Todd Rowland

This professor has taught: AMSC460, CMSC456, CMSC460, DATA250, MATH135, MATH136, MATH141, MATH141H, MATH401, MATH402, MATH406, MATH452, MATH456, MATH464

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Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/24/2025	I took both MATH135 and 136 with Dr. Rowland. He's a very friendly and funny guy, and he tries to learn everyone's names which I respect. However, those are the only positives I can say about him. His teaching style is all over the place and his lectures are disorganized. At the start of lecture, we'll do a "poll" where we solve problems that are review from the previous lecture. The problem is that he will take like 40 minutes going over them and then have the last 10 minutes going over new material. The only way I was able to learn was by going to discussion (thankfully I had an amazing TA) and doing practice problems in the textbook (the textbook used in 135 is also used in 136). A lot of people skip lecture and just go to the discussions. Some advice: - To study for exams, do practice problems in the textbook and THE PRACTICE EXAMS. Since calculators are not allowed on exams, try to do them without a calculator. I found the practice exams to be similar to the exams IMO. If you don't understand how to go through a problem, review the textbook or ask ChatGPT to walk you through the steps. - GO TO DISCUSSIONS, especially before an exam!!! I had a great TA who was able to teach better than Dr. Rowland and basically went through the topics that we were learning that week. Before exams, my TA would ask what topics/problems people wanted to go over and do some problems. - Do well on the homeworks, worksheets, and class works. They help boost your grade a little if you're not confident on exams. - You'll have to memorize some equations/concepts. My TA would tell us what equations we should memorize for the exam, so when you're doing practice problems, write down the formulas/equations somewhere so it can stick.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2025	Dr. Rowland has a real charm to him. I would argue that this is enough to warrant coming to his lectures. He has lots of funny anecdotes, sometimes he tells the class about dreams he has, there are lots of reasons to come to lecture. If you've taken calculus before, this class will be incredibly easy, and you'll be able to follow along with Dr. Rowland's disorganized teaching. If you haven't taken calculus before, this course goes over so little content that the discussion TA is able to teach a week's worth of lectures in an hour. I didn't have a super great discussion TA, but going to those discussions was where a good 60% of my learning was happening. He's a great guy but his teaching skills aren't the sharpest, its obvious he is really good at math but it doesn't necessarily translate over to explaining it to people who don't know it. However, he more than makes up for it, sometimes he'll just tell us what questions are gonna be on upcoming exams. The exact questions - and we go over them in class too. His practice tests are incredibly similar to the actual exams, DO THE PRACTICE TESTS. He's not too bad, getting a good grade in his class isn't super difficult.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2025	Professor Rowland is very odd. He likes calling people out in class and is a very boring lecturer. He also writes on a chalkboard which I was not a fan of so I stopped going to lectures and only went to discussion. Discussion is super helpful and the TAs were amazing. As long as you already know some basic calculus you should be ok as his exams are easy enough and he provides you with practice exams that are similar to the actual exams.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2025	Overall Dr. Rowland is a good person but not the best professor. He will absolutly help you on an individual level, life for extending a due date or something. He is not the best at lecturing though. He gets distracted and his lectures are mostly unorganized. The only lectures that I would mainly pay attention to are when he reviews the practice exams. One good thing though is that his exams are very very similar to his practice exams. If you take him, please please please look at the practice exams, you won't regret it. He also sometimes will give questions from the exams prior. Attendance during lecture isn't mandatory but I would recommend going to discussion, since you will learn a majority of the content from that.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2025	Rowland, Rowland Rowland..... What a guy. Tries to learn everyone's name! Not much I can say on his teaching capabilities though. This is my second semester with him. A in both 135 and 136. Probably only like 30 people show up to lecture nowadays. I show up because he has a very..odd way of phrasing his problems sometimes so I go to understand those examples. Usually I'll read the textbook (you can pirate it) during class and take notes then. My advice to pass the class: Go to discussion. Hopefully you'll get an awesome TA like Mike. He taught a lot of the conceptual stuff and went over good practice problems. Submit problems for the exams. He let us make problems for the exam. He goes over how to solve them in lecture, it's free points! Don't waste it. Cool guy, too smart to teach this bum math class.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2025	I have taken Todd for two semester and gotten an A in both of them. You definitely have to work hard to understand the material on your own with practice problems and the textbook because he does not do a good enough job explaining concepts in class. I found most of his exams to be very fair and similar to the practice exams he gives and then goes over in class. I saw another comment on here about someone that Todd made them uncomfortable and I wanted to tell people that don’t let that comment be the reason you don’t take his class. He is genuinely such a sweet professor who reminds me of my clueless grandpa who just wants everyone to do well. I’ve gone to his office hours before and during the best time he helped me understand the content and at the worst time he started sleeping when I was trying to work through a problem. Classic Todd.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/07/2025	On the first day of class, Todd came up to me and asked, "Are you xxx?" I was taken aback and responded yes, and then asked how he knew that (I have never had him prior). He told me that he "studies the roster" and that I "stood out." He told me it was because of my dyed hair... which cannot even be seen in my ELMS photo. He then began to cold-call me during lectures. My hand would not be raised but he would say, "let's hear from xxx." I also sat in the middle of the room. He came up to me and was concerned if I could see the board, and then said "Why are you so far away? Don't be afraid to move closer." This rubbed me the wrong way. He lurks around me during exams. Due to his odd behavior, I stopped attending lectures. He saw me randomly inside of Kirwan Hall, and yelled my name across the hall. He then told me he "missed seeing me in class" and that we could always call if "I need any extra help." I understand friendly professors, but I believe this was strange behavior. My peers in this course also told me that he was specifically weird to me. He is a very average lecturer and is all over the place with content. You can definitely take this class and succeed by only going to the Thursday discussions.