Arnaja Mitra

This professor has taught: MATH121, MATH135, MATH246
Information Review
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/22/2025
She is a really nice professor who cares about her students. Yes she can be a little hard to understand at times but her exams, quizzes, and home works were very fair. For a 4 credit class it wasn't that much work the content itself isn't t bad at all.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/21/2025
Don't trust any of the bad reviews. Mitra is super sweet and helpful, even though she has bit of an accent. Her handwriting isn't the best but its still readable. In terms of content, this class is insanely easy and covers basic algebra and linear algebra, among other things. I lost 1 point on every midterm and ended the course with a 98%, all while never going to lecture. I went to lecture the day before the exam each time, and that was it. A week prior to our midterm, I'd just study her lecture notes, which contain problems pretty much exactly like the ones you'll find in the exam. The probability unit was the only somewhat challenging part of this course. The only annoying part about this class is that discussion is mandatory, but you can just go to take a picture of the worksheet and then leave early and submit it at home. The homework and classwork are all free extra credit and the oral "exams" (which are just group worksheets) were also super easy. Overall I'd 100% recommend Mitra.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/20/2025
I feel like some of the earlier reviews are kinda unfair. Like yeah, she has kinda loopy handwriting and a bit of an accent, but don't we all? She genuinely seems like a kind person, and she does provide all the material you would need to do well in this class. Which is, admittedly, not that hard if you've taken harder math classes. She even dropped + curved the third exam when people struggled on it, provided additional practice on the probability questions that people were struggling on, and curved the final slightly. If you have to take MATH135 for your major, you should take it with her. She genuinely wants people to learn and succeed.
Arnaja Mitra

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/12/2025
A super sweet professor who genuinely knows her stuff- I think most of the critiques of her below are valid (especially with her handwriting- I struggled parsing her notes, especially at the beginning of the semester when I hadn't acclimated to them), but I genuinely believe as she gained her footing within the course her class got better and better. she does term things a little oddly (archaically, even?) but I personally found them easy to keep up with. she's relatively kind with grading (dropping the lowest out of 3 exams and not /extremely/ picky with how you show your work), and has a lot of filler points to buff your grade. She's also more than willing to let you submit HW work late, provided you reach out and request the opportunity specifically! TLDR: handwriting can be tough to read. stick to just the sample problems she posts on her slides and ignore the definitions if you have trouble deciphering them. Her speech patterns differ a little from the book/what you might have learned previously. She is so so so nice and sweet and the class is easy.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/25/2025
so sweet; handwriting could be better, but overall she really does care about her students. Exams were easy except for midterm 3 which was kinda a curveball but she ended up curving it and dropping people's lowest midterm score to help everyone out
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/24/2025
Dr. Mitra is honestly the only good thing about the math department at UMD. She is really sweet and nice, and even though she doesnt explain well sometimes, she is more than willing to repeat it until you understand. Other than that, her lecture notes are easy to understand (in terms of structure) so if you miss a lecture you can easily understand from her notes, she even writes little sentences on each page to explain whats going on for your understanding. She is also approachable in office hours and is willing to explain any concept for you. Her exams are fairly easy (not the recent one) but even then she literally explained a difficult question to students mid exam and then shortly after announced that the exam will be curved and dropped if its your lowest. She is really sweet and makes jokes mid lecture, I highly recommend taking her for 135!
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Anonymous
04/23/2025
She is very sweet and caring for her students. She tries to make things as understandable as possible. She wants all her students to succeed. She is very approachable and will gladly answer any questions you have for her. She is very engaging with her students, she makes sure to ask if everything is okay, if we are doing okay, and she tries to get to know her students are well as possible. Exams are exactly like what we do in class. the course is structed, so you pass. Examples we do in class and textbook questions are the best way to study for exams. There are 3 midterms and the final is cumulative but she tells you specifically what you need to study for the midterms. Sometimes you will need to do a bit of teaching yourself but overall, I enjoy having her as a professor, she is doing a great job!
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/18/2025
Professor Mitra is a really sweet and incredibly knowledgable professor. It's really obvious she wants students to succeed and states that she makes exams as simple to comprehend as possible for our own success. The exams aren't made to trick you at all, they're very straightforward and based on the textbook, notes, and examples from class. Same with the short weekly quizzes and worksheets given in discussion. People just love to criticize based on her handwriting and mannerisms but even though her notes are a little difficult to read if you didn't go to class as she writes them, she's always been incredibly open about reaching out for more explanations and clarifications. For a teaching a simple class like Math135 for the first time, she's doing really well and it's clear she cares about her students.
Arnaja Mitra

