MATH 3100

Professor Petrov is a nice guy, but his lectures are near-useless and you walk out of them more confused than helped. He had a structure of Monday-Lecture/Wednesday-GroupWork that made the lectures too fast on Monday to be helpful for the problem sets on Wednesday. The problem sets were typically difficult but most people got 100's for effort. The quizzes were heinous at times but the lowest two were dropped. Exams weren't too bad. Petrov knows this subject well but fits the classic "genius who can't teach well" trope. Still a safe bet for an A-/A if you need to take this course.

#tCFF23

Professor Petrov is a great teacher. He splits the two classes per week into a lecture class and a worksheet class. You learn the basics from the lecture class and from the worksheet you collaborate with classmates + him to learn other techniques; you learn the most from worksheet classes and while they're technically optional you should attend them. The most difficult part of the classes tend to be understanding the calculus (integrals and infinite sums.) Multivariable calc is not needed; the only concept you use are double integrals which he teaches well. Try talking to him both during class (especially during worksheet sessions) and office hours. Like most math classes, grade is about 75% exam, 25% other stuff. You get a cheat sheet for exams but that's purely so you don't have to memorize formulas; you need to understand the concepts to do well on exams.

#tCFF23

Petrov is a nice guy and a decent professor. One note is that he is very blunt and ambiguous in office hours- he will not walk you through how to do every problem on the homework like they used to in Calc, but he will look at your solution and tell you if you're right/on the right track or not. I went to the Math Collaborative Learning Center weekly because I found that the tutors there were more willing to walk me through the material at an easier to understand level. This semester had the following set-up: Problem Set (homework) work day on Wednesday (finish about half of it in class, due on Tuesday night) then quiz on the previous week's material and new lecture content on Monday. One annoying thing is that he would lecture on the new content over the two classes, so you had to attend your lecture then watch the recording of other lecture to get the full content for the week (this is the first semester he's done this approach). The grade break down was 20% problem sets, 15% each for two midterms, 25% for the final, and 25% participation (15% of which was weekly quizzes). While he thankfully dropped the lowest 2 quizzes, he did curve down on the first midterm which wasn't great. His two midterms were very straightforward and comparable to the weekly Problem Sets in difficulty. I found the Final to be much more difficult personally as the questions did not reflect the Problem Sets as much, however he does post an in-depth final review study guide. Overall, this class can be difficult but if you form a good group to work on the Problem Sets with and attend his weekly office hours you will be in good shape! #tCFFall23

This class was alright and grade-wise not that bad but not great overall. Professor Petrov does care about his students -- we had Slack channels and he responded very quickly to questions -- but he can also be kind of blunt and not the most approachable. The class was taught flipped classroom styled -- recorded lectures and then in-class problem set work. However, I (and it seemed like other around me) were often lost during the lectures and didn't have much of any idea of how to start with the problems. Thankfully, the homework was primarily just submitting answers to the in-class problem sets so (pro: homework load was light, con: sometimes meant I was just copying answers and not actually learning). I did find the exams to be easier than the class problems which made the class manageable. I'm not a math major but I think it would've been more enjoyable if I was.

Petrov teaches this course efficiently and effectively. The class is structured in a way such that there are many practice problems provided, and numerous opportunities to discuss (with both the professor and with other students) the concepts. The exams closely reflect the difficulty of the homework problems, and the participation and homework components of the course generally provide a boost to your final grade. Highly recommend this course for anyone interested in mathematics, statistics, or probability—and in fact any related subject, such as economics, that likely applies many of these ideas.

This class is great for people interested in math/statistics of any year. No real previous experience is required except for infinite series and integrals from Calc 2. Professor Petrov is a really good professor - he genuinely cares about his students and about the material, and teaches it pretty well. That said, his recorded lectures can sometimes be a bit scattered and I ended up not watching them and just reviewing his lecture notes and doing the problem sets.

The breakdown of the class is 15% participation - go to class, participate in Slack, plus pop quizzes on recent material that are not terribly hard but not the most fun - avgs were around 5-6/10 and they're not too big of a deal, staying up on lectures will help; also they're surprise quizzes so come to class b/c they can't be made up and he only dropped 1.5 of them this semester out of 7. I got 10/10 on most of them by staying up to date. It's 30% problem sets (100% if you do them and get the right answers and there's a solution manual online to confirm your answers - he doesn't grade them harshly at all, but they're solid for learning the content), 15% for each of two midterms (in-class, usually about 3 problems - more about his tests later), and 25% for the final. We also have a flipped classroom which I didn't mind because we did problem set problems in class and usually finished 60% of it during the week, so finishing them each week outside of class was not too bad. I used the textbook for the first couple of weeks but then gave up and didn't actually end up needing it the rest of the semester.

For his tests - he posts a bunch of practice midterm/final problems, and we got a cheat sheet (one page front and back) to make ourselves for each exam. Do the problems, understand them, clarify any questions and office hours, and you'll be fine. The first midterm threw me for a bit of a loop but I had no real issue getting 90+% on the midterms/final. It's all about doing a bunch of practice.

All in all, not too difficult of a class, pretty fun tbh and Petrov is great. Don't take him too seriously b/c he can be a bit blunt in class/OH but he genuinely cares about your learning and works hard to make sure you understand the content and feel prepared for the exam. Highly recommend this class with him!

#tCFSpring2022

Probability can be a very difficult course and tough to comprehend at first, so it takes time and practice to fully understand what's going on. However, Professor Petrov does a great job at teaching the subject and you can tell he's very knowledgeable and wants his students to succeed. There are many opportunities to keep a good grade, including problem sets and participation, though part of that is pop quizzes. The exams are fair and not too difficult. It was an interesting and challenging course overall!

Professor Petrov is one of your best bets for taking this tough class in the math department. As a non-math major, I found some of the concepts taught in this class to be quite theoretical and confusing, though I consider myself not to be shabby at all at math. If you think that you fall into the same boat - then prepared to be doing a good amount of work. For a three credit class, I found that the workload wasn't too awful - it was understanding the sometimes confusing math moves that took the most time to digest, and this is what I believe that you'll be spending your most time on. However, Petrov knows his stuff and truly cares about his students, and the grading structure for the course included 25% for participation, which was insanely generous. Overall, put in the work, attend the discussions (you'll be doing a lot of group work) and you'll definitely pass - though it won't be a cakewalk.

Professor Petrov has taught online prior to COVID, so he knew what he was doing with this class from the start. We had a flipped classroom, which I don't think I prefer, but it was fine and I learned the content. In class, we solved examples in breakout rooms, and then he'd go over the answers. We had a few homework problems that we didn't go over in class, but it was not bad at all. I really enjoyed seeing how much I'd learned over the semester when I went back to review my earlier notes. #tCF2020

I really like Professor Petrov's teaching styles: clearly he is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the topic; he gives lots of examples in lecture to help you understand the concept well. Homework is graded based on effort and proper answer keys are available for study. I especially like how he recorded the asynchronous lectures but also went over examples and homework problems in class period, there isn't much workload other than finishing up the problem set and watching the lecture. Test is ok and formula sheets are allowed. Probability is generally a difficult class, and I highly recommend taking with Leonid!

Professor Petrov is good at discussing general ideas and proofs of probability. He is also available outside the class (both office hour and on Slack). He usually replies the Slack message within an hour, which is nice. Overall it is not a hard course and the grading is generous.