Lawrence Washington

This professor has taught: CMSC456, ENEE456, MATH120, MATH220, MATH299E, MATH299N, MATH299O, MATH299P, MATH406, MATH456, MATH620, MATH621, MATH808L, MATH808N

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Lawrence Washington CMSC456 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/28/2023	The actual GOAT and one of my favorite professors at this university. He's a fantastic lecturer (in-depth and engaging), takes care to answer questions (in-person/Piazza) and make material very easy to understand, and so on. I think he's retiring, but if he ever teaches again, I highly recommend taking the course with him.
Lawrence Washington CMSC456 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2023	Great lecturer, very nice guy! Teaches very well but he is a little disorganized at times. Whether it was missing solutions on the keys for homework/exams or not posting lecture notes for weeks at a time, he made the course a little difficult to follow at times. I also was not a big fan of how exam heavy this class was being I believe 85-90% exams and 10% homework. Regardless though he is a very sweet and caring professor who lectures well. He is very reasonable with what he expects from you and is very clear in the topics he chooses to teach. I've heard this was his last time teaching undergrads but if you ever get a chance to take a course with him I would take it in a heartbeat.
Lawrence Washington CMSC456 Anonymous 05/02/2023	Very nice and caring professor, one of my favorites I have ever had. He always has funny stories related to the different topics in the course that come up to keep you hooked during the lecture. Lecture notes are posted after every class and the course follows his textbook so you could self study if you REALLY wanted to. He is also a good lecturer and conveys topics in a digestible manner. There are usually 1 or 2 tricky questions on the homeworks, but him and the TAs will always help if you go to class or OH and ask about it. Lectures were not recorded this semester because the room does not have a camera, but I think he normally does. My biggest issue with the class is its way too focused on exams for grading. The final and two midterms make up 85% of your grade. The exams are fair, but I believe applying more elements of applied cryptography through programming instead of just math would be good. I am a CS major so I am biased in that regard. Overall you SHOULD take a course with him, but it sounds like he is retiring soon! Sad to see a professor with passion who genuinely cares about teaching preparing to leave :(
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/08/2023	He didn't teach my MATH120 class, but he did substitute for Danul, who was my lecturer for MATH120 in Fall 2022. Dr. Washington is GREAT. His notes are easy to follow, and he really takes the time to explain as he goes along. He is also super friendly and does an excellent job with keeping the class engaged. He is also great at answering questions, and if people are still confused at the end of lecture, he makes himself available and takes the time to explain concepts people struggle to grasp. Overall, he is a great lecturer and great guy.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/23/2022	MY FAVORITE PROFESSOR AT UMD. Literally the most amazing person I have ever met. He teaches course material at a good pace and as long as you keep up with the information, you will end with an A.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/17/2022	Literally one of the best math teachers I have ever had, if not, the best. Such a caring, thoughtful professor. Very approachable and friendly. Lectures can get boring sometimes but he throws in a few jokes every now and then to keep you interested. He is extremely knowledgeable and a great professor. He takes is time and does his best to make sure everyone understands the concepts. If you do well and work hard on the homeworks/practice exams, you should do great on the exams. He is not out to get you at all and genuinely wants his students to succeed and enjoy math. The final is cumulative, but he gives you a ton of resources to study for it. There are three midterms. Discussion has quizzes but you get a majority of the discussion to go over problems for the quiz and practice. Homeworks are online and help you prepare for the quiz, you also have multiple attempts to get the homework questions right. Responds quickly to emails and posts lectures online to look over if you missed something in class. You don't have to pay for textbooks but the online homework software is $30 or something along the line of that. At the end, he drops your lowest 50 points whether it be from quizzes/homeworks, midterm, or final. I love this man, he is such a nice fellow and made me like math again. Probably the best professor at UMD.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/20/2021	Great professor, explains things well. Lectures are easy to understand.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/16/2021	Amazing professor! Lectures are very easy to understand and engaging despite it being 1 hour and 15 minutes of calculus. Professor Washington always makes sure students are really understanding the material and can apply it rather than just memorizing formulas. Homeworks will probably be the hardest assignment you will get but they help immensely on quizzes and exams so I'd definitely keep up with them if you can. Plus, they don't take that long overall. Also, if you review past exams before the final you should do well as the formatting is basically the same and he writes it! Overall, a great guy. Take Math120 with him.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2021	Professor Washington is the best professor at UMD. Periodt. He is the most caring and patient professor. He encourages students to ask questions and never makes anyone feel dumb for not knowing something. He will happily go over the problem until everyone gets it. He is approachable outside of class and responds to emails within a couple of hours. His exams are reasonable and he never tries to trick anyone. His lectures are clear and concise and don't try to overwhelm you. I would be a math major if he taught every math class. Bottom line is, if you have the opportunity to take him, do it. You won't regret it.