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/30/2025	This is the second class I have taken with him and I have yet to learn anything. I really feel bad leaving him a bad review because he is such a nice person, but he really cannot teach. The only reason I have an A in this class is because I took calculus in high school and remembered most of the topics we covered this semester. In class, he chooses a few random problems to do on the board without actually teaching the topic beforehand. He is also really intelligent so he forgets that he needs to explain things step by step making it hard to follow along with what he is doing. Both semesters that I was in his class I would notice that after the first few weeks of the semester half the class would stop coming. His class is definitely one to take if you are looking for a class to skip and learn on your own. I was able to get an A this semester by reading the textbook and watching videos online. I will say, if you are taking MATH135 it is a harder subject to learn on your own because there aren't many good online sources to use for the topics, so if there is another option for a professor definitely don't take Rowland. Again, he is such a nice guy and he takes the time to learn everyones names but he really just cannot teach.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 02/08/2025	He's an interesting and kind person but not a good teacher. He tends to struggle teaching similar math and is more used to advanced math, as you can see for his different classes. He gets distracted easily and tends to seem unprepared or jump back and forth between topics. The class is not complicated; it does get a little more challenging towards the end of the semester when matrices and probabilities are introduced. I took the class in Fall 2024 and ended up with a B. He dropped half of your lowest grade, which helped. To pass, ask questions in discussion and GSS, form study groups, and do practice problems and tests on your own!
Todd Rowland DATA250 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/31/2025	If you are a Data Science minor or thinking of becoming one PLEASE just read this. If you have credit for MATH240, or CMSC250 DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS with Rowland, instead just take the other class you haven't taken because you will learn NOTHING in this class and it will suck. If you don't have any coding experience, especially with python, try taking DATA120 first or just don't take this class and maybe even drop the minor because 80% of the homework are complex coding problems that he claimed at the beginning of the semester that you won't need to know (and he doesn't teach you how to code). If you genuinely want to learn something don't take this class. Because his teaching style is to just fumble around material, because honestly I doubt he can even do the things that he is teaching. His exams aren't terrible but he will gatekeep every single piece of info on the exam that will stress you out because you go in not knowing what you're even doing, even after 200 minutes of lecture a week that you probably didn't understand a single thing that was happening on the board because neither does he. Oh and he doesn't even really write his own notes he has Wolfram code it for him. A lot of comments say how nice he is, and how he is accommodating. It doesn't help to be nice if you can't teach. The best example: he would assign HW due each Wednesday and would have to push it back to Friday each time because NO ONE could do it. Don't take this class unless you are dead-set on using all your energy to learn what he's saying, and instead do anything you can to circumvent this class.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/23/2025	He is super nice but his teaching style was not the greatest. A lot of Math135 was self-teaching... class was not really necessary to go to! He would post practice exams which were very helpful, since they were very similar to the actual exams. However, we would have to learn how to do the practice exams by ourselves. Also, any understandable notes we got were from TA run discussion days. If you had a bad TA this was difficult. If you are good at math, the course is doable by self-study.
Todd Rowland CMSC456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2024	Great class. Teaching material was pretty good, detailed slides using wolfram. Todd worked at wolfram for 15 years, he was able to use it for lectures. Exams were fair, homework grading was easy and fast. Really goes to show that the math department actually cares about students. Thankfully this semester 456 was under control by the math department. If it was taught by CS it would have terrible teaching, terrible TAs, and terrible grades.
Todd Rowland CMSC456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2024	really awesome professor, super funny, super based
Todd Rowland CMSC456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/17/2024	Really chill professor. First two exams and final were very similar to the practice exams, although exam 3 was slightly harder. Homework was challenging, but not impossible and interesting.
Todd Rowland CMSC456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2024	Very nice guy and funny. Willing to help with problems and questions. Made the first 2 exams very easy and similar to the practice exam, but threw a curveball for exam 3, it was harder. The homework is tough but the entire class is just homework and exams with some free in class quizzes every Friday that you can work on with others.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2024	Nice guy but a terrible teacher. His lectures were almost pointless because he would spend most of the class talking about a random irrelevant practice problem. His lecture does not prepare you for the exam at all which are ten times harder than the homeworks. I relied HEAVY on my discussion TA and recommend going to those if you don't understand a concept. Had to look up youtube videos and use the textbook to self-teach basically everything for the class. I think he's really good at teaching higher level math but when it comes to lower level, he sucks. He does give a lot of partial credit and exams aren't weighted super heavily which is nice. If this is a class you have to take, you just have to be prepared to self-study your way through. The final wasn't too bad though so that's good, just look through the practice final and look at the exams you took for practice.
Todd Rowland MATH456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2024	Todd is a really nice person, but he's not a very captivating lecturer. The exams are quite easy and he makes the course so that you don't really need to go to class. It's refreshing to see a professor go around and get to know all the students though!
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/13/2024	i want to start out by saying he is very, very kind and makes a genuine effort to get to know you personally and to remember everyone's names. that being said, he is not a very good lecturer and his notes are almost illegible. if you take this class, i recommend that you go to every math discussion session as your TA will likely explain the material better than he does. i also recommend that you attend as many GSS meetings you are able. personally, my math is not very strong, but i thought the material in MATH135 was very self-teachable. i did not study very hard for the midterms nor the final and managed a B (sidenote, dr rowland does not do +/- grades.) you can do it!!!
