Michael Jakobson

This professor has taught: AMSC670, MATH246, MATH246H, MATH340, MATH401, MATH452, MATH463, MATH642, MATH648P, MATH660, MATH670, MATH671, STAT401

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Michael Jakobson MATH246H Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2023	You will end up teaching yourself. He spends the entire lecture reading off some "slides" which are actually just JPEG images he keeps on a USB and opens on MS paint on the projector. He doesn't even know how to fullscreen the window... Thick slavic accent and at times barely understandable. Never explains any of what he says, often just rambles about something that makes no sense and pretends that explanation was sufficient. Never even writes on the board or goes through practice problems, everything in the course is contained in those JPEGs. On top of that all, he grades the questions on the tests, while not particularly challenging or meant to trip you up, very harshly where the final answer is all that matters and gives very little partial credit. He regularly gives students 4-6 points on 20 point questions for minor number errors like forgetting a sign, and one time I got a 4/20 on a question for accidentally writing a t instead of an s while rewriting a step, even though I got the conceptual part correct and evaluated the integral I wrote correctly. He doesn't give + or -, so if I had gotten any lower of a score on my final I would have dropped an entire letter grade. Unless you are very confident in your math ability and self teaching, do not take Jakobson.
Michael Jakobson MATH401 Anonymous 02/04/2022	The worst professor I've ever had at UMD. You will be undergoing an entirely self-taught class if Jakobson is your professor. I will say that he is polite and always willing to answer questions, but that is if you can even tell what is going on in the class to formulate a question to begin with. He began the class writing on the chalkboard, albeit never turning around to actually talk to the class - just talking at the board about seemingly random topics. As of the second week of class he just shows us grainy pictures of notes (not even a PDF scan!!) on the projector and reads over it. It's seriously hard to learn anything from this prof, as half of the time I'm not even sure what the current topic is (his handwriting is not the best).
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/27/2021	The lectures were understandable if you read the information beforehand, and the example problems in the lectures are exactly the type of problem that appears on the quizzes and exams. The lectures are labeled only as a number, and not with the content, which makes it a bit more difficult to follow, but if you have read the material that is supposed to be in the lecture, even if you don't understand it, it becomes easier to follow and understand the lectures. The quizzes and exams are exactly like problems given in lectures, and typically for quizzes, there were 20 minutes to complete and 5 to submit, with a 5 minute grace period, and for exams, there was an hour and a half to complete it and 15 minutes to submit. The grading can be strict as the rubric is mostly focusing on the answer being right, and not the processes of solving the problems, however simple errors like dropping a negative sign and smaller errors of that sort can be discussed with TA's, and typically can get points back for this. The class was also curved, with the two worst quizzes and worst Matlab being dropped, and the worst team would be replaced with half the score of the final, which was 200 points as opposed to 100 points on exams. This curve was the one announced at the beginning of class, however at the end, according to a TA, the professor enlisted a curve to make the average grade in the class a C. Many students took the class as Pass/Fail, so the averages with higher levels of A and B are deceptive, as most of the class was pass/fail and would receive a C. Overall, I would suggest trying to find a professor that has better lectures and a better record of teaching well, but Dr. Jakobson's class was straightforward, and I certainly learned a lot from it.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2021	Good God where do I begin. By far the worst teacher I’ve had in my life. To get things out of the way, do not take him unless the only other possible option is Hamilton, no matter how much schedule rearrangement is needed. Draw the line only at dropping necessary classes if it means avoiding him. Lectures make absolutely no sense at all, does nothing to respond to student questions/concerns, my TA was no help, and I had to practically rely solely on GSS and self-teaching to pass (shoutout to Victoria). A 130-ish person class had only about 15-20 attending lecture within a few weeks. Assuming he keeps this semester’s grading policy, there is no curve either. He drops your lowest Matlab and 2 lowest quizzes. Lowest exam gets replaced by half of final. Got an A in spite of him, not because of him.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/12/2021	The worst professor I have had at umd. His lecture style is terrible and don't expect to be able to read his notes because they're illegible. Pretty sure UMD only holds onto him because of tenure. His exams for the most part are actually pretty straight forward but between the lectures being ass, the textbook being ass, and the TAs taking off points every chance they get, the course was an overall uphill battle and it was super hard for me to learn. It also didn't help that things were online this semester due to COVID. I love math and I know I would have loved Diffeq if it had been taught to me properly but because it wasn't I had the exact opposite experience. Highly recommend switching out if you have him unless your only other choice is Hamilton.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/04/2021	Would not recommend it, took him online due to COVID and he wasn't lenient about turning in any quizzes late yet wouldn't include time to actually submit. Overall I would say his exams were hard yet would have followed his lectures if I could have understood them. His notes and lectures were too hard to understand for me so I resorted to Justins notes. If I hadn't chosen pass-fail I probably would have gotten a C+. The dropped quizzes and dropped matlab that he offers are helpful yet are the only form of curve he provides
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/23/2018	Jakobson may be the worst lecturer on campus. His speaking, writing, and teaching style make it nearly impossible to learn anything in his lectures, resulting in less than 10% of the class attending each lecture. My TA was the only reason I learned anything in the class, as his website and provided textbook are a mess to navigate and get information from. The homeworks and quizzes we had did little to build on what we did learn, even when we had an assignment or quiz every week. Avoid at all costs.