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Anonymous 12/01/2021	I am definitely not a math person and usually struggle within any math class I take, however, I barely struggled in this course. He is an excellent teacher and explains everything very clearly. He is super approachable and easygoing. He makes the hour and fifteen-minute lectures actually entertaining and easy to listen to. Most of your grades come from the quizzes every week and 3 exams, which are only 3 questions and based on the homework and algebra review questions (which he gives you at the beginning of the course). He also drops the lowest 2 quiz grades at the end of the semester. I HIGHLY recommend that if you decide to take a math class you have him as a professor.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/13/2021	I do not usually consider myself a math person. I got 100% on the final exam. I really think it’s due to the way he taught the class. He made the textbook, which is super simple, easy to read, and has just enough information and examples to teach off of without being overwhelming. His lectures are concise yet comprehensive, and he is open to all questions. He does have some mandatory “clicker” questions to answer during most lecture sections, but they are usually very easy. Other than that, most of your grades come from worksheets and practice problems, which can be discussed with a TA and are usually fairly straightforward. Exams are fair, and if you do the work and a little studying you’ll do well. (not one exam had a class mean of under 87%) Grading policy is very lenient, difficult to explain shortly but he basically drops a section of scores you did poorly on, whether it be a bombed exam or missing worksheets or something similar (or if you just want to skip all the clicker questions) HIGHLY recommend this professor.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/03/2021	He is the best professor in the world!! if you review the review sheets before the exam, you should get an A on every exam! he explains everything extremely clearly and is just a super sweet guy
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/31/2020	BEST PROFESSOR EVER!!! As long as you go to lecture, understand his notes, and do the review questions before the exams, you should get an A every test and most even close to 100!!. He also counts an 80% on homework and worksheets as 100%. you have to go to the lectures because there are clicker questions that count towards your grade but his lecture is interesting. Overall, best professor I had this semester as a freshman!!
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/10/2020	Prof Washington is the most caring and kind professor definitely recommend. The only difficult part of the class was...calculus lol. (Im not a math person) If you follow along in lecture and take notes you should be ok. He doesn't trying to make exams difficult....usually straightforward.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/09/2020	Dr. Washington is a fantastic professor. He's patient, will go at your speed, and is very understanding. Truly a gem! 10/10 recommend.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2020	Absolute legend if math isn't for you. If you took BC calc in high school you'll be fine. If you didn't, he goes out of his way to answer any and every student question and goes over the same concept 100 times until there's no more questions on it. Very nice guy and exams have been slight.
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2019	Amazing professor and amazing class! He is a world renowned expert in number theory and cryptography and he ensures you learn the material on a deep level. At the same time, he is incredibly nice and doesn't make the class too hard - the tests are very fair and often ask questions from the homework. Also it's worth mentioning that because Dr. Washington is a math professor, he does not assign any programming tasks/projects, unlike some CS professors who teach this course.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2019	Amazing professor, the best math teacher I've ever had. He really cares about his students and teaches everything in a way that's easy to understand.
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2019	Best teacher I’ve EVER had for math. I don’t ever leave reviews but I actually adored and loved his teaching style and passion! Amazing person and teacher inside and out
Lawrence Washington MATH120 Anonymous 11/21/2019	Dr. Washington has been the best math professor I've had so far here! He does an awesome job of explaining the material during lecture. That being said, as long as you come to class and take notes (as well as study on your own time) then you should pass this course.
Lawrence Washington CMSC456 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2019	Best professor I ever had. Posts Panopto recordings and uploads his notes onto ELMS, very fair exams and not a lot of HW. Such a nice guy as well. 10/10 recommend
Lawrence Washington Expecting an A Anonymous 11/09/2018	Honestly, amazing professor! He's so kind and authentic. I was scared of math but he made it easy. Just make sure you take notes and go to class.
Lawrence Washington CMSC456 Expecting a C Anonymous 06/11/2018	Dr. Washington is an amazing professor! He teaches concepts very clearly, is a super nice guy. He's very understanding about workload and will give you any extensions you need. Exams are very fair, and I had fun putting in what work I could to learn the material (I was also taking cmsc414 and cmsc320 that semester). Definitely take a class with him before you graduate!
Lawrence Washington MATH220 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/25/2016	If you have to take Math220 Larry is the way to go!!! He takes plenty of time to explain things and is very patient with all students. He does not require you to do discussion worksheets like other math professors but instead each discussion is used to ask questions and get further clarification with a 2 question quiz at the end about stuff you literally just went over. There are 2-3 homeworks due per week which arent too bad. Overall he is really great and always so positive and helpful.
Lawrence Washington CMSC456 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2013	Dr. Washington was great and the nicest professor. He was interesting everyday and had his material ready. Unfortunately, he had generally low standards for how much material to cover in the class, and if you really want to take cryptology to know the material at an advanced level, don't take it with him. If you want to take it for fun and to learn a few things about cryptology, take it with him, because you will learn!