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/13/2024	Class lectures were confusing, and the professor is not very good at explaining concepts in lectures, and sometimes the even the equations were not given to us. However, professor Rowland was very helpful when I missed a class and even took the time to give a zoom call where he explained one-on-one to me the content from that class. Though lectures were not the best, other resources like GSS and practice exams were extremely helpful and an A is definitely possible in the course.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2024	Yea don’t take him if you avoid it. He is one of the sweetest professors ever. Great guy! BUT he is not very good at teaching MATH135. Idk abt the other math courses, but for this one, I literally learned nothing in class. I suppose it’s an easy A if you take the time to learn outside of class, but if you don’t (I didn’t rlly) then like idk. Anyway, the content in this class is NOT hard, but he makes it hard bc he’s not very good at explaining things. We would spend the whole class time on like a couple of problems or just on him chatting about something random. I promise you will not learn anything. If you’re choosing between 135 or a calc, take the calc. If you’re choosing between him or Kendall, then choose Rowland if you want an easy A. Tbh idk anything about how Kendall teaches, but ik Rowland’s class is easier (mainly bc we do NOTHING).
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024	This man is the sweetest professor I've met so far at UMD and that's why it hurts so much to say he's a bad teacher. The material isn't that hard but sometimes the problems on exams and worksheets are so convoluted the TAs were like we don't really know how to approach this problem but try their best to give partial credit. I've never gotten above an 89 on a midterm but with the way everything is weighted I can still manage an A even with a B on the final coming up. Rowland's so sweet and tries not to put any pressure on midterms but he is more often than not just rambling during class. I paid attention and went to every lecture but I probably would've been better off just using the textbook (which he does follows). It's crazy how bad his teaching is because you can tell he's like a math genius but the course content is so dumbed down it's like he doesn't know how to convey it in a way that makes sense to regular shmegular people. Don't take him unless you like to self study T_T
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024	please do not take guys. rambles on, doesn't teach, tests are hard. no resources to do well.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2024	He is a nice person but that doesn't mean he can teach at all. He just goes on random tangent and gets distracted so quickly. Furthermore, he gives you wrong when we ask about pratice finals. You will have to learn the content by your self. His pratice exam are very similar to the actual but the last one which is probability it is the worst exam. The TA will be the one teaching you.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/10/2024	He is a really nice guy but probably the worst professor I've ever had in my life. He seems to know a lot about math but it doesn't help that he doesn't know how to teach content to students in a way that makes sense. Lectures were so disorganized and hard to follow, the canvas page was the same way too. The content really shouldn't be that difficult, but he makes it so hard because he does not know how to explain things. There was really no point in even going to lecture or trying to listen because more than half the time you have no idea what he is talking about. Since you have no idea what he is talking about or teaching in a given lecture, the exams are hard (but easier than Williams' exams) and you really have no way of studying for them except for doing the practice exam (that is literally 10 questions and nothing like the real exam, so it doesn't really help). Overall, I do not recommend him.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/10/2024	DO NOT TAKE HIM!!!!! Worst class I have every taken in my entire life. Calc 1 was a breeze but I find this class challenging even though it's easy material!!!!! Wish I just took calc 2 instead of this because at least I would have been taught even though it would have been hard content. He spends the entire class trying to learn people's names and yapping. He never teaches anything, he just scribbles random gibberish. Don't even waste time going to lecture. The content is so easy but he makes it so HARD!!!!! The exams are nothing like the practice exams and impossible to finish. Genuinely the class started with 300 people in the beginning of the year and its now like 30 in class going to the end of the semester. Do yourself a favor and do not take this class!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE MAKES ME SO MAD BRUH!!!!!!!
Todd Rowland DATA250 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/09/2024	like the other reviews say, he's a very nice professor. probably one of the nicer professors i've had. that doesn't mean he can teach. the amount of struggling in this class is insane. its a MWF class with two 50 minute lectures on F, yet we always run out of time. he goes on random tangents that don't relate to what we need to know. during one exam review, he spent at least 30 minutes telling us what we DIDNT need to know for the exam/the class overall, then started teaching us those topics instead of what is actually on the exam. homeworks are completely different from anything we do in class and are mostly python based. everything ive learned has been through youtube or some other online resource. as a person, he's great but he cannot teach even if his life depended on it. his notes are typed for the most part which is strange for math. he sometimes handwrites notes using the projector but they are practically illegible because of his handwriting and how much he crosses things out. if u miss class, good luck trying to understand what he wrote. all in all, don't take him unless you have to.
