should check out the reviews he had at his last college on Rate my Professor: https://www.ratemyprofessors.com/professor?tid=2429447
Hussain Ibdah MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2022	He's an okay lecturer. His handwritings are pretty bad. He posts his notes. His tests are unnecessary long and hard. His tests cover almost everything he taught.
Hussain Ibdah MATH136 Anonymous 05/10/2022	Terrible professor. Really sloppy notes and tough grader. TAKE ANYBODY ELSE PLEASE.
Hussain Ibdah MATH136 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/09/2022	I only give Ibdag a 2/5 and not a 1/5 because Dr. Dong is so much worse. That being said, Ibdah has bad bad handwriting (worse than Dr. MS @ my orgo 2 ppl) and is a crappy lecturer. It's hard to understand him but at least he pauses somewhat often to ask if we are understanding. Unfortunately, the teaching is usually so bad we don't know where to start with our questions and just stay silent. Only 2 mid-terms and a final (comprehensive). I will say he's a nice guy and genuine but that doesn't make up for the shitty teaching. The biggest knock to the guy is he will mess up his own practice problems A LOT. He even tried to fix it by just straight-up changing the problem because he did it wrong. TA's Neha and Shuhan are pretty good, you can understand them pretty well and explain stuff well. Why tf is this class required for my bio major?
Hussain Ibdah MATH136 Anonymous 05/08/2022	Ibdah is just not a good lecturer to say the least. He constantly makes mistakes when doing problems, and just makes everything more confusing in general. The only saving grace were the TAs, who made some of these concepts simpler. I STRONGLY recommend avoiding him if you can.
Hussain Ibdah MATH141H Expecting a C Anonymous 01/10/2022	Dr. Ibdah is a great guy and a decent professor. You can tell he genuinely cares about his students and wants them to succeed. He made himself extremely available to students, essentially offering anytime office hours as long as the student emailed in advance. Dr. Ibdah gave much harder exams than other professors, but is a lot more lenient with his grading, giving a good amount of partial credit, which was fair in my opinion. Dr. Ibdah's lectures are fast-paced and sometimes hard to follow if you get lost. He is happy to answer your questions but sometimes the answer will get you lost as well. I would recommend reading the textbook section he is about to cover before the lectures. I found this to be very helpful, I wish I hadn't just started doing this in the last two weeks of the course. However, I still enjoyed this class and I'm glad to have had Dr. Ibdah as a professor, and I found his class to be beneficial and feel like I learned a lot, despite getting a C in the class.