MATH 1220

I would not recommend taking this course if not required. While there were plently of office hours, MCLC, and P2L sessions I found that often the LAs were not particularly helpful, nor were all of the instructors. Dimou was very knowledgeable, but not particularly welcoming. Class lecture was nearly pointless, as a flipped model was used. While the class is passable, an A is not easily attainable without putting in the work for it.

This class definitely covers a lot of material and moves quickly, but I do not think it deserves such bad reviews. Professor Dimou is very helpful and wants everyone in the class to understand. There are also in-class learning assistants and P2L sessions where you can catch up if you feel behind. I personally found Dimou easy to follow, and I thought he did a good job explaining the new topics. If you attend class regularly and pay attention, you should be able to understand the lessons. The majority of the grade was the exams, but each one had a large curve, and I felt as though a lot of the exam problems matched the in-class problems, practice exams, and homework. The written homeworks and Webassign homeworks were also a large chunk of the grade, so if you put in the time for both of those you can do well. Dimou was the MATH 1220 coordinator this semester, so I personally thought he was the best professor to take the class with.

Dimou is the best professor you can get for this class. However, the material in this class is very hard and stressful. Do not take this class unless you absolutely have to. If you have to, take it with Dimou. I had another professor at the beginning of the semester and switched to Dimou and Dimou was far better. Lectures move super super quickly but Dimou is very helpful and test questions reflect what we did in class. At home assignments count for a lot of your grade and help your average if you put time into them.

I think my biggest mistake coming into this class was that I was cocky, having already taken calc 2 in high school and having done decently on the AP exam. What I didn't realize was that this course would go much further in depth and cover more topics than a high school calc course (should be obvious for UVA, but it took me too long to make that connection). Around the midpoint of the course, I started to see a significant decline in my grades, having not paid too much attention throughout. I did poorly on the second midterm, and really had to turn things around going into the final. Lectures in general were not helpful for me, as I thought Evangelos moved too fast. Going back to review lecture notes, doing the webassigns and trying to get 100%, and attending office hours with specific questions was what I found to be most helpful, which is unfortunate considering that obviously none of this was in-class work. I did very well on the final with very in-depth, extensive preparation, and ended up with a B in the class. I know there was a curve applied as well to everyone's final grades, although I'm not sure exactly how much that was. As for advice going in, I'd strongly recommend going to office hours and reviewing practice questions going into exams. Considering the fact that they always do a curve, it's really not too bad of class, but it can be stressful for sure.

Dimou was a good teacher but the class was hard inherently. If you pay attention in lecture and do all the web assign homeworks without cheating, you will probably have a really good understanding of the concepts and be prepared for the exam. Make sure you stay on top of it as it is really easy to fall behind. The webassigns account for 12% of your grade and are assigned after every class and due before every class. There are also written homeworks every couple of weeks and quizzes every other week. There are two exams and one final exam.