Todd Rowland Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/07/2024	Overall a pretty bad teacher. Tries to be your friend and learn your name instead of properly teaching you the information, has no direction during his lectures, and his tests are drastically different from review material. I had to use external sources like youtube and ChatGPT to learn the information because I shouldn't have to go to GSS because the teacher is too incompetent to teach.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/06/2024	the other reviews are true overall. he does not teach anything in lecture at all and there's genuinely no point in going. the tas are going to be your actual teachers and they do a great job of it. however, while his homeworks are the same as the other teacher, dr. rowland's exams are much, much easier than kendall willams. i had the privilege of looking at a friends test and, while we did learn the topics on the test, the problems on there were much more complicated than the ones on mine. he is also very nice but that doesn't reflect in his teaching. he's almost too smart to be teaching this class, which i understand. the textbook is going to be your best friend so download it off the internet and read it as you go through the topics.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/04/2024	He is a very nice and makes an effort to learn names even though it is a very large lecture. He is also very open to questions and will answer every one. BUT.. The actual teaching during lecture is not comprehensive, he just starts writing things down on paper and does not do a good job explaining concepts before starting practice problems that he doesn't always finish or do correctly. His lectures are confusing and unhelpful, which is why by the end of the semester it's down from 250 to <50. Questions on exams were on the same topics but different styles of questions, often more difficult, which I did not appreciate. The Canvas page is very hard to navigate. I always felt like resources were scattered. TAs in GSS and discussion are better at teaching than the actual instructor. Or even videos on youtube. I don't understand how someone who is so bad at explaining math can be a math teacher. Sure he knows how to do it, but how well can he teach you how to do it? The answer is not very well, at least not for me.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/22/2024	He’s a great guy but a horrible teacher for 135. He has not taught a single lesson all semester instead he does problems that he doesn’t finish.
Todd Rowland Anonymous 11/20/2024	DO NOT TAKE HIM He is a super super nice guy, he will try his best to learn everyone's name and he does his best to answer questions which is why I gave him 2 stars BUT He is too smart to teach lower level math classes. His lectures are confusing and make no sense. His exams suck and are oftentimes worded horribly.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/19/2024	Nice guy! Do not take 135 with him. Going to the lectures were a waste of time because he simply does not teach! He provides little practice and when he does, the exams are 4x harder than the practice exams. I did better than the averages on most of the exams but I still won't be able to exceed with an A. Tough luck.
Todd Rowland CMSC456 Anonymous 11/19/2024	Super knowledgeable about this field, and also treats students really kindly. He's understanding of a lot of situations, and the exams were also easy. Highly recommend!
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/12/2024	I thing Dr. Rowland is a good teacher overall. He cares about the success of his students and you can tell as he is always willing to meet with you outside of class. You definitely have to learn a lot of material on your own, as what he is teaching in class does not always make sense the first time around partially because the way he explains concepts gets confusing. He gives practice exams which are very similar to the actual exams. And he has a nice policy where he drops the two lowest homework and quiz grades, and half the lowest midterm. Also, all the quizzes are online. If you study and do review then you can get an A. I would take this professor again.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/15/2024	He does not teach basic math very well. From what I hear from other students, he does teach advanced math better than MATH135. If you end up in his class, start teaching yourself and utilize the TA's for help. Use the practice exams and other practice websites in order to learn the specific topic.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B- Anonymous 10/14/2024	PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do yourself a favor and DO NOT take his class!!! He absolutely cannot teach. His "teaching" style is to post questions that have nothing to do with what we learned previously and then go over them in the lecture, except he doesn't explain what he is doing and typically gets lost himself. I will say, he is the absolute sweetest professor you will ever meet and he does make an effort to learn everyone's name. I can honestly say that halfway through the semester I have not learned a single thing in his class. He is just all over the place. I have heard that most of the math135 professors aren't very good, but he genuinely sucks. I know he has been teaching this course for years so there really is no excuse. People literally laugh at him in class and walk out because of how bad he is.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/07/2024	Dr. Rowland is the nicest guy and is really brilliant, but, he is not good at teaching lower-level math. The lecture was always so disorganized with him jumping from one chalkboard to another so he was very hard to follow. The math itself is quite simple and easy but I think its too simple for his mathy mind to comprehend. You'll definitely end up with a good grade if you put some effort into learning the material on your own, its not hard stuff, but just be prepared to lose your mind in lecture.
Todd Rowland CMSC475 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 09/06/2024	I loved the class. he's a very caring professor, asked us how the class could be better frequently and actually took the suggestions. He asked us how the midterm 1 went and we said it was too long so he made the second one shorter. He just genuinely wants us to learn the material and was really helpful in office hours and doubts in class. I talked to him about philosophical questions and my career and academic plans. he helped a lot. the clas itself was quite interesting. Take the class IMO. it's fun (if u like math a little) , great textbook, and useful. I would recommend you to take the class!
Todd Rowland MATH475 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 08/13/2024	Very kind and caring professor; perhaps the kindest I have ever had. He encourage students to participate in class, and is very patient, even with simple questions. The workload is very much appropriate, considering the high level of the course and the fact that it was offered during the summer. Flexible deadlines and generous with extensions. Professor Rowland gives a wide range of homework problem that very well represent the course content; the problems are well chosen and challenging, but never impossible to solve. For each exam, we were given a fairly comprehensive practice exam; the exams themselves were well balanced. The choice of textbook was perfect, Miklos Bona's "A Walk Through Combinatorics" is simply fantastic. All in all, a very strong class that I would highly recommend!
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/03/2024	Extremely nice professor, very kind and caring... Except, he cannot teach lower-level math. DO NOT take him for 135/136 calc because his ability to explain concepts is terrible. He also skips "easy" steps when doing problems during lectures but makes the class very confused. Math136 was a scattered schedule of random math that we learned throughout the course, with no real structure. His lecture notes are very unorganized and messy which makes them extremely difficult to follow. Again, maybe he is much better at teaching a higher level of math, but avoid taking him for 135/136. I relied on the TA's to teach me the content during discussion. But Rowland is a very nice guy.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Anonymous 03/16/2024	While it's true that he's very nice, Dr. Rowland is not good at teaching. Lecture is unhelpful as he does practice problems the whole time without explaining what he's doing and rarely looks up for questions. His rants can be entertaining, but I would strongly not recommend taking this class with him if you have little calc experience like me. If you have a good amount of calc experience you should be fine. (PS go to GSS!!!!) hw and classwork is easy, but his exams suck. Take the class with someone else if you can!!!!!!!
