<p>There are always questions on here about large lecture hall classes at UMD. You can tell if a class is a "large" class by looking at the current course schedule on Testudo...</p>
<p>testudo.umd.edu</p>
<p>Choose the tab on the right for "Schedule of Classes", and then select under SPRING 2012 "Course Listings". For almost (all???) large classes at UMD, there are the lecture sections, and twhen you register, you are also registering for a discussion section, which usually meets once a week. These meet with usually 20-30 students and a TA, who will clarify things covered in class, answer questions, lead additional discussions, review for exams, etc. This way, you always get a smaller group to help you get in more detail on topics. In addition, you can ALWAYS schedule office hours with the professors and TAs. Most will tell you that people rarely come to office hours. It's the best way to get to know a professor (and get them to know you), and you can get any questions you have answered in a one-on-one session.</p>
<p>At UMD you can choose to be anonymous if you want to be in your classes, or you can have every professor you have know you on a first-name basis...no matter how large the classes are. It is your choice, and depends on how much effort you want to make. (except for the one curmudgeonly professor that D1 had her 1st semester who declared at the beginning that he had no plans to learn ANYONE's names....and this was in an 18-person honors seminar).....</p>
<p>For an example class on Testudo, look at at MATH, for the Course MATH 130... You will see 6 different entries similar to this.
0111(50839) T. Pilachowski (Seats=30, Open=2, Waitlist=0) Books
TuTh...... 9:30am-10:45am (ARM 0131)
MW........ 8:00am- 8:50am (MTH 0101) Dis</p>
<p>You can see that the only difference between all the choices of sections is when (what day/time) the discussion is. You can also see that there are a total of 6 sections (so the lecture class can be a total of 180 students), but there are 6 separate discussion sections for the same lecture...each discussion section with 30 students.</p>
<p>Looking at the intro PSYC100 class, it looks like one lecture can be up to 270 students, but again, each discussion is limited to 30 students. This is probably one of the largest lecture hall classes at UMD, for your reference.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>