Melissa Macasieb

This professor has taught: MATH130, MATH241, MATH401, MATH403, MATH406, MATH430, MATH461, STAT410

Sort By:

Information	Review
Melissa Macasieb MATH241 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/19/2014	Melissa Macasieb is an okay professor. I had her for calc 3 this past semester. She is extremely hesitant as she teaches, and makes at least 2-3 mistakes each lecture. She is organized, but teaches directly out of the book. I mean it. The examples she uses in class are literally straight from the book. Her exams are pretty straight-forward and are parallel to her practice exams. Overall, she is an okay teacher, but she does not seem to have much confidence in front of the class, which always made me question her knowledge of the material as she was teaching it. I don't recommend her, but she isn't the worst. Hope this helped.
Melissa Macasieb MATH241 Anonymous 05/17/2014	Easily the worst teacher I have had in my life. She refuses to answer questions during office hours if you ask about something that was ever covered in lecture. She messes up 5-6 times every lecture because she is going too fast for the class and herself. Very rude to students during lecture, overall a poor teacher. I highly do not recommend her!
Melissa Macasieb MATH130 Expecting an A- KevinRich 05/20/2013	Macasieb is very organized but speaks with a monotone. Her exams r easy if you studied. She frequently makes mistakes on the board. Overall the class is not hard if you put in the work
Melissa Macasieb MATH130 Anonymous 05/01/2013	I liked Dr. Macasieb alot. She was very organized with her lectures and made sure everybody was able to see. Her exams were just like the practice ones she gave us and were extremely similar if not exactly the same to the homework problems in the book. If you go to lecture, you will do well
Melissa Macasieb MATH241 Anonymous 04/01/2013	I took her for both MATH241 and MATH461. I received a C and a B, respectively. Teaching Style - Extremely structured and organized, which is something I highly appreciated - Uses a chalkboard and writes very large, ensuring you can clearly see and have time to write everything down in your notes - Dry and no nonsense. There is literally no personality inserted. I liked it. Testing Style - I never got the hang of her exams. - Always seemed more difficult or trickier than her practice problems - In MATH461 ridiculous amounts of justification (citing theorems) were needed in exams. Just plain annoying and not a good reason to get points taken off. Also, not something she emphasized, so beware that it is, in fact, expected of you. Grading - grades are not uploaded on canvas, as the math department thinks it's special and uses it's own website - I would suggest making an excel spreadsheet to keep track of your grades for yourself A note about MATH241 -it is very difficult material -beware of matlab -I struggled with this class and ended up getting a C. I'm not fantastic at math, though. A note about MATH461 -the material is ridiculously easy - I paid no attention to this class whatsoever and still got a B
Melissa Macasieb MATH461 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/02/2013	She's pretty clear during lectures, although she writes at a rapid-fire pace. Took me most of the semester to realize that it's better to just pay attention and write down useful examples since she (mostly) teaches straight from the book's chapters. Exams are pretty straightforward and similar to practice exams, although they may emphasize different topics. Homework collected only for completion. Overall, this is probably one of the easiest math courses available for scientists/engineers to take.
Melissa Macasieb MATH461 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2012	I'm not going to give a very long review for Dr. Macasieb because I stopped going to lecture after the first month but here goes: As far as her skill as a lecturer, I thought that Dr. Macasieb was pretty good; a 3.9/5. She has a normal accent which counts for a lot and she's pretty dry (follows the book and the concepts in a pretty straightforward) so she's not really bad, per se. That being said, I didn't find her lectures to be very interesting and she did tend to make mistakes often enough where it made some things confusing. It got to the point where I figured (correctly) that I could just learn the material out of the book and not really miss out on anything I would have learned in lecture so that's what I did and I ended up with an A no problem. As far as homeworks go, her assignments took quite a while...I'm talking a minimum of 2.5 hours if you didn't put much effort into them and around 4 if you did. They all came straight out of the textbook so they definitely helped to strengthen the concepts of the class. Basically, it ended up being the same thing as getting points for studying. The Matlabs were also really easy and most of them took me around an hour (where a decent part of that was making it look nice and revising it). Her exams were straightforward and, as far as math exams go, pretty easy. Overall I definitely recommend her for a linear (or any) class. Her lectures were a bit boring in my opinion but other than that she was an awesome professor. If you're good at math then you'll probably get a B with almost no effort and probably an A if you put in the time that any class deserves.