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/15/2024	To keep it simple, don't take it. He does not teach, takes away notes before you can get them down. Nice man and tries to learn names but, he lacks greatly in the teaching department. You have to put extra work in teaching yourself which would be unnecessary if you had a professor who actually taught you during the lecture time. Practice exams are similar to the exam but, there is usually a question or more that you have maybe seen once or not at all (weighing 8-12 points). Save yourself the stress and don't take him.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/12/2024	Let me start this review by saying that this is probably one of the nicest professors I've ever had. Super considerate, funny, and overall just a nice guy. He is just not a very good teacher. He can be very confusing and tends to spend his lectures answering questions about the homework instead of teaching the subject. The quizzes and homework are very easy: he usually goes over those in class, but the exams can be very difficult and hard to study for. Be warned: the practice midterms seldom match the real one.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2024	Dr. Rowland is very kind and can be funny sometimes. He’s a great person but not the best professor. He goes on long tangents that barely make sense and takes too long to answer simple questions. But he is a really easy grader and makes the midterms and final quite easy. Also, most quizzes and homework have 2 attempts.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	Dr. Rowland is a nice, caring person. He attempts to learn everybody's name and he tries hard to explain the content. He is also very open to questions and walking the class through challenging problems. However, his lectures are somewhat unorganized and honestly a little useless. I went to every lecture, but I hardly paid attention to them because of this. The good news is that this course is super easy, so Dr. Rowland doesn't really need to be that good of a teacher. I mainly used the textbook to write my notes as his notes were kind of all over the place and not very helpful. On the other hand, the discussions were beneficial and were much better at explaining the content than the lectures were, so I would recommend going to discussions over lectures. To prepare for exams, I just completed the practice exams on ELMS and read over my notes. The coursework is hardly time-consuming and I only spent about 2 hours studying per midterm (and 3 hours for the final), with most of that time dedicated to going over the practice exams. Dr. Rowland also usually hosts an online exam review session the night before exams, which I didn't really use, but he basically just answers people's questions and goes over any problems from the practice exams that people wanted help with. The exams themselves are not hard and are pretty similar to the practice exams. As for grading, it's fair, he drops half of your lowest midterm, doesn't use +/-, and is not heavily weighted toward exams. All in all, this is a fairly easy course with plenty of resources and a mediocre, but kind, professor.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS!! He's probably the sweetest professor I've ever had and is a great guy, but his teaching style is not it. I've never been in a more disorganized class. The lectures aren't really "learning," it's more like someone asks questions and he goes over them for the entire class period. Also, the practice midterms are not like the real exams so be prepared to have a random question thrown your way. I had to do a lot of self-studying for this class and it takes up a lot of work. Btw, don't depend on the half-dropped midterm, it almost does nothing for your grade
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	Professor Rowland as a person is quite endearing. He takes the time to get to know his students, initiates conversations with you, and cracks sardonic jokes. He's very encouraging and accommodating toward his students. Take note, however: once he knows your name and becomes comfortable with you, he will call you out and ask you to answer questions in front of the class. This sometimes involves solving a problem on the front chalkboard. Of course, if you decline, he won't force you, but this is just something he does that might concern some. It's usually the people in front he targets but once in a while he will make his way to the back. The questions are usually easy to answer, though, so don't stress about this. Professor Rowland as a teacher, however, can be challenging, but the content itself isn't. Lectures are usually composed of content material, practice problems, and questions. When covering content, he tends to go off-topic, but when he's taking questions, he often goes through homework and in-class quizzes and gives the answer to you (worth attending for this reason). He provides notes for each topic, and while they can be helpful, they can be equally confusing. If you want organization, it's better to go by the textbook for definitions, relationships, examples, etc. If you ask him a question, his explanations are a hit-or-miss. For explanations, it's better to show up to the discussions and have the TAs explain it to you; I definitely do not recommend skipping the discussions for this class. To get ready for each exam, he provides 2 old exams + answer keys, an online practice exam, and also holds a Zoom review session the night before. The exams are fair and not too hard; grading for partial credit is generous. There is quite a bit of teaching yourself in this class but as long as you put in a decent amount of effort, you should be able to keep an A. Good luck!
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/06/2023	Dr. Rowland is a character. He definitely cares about the students and he tries to answer everyone’s questions. He’s not the best lecturer…he gets a bit off topic sometimes and that makes it hard to understand some of the material. He doesn’t record his lectures but he writes clearly on the chalkboard. He uploaded a lot of resources for practice and there’s plenty of HW/ in class assignments that help boost your grade. Overall nice guy and I’d rather take his class again than do Math140 lol.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2023	I'm going to start this review by saying he is a very nice professor. He makes a substantial effort in getting to know his students that attend lecture and is overall one of the nicest faculty members on campus. However, when it comes to his ACTUAL teaching, he is subpar. He rants about the most little things, often gets distracted while teaching a concept, and does not thoroughly explain important things for his course. The notes he posts on ELMS are VERY confusing, and the class averages on exams are always in the 60s-70s despite the course being less difficult than MATH140 or MATH141. He does not curve his exams; however, he will drop half of the lowest exam grade. I'd say invest time into the textbook and/or a tutor if you want to be successful in this course. However, you can still get low B's/high C's on the exam and manage to hold an A in the course (like me!). I feel alright going into the final but I would suggest that anyone taking to not expect him to make the course a breeze. Attending discussion sessions is mandatory if you want to be somewhat prepared for his exams. His class is manageable but good luck if you do not like teaching yourself concepts.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2023	He is a nice guy just not the best lecturer. He does not teach well during the lectures and will often go on tangents for a singular problem/question during the whole class. Sometimes I question whether I should go to lecture or not because it's repetitive and counter-productive. I will say though, he is one of the most accommodating and caring professors. He really makes an effort to get to know everyone in his lecture (even though they are SO big). I would recommend not to take him if you have the option not to. Good luck everyone!
