Kasso Okoudjou

This professor has taught: MATH140, MATH141, MATH410, MATH416, MATH463, MATH464, MATH630, MATH631, MATH858G

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Kasso Okoudjou MATH410 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/29/2018	Okoudjou is a fantastic instructor. He is very passionate and energetic during his lectures, which keeps students engaged. He is also very understanding of the difficulty of the course - while he did not make the course easy, he took time for group work in class to make sure everyone was really on the same page with the material. Would recommend.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting a B terp27_ourumd 01/05/2016	Okoudjou's class is NOT easy. He's probably one of the hardest professors for Calc 1, but I definitely do recommend taking him. For most of the semester your grade will make you really depressed, but Okoudjou teaches you calculus in depth and far more than any of the other professors do. Our class average for the final was significantly higher than the students of other classes so really our grades even out. If you take his class you'll learn a lot and develop great thinking and math skills but it will not be easy at all. You will need to put a lot of effort into this class. He does curve at the end by a little, he also drops the lowest quiz and webassign (online hw assignment), and he decreases the weight of your lowest exam so that really helped my grade. Okoudjou is super nice and funny in class unlike Chadwick who is so monotone and hard to listen to (although I know that his exams are a LOT easier than Okoudjou's, but think about that final exam and actually learning!). I think those that take Okoudjou's class will be a lot more prepared for Calc2. It's a good investment and I highly consider going to his office hours and going online and using the practice exams to study because they all help a lot.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting an A BigChand10 11/03/2015	I highly recommend talking Kasso's class he is a great teacher and you will surely have a laugh everyday in his class. He is really understanding about quizzes and test and makes them reasonable. I had already gotten a 5 in Calc 1 but i wanted to take it again because I am doing engineering. I would assume many people with little to no Calc experience might find his class hard but overall i believe he is worth it especially if you are in the STEM field
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting a B+ grapes 12/13/2014	So here's the thing about Kasso: the dude's super nice, super smart and very willing to go out of his way to help you understand the content of the course. But he's too smart. In lecture he often makes jumps or skips steps that the rest of the class can't follow, and it usually takes a little while before he clears it up after a student answers a question. On a related note, and maybe one that sort of applies to all 140 lectures, he moves pretty fast. His accent isn't really hard to understand (you get it in your head after a class or two), but his handwriting makes notetaking a headache. If you only go to lecture and discussion you could probably get a B if you're a typical student, but a higher grade really requires you to go to his or a TA's office hours, because those 3 45 minute periods just aren't enough. I'd be willing to take him for Calc 3, but for a harder class like calc 2 I've gone out of my way to get Denny. Overall he's a good teacher worthy of respect, but his handwriting and intelligence makes it harder to understand the material than I would like.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Anonymous 07/15/2013	Nice guy, but is a little too smart for his own good. When I say that, I mean he is so smart that he has trouble realizing that many students do not understand the mathematical concepts. If you go to his office hours, he tries to help, but it is nearly impossible to succeed if you did not take calculus in high school.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting an A btc5105 12/15/2012	I think very highly of professor Okoudjou. He cares about the students and wants them to understand the material. His accent is not difficult to understand so I don't know why people are saying it is. His handwriting is pretty bad, but he is more than happy to re-write something and go over anything again until it is understood. He has unannounced quizzes which are not hard. As long as you pay attention in lecture and actually do the webassign, then you'll do fine. His exams are not bad really if you pay attention. He makes random jokes in class, which really are not funny, but they make you laugh regardless. He is very approachable and nice to anyone who wants to learn. If you go to his office hours once, he knows your name for 2 semesters, so he is good with names and likes to interact with students. I also am taking 141 now with him and it is not terrible. The material is harder, so you'll have to study on your own for exams. Overall, I highly recommend Okoudjou for 140 and 141 because he is a good lecturer who keeps you entertained and his exams are pretty fair.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/30/2012	Really, really hard class. In order to follow along during the lectures, I found it necessary to read and outline the textbook before coming to class. Worksheets during discussion were not straightforward at all. Fortunately, the TA was there to provide answers when nobody in the room could figure out a problem. I got used to his accent within the first couple weeks, and his handwriting is not a problem if you sit in the front of the room. I felt that his exams were always harder than those of the other MATH140 professors, but I also felt prepared for them since we got so much practice between having class 5 days and week and regular homework assignments. Doing really hard problems for practice made moderately hard test problems manageable.