Leonid Koralov

This professor has taught: BIOI601, DATA601, MATH410, MATH411, MSML601, SPHL610, STAT410, STAT600, STAT601, SURV410

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Leonid Koralov MATH411 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/21/2025	Everything these reviews say. Awful unfair exams, unfair grading. I love math but this professor made this the type of class that makes people hate math and hate the way mathematical knowledge is tested/evaluated.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Anonymous 05/19/2025	Everything from 5/17/2025 with some additions. 1) the important content was not covered (no hwk on Lagrange multipliers, the very last lecture covered surface integrals, green’s + stokes’ theorems and that too by the TA), no questions on the final about mean value theorem or actual understanding of differentials — we would get taught some sections in class but have no assigned hwk 2) hwk was entirely computational and barely proof based 3) a lot of the theorems were actually taught wrong in class or glossed over — only reading the book made more sense 4) >75% of the class got <55% on the final 5) he hasn’t announced grades yet but kept saying he would increase the weighting of future midterms/exams after m1 (avg was 12/20, avg was 15/20 for m2) rather than curve 6) I knew most of the material very well prior from other classes and still struggled because of his unfair exams/grading 7) no partial credit on certain final questions, and even graded different students’ exams differently 8) I used to love analysis and now I am just genuinely repulsed by it. A professor really DOES make all the difference.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Anonymous 05/18/2025	Everything the review on 05/17/2025 said.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Anonymous 05/17/2025	Homework’s were overall very fair. They were also graded fairly thanks the grader. I will complain that many of his homework’s were computational heavy instead of proof-central which was a surprise for a proof math class. His lectures were ok. His lecture style was open the book, argue about the notation it used, and then write his version of definitions and theorem on the board. This was alright, but his lecturing was generally unorganized, with definitions and annotations squeezed into tiny corners of the board, and no real linear pattern to his style. It was imperative to read the textbook by yourself. Unfortunately, his lack of announcing topics and skipping around of chapters created a lot a lot guesswork. Due to lack of preparation for each class, the end of the semester and before each midterm was very rushed. Some lectures were dedicated to long examples of solving ODEs, Lagrange multipliers, easy matrix operations, or confusing equivalent definitions of integrability. This led to more important topics being compressed and rushed through. What he spent a lot of time on in class seemed to have no correlation to what was important to study for the exams. In fact, if he left a proof as an exercise seemingly skimming over it, it seemed like this showed up on the exam in some form. The exams were horrible. I’m not saying that they were impossible to do well on, because people did, but the averages were bad. The uniform grade distribution mentioned earlier is not a joke. The first exam average was about 12/20 and the second exam average was 15\20. Also Exam 2 had about 10 points of matrix operations, which was trivial since all of us had taken some form of elementary linear algebra. That doesn’t seem too bad right? Well, it is. Every point on the exam in his syllabus was listed as 1% of your overall grade. So the average student by the end of Exam 2 was already sitting at a total loss of 13%. Seven people dropped after Exam 1–this accounts for the higher average for Exam 2–and then one more after Exam 2. So really the score of new material was about 50%. Out of 35 students, a 20% drop rate for a class that is taken by relatively mathematically mature students is abominable. The actual exams were not well put together. For the first exam, he walked into the room late, opened his laptop, turned around, and proceeded to slowly write the questions on the blackboard. Each question was weighted equally, so a definition or simple calculation that was briefly discussed from the first day of class and seemingly brushed off as unimportant was weighted the same as logic-based true/false and a proof. The second exam, only had 5 points worth of true/false justification and the rest of the 15 points were calculation. At least he gave us paper copies of the exam. This wouldn’t seem too bad but he graded them extremely harshly. He was hesitant to give partial credit. Comparing Exam 1 and 2, I believe he did not grade consistently. This is easily the class I have studied the most for. The amount of effort out towards this class is not a reflection of the grade I will receive. After both exams, he encouraged people to drop the class, using phrases such as “you’re just torturing yourself if you stay,” or “I rarely see students rally for the final.” The final was very bad. He did mention that he might consider reweighing the homework, and potentially adding bonus points to the final, but did not do the latter. With what appeared to be a grading scale of <70-No credit/70-C/80-B/90-A as listed on his syllabus, it feels nearly impossible to do well in this class. So, -1 star poorly designed exams, -1 star for inconsistent and harsh grading, -1 star poor preparation (constant lateness to class and poor time management of the content), and -1 star for his disinterest in supporting his students’ success.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Anonymous 03/10/2025	Don't take with this professor. He grades very harshly for exams which make up 20% of the course grade each with a uniform distribution of scores around 50%, and he does not spend the time going over what he should expect for writing proofs.