Melissa Macasieb MATH406 nmendels 12/18/2012	She obviously knows number theory really well but her lectures were devoted more to proving theorems which really weren't tested at all. Also all of the proofs were in the book anyway so she could have just said "for details on the proof for theorem x consult the book." Also her grader was quite draconian and if you said something like "I lost 8/10 points for an arithmetic error", she would say "if you want I could maybe give you a few points back" and then spend a few minutes continuing to expand on how you were wrong which was quite annoying.
Melissa Macasieb MATH406 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/23/2012	Macasieb is great. She understands number theory in and out, and communicates it very well to her students. Lectures are focused on going through basic proofs of the material, and a sufficient number of examples for you to understand what's going on. If you skip class, you can just read the book; it's essentially the same thing. Grades consist of weekly homework from the book (lowest 1-2 grades dropped), weekly quizzes that are homework problems verbatim (again, lowest few dropped), two midterms, and a cumulative final. Exam questions are either computational (and thus simple) or proof-based (almost always come from problems in the textbook that are recommended but not explicitly assigned). Exam averages suck (we're talking 55-65ish), so she will obviously curve a bit in the end. Advice to do well: keep up with the material (early concepts such as Fermat's theorem and modulo arithmetic definitely impact the later material substantially), do extra practice problems from the book. This class requires a bit of work, but if you put in the effort, you'll be fine.
Melissa Macasieb MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 07/09/2012	Okay I am reviewing Dr. Macasieb because I read GoTestudo!'s post, and thought to myself "Hmm D. Macasieb was not great, and going to class made me seem stupid." She does allow one page of notes (front only) for each calc 3 test and one page notes (front and back) for the final, but believe me that did not make taking the tests a sure shot of getting an A in the class. To be honest some of her tests had quite the curve ball, or a little trick that needed to be understood in order to solve the problems, but like GoTestudo! said her tests were straightforward, and at least 75% of the problems were easy that means 3/4 problems. So don't mess up one problem or you are down to a C. It is true that this course drops your lowest test score, but I wouldn't count on only getting one low score because like I said the course isn't easy. In my case the class was not easy, and I found myself learning more from the TA than from Dr. Macasieb because she writes too fast on the chalkboard while explaining the concepts, so it makes it to get a thorough understanment while you are frantically jotting down proofs. Dr. Macasieb's matlabs are dated exercises from another UMD Professor's matlabs, but they are not that simple. Most of the matlabs are very thorough, and require a considerable amount of time. Take my word I had an indian friend help me, which I am grateful of. The quizzes are generally homework problems straight from the book. If you want to do well in this class I cannot stress more than practicing the homework problems, it is vital to your health and grade in this class if you want to come out decently on top with a B or A. But if you want a C forget about doing anything in this class because you most likely will get it with Zero effort. Why? Well fortunately there is a curve at the end of the class that revitalizes everyone's demeanor and restores happiness at the end of the semester. My advice for the final is to fully understand the last chapters of the book and do all of the practice exams.
Melissa Macasieb MATH406 Anonymous 05/25/2012	Like most math, number theory is not difficult to understand once you learn to mentally adopt new methods of abstract visualization. How this is best done probably depends on the student. This branch of math really amounts to little more than a massive game of pattern-finding, which can be a lot of fun. My issue with Macasieb is that she takes the fun out of it. She fails to communicate any enthusiasm for the material, or math and problem solving in general, lecturing purely from the book, proof after proof. She makes superficial attempts to engage the class, by occasionally prompting for part of a proof or example, but has no real sense of how to harness classroom energy. Ultimately, there is no reason to go to class if you learn well from books. She uses a good text, and reading it let me focus on the math without the awkward tension of the classroom. YMMV, but for me the point of math is that's it's fun, and this is not a fun class.