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/14/2023	He's a super nice and funny professor, but I feel like his teaching style does not help me learn at all. I do not often attend lectures because I feel like I struggle to learn anything from it. The textbook also doesn't really help because the course material is usually a bit more difficult or slightly different from the textbook. However, the exams are definitely fair and the discussions are helpful.
Todd Rowland AMSC460 Expecting a B Anonymous 08/22/2023	The homeworks are pretty hard and unclear. The exams aren't too hard though. Lectures are boring but he's pretty nice and responds to emails. I would recommend taking this professor if you work for it, but it's not exactly easy. Lect
Todd Rowland AMSC460 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/19/2023	Grading is 90-100 is an A. Not the freest A, homework are long and challenging. Exams are fair, averages were 82 and he offers extra credit for points back. However, you will have to work work for the A
Todd Rowland MATH464 Anonymous 05/20/2023	Super nice professor.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2023	He's a kind person but can be a little clueless as a professor. Often gets distracted during lecture and explains things in a really confusing manner. He's clearly very smart, but explains topics in a way that only people who are already good at math will understand. Regardless, if you actually try you'll probably get a decent grade because homework, in class assignments, and worksheets are easy enough.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2023	I came into this class with general mathematics knowledge with iffy knowledge from AP Calc because it was COVID year, and I'd say everything was very manageable. People hating on this guy for no reason. Chillest professor, super nice and understanding, as well as accommodating for student's real-life circumstances. He is a bit over the place for the lectures but he gives good practice for exams, office hours are very helpful, and his class structure points wise is very student friendly (Drops 3 lowest HWs, 2 lowest classworks, half of your worst exam (example: 70/100 becomes 35/50)). Do beware of the second exam, this is designed to bring down the class average. First and third exams should be a breeze, as well as the final. His practice final was very similar to the actual final!! Note that all of this applies to MATH136 as well. Great human, could be a bit better as a lecturer, but I believe the guy is probably too experienced to be teaching an entry-level calculus class anyways.
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/30/2023	He is a very nice person and the only professor that I've had that tries to learn every student's name. However, he is a little all over the place during lecture so there was a lot of wasted time. He does happily answer everyone's questions, but sometimes gets a little sidetracked. The material isn't that difficult but sometimes there would be random problems from the textbook that we didn't use on the exams. He does give out study guides for every exam, but the first one was almost exactly like the exam, the second one was NOTHING like the exam to purposely bring the class average down, and the third was kinda like the exam. There's also weekly online homeworks, worksheets due during discussion, and classworks. He's definitely not the worst professor, but definitely not the best.
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/13/2023	Professor Rowland truly cares about his students. Even if you are completely lost, if you go to office hours you will be able to get through the homework, projects, etc and you will leave with a better understanding of the material. I took MATH401 and 406 with him and I still use what I learned from those classes to this day. His lectures are sometimes unorganized but the assignments he gives you are always fair. Top, top professor
Todd Rowland MATH136 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/28/2023	Dr. Rowland is a very kind man who is always willing to help his students. Utilize your resources—go to office hours and if you can't do that, discussion and ask the TA. Ask a neighbor if you're confused, or go up to him and ask a question. In all honesty I think he's the best professor at UMD because he cares about each student. He has improved so much from when I had him last year and I know so long as you try you'll be able to do so well in this course.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/22/2022	As other people have said, he is a nice guy but his teaching style is not beneficial. To do well in this class, you had to do a lot of self-teaching outside of the class. On top of keeping up with other courses, it definitely becomes a lot. The TAs were somewhat helpful, but sometimes the topics also got confusing when they tried to explain them. The first practice exam was very similar to the actual exam, so it was helpful. The last few though have been fairly different, so studying off of the practice exams became less helpful. If you have a packed schedule, I would suggest avoiding taking him because you will spend a lot of time reviewing material outside of the class in order to do well.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2022	This man is one of the best and funniest profs at UMD. His lectures are fairly disorganized, but he provides more than enough resources to earn a good grade in this class!