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A zaqu413 05/16/2013	Lecture: If you buy the book you probably don't need to go to lecture since he pretty much just teaches from the book. HOWEVER, he was great at explaining things, this is one of the first courses I have taken where I can come home from class and do the homework without having to read the book first, sometimes I didn't even need to look at my notes! He is also really nice and not uptight like some of the other professors. Protip: He brought us chocolate on the ~3rd to last day of class when we were doing secret sharing schemes, if you cracked the code you got chocolate. Be there! Also he has some good stories/history of crypto stuff. So go to class! Use the book as a backup. Book: It was written by him, so if you miss class no real need to fret. No answers in the back of the book though, but you can find some of them online. HW (~25% of final grade): Wasn't too bad, generally one or two challenge problems, the rest were straightforward. There are MATLAB/MATHEMATICA problems for about half of the homeworks. They are also very straightforward (Tip: the back of the book has an appendix that tells you exactly how to do most of these kinds of problems). Exams: 2 Midterms ~40% Final ~35% He posts about 4-6 exams from past years so you can study for each exam. If you can do all of those and the HW you are good to go for the exam. I feel that the final was a little easier than the midterms, but none of them were truly difficult if you did the previous years exams without struggling. He lets you be a tiny bit less rigorous compared to most math professors. Taking this course before/after/concurrently with CMSC414 seems to be a good combo as one will reinforce/prepare you for the other.
Lawrence Washington MATH221 Expecting an A Rosha 02/13/2012	Awesome Professor, If you are planing on taking this class, you should take it with Dr.Washington.
Lawrence Washington MATH221 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2012	Nicest teacher ever! He is very engaged and is always there to help with any questions. For the exams he posts past exams that show the exact same format for the actual exam..the questions are exactly the same except the numbers are changed. i suggest doing the homework problems since the quizzes take 2 or 3 problems from the assigned homework
Lawrence Washington MATH221 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/24/2011	Love this professor! He is easy as long as you go to class, take notes, review the notes before exams, do the assigned book problems for the quizzes, do the practice exams, then you will be fine. I took notes in class and used them to study, I didn't even need to look at the book! There are quizzes in every discussion (except for the week after the exam). The problems are from the assigned book problems, about ~3 questions on each quiz. As long as you do it before your discussion section, you will be fine. Also, book problems are great practice for exams. Before the exam, he gives out 1~3 practice exams which have about the same format as the actual exam, so make you know how to do them! The averages were about the mid 80s. For the final, he also gives out ~2 practices. He reviewed the 2010 final on the last day of class, and the final was also the exact same format! As long as you take sometime to study and know what he taught, you will be fine :)
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A keyoung 05/24/2011	This class is very easy to get an A if you put in the work. Dr. Washington gives 3 past exams before each midterm. The homeworks are long but really help and are good practice for exams. Dr. Washington is an excellent lecture, funny, responsive to students' needs and knows the history behind crypto which is really interesting. He wrote the book so your notes look just like the book. If you missed a class just read that section in the book. Great elective course. Awesome prof.
Lawrence Washington MATH221 Expecting an A KG 05/14/2011	Five star lecturer! Easy class and take it with Larry!!!!
Lawrence Washington MATH406 Expecting an A rockinbassman 03/02/2011	Very nice guy and a pretty good professor. His tests are very reasonable and he gives you practice tests too. He is very approachable during office hours. He assigns homework bi-weekly. He collects 2 or 3 problems and then quizzes you on another 2. However, in class before the quiz, you can ask him ANY homework problem and he will do it. There's usually enough time to do all of them, so you're set for the quiz. He'll also do problems in office hours. With a little effort, you can get a 100% in homework and quizzes.
Lawrence Washington MATH221 Expecting an A Bolun 12/22/2010	Larry is an awesome professor!He is always trying his best to make math interesting. The TAs are awesome too! Very easy class.As long as you go to class(actually I skipped most of them ^_^) and take notes, you will get an A.
Lawrence Washington MATH221 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/23/2010	Decent class. Information can get tricky, but he gives out practice tests which have the EXACT same format as the actual exam. Getting an A is manageable with a moderate amount of work.
Lawrence Washington MATH456 Expecting an A xenonscreams 05/20/2010	Larry Washington is a great professor. He makes everything engaging and makes it easy for students to learn. Exams in this class were very fair. They were easy to get a B on if you knew the material at all; getting an A generally required thinking outside of the box, as there was usually a question that was a bit of a curveball. Homework was a little time consuming, but definitely helped you understand the concepts you needed to know for the exams. Most importantly, the class was fun and I think our entire class learned a lot. You're probably at a little bit of an advantage if you've taken number theory, but if you haven't it's definitely not a big deal as it's covered quickly during the course. Definitely take his classes.