Richard Wentworth

This professor has taught: MATH246H, MATH299I, MATH340, MATH410, MATH411, MATH436, MATH437, MATH463, MATH660, MATH669, MATH740, MATH742, MATH744, MATH848F, MATH848T, MATH848W, MATH868C

Sort By:

Information	Review
Richard Wentworth MATH411 Anonymous 05/20/2024	Boring professor, but very smart. Homeworks were ok, some are long and some are short. Exams are terribly hard for no reason which reflects from the scores which were around 65%, final avg was around 60% which the avg grade is about 69.5%. Curve was huge, it added almost 30% to my final grade. It doesn't seem like he wants people to fail but makes hard exams.
Richard Wentworth MATH411 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/18/2024	Great professor, insanely tough class. The tests had around 60% average, but the cutoffs seemed low. My senioritis got the best of me, but overall the grading was fair. My only complaint was that we had a midterm on may 2nd and a final the week after.
Richard Wentworth MATH463 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2024	Great professor. Complex geometry is key to his research, so he's a great option for this course in particular, especially if you want a math over applications POV. Homework match exams reasonably with one or two more conceptual or abstract questions that are more from the lectures. His testbanked exams were also similar. His lectures followed Brown & Churchill's book pretty closely for the most part (Ch1-9), but he'd include lots of extras like Wirtinger derivatives, Cauchy's theorem in terms of homotopies, etc. Was very willing to answer questions and do review. The final grades were curved nearly 20%.
Richard Wentworth MATH463 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/21/2023	On the dim side, exams are freaky hard and weighed a lot more than the homework (which is actually easy for the mostly part), and we aren’t allowed cheat sheets but there are way too many theorems, lemmas, and formulas to remember. On the bright side, he is not a bad lecturer, however, and he curves a lot if the class is not doing well. Even if it looks like you’re failing, talk to him to see how he thinks you are doing. I thought I might fail or barely pass with a C-, but my final grade of D go curved up to a B! Jus
Richard Wentworth MATH463 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/19/2023	Excellent teacher, one of if not the best teacher I've had in Maryland. Makes rough material understandable and gives a good intuition. HWs are great and relevant and exams feel fair and very doable.
Richard Wentworth MATH437 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/19/2022	This was a hard class. It was hard, not because of incompence on the part of the instructor, but because the material is really hard. Rather, I found Wentworth to be an exceedingly talented teacher given the difficulty of the coursework. He was very responsive to questions in class and over email, a straight forward test writer, and incredibly well-versed in the subject. On a few occassions he actually remarked that the Wikipedia page on a given topic was his own. He understands the material is hard, and does his best to support students and apply a generous curve. The only detraction I can make is for not setting office hours until a few weeks into the semester and waiting a bit too long sometimes to publish his lecture notes (i.e. on material after the homework was due). Also, I think that for lower level classes he may teach with a bit too much overkill.
Richard Wentworth MATH437 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/18/2021	Pretty good for differential forms, took time to answer questions every lecture and would be willing to spend a lot of time on helping people specifically. Also has a very soothing voice. only complaint is that the text and the lectures didn't have as many examples as I would've liked so there was some ambiguity in why he did certain things in class, but that could be easily cleared up by asking at the start of lecture. Some of the material is quite hard and abstract, I had trouble and I took diff geo. and topology before this, but also didn't spend the time that I needed to. The stuff that I had seen before was easily adjusted to this more abstract framework. Seemed like there was a quite large curve for people who had low grades, I was below avg. on both exams and well below the homework average.
Richard Wentworth MATH660 Anonymous 05/18/2021	Nasty final exam, course is ok. He's probably better in person. The vibe of the online class was a little passive (not quite his fault) and some material was gone over a little quickly (nobody wanted to complain). Seems like a nice and encouraging guy but I couldn't draw any energy from him.
Richard Wentworth MATH437 Anonymous 05/17/2021	Phenomenal professor. He is extremely nice. The way he explains the material is very straightforward and he will spend a lot of time answering questions to make sure you understand the basic ideas. He really encourages people to ask questions and have a discussion. I would definitely take him again.
Richard Wentworth MATH744 Anonymous 12/13/2018	Great professor
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Expecting a D Anonymous 01/13/2012	Wentworth was not a good professor. He can be monotone while teaching and his lectures are poorly planned. Examples in class were complicated and not helpful. Like others have said, he tends to stop mid-thought during problems, trying to figure out the next step. His tests were hard and had very challenging problems. I felt like I understood the material, but struggled with the difficult of test problems. He made this class much harder than it needed to be. No curve at the end either. Seems like he's a nice guy, but definitely should not be teaching.
Richard Wentworth MATH246H Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/16/2011	I recommend against taking him if at all possible! He makes things much more complicated than they need to be by speaking and writing in very formal math language. He is not helpful at all in office hours either. He often will lose his train of thought and stand in front of the class and think to himself for several minutes, obviously wasting everyone's time. Makes many small mistakes when doing examples, and is no generous at all giving partial credit on exams and quizzes. If you don't get the correct final answer, you won't get much credit. He is just overall not a good lecturer, and doesn't seem to want students to succeed.
Richard Wentworth MATH341 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2011	Wentworth was an ok teacher. His lectures can be interesting sometimes or really boring. The main problem with his teaching is his examples. He will often spend much time trying to figure out how to do his own example because he didn't finish up the work before coming to class and he has forgotten how to proceed. Also, he often taught methods that were very different from the book's, which makes it hard to go and do the hw for the quizzes. Some topics that we were assessed on he only talked about generally for a few minutes without doing any examples. The other professor, Hunt, had an open book open note policy for all exams, but Wentworth did not, which was annoying as there are many ways to solve diff eqs and it becomes difficult to keep them all straight. However, Wentworth is a nice guy and he is fairly approachable, it just would be nice if he prepared more for class. Also, he teaches a little too fast most of the time, so it is hard to wrap your brain around what he has just said before the next topic starts.