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/20/2022	Not very flexible. Unfunny as well.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2022	Very nice and caring person, but not the best teacher (however, not the worst). His lessons can be a bit all over the place and the notes he posts are written notes, so they can be kind of hard to understand. As long as you pay attention in lecture, he usually goes over all of the equations you'll need to use (math TA will go over everything during discussion which is super helpful so good to go to discussion just for reinforcement). Weekly homeworks are on Canvas, so super easy to complete and he ended up doing a lot of them in class anyway. Gives practice midterms but really hit or miss about whether they are true to the actual exam. Going to office hours can help if you have specific questions. I personally have not touched the textbook this entire semester, but I've heard from some people that they teach themselves the material using that, so could be helpful for some people. Overall, biggest thing is just to create a connection with him and go to office hours if you need help with the homework or understanding something on a practice test. Also, I'm pretty sure he does not do + or - when it comes to grading, so 90-100 is an A, 80-89 a B and so on.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2022	First, the pros. Dr. Rowland is a nice man, will explain anything to you in office hours, responds to emails very fast, and tries to learn everyone’s name. The cons: he is an extremely bad lecturer and gets lost in the middle of his examples in class. His practice exams are meant to be what you should study from but he makes his exams much harder than the practices and includes problems you likely haven’t seen before. Avoid taking him if possible. I really liked him as a person but I wish I’d gone with the other professor.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2022	Very nice professor. You can tell he wants his students to do good and understand the material. He always has a review session before each exam and holds office hours where he helps you with things like homework and overall clarity on the material. As said by others, his lectures are indeed all over the place and sometimes it was hard to understand. He had "surprise" quizzes every Friday and would always help out on answering them and allowed us to work with others. He also never had slides, just a doc. I personally found it harder with the doc to follow through but you could still understand. The class, overall, is pretty easy so you won't have a hard time. He drops half of the lowest midterm and his practice exams were kinda similar to the real exams. Just don't use the practice exam as your only way of studying because I did that once and on the real exam there was a whole section I didn't know how to do. Know the material itself and you will do fine.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2022	Do not take MATH 135 with Dr. Rowland. Like everyone else says, he's really nice, but not a good professor. His teaching is so scatterbrained and impossible to follow. The exam averages were in the 60s and 70s. This is a 100-level class.. how does that make sense?? People have said that his exams are close to the practice exams.. well, not anymore. We had 1 exam that was close to the practice exam, and that was it. He tests us like he is a good enough teacher to warrant tests that expand on what we learned in class. I don't think it is impossible to get an A, but we all have other classes and commitments, too. I, for one, had too demanding of a schedule to put hours of work into this class every week in order to just teach myself the material, let alone study it. Take this class with Zhao instead. Everyone in that class had much better things to say (and I would assume better grades too) than people with Rowland.
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/18/2022	One of the best professors in UMD.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/21/2022	Like everyone else says, Dr. Rowland is very nice and cares a lot for his students. He held review sessions on zoom the night before every exam which were nice, but like his lectures, were sometimes a bit all over the place. It felt like the way he lectured just simply did not work for the majority, if not all, of the class. He goes far too quickly through new material and brushes over largely important topics that leave you scratching your head at the WebAssigns wondering how some of the most important stuff was never covered. If you end up with Todd you will be okay for sure if you put in enough work, but it probably does require more outside studying than other professors. Similar to another review below, it feels like teaching calc 2 might not be his strong suit.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2022	Todd is a nice guy, and he is also pretty funny. However, the way he teaches did not help. It felt like he was reading off the slides. His lectures are confusing and boring. He teaches using Wolfram Alpha/Coding and doesn't really demonstrate the problems well. Overall, if you are good at teaching yourself the material, Todd is a must. (Also ESJ is a nice place to study)
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/19/2022	Todd Rowland is a nice guy and is accommodating and knows his math and stuff. Only problem is he is not really good at communicating his knowledge and actually teaching. Most of the time his lectures are all over the place, and it is really hard to understand what is going on most of the time. If you rely on a lecture teaching style, don’t take Rowland because you’ll end up needing to teach yourself the entire course. That being said, because he’s nice and accommodating it’s a little easier. Another thing, his tests are really hard at least as of spring 2022 I don’t know if it’s because the end of COVID or something but yea his tests were really really hard.
Todd Rowland MATH402 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/17/2022	Probably the nicest proffessor I've met. Uploaded all his lecture notes. Held review sessions on zoom before every exam including the final. All his exams were fair; the questions were pretty easy as long as you were familiar with the material. There were 3 midterms, the lowest of which was weighted as half the points as the rest. Geniunly cares for his students and tries to learn everyone's names. As for the negatives, there are two. The homeworks were kind of hard. It invloved reading from an online textbook and answering the texbook question. Personally I found the textbook confusing, but that seems to be more an issue with the material. Secondly, lectures felt unprepaired at times. He always had something planned for lecture and would try to go over the previous homework, but sometimes he would work an example until he realized he answer was wrong about 5 minutes in. Overall, I would really recommed this proffessor to anyone considering him. His classses are more than fair.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Anonymous 05/17/2022	Todd is a funny and friendly professor. As many of the reviews below me state, it's pretty hard to learn from him. He tries to connect with students by learning names and stuff, but kindness does not give out knowledge. I went to every lecture and could not grasp the concepts in his lectures alone. Rather I had to find other outside resources to know what I was doing in class. For the good things, he has very nice curves and offers extra credit for your final grade (an extra 2% which seems not like a lot but is great for borderline grades). He halves an exam, drops 3 homework, 3 worksheets, and 3 "classwork" like weekly quizzes. He also does not do pluses or minuses and does only normal letter grades. Great for low percentages, bad for high. I would not recommend Todd to be your #1 choice, but if you happen to land in his class, be prepared to learn on your own and have to rely on curves for your grade. Good luck!
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2022	Dr. Rowland is super friendly and caring. He made an effort to learn every student's name and even studied their ELMs picture to try and remember who people were. I believe over time his organization and content will improve and therefore his overall teaching ability. However, for the time being, those skills were lacking enough that I won't be taking another course taught by him.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/09/2022	Todd is a nice guy, and he does care about his students, but he should not teach calculus 2. His lectures are confusing and boring. He skips and adds material to the course randomly. He is unprepared for classes and spends about 15% of lecture time trying to remember what to teach us. Tests are quite difficult (not too difficult) and are very long. I cant in good faith give him one star, because he is kind and he does care. Based on other reviews of him, my guess is that calc 2 is just not his strong suit, which is fine, I would just stick to another professor for math141 if you can. If you do end up taking calc 2 with him, find resources outside of class to help you learn the material.