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/16/2025
Prof. Mitra is not a bad professor. She is extremely sweet and understanding of students' time. She makes time for students when needed. However, I think her handwriting is hard to read most of the time, and she doesn't answer questions well. You do have to self-teach for some concepts, but the classwork, worksheets, and exams are fairly easy and made to better our understanding. For a first-time professor, she is doing well!
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/16/2025
She gives many assignments that are honestly extra credit and easy marks. The exams are quite easy and the lectures can be mindane but she tries to engage with students as much as she can.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/16/2025
She has a great personality but it genuinely feels worthless to attend lectures since she reads off of information in the textbook and the notes she posts afterwards are incomprehensible because of the handwriting. I literally have taught myself more through Youtube and Google than her class. At least the exams aren't too bad.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
04/15/2025
She is a very kind person and it is evident that she wants her students to succeed; however, there are some issues. Her notes are in cursive, so if you do not know how to read it before, you may struggle (especially if you are someone who doesn't attend lecture). Despite this, her quizzes/tests/homeworks are extremely fair and reflective of what we have learned in the class so far. I highly recommend getting the textbook if you are taking this class because it has sample problems with an answer key along with detailed explanations. The difference with this class compared to other things is that the discussion is where you have graded assignments: classworks (mini canvas quizzes) and worksheets; you have discussion twice a week and one of these assignments each day. All in all, a very manageable class taught by a nice person who is still growing as a professor.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/15/2025
Super difficult to understand, notes are basically illegible, no point in going to the lectures so I basically taught this course to myself. If u buy the textbook u will realize that her notes are essentially just a word for word copy of what the textbook has written (if u can even read her notes). She seems like a nice person but definently not a good teacher by any means.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/15/2025
Lectures are hard to understand, and handwriting is illegible. Professor is very kind and understanding. I rely on the textbook and discussion classes.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/15/2025
She's really very sweet! Really! I'm not so sure MATH135 is the class where she shines. It's very much a review of high school algebra (with the occasional matrix thrown in) and from the few lectures that I went to before I stopped going, she was explaining things at a much higher level (with more technical terms) than people were actually grasping. The lectures are not worth going, imo. They're a re-hash of textbook material (which is in a clearer font than her very scribbly handwriting). If you have to take this class, she's not a bad professor to take it with. Just go to discussion, do your assignments, do the practice exams, and read the textbook if the topic is somehow new to you. As long as you put in the bare minimum effort (with a decent conceptual math understanding), you'll do just fine (regardless of the professor).
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
04/15/2025
Lecture isn’t easy to understand. Her handwriting is very hard to read. I rely on discussion and the textbook. Don’t take this class. Professor is sweet and really nice otherwise.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH135

Expecting an A
Anonymous
04/08/2025
If you have to take her, you'd better hope it's for a class like MATH135 where you don't actually learn anything new because everything they teach you is high school math. Still, even going through this already knowing 90% of the material, I found that for the few areas I never learned about she is... not a great teacher. Very kind person, but lectures are extremely hard to understand, her handwriting is pretty illegible so if you don't catch what she's saying you won't be able to read it very well either. You'll have to learn all her special idiosyncratic terms she has in order to know what she says and even then it's not the most clear what she means. Luckily everything she said in lecture was just copied directly out of textbook examples and there was a summarized version posted on ELMS. The worst part of the class is certainly going to discussion, since going to lecture is actually a complete waste of time. She gives FAR too many little mini-assignments to keep track of. Wasn't the worst class I ever had to take but I really wish I took it last semester so I had a better professor. Overall she just gives WAY more work than is necessary for the subject, and is all over the place confusing us.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH246

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/24/2024
Prof Mitra is a very knowledgeable and sweet person. Her exams were very reasonable as well as weekly quizzes. However sometimes she can misinterpret questions and leave you a bit more confused than before. If she does not clear up whatever concerns there are, they certainly can be answered by justins notes or levermore math 246 resources can. Overall she genuinely cares about her class and wants everyone to succeed in her course.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH246

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/10/2024
Lectures useless. Matlab textbook is from 2012, so the example code often does not work anymore. Tests are pretty easy and grading generous, but you will be learning on your own time.
Arnaja Mitra
MATH246

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/03/2024
The course was useful, but basic. The professor read off of Justin's Notes and made going to class not worth it. She did not answer questions well. Exams were a tad easy, MATLAB projects were good.