APMA 2120

Calc 3 has a standardized curriculum between all the instructors, so professor doesn't make a huge difference. That being said, I was satisfied with Mahmood. #tCFFF24

This class is entirely manageable so long as you're willing to put in the work outside of class. Professor Mahmood's lectures aren't the most engaging, especially by the end of the semester when burnout is hitting but definitely still worth it to go to lectures and make an effort. He's also huge on a mutual respect between him and the students, so he's big on students coming to class, paying attention, asking questions, etc. Ultimately I enjoyed him as a professor, but you have to be willing to meet him halfway and actually do your part to engage in class and show your respect.

Mahmood the GOAT!!! If you are generally good at math, I recommend taking Professor Mahmood. He covers content pretty quickly and assumes you have a good foundation so if you meet all of those requirements he is a pretty solid choice. The only downside I've experienced this semester is that he doesn't post recorded lectures. He does post the lecture slides with notes, so if you're comfortable learning off of those then you're good to go.
#tCFF23

For Prof. Mahmood:
For all intents and purposes, having Mahmood is good, or at least better than what the other reviewers say. For me, most of my learning came from teaching myself through the textbooks, so his class served as practice. He isn't super engaging during lectures, so if you don't learn math well through self-practice, I would try for someone else. Though, don't worry if you get him - he explains problems well if you ask, and is very kind.

For the class as a whole:
APMA 2120 content as itself isn't that bad, pretty straightforward for the first few units. Though, the last unit (chapter 16) is pretty hard. This will make up the majority of the content on the final, so be prepared. I spent most of my time studying for finals on that, and it helped (though don't not study the other units). There is no curve on anything, however the midterms and finals were reasonable (no ridiculously hard integration techniques or trig like in calc 2) and fair. There was really no content that Mahmood missed that was on midterms. From talking to other people, it seems like APMA 2120 is standardized throughout the department.

A lot of people did not like him as a professor but I thought he did a great job and was very accommodating of students. You could tell that he wanted everyone in the class to succeed and was approachable if you had any questions. The course has 4 midterms spread throughout the semester and a cumulative final which mostly focuses on the last unit. The midterms are hard but they are not unreasonable. After the first midterm, you can really get an idea of what they are looking for and this will help you study for future exams. There are also worksheets every class which you have almost 48 hours to complete. The worksheets are not too difficult and you can work with your classmates to complete them. I recommend making a group of other students who you can work through difficult problems with and check answers with in the end. You also have weekly webassigns, usually 2-3 sections. These webassigns do take a substantial amount of time but are usually harder than questions on tests so if you feel confident in answering the webassign questions its a good sign. The webassigns are also an easy 100% since you get 10 attempts per question. There is also a preclass assignment before most lectures which is just a short 5 minute video and 1 or 2 questions which are graded for completion. These are usually just there to introduce you to a topic before the actual lecture. The last grading section are the extended assignments. There are 2 throughout the semester which are basically longer problem sets. These must be done individually but you can get help from TAs or from the professor. I found these to be the most helpful when practicing for tests. Overall, this class is pretty difficult but it has to do more with the content and less with Professor Mahmood. There is no reason to be worried about taking the class with him and as long as you do all the assignments and do a reasonable amount of studying before each midterm, you should do good. #tCFF23

This class was conceptually hard for me to understand, but I think that Mahmood is not the greatest at teaching the class. He will gloss over material and not put it into the lectures, and then you will find that material on the test for a significant number of points. The final is extremely difficult in comparison to the rest of the tests, and the last chapter is quite difficult. Mahmood teaches the class alright, and he is forgiving about deadlines, but he does not do the greatest job at explaining how to approach the problems and set them up.

A lot of people thought Calc 3 was easier than Calc 2, but I found them to be the same level of difficulty. I think the difference with Calc 3 is that it starts out easy in the beginning, but it definitely became tricky towards the end of the course. Overall, I found this course to be well-structured and well-taught. For each lecture, you have to complete a pre-class assignment (a video and worksheet, graded on completion), a worksheet covering material from the previous lecture (graded on accuracy), and a WebAssign (graded on accuracy with 10 tries per question, though these weren't due until Tuesday the following week). With 4 classes a week, this was probably my most time-consuming class, so be warned. It is easy to get a 100 in each of the 3 categories, though (I would recommend going to TA office hours to get your worksheet answers checked). There were 4 midterms, which are worth a decent portion of your grade, but I didn't find them to be terribly difficult. If you redo the in-class problems and worksheets right before each one, you should do well. Professor Mahmood also posted a pdf of practice problems before each test which was SUPER helpful. Finally, during the second half of the course, there were 2 extended assignments (longer packets of problems that went in-depth into certain topics we covered). The first one was kind of difficult, and to me, these felt unecessary simply due to the amount of other work we were already given. You have ~2 weeks to complete each one but I'd recommend starting early and working on them in TA office hours.

