MATH 3250

Taking this class with Zoran was a relative breeze, and relatively enjoyable too! Professor Grujic himself is a very funny guy who bumbles his way through the lectures (in the nicest way possible), which are very compact in their own right. He is extremely knowledgeable about everything he is doing, so it is always good to ask questions if you don't get something from his lecture itself (which can be confusing or hand wavey at times), as he is always open to explaining everything again. If I even had to have a knock on him, and this is serious, it is that his handwriting is atrocious so you do have to guess what he is writing sometimes (people thinking his w's are a's, that type of stuff). A great guy whose love for math is contagious, as he's always smiling after he gets done with what he's writing on the board.

Professor Grujic was extremely entertaining as a professor, but I often did not go to class because the material bored me. Rather, I just studied the textbook (which was really a good textbook), and showed up to discussion sections when we had quizzes. Overall, the material isn't too bad, it ends up just being first, second, or higher order equations that you use a few different methods on depending on the conditions of the equation, and then the solution format ends up usually being the same every time. Linear algebra is pretty helpful once you get to systems, which makes learning eigenvalues and eigenvectors a lot less painful. This class isn't really required for anyone besides math and physics majors (e-school people usually have their own APMA classes), so if you don't have to, probably not worth your time.

Zoran is a straight chiller. He teaches you exactly what you need to know and doesn't faff about with useless things. His homework and exams are always very fair. ODE has been my favorite class at UVA so far and I intend to take many more math classes for my major with Zoran.