Andrew Lawrie | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Andrew Lawrie MATH464 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/12/2025	ANDREW LAWRIE: The content of this course is difficult, but it isn’t bad when you put in the effort and study. Dr. Lawrie makes this course more enjoyable and less of a nightmare than other profs, and it’s his first semester teaching at UMD! LECTURES (Rating: 5/5): The lectures had a nice twist to them. As the previous reviewer said there were a lot of historical facts being brought up about the mathematicians behind the various identities we learn, and Dr. Lawrie also goes on some tangents to get us excited about the content. HOMEWORK (Rating: 5/5): There were a few 5-problem homework assignments to be turned in via Gradescope. They’re not bad at all, but they do take time! EXAMS (Rating 5/5): The exams are easy if you understand the logic behind the questions. The only reason why I couldn’t understand them was because I’m an idiot. But he will give you an idea of what will be on the exam on the study guide. Did you master those problems? Yay! Here’s your free A. OVERALL RATING: 5/5 Structure for Fall 2025: - Homework (15%; lowest is dropped, we had six) - Midterm (35%) - Final Exam (50%)
Andrew Lawrie MATH464 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/10/2025	Professor Lawrie has, in effect, hijacked the entirety of MATH464. Nobody in the class has taken MATH464 before, so none of us knew what the class was supposed to look like, what content we were supposed to go over. However, the astute among you may be able to look at the COURSE DESCRIPTION in the SCHEDULE OF CLASSES and note that Lawrie only covered exactly TWO (2) of the topics listed in the description: the fourier series, and the fourier transform, the two most fundamental ideas to the course. Everything else: discrete fourier transform, poisson summations, sampling, laplace transformations, you know, the stuff that is actually important to the applications of transforms, were all completely missing from the class. So what, pray tell, did he replace it with? He, entirely of his own volition, changed the "Transform METHODS" class into a "Transform THEORY" class. Notice the difference: methods and theory are FAMOUSLY two diametrically opposed areas of study, they may as well be antonyms. And yet, tell me why in the METHODS class, we spent the entire class learning the proofs, derivations, and theory behind the fourier series and transform, ignoring every possible application. We barely even covered the one or two application examples that we did discuss in any sense other than theory, certainly not enough to be able to apply them in the real world. I took this class because I wanted to AVOID all the theory, and in every past semester the course was, you know, accurate to the description. However, Lawrie just decided that he wanted to teach theory and here we are. Mind you, he made no indication that he would make this change from the usual course, I had to find this out by looking at the course description, past syllabi, and talking to people who had taken the course in previous semesters. The absolute audacity that this man has to change the course, without telling anyone, in such a way that actively harms my education is astounding. I have absolutely no use for any of the concepts we learned in class and I am LITERALLY going into signal processing as a career path. Now, there's the issue of his teaching. When I say that not a single person was able to follow what he was saying, this is not an understatement. After repeatedly asking him to slow down earlier in the semester, most students just gave up. He talks fast, explains concepts very hand-wavingly, and tends to ramble and go on tangents all the time. You can imagine how much that helps an already highly theoretical and abstract class where you already struggle to hold it in your mind what all is happening the proof (not that the class should be like that anyway). It takes a certain degree of skill to decipher what he means when he is trying to make a point but has to change the wording of his sentence every two or three words. He is one of the people who are prime examples of the common math adage "as soon as math starts to make sense to you, you lose the ability to make sense to other people". The only redeemable quality of this class, and the reason that people liked him as a professor, was because he made sure to give all the exam questions beforehand, and the exams were a large portion of the grade. However, in my opinion, this does nothing to redeem the absolutely abhorrent bastardization he made of MATH464 as a course. Not to mention if you are one of the unlucky people to do poorly on the exam despite being given the questions, you are beyond cooked.
Andrew Lawrie MATH464 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/04/2025	Not going to lie… this class has just worn me down. I’ve tried so hard to keep up, but it feels like nothing clicks anymore. I honestly don’t think I’ve learned much since the first day, and it’s really discouraging. The professor is a genuinely cool person, I can see how he could be fun? But he speaks so fast that I can barely process anything before he moves on. The homework is where it really hits. It’s so difficult that half the time I’m staring at the problems wondering if I missed an entire chapter somewhere. Nothing we do in class seems to actually prepare us for what we’re expected to do on the assignments or exams. It just feels… impossible. Unless you’re studying nonstop and doing every textbook problem like it’s your full-time job, it’s so hard to keep your head above water. You have to come into this already pretty experienced to survive it. At this point I’m just exhausted. If you’re taking this class, I honestly wish you the best. You’re going to need it.
Andrew Lawrie MATH464 Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/05/2025	Andy / Dr. Lawrie is a wonderful professor. He adds some history (like how mathematician Paley met his tragic fate in a skiing accident) and some small tangents from his excitement in the class to make it interesting, which is quite nice because it keeps me engaged with the course's rigorous and academically challenging material. While the exams make up 85% of our course grade (with 50% being a final and 35% being a midterm), he provides nice study guides with similar questions that help us prepare for the exams. I didn't do as well as I thought I should (this blame shouldn't be on him, but rather on me); however, I know you will all succeed with Dr. Lawrie. Would recommend him for a future MATH 4XX course!