Melissa Macasieb MATH241 Expecting an A GoTestudo! 05/01/2012	Dr. Macasieb was great. Her tests were super easy and straightforward, thanks to open notes policy that went into effect for Calc III students this semester (Spring 2012). Either way, she made the class less intimidating than I thought it would be. Overall, she does a great job at teaching the material. I often found myself going to class because it was easier than learning from the book. She teaches what you ought to know without going too much into theory and all that jazz. Excellent teacher, I would definitely recommend her.
Melissa Macasieb MATH130 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/17/2012	I would definitely recommend Prof. Macasieb. This class is relatively easy if you have taken calculus before. Prof. Macasieb gives a lot of examples in class which is really helpful. Homework is optional which is nice, always go to discussion because that's where most of the points are earned. Tests are moderately hard, but there is a curve on the final grade. Overall good class and good teacher.
Melissa Macasieb MATH406 Expecting an A+ zaqu413 12/24/2011	Macasieb was a great professor, but that comes with a slight catch. She really only wants to help the students who seem serious and study the material often enough to never fall behind on the small things. She gets rather annoyed during lecture if she needs to explain something that we went over last week. That being said if you are on top of things you will do fine. Homework/Quizzes: Was somewhat difficult, but manageable most of the time. 4 questions were often turned in for grading and all the other questions were possibilities to be seen on a quiz the day the homework was due. The quizzes were just redoing the hw problem w/o the book or notes, which wasn't hard to do. The Book: "Intro to Number Theory" by Dudley or something like that. It was a pretty good book. It was short, but effective. Although I must say that the author starts to get impatient and lazy around section 12, but nothing really to worry about. Tests: 2 Midterms and a final (ALL are cumulative, despite what she might say). Number Theory is one of those classes where if you fall behind you stay behind, because there isn't any concept that you can just say "I just wont bother learning that and I can scrape by with a B" because everything builds on the previous stuff. The Midterms were about 75% computation and 25% proofs The Final was about 60/40 computation to proof. Overall I would say make sure you know all the theorems that took a while to prove during class or that she emphasizes, because those are sure to show up on the tests. FINAL NOTES: -MAKE SURE TO GET MODULAR ARITHMETIC DOWN SUPER FAST OR YOU WILL BE LOST. -FERMAT'S THEOREM IS VERY IMPORTANT, AS IS PRETTY MUCH ANY THEOREM PROVED BY EULER OR EUCLID (THERE ARE MANY) -THE ONLY WAY THAT SHE WILL HELP YOU IS IF IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOU HAVE PUT A LOT OF EFFORT INTO FIGURING SOMETHING OUT AND HAVE A GOOD UNDERSTANDING OF THE MATERIAL. IF YOU SEEM LOST SHE WILL NOT HELP, SHE EXPECTS YOU TO BE ABLE TO FIGURE "SIMPLE" THINGS OUT BY YOURSELF BY NOW. (Here "simple" means stuff we did last week) Also I managed an A+ because I destroyed the final, I studied for it for pretty much 4 days straight.
Melissa Macasieb MATH130 Anonymous 12/02/2011	She actually isn't as bad as the other reviews say. She explains everything very clearly, although sometimes she goes too in depth in proving a concept that it becomes a bit confusing. Good for math majors though. Homework is not collected although the quizzes are based off of hw questions. I already took calc in high school so this class was a bit redundant. I never did hw nor did I even open the book, just studied notes. However, if you did not take calc before, you better do the hw and study for this class!
Melissa Macasieb MATH241H Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2011	Good teacher. Gives suggested homework problems that aren't collected, but are extremely similar to quiz questions. Quizzes are weekly, and the lowest two are dropped, but are fair. 4 Matlab assignments which are pretty easy, and she tells you all the commands you need to know to complete them. Tests are straightforward and should be easy if you did the homework and have done well on the quizzes. Gives a worksheet every Wednesday to make the 2 hour block a lot more bearable. She is nice and willing to help if you ask for it. If you need an honors version math, I recommend taking her.
