Michael Laskowski

This professor has taught: MATH241, MATH241H, MATH405, MATH410, MATH446, MATH712, MATH713, MATH818C, MATH818E, STAT410

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Michael Laskowski MATH712 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2025	Laskowski is an incredibly good professor. Very clearly loves teaching, and is always willing to answer any questions. Exams were takehome, and generally just slightly harder than homeworks. He is also willing to help with homework or exam questions if you get stuck. Very nice guy, and really good at teaching.
Michael Laskowski MATH405 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/23/2025	This was my favorite class this semester. I really liked lectures, he was very approachable in office hours, homeworks were sufficiently challenging without feeling overboard most of the time, the content was interesting to me. I don't know, this class just did it for me. I talked to some people about taking this class and not having taken MATH403 yet, and a few have questioned me for doing so. While basic content from that class may be helpful for this class, MATH403 is in no way an implicit prerequisite for this professor's MATH405 (it may be for some sections, though I don't know personally). Positivity is hard to write about, so I'll put a few things I didn't quite like about this class here. For one, homeworks are physically handed in during class. I do all my work digitally, and printers are my worst nightmare, so this bugged me quite a bit, even though I attended every class anyways. Exams are heavily weighted, as each midterm is 25%, and the final is 40%, with the remaining 10% being homeworks. This isn't quite as bad as it could be, as the exams were rather easy all things considered, and each of them come with a bit of extra credit, but it's something to keep in mind if exams aren't your strongsuit. The textbook we used, Linear Algebra Second Edition by Hoffman and Kunze, isn't bad by any means, but I didn't like some aspects of it. There are some problems in the book which aren't the most clear due to having wonky English, using terminology which hasn't been fully established (independent set comes to mind, where the book means linearly independent set without first establishing that fact, where independent set is a term from graph theory), or having odd symbol usage (using \to instead of \mapsto for mappings, for example). In general, I generally prefer how Linear Algebra Done Right by Sheldon Axler presents information, and used it as a second reference on a few occasions throughout the course. Finally, one particular lecture after exam 2 felt very rushed, which was rather annoying given that a homework on the topic was assigned that day and due the next class (usually, a full week is given to do ahttps://youtu.be/XjZHAa4hR68 homework). For me, my gripes are minor in the grand scheme of things. I highly recommend this professor for MATH405.
Michael Laskowski MATH405 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/31/2023	I loved his class. He is a great lecturer. Everything was always so clear after he explained it. Exams are, okay, dare I say easy, compared to others in the department. The exams are always very similar to homework (which are sometimes a bit long but reasonable still). You will never be shocked. I hope to take another class with Professor Laskowski, because he is just such a great professor.
Michael Laskowski MATH446 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2023	I absolutely love Professor Laskowski! He is extremely passionate about the topic and knows the content back and forth. He often went over proofs in a different way from the text, which made coming to class worthwhile (as someone who struggles with attendance, I appreciated this a lot). He provided lots of supplemental examples and visual helpers that really solidified the content. Almost all of the content was new for me, and I came out having learned a lot. Professor Laskowski writes his own homework sets instead of taking from the text, and the difficulty is always fair to what was covered in class. Overall, would definitely recommending this course if you want an introduction to foundational mathematics!
Michael Laskowski MATH446 Expecting an A tybug 05/30/2021	Excellent lecturer. Proofs were always formal and rarely handwaved (and when they were, we were warned ahead of time). This comes down to personal preference, but I quite liked his proof style and often only made minor wording changes when copying down proofs into my own notes. He knows his stuff by heart too. Only had to look at his notes while lecturing a handful of times over the course of the entire semester, and always had an insightful answer, counterexample, or proof ready for questions or when going over homework problems.
Michael Laskowski MATH241 Expecting a B Andrei 11/11/2017	Knows his material, entertaining lectures, typical MATH241 exams. Best of the bunch, I'd say.
Michael Laskowski MATH712 Anonymous 12/27/2014	Extremely friendly professor, always smiling and enthusiastic about the subject matter. Flexible office hours. Reasonable homework load. Both exams were take-home, and were fairly straightforward. Homework and exam problems often involved results that would prove important in later lectures, which was nice. He has a fairly idiosyncratic lecturing style, but I enjoyed it. Proofs are done in full rigor, but he often pauses to summarize what's going on in informal "slang," which is for the most part very helpful though occasionally his choice of terms is a bit perplexing. He gives a lot of context and motivation for the material, which is very nice. The only gripe I have (and it's a minor one) is that his constructions for a few of the major results were quite different than those given in most reference materials. I do find his approach rather more appealing than what appears to be the "standard," but this was a bit problematic at times.
Michael Laskowski MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2007	good prof. I would have had an A if i went to more lec and stayed up with the book. The material is not very interesting and sometimes confusing but his tests are fair and the quizzes and MATLAB's really help pull ur grade up in the class. He is one of the better prof in the MATH department.
Michael Laskowski MATH241 Expecting an A xsachinx 12/19/2007	Really a great professor.. def knows how to teach... really awesome lecture... has a diff way of teaching tho :)
Michael Laskowski MATH241 Anonymous 12/02/2007	I did not appreciate the way that he just made up random terms, and used very strange definitions of theories. He did not just dumb down the calculus concepts; it seemed as though he dumbed down the english language as well. Lecture was especially painful to sit through, but the tests were not too bad. Five tests (plus final), five matlabs (one is a freebie) and quizzes are left up to the TA, so it was not a very difficult class. He seems very nice, and always (somewhat overly) excited to teach. Unfortunately, I just did not like him as a teacher. Sure, it's a dull subject. But I would rather learn the material than spend a semester talking in fake terms.
Michael Laskowski MATH221 Expecting an A+ kbe12478 11/14/2007	A very clear and insightful teacher. Three tests and and exam, plus weekly quizzes in discussion. I would recommend him to anyone who needs to take a math course.
Michael Laskowski MATH241 gss 10/31/2007	Very good professor. Clear in his explanations, and he really seemed to enjoy teaching the material. The subject matter is dry so there's only so much he can do, but he tried. Fair tests and grading.
Michael Laskowski MATH221 Expecting an A vdawg 10/21/2007	Good lecturer (as far as math lecturers go), but he really does care that you understand the material, and will go out of his way to respond to your questions. I had to miss his final exam, and he was an absolute dear in accomodating me.