Andrew Lawrie
MATH464

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
12/12/2025

ANDREW LAWRIE: The content of this course is difficult, but it isn’t bad when you put in the effort and study. Dr. Lawrie makes this course more enjoyable and less of a nightmare than other profs, and it’s his first semester teaching at UMD! LECTURES (Rating: 5/5): The lectures had a nice twist to them. As the previous reviewer said there were a lot of historical facts being brought up about the mathematicians behind the various identities we learn, and Dr. Lawrie also goes on some tangents to get us excited about the content. HOMEWORK (Rating: 5/5): There were a few 5-problem homework assignments to be turned in via Gradescope. They’re not bad at all, but they do take time! EXAMS (Rating 5/5): The exams are easy if you understand the logic behind the questions. The only reason why I couldn’t understand them was because I’m an idiot. But he will give you an idea of what will be on the exam on the study guide. Did you master those problems? Yay! Here’s your free A. OVERALL RATING: 5/5 Structure for Fall 2025: - Homework (15%; lowest is dropped, we had six) - Midterm (35%) - Final Exam (50%)

Andrew Lawrie
MATH464

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/10/2025

Professor Lawrie has, in effect, hijacked the entirety of MATH464. Nobody in the class has taken MATH464 before, so none of us knew what the class was supposed to look like, what content we were *supposed* to go over. However, the astute among you may be able to look at the COURSE DESCRIPTION in the SCHEDULE OF CLASSES and note that Lawrie only covered exactly TWO (2) of the topics listed in the description: the fourier series, and the fourier transform, the two most fundamental ideas to the course. Everything else: discrete fourier transform, poisson summations, sampling, laplace transformations, you know, the stuff that is actually important to the applications of transforms, were all completely missing from the class. So what, pray tell, did he replace it with? He, entirely of his own volition, changed the "Transform METHODS" class into a "Transform THEORY" class. Notice the difference: methods and theory are FAMOUSLY two diametrically opposed areas of study, they may as well be antonyms. And yet, tell me why in the METHODS class, we spent the entire class learning the proofs, derivations, and theory behind the fourier series and transform, ignoring every possible application. We barely even covered the one or two application examples that we did discuss in any sense other than theory, certainly not enough to be able to apply them in the real world. I took this class because I wanted to AVOID all the theory, and in every past semester the course was, you know, accurate to the description. However, Lawrie just decided that he wanted to teach theory and here we are. Mind you, he made no indication that he would make this change from the usual course, I had to find this out by looking at the course description, past syllabi, and talking to people who had taken the course in previous semesters. The absolute audacity that this man has to change the course, without telling anyone, in such a way that actively harms my education is astounding. I have absolutely no use for any of the concepts we learned in class and I am LITERALLY going into signal processing as a career path. Now, there's the issue of his teaching. When I say that not a single person was able to follow what he was saying, this is not an understatement. After repeatedly asking him to slow down earlier in the semester, most students just gave up. He talks fast, explains concepts very hand-wavingly, and tends to ramble and go on tangents all the time. You can imagine how much that helps an already highly theoretical and abstract class where you already struggle to hold it in your mind what all is happening the proof (not that the class should be like that anyway). It takes a certain degree of skill to decipher what he means when he is trying to make a point but has to change the wording of his sentence every two or three words. He is one of the people who are prime examples of the common math adage "as soon as math starts to make sense to you, you lose the ability to make sense to other people". The only redeemable quality of this class, and the reason that people liked him as a professor, was because he made sure to give all the exam questions beforehand, and the exams were a large portion of the grade. However, in my opinion, this does nothing to redeem the absolutely abhorrent bastardization he made of MATH464 as a course. Not to mention if you are one of the unlucky people to do poorly on the exam despite being given the questions, you are beyond cooked.

Andrew Lawrie
MATH464

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/04/2025

Not going to lie… this class has just worn me down. I’ve tried so hard to keep up, but it feels like nothing clicks anymore. I honestly don’t think I’ve learned much since the first day, and it’s really discouraging. The professor is a genuinely cool person, I can see how he could be fun? But he speaks so fast that I can barely process anything before he moves on. The homework is where it really hits. It’s so difficult that half the time I’m staring at the problems wondering if I missed an entire chapter somewhere. Nothing we do in class seems to actually prepare us for what we’re expected to do on the assignments or exams. It just feels… impossible. Unless you’re studying nonstop and doing every textbook problem like it’s your full-time job, it’s so hard to keep your head above water. You have to come into this already pretty experienced to survive it. At this point I’m just exhausted. If you’re taking this class, I honestly wish you the best. You’re going to need it.

Andrew Lawrie
MATH464

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
11/05/2025

Andy / Dr. Lawrie is a wonderful professor. He adds some history (like how mathematician Paley met his tragic fate in a skiing accident) and some small tangents from his excitement in the class to make it interesting, which is quite nice because it keeps me engaged with the course's rigorous and academically challenging material. While the exams make up 85% of our course grade (with 50% being a final and 35% being a midterm), he provides nice study guides with similar questions that help us prepare for the exams. I didn't do as well as I thought I should (this blame shouldn't be on him, but rather on me); however, I know you will all succeed with Dr. Lawrie. Would recommend him for a future MATH 4XX course!