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/11/2011	I did well in this class but ONLY because I had a good TA and because Wentworth's exams were much easier than the other 141 professors at the time. His lectures are disjointed, very abstract, and poorly planned. He doesn't bring in notes or examples to do so it gets frustrating watching him try to come up with one on the spot. Brilliant man, not the most approachable guy, bad bad teacher. Avoid him if you rely heavily on lectures but if you're good at teaching yourself the material, you may be fine because again his exams are very easy. Utilize the Kirwan TA's before exams though, because Wentworth doesn't write the final. The Gulicks do, and the Kirwan TA's essentially belong to the Gulick so they know a lot better.
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Anonymous 06/19/2011	He's a nice guy but he is a terrible lecturer! His exams were all right but a bit unpredictable. We also had a lot of questions on our tests that the other MATH141 classes didn't have to learn. His quizzes are unannounced (I guess to get people to go to discussion but it was annoying that I didn't know when to prepare for them). He was incredibly unprepared for lecture and spent much of our time staring at the board trying to figure out where he made a mistake. His examples also didn't make much sense and he never offered clear explanations and instead provided us with vague, beat-around-the bush responses. He was also very boring, mostly because no one knew what he was even talking about. I would definitely not take him.
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Expecting a D Anonymous 05/18/2011	wentworth is the worst math teacher i have had at maryland, and seems to be the worst teacher available for calc 2. i have never recieved any emails from him and he has never replied to one of mine. additionally he does not post grades anywhere. previoius teachers had posted them on webassign or on the math website. he spends class solving his own examples which he has not previously solved. while this is better than a teacher that is just a reverse power point, he is not a sucessful teacher.
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/17/2011	I am pretty sure this was his first time teaching 141, and it showed. He expected students to understand tricky, new concepts right away. If you asked him questions about exams, he would say, "Is that all you care about is the exam? just learn it and the exam will not be hard". Mathlab due every Tuesday and Thursday, they were worthless and tedious. Lecture became useless, learned it all myself from the book. Worked incredibly hard and got a B. Take Gulick or someone else. Maybe he is better at upper levels? but he really sucked as a 141 teacher. Also little or no curve, we will never know because we dont see our final and no contact after class is over.
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Expecting a B jdietri1 05/16/2011	Wentworth was at best ok. He seemed to stumble through his examples and was corrected by students a lot. He didn't seem to have thought through his lecture and often times made things up. He would say this is the equation because it is or magically this is the equation. He does not teach the way the book does. He has invented his own way of doing problems and teaches those ways but often times cannot explain how he arrived at the equations he is using. I would only recommend him if you have no previous knowledge of the class because he will teach you in a way no one has before.
Richard Wentworth MATH141 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/03/2011	I do not think he is a bad teacher, its just that some of his teaching is confusing and when people ask questions, he does not really answer it. Since its hard for me to comprehend him when he teaches cause he pauses alot and says uhh alot i had to teach most of the material myself to get this grade. His exams were fairly easy compared to other lecturers. The other reason i am doing pretty well is because i had probably one of the best math TAs on campus.
Richard Wentworth MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/22/2010	The class was pretty straight forward and not bad. Only one matlab assignment the entire year and it was extremely easy. The practice tests are similar to the real exams and if you do the homework and study a little, you will do fine.
Richard Wentworth MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2010	Good professor, knows the material but can go a little fast at times. Says stuff like "math should be natural" which is of no help at all but provides a little comic relief to an otherwise boring subject. Take him if you don't want to have to do matlab assignments. He had one at the beginning of the semester but then forgot about it. Tests aren't too difficult, he lectures for his tests so if you pay attention in lecture it isn't too difficult.
Richard Wentworth MATH341 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/20/2009	Nice guy, I found taking 341 with him to be much better than 340 with Cohen. Tests were hard, and the average was low, but most of the material was taken almost directly from the homework. Curve at the end and weight of the final definitely help, I thought I was going to fail and ended up getting a B. Also, no MATLAB assignments was a definite plus.
Richard Wentworth MATH241 Expecting a C Anonymous 04/20/2009	As a person he seems like a nice guy, approachable at least. As a lecturer he was average, not good or bad. If you went to lecture you would learn the material and if not you could learn it from the book with some effort. Exams were kind of hard and he looked for understanding of the material. Lack of any real MATLAB assignments was a definite plus. Decent curve, but test averages were pretty low so in the end it doesn't help as much as you'd expect. Like I said, not a bad professor to take, but not the best either.
Richard Wentworth MATH241 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 04/08/2009	He rushed towards the end. The exams were harder than average since he pushed for understanding of material. He compensated with an OK curve...but I would've not taken the class with him.
Richard Wentworth MATH241 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/01/2009	Wentworth was on a mission to prove that he is a tough professor because this was his first semester at umd. he said he didnt care if our grades were bad as long as we learned things. unfortunately if, the whole class fails, everyone has to retake it anyways. if you have a choice, take any other professor.
Richard Wentworth MATH241 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/19/2009	Tests were very fair if you took the time to do the homework. Lectures were decent. Granted, the average test grades were relatively low, but he did curve in the end. Take him if you do not want to do a lot of Matlab assignments.