Leonid Koralov STAT410 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/25/2023	The course is interesting as the professor does a great job at going in-depth on each topic and answers questions during lecture which include homework problems. The issues are that the textbook is not suited for a proof-based class and the class did not feel organized (no lecture notes, no schedule, and we covered the Central Limit Theorem in the last 15 minutes before the semester ended). Overall, if you want to have a more organized type of class structure I cannot recommend this professor, otherwise if you don't mind this and want a professor who will go in-depth on the material; then, I would heavily recommend him to take especially related to Statistics.
Leonid Koralov STAT410 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/17/2023	Pros: Amazing lecturer who is engaging, answers questions during lecture, and exams/homework are fair. Cons: Management of course material is lacking which includes the following: having a schedule where we know which topic will be covered each day, homework's on a regular basis, and a proper proof-based textbook or some form of lecture notes. Overall I would recommend him for learning the course material; but, if you want a more structured class you should probably look elsewhere.
Leonid Koralov DATA601 Expecting an A msml_nerd 05/21/2021	He is alright. Struggled with the pandemic online structure.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/29/2020	Above average. Besides reading from the book, he only gives slightly different proofs. He gives a lot of homework. His exams are difficult, especially the midterms, because of a shortage of time. The final is easier, with double time and 1.5 times as many questions as midterms. A difficult question in midterm 1 is similar to a homework problem. Another difficult question in midterm 2 is related to the Darboux theorem (which is not included in the textbook).
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2020	Koralov is nice and is always available to answer questions. He'll try to go deeper into the material and make sure you really understand the course. His exams are fair, and although he grades them a bit tough, he will curve the class to make up for it.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/03/2020	He is a good professor. Usually he is available as scheduled so that you can ask him questions. Usually, his exams are somewhat on the difficult side, but he is a fairly forgiving grader. It might be that he doesn't prepare the class with the problem solving skills to do the problems in the exam (as in our section over half the students ended up dropping the course). So his course is somewhat sink or swim. However, for 410 his cutoffs are very generous (85+ for at least an A-). Overall I would recommend him to others looking to take this course.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/28/2020	He strictly follow the book in his lectures. Lectures are helpful, but is the same as reading the book yourself. His exams are difficult with little curve, it's usually the case that you can't complete the exams on time. The grade cutoffs are rather low, but not cover up the difficulty of the exams. If you know the material well but don't have time to finish exams, midterms are extremely horrible while final is fine. He is extremely nice and knowledgeable, and he is very careful and serious as a mathematician(I guess). Hints: some midterm problems are similar to past final exams, don't wait till the end of semester to study them. I saw many problems about Mean Value Theorem, seems like he like it very much. I saw a problem on exam about Darboux Theorem (you can solve it with MVT, but very hard), you can try that.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/10/2019	He is a very nice professor. He is good at explaining things and he is pretty much always available as scheduled to entertain questions. He is very smart (he solved a question I was pondering for a week in around 30 seconds). Admittedly, he does "teach out of the book", in the literal sense: his lecture preparation consists of opening the book where we last left off and then lecturing some more. His exams are fairly difficult, but his grading for them is lenient if you demonstrate understanding of how to solve the problem. I also think his discussion on the beginning of the book (field axioms and natural numbers) was way too slow. Overall I would recommend him. For students who struggle more with the material I might not recommend him. For students who want their 410 experience to be extra spicy I would recommend Levermore instead.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Anonymous 05/20/2018	Unreasonably difficult exams with no curve
Leonid Koralov STAT410 Anonymous 05/11/2018	He's alright. Doesn't put a lot of preparation into the course, but he's good at explaining stuff so that somewhat makes up for it.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Expecting a B Anonymous 03/27/2018	I took this course 2 semesters ago with this professor and received a B. He was not helpful whatsoever. Wrote word for word from the book with very few examples (no examples outside of the book). I essentially read each section and taught myself the material. Exams were difficult with absolutely no partial credit given. I would never take a course with this professor again.