Michael Jakobson MATH660 Anonymous 08/09/2018	Not a particularly good lecturer, but fair grader.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2014	Firstly I gotta say that before taking DFQ I knew nothing about this course, and Dr. Jakobson just screwed it up even more severer. I never absented but all I could do in his class this whole semester is merely sitting, napping and playing my cell phone. I totally got no idea about what he was talking about. Thanks for my lovely TA I didn't screw up whole things at the end before finals. So 4 stars for TA, 1 star for Dr. Jakobson(for his hard work awww). DON'T TAKE HIS CLASS UNLESS YOU GOT BALLS IN MATH
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B grumble 12/17/2013	If you're good at self-teaching, this professor is the one for you. I'll just go ahead and say it outright; he's not a good teacher in any sense of the phrase. Most of the notes that were useful when the exams came around came from my discussion sections, although the TA wasn't superb either. The problems and concepts aren't difficult or complicated at all; they're just incredibly numerous and Jakobson doesn't do a very good job in explaining them. If you're preparing yourself to take this class, understand that either you'll: a) be on the same page as him as few of the students were, or b) be pretty lost a lot of the time and will be engaging yourself heavily in the textbook. While he might be hard to understand, it certainly helps to read ahead and study the textbook prior to the lectures because you'll actually understand what's going on. However, I will say that his exams and quizzes are very fair. Simply teach yourself the rather basic concepts, do the suggested problems, and you'll probably be okay. Of 6 MATLABs, he drops the lowest grade for a total of 100 points and out of 150 earnable quiz points, he only accepts 100 in the final grade and he never really explained how that part works. 3 midterms are 100 points each and the final is worth 200.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a B+ TerpGuy 01/15/2012	The review for Jakobson was misleading. He is portrayed as a really horrible professor but in retrospective, he was not bad mostly because his exams and quizzes were straightforward. Although some matlab homeworks were pain, they were doable since we were allowed to work in a group of 3. We only had about 5 matlab projects. Also, he gave out 5 extra credit points for each matlab projects if the presentation of the assignment was pretty. However, his lecture notes are very messy and I had to mostly self teach myself or rely on my TAs. Speaking of TAs, I got cheated out of an A because my TA never revealed to us that we could get extra credit points for matlab assignments until around the time before 3rd assignment was due. If you do the suggested book problems, you should do well on his exams. I would recommend taking him if you do not wanna be bothered by huge amounts of matlab assignments and terribly difficult exams.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2011	Because of all the low reviews here, I didn't have very high expectations for Jakobson going in. As it turned out, Jakobson was much better than his reviews give him credit for. He usually teaches much better than the book does and always says what exactly is expected of you for each type of problem on a test. The book is good for the easier topics (integrating factors, exact equations) but becomes pretty useless later on in the course. At this point, you definitely want to go to lecture and he will make things pretty simple. He doesn't really try to trick you on tests or quizzes. If you can do the majority of the problems in the suggested homework, the tests are simple. He never really gave any integrals that were too tricky to evaluate. He ended up dropping our lowest quiz grade, and our lowest test was only weighted as half of a test. Gives pretty good partial credit, and is very organized. Homework problems are suggested and not graded. Matlab can be very time-consuming and annoying because you have to work in a group of 3, so I would recommend joining a discussion section with a few friends who you know are reliable, because it is a real hassle if you get stuck with random people who don't know what they're doing. Overall, I would definitely recommend Dr. Jakobson.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C TinyOne 12/21/2011	It's not very hard to do well with this professor if you stay on top of your homework. I barely did homework and I got a C in the class. If you go to the lecture and discussion right before an exam, hints are dropped like bombs about the problems that will be on it. Even without the hints you get, the problems are pretty straightforward. The final was made up of easy problems, it was just long. Also, this professor dropped half of the the score of the worst exam and he gave extra credit on the Matlab projects. And while he wasn't the best lecturer, he certainly wasn't the worst.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Anonymous 12/16/2011	He is not the teacher to teach the materials however he is not a harsh professor. He makes adjustments in the class to help students. His exams are not difficult if you do all the home work and he usually tells you before the exam what is on there. However he doesn't make the final. The final is different from what he does in class. The wording of the questions and the style of questions are different.