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH401 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/23/2012	I don't know why there are any negative reviews for this professor. Okoudjou teaches you the basics and goes through a sufficient amount of examples for you to get what's going on. His exams are beyond simple as they test the easiest aspects of material. Grades consist of 3 midterm exams, a cumulative final, weekly homeworks, and online quizzes. The material covered in the course is easily accessible for anyone with a basic understanding of linear algebra. There are a few obscure concepts here and there, but he never tests you on them. Probably the easiest A I have ever gotten in a 400-level Math course. Highly recommended.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH464 Expecting an A skinter 05/21/2012	First of all: accent and handwriting are difficult at first, but most people were able to get used to it; if you can't, find a different prof. Otherwise, Prof Okoudjou is excellent. Explains fully, very helpful with questions. Exams extremely straightforward and he did a ton of practice for them. Strongly recommended.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2012	Professor Okodjou is a wonderful teacher. I definitely struggle with math, and this class is far from easy,but I would definitely recommend taking Professor Okoudjou. His practice tests are a lot like the actual tests he gives, so study those a lot! Other than that, put it the effort and he will definitely try to help you out. He is a nice guy and cares about all of his students. I took him for MATH140 and MATH141.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Anonymous 12/23/2011	I came in to this class with zero high school calculus experience, and it was not at all easy. Being successful in this class requires a previous understanding of calculus because even when he does examples, he shows you what to do with an individual problem, rather than how to do all problems that are like it. The man is ridiculously intelligent, but I think that makes it harder for him to empathize with those who are having trouble with his course. Good luck if you're taking his 140 class, and hope for a good TA.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/11/2011	Yeah, yeah, yeah his accent takes a little getting used to and his handwriting isn't always the best but he's always happy to clarify for you. Point of the matter is, he's a good teacher. He's not too abstract, and I thought he hit a good balance between computation and concepts. And he cares -- he remembers names and faces and tries to help you out. If you actually do the WebAssigns and not just WolframAlpha everything, your computational skills will be good enough for the quizzes. And make sure you utilize the Kirwan TA's throuhgout the year because sometimes he glosses over parts that the Gulick's go over. And guess who writes the finals? The Gulicks, good guess :) His exams are rough though. Sometimes he'll throw in a conceptual curveball but if you do the worksheets in discussion you should be pretty well rehearsed in these kind of problems. And yes, that means you have to go to discussion. All in all, if you can take Denny Gulick, take him but Okoudjou is good too. Much of a lesser evil than Frances Gulick IMO.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting a B Anonymous 02/05/2011	Professor Okoudjou is a great professor who cares that his students understand the concepts presented. His accent may prove hard the first day of classes, and his handwriting may prove hard the first week. But nothing he can't clarify if you ask him during lecture. Even though Okoudjou is a reasonably good teacher who knows his mathemagic, since most of the students who enter MATH140 are entering freshmen from high-school, his rapid style may prove detrimental in their understanding of Calculus. So, I ask a student not to take Calculus1 under him, unless they have already taken calculus once before, and they've felt comfortable with it. He tended to dwell more on proofs and theoretical justifications, rather than applications. I didn't expect it to turn quite that way, since this is a Calculus course for Scientists and Engineers. Adam Ross is one of the best teaching assistants in the department. Discussions may prove crucial if one is experiencing difficulty in lecture. He is willing to take time off to ensure that what you miss in lecture, will not be done so again in discussion. Even if the concept is too rudimentary to be explained in Calc 1, Adam will go over them. I recommend either/or both of them.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting an A jcp5383 12/18/2010	Unfortunately, I did not need to take this class because I APed out of Calc. However, I thought that I wanted to be an engineer so I took this class. He is the hardest of all Calc teachers. I advise you to take Denny Gulick. He is the best math teacher I have seen. Okoudjou is a definitely the man. He is very smart. His biography states that he is a Georgia Tech graduate. Sometimes, I felt that he was too smart to teach us. His pace is very fast. There is also this stupid assignment online that screw up your grade because it is so hard. I got a B, D, D, C, and C on the exams respectively. I ended up with a B. You make the decision. Engineering is the hardest major out there at UMD. If you're business major, consider yourself lucky because you won't have to take this class. You would be stupid to take this class and screw up your GPA.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting a B hc_frog 12/16/2010	Kasso is hard to understand. I would have been completely lost if I had not taken Calc AB in high school. If you have had experience with calculus, this class may be easier, but if you haven't I would recommend Dr. Denny Gulick.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH141 Expecting an A vnsach 11/02/2010	Very hard class to get an A but very easy to get a B. His teaching style is pretty bad. Rambles on in a heavily accented drone but his tests are very easy if you look at the practice tests. I would probably recommend him because this class is hard regardless of the teacher who teaches it and his tests seemed to be the easiest compared to the teachers's.