Melissa Macasieb MATH241H Expecting an A AxumArc 05/05/2011	Good teacher. Definitely only got poor reviews because the students in the MATH220 class don't have a strong background or don't want to put in the work. Went quickly (because it was an honors class) but covers difficult material well, gives very good notes, and is very accessible for questions. No mandatory homework for 241H but problems are provided, as well as a practice test before each test and a Matlab (fairly simple) every few weeks.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/04/2011	Terrible teacher, by far the worst math teacher I have ever had, and I've had plenty bad math teachers. She spoke way to fast that it sounded like a pidgin and screwed up on nearly every example, to the point that I could barely understand the material. Granted I do not have a heavy mathematic background (but that does not mean I'm fucking retarded at math) regardless she incapable of teaching me anything in this ELEMENTARY calculus course. Her homeworks were annoyingly tedious and her review guides for the tests were terrible/practically nonexistent, to say the least. And i am saying the least here, personally i wish i could retake the course with anyone else, anyyyyone else.
Melissa Macasieb MATH241H Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/01/2011	Like some people have said, I don't know why she has gotten so many bad ratings. The only explanation I can fathom for her being a bad teacher is if you have no solid background in math. Sadly, lots of people think they're "good" at math even though they aren't. She is very easy to take notes from and is very nice overall. She does her best to explain things to students, but usually she won't explain things if only one or two students are confused. She expects you to come to her during office hours if you're confused, so take advantage of that if you do get lost. Definitely do the homework -- the quizzes are extremely similar if not the same.
Melissa Macasieb MATH241H Anonymous 12/20/2010	She's an adequate professor. She knows the material, but she speaks quickly. You have to listen and take notes really well to catch everything. Do your homework. The quizzes are basically the homework. She's flexible with making appointments which is great. And she's very amiable out of class. And study for the final. You can get an A in the class if you get an A on the final.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting an A aralchen 05/19/2010	I have no idea why she's rated so lowly. People complain about how bad of a teacher she is, but that's not true. She made math really straight forward. She teaches by example, which is one of the best ways to learn for me (but probably not for others), which is why I did so well in her class. Tests are straight forward and come right of the practice problems in the book. Her ample examples make sure you don't get confused. The weekly discussion quizzes are not easy and I think they do a good job preparing you for the midterms. She's a rather nice lady but don't expect somebody very personable. She does her job and that's about it.
Melissa Macasieb MATH410 Expecting an A toypajme 05/16/2010	What everyone said is mostly true. She makes tons of errors on the board, and at least for 410, she basically wrote the book on the board with little extra explanation. Sometimes she is helpful in office hours and other times she isn't depending on her mood. Just sit on her till she gives you a good enough hint. Overall, she was okay. Test questions came out of no where sometimes and you don't even see a glimpse of the difficulty of the test problems till the class before where she gives a practice exam, and those are never indicative to how the test will be. The first one was hard and the test was okay. The second one was easier and the test was impossible (average dropped 10 points), and the final practice test was ridiculous but the final was very easy. Go figure. It's just a very mixed up class.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting a B jaboomday 05/20/2009	I feel bad because she's a nice lady and she's really smart but she screws up during lecture so much that you just become extremely lost. And she didn't curve our class either.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting an A- TheEnilorac 05/14/2009	I'm really not sure why Macasieb gets horrible reviews. I think she teaches well, and the fact that everyone who has left reviews is expecting an A can attest to her capability as a professor. I like her and she's very flexible. Here exams are pretty easy, problems are similar to ones gone over in class. Weekly quizzes and 2-3 webassigns due on Weds. every week. My only complaint is that sometimes she will skip explaining basic algebra like say foiling out something, but if you have basic logic abilities it's easy to figure out what she did. This class is easy, and I'd like to mention that this is my first time taking calculus.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Anonymous 02/27/2009	I sometimes think about shooting myself in the head after having to take in the amount of crap that comes out this lady's mouth. She does give good notes, but SHE DOESNT EXPLAIN ANYTHING...