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/15/2022	Dr. Rowland is one of the nicest professors I have had; he prioritizes you learning the content and the class emphasizes consistent, project-based work. I felt like whenever I went to class, I went to learn about real-life applications of linear algebra instead of trying to pass a class for credits. With that being said, the only thing keeping him from 5 stars is that he can be disorganized or do incorrect arithmetic at times and that makes some concepts difficult to understand at first.
Todd Rowland MATH464 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2021	He hosted office hours 4/5 days of the week and provides practice exams for each midterm and the final. The grading on tests is very fair, and the lowest homework and half of lowest midterm were dropped. The only criticism I would give is that the lecture was not very engaging and there was too much emphasis on computer demonstrations in Mathematica.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2021	Professor Rowland is the epitome of great guy, but not so great teacher. You really have to pay attention in class to understand some of the harder problems because he can make it very hard to follow and his work tends to be all over the place. I recommend going to office hours if you have a legitimate question so he can explain it to you one on one. That being said, it is possible to get an A in this class, and he makes an effort to get to know everyone and their names which is a lot more than I can say for most professors at UMD.
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 07/19/2021	great professor
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/13/2021	Excellent. Mostly project based course, which you could receive adequate help on if needed. Projects were programming, and you could complete in Mathematica, MATLAB, or Python. Could tell he genuinely cared about students and lecture. Highly recommend this prof.
Todd Rowland MATH401 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/08/2021	A great and caring guy. Had him for Math401 online and he was genuinely caring to all his students. He made sure to have one-on-one meeting with all the students and asked how we were doing in the class and what we wanted to do in the future. The class was mainly projects, mini quizzes, and groupwork. For the quizzes we were given two tries which was very nice since he'll go over the quiz in class after the first try. Very responsive to emails and his office hours are great as he'll help you step by step with the project. He will extend office hour to help us. The projects were also very interesting too. He doesn't do plus minus grades. Definitely recommend and take him if you have the choice.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/22/2021	I definitely recommend taking calc 2 with Rowland, he is a great person and teacher.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2021	If you have the chance to take him for calc 2 do it. He really cares about his students and is one of the nicest profs at UMD. 141 is typically looked at as one of the hardest classes at UMD but he made it very doable
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2021	Todd Rowland is a super nice guy. Honestly, if you go to lecture and discussion you will succeed in this class. Just like anything, if you put the effort in, you will learn. Plus, Rowland is literally the nicest teacher you will ever have in your entire life.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2021	Todd was a nice guy who in my opinion had decent lectures even though at times I seemed to have no idea what was going on. The course in my opinion got significantly harder towards the end be he does really want to see his students succeed. With some work outside of class and staying on top of the homework the exams will be pretty easy. I would recommend him if you are able to do a bit of self learning.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/26/2021	Had him for online, lectures are eh. He codes in wolfram the whole time, hard to understand. However, if you read the book and actually do the HW you will be more than fine. Todd is a very funny and great guy. He also drops midterms and homeworks from your final grade. Exams are easy and almost the same as the practice ones he releases. Makes 141 a breeze. Wonderful experience.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/26/2021	Dr. Rowland is one of the nicest professors I've had at UMD. Very genuine guy and he wants you to do well. I had him during a covid semester and his online lectures were not very good because he always used wolfram alpha. Exams were always very easy and were very similar to the study guide. Definitely one of the better professors for 141.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/08/2021	I haven't gone to any lectures but I have gotten a 98 or 100 on every exam because he makes them so easy. If you do the practice exam and review a tiny bit on Khan Academy you're good
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2020	Amazing professor who stays after in office hours to make sure students understand.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/09/2020	Cool guy but did not teach well and was mostly a self taught class. The TAs carried the class this year and they were actually super helpful. Doing the practice exams were the best form of studying for me and the workload was decent but the worksheets were a little confusing although TAs explained most of it pretty well during discussions. Sorry Todd.
Todd Rowland MATH141 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/03/2020	Like the other reviews said, he is a nice guy but I stopped going to his lectures very early on. He teaches using Wolfram Alpha/Coding and doesn't really demonstrate the problems well. He is disorganized and confuses himself during teaching. The TA's did way better at helping us understand concepts. He drops a lot of things at the end of the semester though, there is no curve on anything due to this. He even ends up dropping one of the four midterms you have to do.
Todd Rowland MATH135 Anonymous 10/27/2020	Dr Rowland is a super nice guy and it pains me to say this, but he’s not a very good teacher. His entire class this semester seems very confused about topics that seem relatively simple. He presents the material using some weird program that has a lot of unnecessary code around the text. His notes are sloppy, disorganized and very hard to interpret. For the most part, the TAs were better at explaining the concepts in a lot clearer manner. However, he is willing to go out of his way to try to help you if you ask, and the grading is very lax. It’s probably difficult to do poorly in this class even if you don’t understand what is going on
Todd Rowland MATH141 Anonymous 09/16/2020	One of the nicest people I've ever met, but I think some of the students in the class could explain calculus better then him... He does not understand some of the things he teaches, and is often corrected by students. I've been teaching myself thus far as the instruction/lecture is less than helpful.