Michael Jakobson MATH246 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/14/2011	His lectures are 100% a waste of time. He is very difficult to understand and he barely erases the chalkboard so it's difficult to read his notes. The only time his lectures made sense were when I studied the topic before class, and even then I got lost about 20 minutes along. That being said, his exams and quizzes are generally a lot easier than some of the other instructors. Compared to Balan (the other option this semester) the exams were easy. If you can afford the time, wait to take DiffEQ when there is a decent professor teaching it. The subject is so boring that a terrible teacher makes me lose interest in studying for the class at all.
Michael Jakobson MATH246H Anonymous 08/18/2011	Hands down the worst math professor on campus. He blatantly does not care one bit about the material he is teaching or about his students. He avoids students when they're trying to reach him for help. He makes absolutely no effort to explain anything, his handwriting is terrible and narrated in useless comments that emphasize irrelevant or unimportant aspects while failing to build any sort of understanding. The homework he assigns often doesn't cover what's on the exam. If you have him, switch out immediately. I've had him twice for MATH246 - failed the first time and will likely fail again. He was listed as "Staff" so I didn't know what I was signing up for the second time around - I should have dropped the class the moment I saw him walk through the door.
Michael Jakobson MATH410 Expecting a B timbade 07/25/2011	Jakobson was truly disappointing to learn from. He came to lecture and scribbled down some notes while mumbling in broken english. He did not want any input from the class, nor to talk to any of his students. He clearly had better things to be doing, and it seemed like this class was at the bottom of his priority list. His proof methods are sloppy, and I have a feeling that if he were the grader the grades would have been fine, but that was not the case. Some grad student the class never met did 100% of the grading, and was ultra meticulous. He is a fine guy, but I would avoid his class at all costs. I ended up with my first D ever, completely to my surprise. I am however, looking forward to redeeming myself with a better professor. Just don't take it with him, flat out.
Michael Jakobson MATH410 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2010	Jakobson was completely useless in lecture. It's hard to understand him and he never was helpful when it came to the homework. HOWEVER, he is pretty generous when it came to grades. He drops 4 homeworks, gives some extra credit, and will round up your final grade. May not be the best teacher, but you are more likely to get a better grade with him than some of the other professors. Teach yourself and do the hw with a friend and you will be fine.
Michael Jakobson MATH461 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/19/2010	WORST PROFESSOR. 20 people went to class regularly (armory room is full on test days) because his lectures are that bad. Can't understand him. Can't read his awful handwriting. Tests have many curve-balls and are completely different each time. Very hard to study for. Tests did not represent knowledge of subject. I retook this class because I didn't get transfer credit. Got A+ last time - barely, barely squeezed an A- this time even though the material was the exact same. Stay far away from this professor.
Michael Jakobson MATH461 frakking_geek 05/07/2010	The overall material itself was mildly interesting. I wish I could say the same however for Professor Jakobson's lectures. After the first 15 minutes on the first day, I realized that I was never going to learn a single thing from his class and that the semester was going to essentially be an independent study in Linear Algebra. His lectures are dry and boring, assuming one can read his handwriting on the chalkboard or understand his accent. And if you can get past both of them, that's also assuming that you can stay awake after listening to a couple of minutes of his monotone speech. Overall, going to lecture was a waste if you try to pay attention and learn from him. However, they were very productive as a good study environment if you took the textbook in class and just taught yourself the material from the book as he was lecturing on it. I can guarantee that most of the other people in that lecture would agree with me in how only a handful of us would show up to lecture each time. Even then, the number of students in lecture would exponentially decay as time went on, starting from the first couple of minutes of class, with students leaving as though they came to lecture with the hope that it would be somewhat effective in learning the material, forgetting just how bad Jakobson’s lectures are and then being hit with the same revelation each time that it really was pointless to show up to class. Again, I was probably one of the few that regularly came to class and that was due solely to the fact that I realized that if I was able to tune out the lecture, I was able to teach myself the material from the book and understand it on a much deeper level than I could ever hope to gain from listening to Jakobson’s lectures. I can confidently say that this class has by far been the one with the least effective professor I’ve ever had in my entire time I have been in school, going as far back as pre-k.
Michael Jakobson MATH246H Expecting an A fiddlerkrt 01/22/2009	Tests and quizzes aren't very difficult as long as you know what you are doing. Lectures are extremely boring and the matlab assignments are pretty time consuming. The class overall is not too bad. You should have no trouble getting an A or a B.