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Anonymous 12/16/2008	She is by far the worst math teacher I have ever had. I had never taken Calculus before, and she was almost impossible to follow or to learn from because she would move extremely fast, not respond well to student questions,and I dont think she made it through a problem the entire semester without making a mistake or being corrected by a student at some point or the other. My TA didn't even speak english which didn't help things either. I hear most of the other math220 teachers are a lot better so Try to avoid taking her class if you can
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Anonymous 12/12/2008	Dr. Macasieb has her knowledge of calculus. I understand her making mistakes on lectures because she's a human being as well. But here is the problem. She did not provide her students (or at least me) a proper instruction on the exams that resulted in point deduction. I had the numerical answers correct but because I forgot to put the units of measure, I was deducted of points. I mean...it could've been my stupidity but I was kind of on the run as time ticked away...an exam that could've been an A turned out a B because I did not put units...it really made me think twice about this lady... I hope she realizes that it's NOT O.K. to assume that her students would know things she knows because we sometimes (or most of the time) DON'T unless told.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting an A rblood 12/11/2008	A background of me, I've always excelled in math, i'm passionate about it, love it, and it comes easy to me. Ms Macasieb is highly knowledgabele on the subject she teaches, there's no question. But as a teacher, she is just terrible. She can't explain really what she does, get's impatient as if we should already know, and she's merely reminding us of the content. I breezed through online homework, and always helped my friends do their homework, and i think it's safe to say that i taught better than she did, for the mere fact of explaining. Just today, i had a question on a webassign homework, that i wasn't able to finish, and she asked if we wanted to see anything. I told her I'd like to see how to do it, and when other students said they did it, she just said you should've been able to as well. How helpful of her. Because of her teaching habits, I failed to maintain an A as I hoped I would. I recommend a different teacher if this is your first calculus course or if you aren't a quick learner. Because she covers so much content, rarely explaining it. Another thing i disliked was that when she would introduce a new topic, she would do example problems out of the book, which didn't help me, because I already look through the book when reviewing the content.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2008	Wow, not much to say. First, I'll say that I am getting an A in the course only because i had a fantastic calculus teacher in High School. Second, if i hadn't taken this course in HS, i would be failing, because this woman, CAN NOT TEACH. She runs through almost 20 full chalkboards a lecture and loses the majority of the class within 5 minutes, she does not encourage students helping other students because she feels that she is smarter than everyone, which i guarentee, is NOT TRUE. Macasieb IS THE WORST TEACHER I HAVE EVER HAD FOR MATHEMATICS. If this is your first time taking calculus, I highly recommend not taking it with her.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting an A bkretzer 12/09/2008	Overall, she knows her stuff. But she does not present the material well. She makes a lot of error on the board and is very impatient with the students. I took calc. in high school and this is why I am doing well. If I was learning this info. for the first time, I would be lost. If you are new to calc., find a new teacher. There are quizzes weekly during discussion sections and web assign homework weekly. If you have experience with calc. this is an easy course.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2008	I took a very simple calc in high school and we only went over simple derivatives. If I hadn't had the background, I agree that this class would be hard because she isn't the best, most engaging teacher. But it's not like I learned everything from the course in high school. You just have to take notes and look in your book. It's not that hard if you really try. A quiz in every discussion. WebAssign due every week. 3 Midterms, 1 Final.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Anonymous 12/03/2008	she makes too many errors and glosses over the subject like she were reading it off of a report. there is very little engagement between students and professor. you find a better teacher in your calc textbook.
Melissa Macasieb MATH220 Expecting a B breezy 12/02/2008	She was the worst teacher for Calculus. She writes good notes on the board, but she is always impatient and doesn't explain herself. Thank God I took Calc in high school or I would have absolutely no idea what was going on in class. If you already took Calc, she will give you really nice notes, but if you haven't taken Calc already... I suggest another Calc teacher. She posts her homework online, its generally 2-3 assignments due every Friday. 2-3 Midterms and a Final. Midterms are 100 points each, and Final is 200. You must go to the Discussion sections.