This class takes a lot of effort to do well in, but it is possible to succeed if you put in the work to gain a strong understanding of the material. Professor Ryals gives a valuable piece of advice on the first day of class, which is to use the first couple weeks to get to know other people in the class, and don't just be by yourself. To that end, she lets you choose your project partners for both projects, and I strongly recommend to choose wisely. I had a decent understanding of the content throughout, but it was in the last few weeks when the concepts truly clicked for me. The bright side of the grading system was that most of the learning target attempts were stacked towards the end of the sem, so as long as you understand everything by the end of it all, you should be able to get the majority of the learning targets. You might have to watch yourself have a low grade in this class for a long time, but with enough studying, you can quickly and drastically level up at the end.

I liked that Professor Ryals actually writes in her fill-in-the-blank notes during lecture instead of just reading from the slides. It's true that she expects you to ask someone in the class to help if you miss a lecture, but she did emphasize the value of getting to know others early on. As for the individual project assessments, if you and your group thoroughly worked through the projects together, it should be fine. The project work also helps so much with getting that level of understanding that's needed to master the learning targets. I also found that the extra practice problems she provides for each learning target are pretty helpful too. Don't expect a miracle from the final, but if you understand enough to master most learning targets, the final will feel pretty good.

The mastery grading system is far from perfect, but it gives you a solid shot for an academic comeback at the end, whereas traditional grading systems do make you pay the price for not understanding certain concepts earlier on when they were tested. Professor Ryals is nice enough to let you pick your project groups, which is her hint that finding a good group can make a big difference in how this class goes for you. Ultimately, this class demands effort, but she gives you the tools to succeed in this class, and it is up to you to use them effectively.

Do not be scared by the comment left this semester about Megan Ryals. As a person, Professor Ryals is very approachable. I also found Professor Ryals to be a fairly accommodating professor. I communicated early to her about classes and an assessment that I would be missing due to valid reasons, and she was willing to find accommodations within reason to support me. She wouldn't share notes for missed classes, but I agree with her that it is the student's responsibility, not the professor's, to make up for missed classes. The notes are also fill-in-the-blank style, so you could use intuition or online resources to complete them.

I also found the individual assessments for the group projects to be quite simple. Nothing you will do in these projects is outside the scope of the course, and as long as you actually sit down and work on the project and understand all parts of it, the assessments are a piece of cake.

I will also say that the mastery grading system is not perfect. It can be frustrating to not earn mastery on a learning target due to a simple mistake, though it did seem like the TA's would sometimes be generous regarding computation mistakes. I found the learning targets to get progressively harder each attempt, so it is my best advice to put in significant work early in the semester to "master" the learning targets on the first attempts. This also saves you the stress of "having" to master a learning target on the last attempt. The final was also quite difficult, so it is important that you legitimately do have conceptual mastery over all of the topics prior to taking the final. The class grading rubric is clear as well, though much more complicated than a standard graded class.

TLDR: Professor Ryals is a fair professor and approachable person. The mastery grading system isn't perfect, but it is clear. The course is difficult, but you can save yourself a lot of time and stress by consistently going to class, completing all assignments, and engaging with the material. Stay on top of the course and its components and a good grade is easily achievable.

Honestly, the review written by the other Spring 2026 student is spot on. That is a great summary of my experience as well. I'd like to add that you need 20/20 Learning Targets (which is SOOO hard to get) for an A and 19/20 for an A-. Also, you never really know your grade in the class because the final can REALLY help you or REALLY hurt you.

TLDR: DO NOT TAKE WITH RYALS. If you want to take this class with the Mastery Grading system, take it with Hui Ma, or do not take it. If you are okay with a normal midterm grading system, take it with McMillian.