Leonid Koralov MATH411 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2017	The best professor. Smiles always and tells funny stories about his children. Exam grades sometimes rough (uniform distribution between 0 and 100) but fair.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A pens_suck 10/03/2016	Great professor, he was very thorough. People complaining about him are simply angry that they didn't get a good grade, despite not understanding the material. Exams were fair. Do your homework thoroughly, it's 410 that's what the class is about.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/04/2013	Foreword: reviews complaining about "spending way too much time on proofs" are obviously from people who have no business taking a 400-level course in the math department; upper-level math /is/ proofs. So, Leonid Koralov: Super-nice professor, always smiling, lots of office-hours, will always stay after to help you through a problem. Reasonable homework assignments, though they edge on the lengthy side. Very flexible re: late homework if you miss a lecture, which is refreshing. Very good lecturer. None of the material in the course was at all difficult to understand if you showed up and paid attention in lecture. All proofs done in satisfactory detail and explained lucidly. He occasionally goes on tangents, but they generally cover material you'll see in subsequent courses and I've found that many of them were quite helpful. He does assume a level of student competence with formal proof-based math in his lectures; if you are not yet comfortable with lectures consisting of definition -> claim -> proof -> repeat and little else, avoid. If you are, you will find that he's one of the better lecturers out there. Yes, he is a tough grader, but fair with partial credit. Be sure to write your proofs cleanly. Yes, his exams are fairly difficult (median grade was below 50% on both midterms, but most of this was due to many people in the class who simply were not ready to take a rigorous theory course). Little-to-no curve, but he will bump your grade up if you put in a fair effort and show a good grasp of the material.
Leonid Koralov STAT400 Anonymous 04/23/2012	I was in the same class as the other Fall 2011 students that posted and yes this guy to put it bluntly, sucks. I received an F in the class. It was my first semester at UMD, and I should have known better that in this school, most professors don't teach. I should have dropped the class rather than risk my gpa for this nonsense.
Leonid Koralov STAT400 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/15/2011	Koralov is by far the worst professor I've had on campus. He spends way too much time going over proofs and half the time he realizes he made a mistake early on which screws up everything you just learned. The examples he gives in class do not relate to what shows up on exams and he'll generally screw up on explaining them more than once so don't write in pen. Actually you're probably better off not writing anything he writes on the board because its most likely wrong. The average on the first test was somewhere in the 40's and he couldn't understand why everyone did so bad. When I went to his office hours to ask about a curve he said there might be a small one, but he was ok with failing the whole class because obviously we didn't study hard enough. The only days I learned something were the two days we had subs. Basically, avoid this man at all costs.
Leonid Koralov STAT400 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2011	Ok heads up guys this man is a nice guy. Office hours are three times a week, however he is not a good professor. His lectures usually involve proving the material being taught then afterwards at max expect one lecture he will go over 2 problems. O and dont get me started on the exams....The first exam the average was a 35 out of 85 second was a lot higher 60/100. So now what happens with the hordes of people who are still in the class they suffer from a higher curve. (in Fall 2011 31% of the class dropped.....) So yea if you like proofs and don't mind learning on your own from the cryptic book by all means take this professor with unreasonable exams.... If you want an easy A... Look somewhere else ....
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Anonymous 02/25/2011	He is definitely a nice guy, and has office hours three times a week (more than any other professor I've ever had). However, he does not curve at all, he barely gives partial credit, his exams are very difficult, and there were MANY people in the class who did not pass. Furthermore, his specialty is statistics, so having him teach MATH410 was a strange decision on the part of the math department. I don't recommend taking this particular class with him if proofs don't come easily to you. He tries to help, but he is only partially effective at doing so.
Leonid Koralov MATH410 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/18/2010	Nice guy, but pretty much just writes the book on the board. Although he usually makes some insightful comments which I usually found made it worth it to go to class. I dunno if he was just out of his element teaching MATH410 since he had only taught STAT classes before. He is a really smart guy, but a hard grader and no curve. Everyone failed the first test, and a lot of people failed the second one. He does want to help though, he tries very hard to help, but he just can't.