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH141 Expecting a B+ vaalbara 05/19/2010	Had him for both 140/141. Cool dude, good teacher. People rag on him for his accent & handwriting, but they're honestly not that bad. He'll gladly read and rewrite any word that you don't understand, and his accent just sounds like he's cheerful all the time - even if we aren't. A little bit of a secret: his exams are usually (all but one of the eight he gave) very, very similar to the practice exams he gives, and they are, for the most part, relatively easier than the other exams. Put in some effort - go to reviews, do the practice exams, go to office hours - and you'll do just fine.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH141 Expecting a B jamgord 05/04/2010	I personally liked Okoudjou way better than D. Gulick, who I had for MATH140. I don't know if it was because class was at 12pm instead of 8am or if there was that much of a difference between professors, but I absorbed so much more information in 141 than I did in 140. The tests were ok, and the webassign sometimes took forever, but if you have a good TA (or excellent one like Joe Altman, who actually won TA of the year during my semester) that can explain the material more thoroughly in discussion, then you should be fine. I recommend going to every single review session before tests, from both D. Gulick and the TA's (usually Brad Sanders, also a great TA). They really help because all you need to do is keep doing practice problems and tests so that you can get out all of our little mistakes on those problems and know exactly what to do or not do on the actual exam. Overall, I think Okoudjou is a really good professor who explains the material well and if you don't get it, he won't give up until you do. Also, his accent is the cutest ever, and the way he writes his letter "f" is so beautiful.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Anonymous 01/07/2010	Gives good notes - very precise and clear - but there's a major discrepancy between what we go over in class and what's on the homework and tests. A lot of his tests don't follow the homework OR the examples he covers in class, and he also doesn't curve the class very much. Really hard to get an A unless you ace all four midterms and do fairly well on the final. If you've taken calc before and understood it thoroughly, then he's not a bad prof to take. If you're looking to learn calc for the very first time, I recommend taking Prof. D. Gulick. Much better, and much more patient and thorough with the information, plus his tests are actually on the material gone over in class.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Anonymous 12/23/2009	if you havent taken calculus before, i strongly suggest you do not get him. He is extremely hard to follow in lecture, and since he does example problems from the book, going isnt a necessity. Although he does occasionally have pop quizzes. His accent makes him kind of hard to understand, but discussion is very helpful. I took AP calc in high school and got a B. If youre looking for an A i strongly suggest you try and get D. Gulick.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH241 Expecting a B tallboyt 05/20/2009	He is a pretty good teacher; he always tries to get the class to understand, accepts any question in lec and is in general a nice guy. He posts prac test with answer keys (unlike other prof) and these are pretty close to the actual tests, which are fairly easy. 1 quiz/2 weeks, which actually help towards exams. Lectures aren't thrilling however.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2009	He doesn't grade homeworks, and like the previous review said, he drops the lowest 3 quiz scores and exam. He let us use a page of notes for each of our exams except the first one, not that anyone needed one. I liked his accent, and his lectures were pretty straight foward. He gives practice exams a week or so before the actual exam and they are pretty similar. If you spend the time to do the homeworks, you should pass his pop quizzes with ease. He is a pretty average professor, but I would say he is one of the better ones. He was always willing to answer questions (except when he was short on time) and seemed like he actually wanted the students to understand. I always found it funny when he asked us if he should finish doing a computation, like Calc 1 integrals. He almost always got no response from the class, then he would walk away from the problem, then walk back and finish it anyway, or get halfway through it and just write "do it".
Kasso Okoudjou MATH241 Expecting a B kthandler 04/24/2009	After having a professor who wanted his students to cry for Calc141, Okoudjou was a reminder that some professors actually want you to learn. His hand writing is hard to read at first, but you get better at reading it pretty soon. He also gives reasonable tests (and allowed us to have an equation sheet!) and was very willing to stop and answer questions during lecture. He also drops one test grade and 3 quiz grades and offered 20 points in extra credit with MatLab assignments. Also, I LOVED his accent; it's so bouncy and it just makes me happy to listen to him talk.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2008	His lectures consist of writing theorems on the board and proving the theorem. He never actually used the theorem to do an actual example problem, which made homework impossible. If you take his class you better just pray that your TA is good.
Kasso Okoudjou MATH140 mmeyers 12/03/2007	Worst professor ever. He will present the theorem on the board, without adequately explaining the concept or the application, which, ya know, is pretty essential to doing well on the tests. There was a big disconnect between what was covered in class, what was on the classwork, and what was on the tests. He's really not good at explaining things. You may do well in this class if you have previous experience in calculus. If you haven't, then you're screwed. Don't expect to learn a thing from this professor. He moves extremely fast in lectures, and he doesn't stop to explain his mathematical process. I don't get the sense he cares about his students at all. Compared to the other teachers of this class, his tests are much harder. If you want to learn anything about calculus, stay far away from his lecture.