Do not ever take this class with Professor Ryals. She is quite literally the rudest, meanest, and most inconsiderate human being I have ever had the displeasure of meeting at UVA. This is a class that nobody really wants to take, but everyone has to because of their major. If you need to take this class, you NEED to be aware of the mastery grading system, which is the most bullshit grading system of all time for a math class. There are 20 Learning Targets, and your checkpoints/reassessments have 1 question per LT. You only master the LT if you get the entire question right; you cannot have any mistakes whatsoever unless you are just a student that Ryals decides to like through the semester, or she will take out all her own personal problems on you. She consistently called me borderline stupid to my face when I had genuine questions about my checkpoint answers. She does not record lectures or post her notes. Even if you have to miss class because you are sick or you have a doctor appointment, and you ask her politely if you can have the notes since you cannot be in class, she will tell you that it is not her responsibility to post the notes and that you need to find someone else to get them from. The last full week of class, we had a checkpoint or a reassessment every single day. She even gave us a 3-hour-long reassessment on a READING DAY, which is literally against UVA Policy. She gave us individual assessments about the group projects you are required to do (the projects are straightforward), yet she gives you these exams about a month after the project when nobody remembers anything (and she literally gave us one the day of our last checkpoint too). If you get questions wrong on the assessment, she will make you go to her office hours and quiz you on the actual content of the project, which I know that over 30 people had to go to because nobody remembered the project content since everyone was studying for the actual quiz content instead. She is, overall, just such a mean person. It was so blatantly clear that she favored the people who were doing better in her class from the beginning, because I would try talking to her about my serious problems in and outside of class, and she would never care, yet when another student that I knew was doing better than me asked her a question, she would happily answer them with a smile.

It sucks because, as a CS major, the content of this class was actually pretty interesting. Ryals makes this class absolute hell. I had constant stress and anxiety every single day because I was so scared of failing because of the dumb grading system, and if you looked at my work, you could clearly tell I knew what I was doing most of the time. I would just make a dumb mistake half the time, and I would get the entire question wrong since there is no partial credit. I have seen multiple other students crying in class because of the exams. I have talked to over 50 students, and everyone has agreed that the mental stress this class induces on you because of the stress of missing a question is unbearable. I wish I were overexaggerating about how awful this class is, but I took DSA2, CSO1, and SDE as well this semester, and it is so insane to say that APMA 3100 is the worst class I have ever taken at UVA.

I thought this class was actually very chill and managable. Professor Ryals is one of the nicest teachers I had and very understanding. The actual in class experience was also fairly simple and enjoyable and I found that the teaching style of working through the notes with us was very effective. Highly recommend.

Professor Ryals was great, she provided fill-in-the-blank notes which were easy to follow and her style of teaching was very easy to absorb even when I wasn't paying full attention. The format of the class was learning targets, where you had to get 2/4 to master them which were distributed throughout the year. This allowed me to better keep up wiht the class and retain old material; however, it was a little annoying because any small mistake would cause you to lose the learning target. The workload was not much at all and was just the webworks and preclasses, which took little to no time. Overall , the class was structured in a way that made probability clear and digestible, and Professor Ryals made the concepts feel less intimidating than they might otherwise.

Professor Ryals is a decent professor. I really like how she provides fill-in-the-blank notes; it makes it easier to stay engaged during class. This class was not a lot of work -- there were sometimes pre-class assignments due before a class, plus a WeBWork with 5-10 problems every week. However, both of those are optional (you only need to do them if you want a token on the final exam). The grading system for this course was strange, I don't think it made the class any easier to do well in, if anything I feel like it added a little more stress. I would have rather had 3-4 midterms graded out of 100 where you could get partial credit, instead of the all-or-nothing for each learning target. However, this class is not terribly difficult conceptually, and a lot of it builds off of previous stuff.

This class was overall not that hard and well taught. Professor Ryals provides a pdf copy of her fill in the blank notes so you can print them and follow along in class (a lot of kids would just download the pdf on their tablets and take the notes). Personally, I didn't do either of these and just hand wrote all the notes, which at times was difficult because she would go a bit fast given she only had to fill in some blanks, but it was still manageable. Towards the last parts of each class we would get in class assignments relating to the topics we just learned and were often just slightly different questions than the examples in the notes. Instead of tests we had quizzes for each module in which we had to get 100% but they were retakeable up to 3 times. The class also included 2 coding related projects both of which were not very difficult and did not take up a lot of time. Also we had no homework. My tips for the class would be to go to class and review the notes. Definitely recommend taking this class with Ryals!

No one takes this class for fun but Ryals is not the worst. Projects are very time consuming, start them early. WeBWorK is hell as always. Exams are rough. Compared to the other instructors, I really like the way Ryals teaches and her in class worksheets. It really reminds me of high school maths classes but like much harder. Stay on top of the textbook problems cos you really have 4 midterms.

Meghan Ryals is incredibly kind and very willing to help out. Over the summer, the content is pretty dense and really fast paced, but expectations are clear and easy to follow. In class you go over notes, have Q&A, and the practice problems in breakout rooms. If you do the homework and groupwork in class diligently, then you should manage to get at least a B. Overall content is really interesting and fundamental to a variety of fields, so I'd highly recommend.