As for Professor Mahmood, I found him to be an effective lecturer. He is also an extremely kind man. I went to both the TA and his office hours, and he was always super helpful and kind to me one-on-one. Additionally, I heard that he made accommodations for a lot of people who missed assignments (like worksheets, WebAssigns) by letting them turn them in late without penalty. I would highly recommend him for APMA 2120.

Professor Mahmood is without a doubt one of the kindest and most knowledgeable professors at UVA. He is very well-informed about Calc 3 and is very good at explaining concepts in an understandable way. He is also very supportive about the learning process, always encouraging students to answer questions without fear of being wrong and to seek resources for improvement such as talking to him or a TA at office hours. He is a very kind and caring professor For the many people that complain about him being hard to understand due to his accent, I urge you to have an open mind and to just try harder to listen to him. He truly is incredible and I would hate for people not to appreciate him simply because of his accent

Prof Mahmood gets hate for no reason. He's a pretty quiet and reserved guy but likes to drip the occasional joke. I came in as a first year with no clue how to do college classes and did just fine. Multi is a lot of processes that you get to know through practice (believe me, they give you a lot of practice). His lectures and exams were pretty straight forward and he had well timed office hours which were very helpful if you attend (he is one of the nicest professors I've had). The four classes per week and lots of homework were not the greatest but if you use Prof Mahmood wisely, you will be fine.

Multivariable calc may seem daunting at first, but it's honestly very manageable as long as you keep up with the lectures and effectively practice the concepts through worksheets and WebAssign. Professor Mahmood has a very basic, droning lecture style with Powerpoints that may or may not be your cup of tea. I've found his teachings to be good enough to understand the (sometimes brain-crushing) calc topics. He is a caring professor though, and will happily assist you in your multivariable journey.

A online textbook is provided; it's mostly useless though. I found that TAs and office hours are much better resources for clarification and homework help. Tests are weighted heavily in this course, and the provided pdf practice tests are sooo helpful for gaining confidence during exam time. There's also 2 extended assignments with a dozen+ pages of problems each which I assumed would be really bad, but in the end they were straightforward and pretty easy if you make the time out for it.

All in all, I thought the topics in multi were very interesting and everything really does come together in the end. I still wish Professor Mahmood would make lectures more interesting and a bit more interactive somehow. With a bit of discipline, you *might* be able to breeze through this course. Multi may leave you feeling like a fraction of a person, but remember, you're a whole lot of awesome! #tCFF23

A lot of people did not like him as an instructor, but I really enjoyed APMA 2120 with Prof. Mahmood. It was his first semester teaching at UVA, but I think that he did a very good job in teaching the content. A lot of the parts of the course that I did not like, namely the WebAssign, were departmental decisions and not up to him, but he was good with questions and in office hours. I highly reccomend Prof. Mahmood for Multi Calc; even though it was difficult, he was a good instructor.

Guys you are in for a ride. This is by far my least favorite class. Well at least with professor Mahmood. Every day you come in all he do is a point to the PowerPoint and talk. Lectures are not recorded but honestly, you can decide if you feel like going to class or not. Homework is not hard, they allow for resubmission so just check over and over until you are 100% with it. What takes the most time is the WebAssign because the value they assign to it is absurd.

The additional project is sometimes confusing, the key to it is to not overthink, and at the same time go to TA hours and ask them for help with it :).

For tests, it's pretty difficult but not impossible, as long as you memorize every formula and did like 3 practices problem per said formula you will think the test is easy.

I recommend paying attention to the first few units because they will come together at the final unit when everything you learn will come back to you. The final unit will be what the final exam is based on so study really hard.

If you got professor Mahmood, not all hope is lost, just study a lot in your own time because you essentially are self-teaching yourself. It will help if you understand the topic he is teaching ahead of time so that when you go to lecture you actually understand what he is saying.