I don't get the criticism Valko gets. He gives detailed explanation in class, is happy to help everyone who comes to his OH and once spent 50 min doing review with me. When I had personal diffculties, he gave me extension or drop that HW. He adjusted the exam weights to award gradual improvements. You can get an A without being a math genius.

If you are not a MATH major student, don't take this course. BV is indeed an understanding prof but his lecture only focused on the textbook. Also gave tough grading and hard questions on exams.

He only likes to help you if you are a top student in the class.

Valko is very good. As all math teachers, he may seem a little abrasive, but he is genuinely nice and understanding. Each lecture is dense, and covers the topics from the book. There is HW and a quiz due every week. Tests aren't bad if you do practice problems, but you NEED to understand them and do them, tests arent harder than homework.

Valko is one of the best math lectures at UW. 431 is his magnum opus, and his book is a great companion to his amazing lectures. Homework's were lengthy and exams were on the tough side, but very fair. I put a lot of work in and got a lot out of the course. I think my grade reflected that as well. If you're going to take 431, take it with Valko.

Wonderful professor, cares about students, explains things clearly and grades generously.

Prof Valko was great. He does a great job at building up probability concepts from the ground up, explaining things using only the concepts taught so far, and he was very helpful when asking questions or seeking clarification. His lectures can be a little heavy / fast, but he provides all the resources needed and is available plenty outside class.

I think professor Valko is great. Math 431 was not a difficult class at all because he made all the lectures and concepts extremely clear. The class is organized well. There were quite a few homeworks and they do prepare you well for the exams and consolidate the content. Prof. Valko is also very good at lecture. Highly recommended.

Prof Valko is a great professor who really knows the content. He explains difficult concepts in probability in an understanding way. He goes through a lot of examples that are helpful and answers questions. 431 is a bit difficult just because of the topics covered and it can be difficult to understand parts of it but overall I enjoyed the course.

Professor Valko was a great prof. for Math 431. While the course does move rather quickly, he is extremely approachable both in and out of class and is always willing to take time to explain confusing concepts. His lectures are not required, but are extremely beneficial for learning as he covers many examples that are related to exam problems.

Uses his own lecture notes to teach the class, they are very difficult to understand and spend lots of time on arbitrary concepts.

Valko graded exams extremely harshly, partial credit was not possible unless you were completely right. Answers that were correct did not receive full credit as he expected you to write answers as if you were teaching a lesson on the topic or explaining it to someone who missed class (his words). I would not recommend him, take it with another prof

The class was taught at a somewhat rapid pace, but Professor Valko was willing to spend hours outside of lecture helping myself and other students understand the concepts. Although my grade in the class was not phenomenal, I would definitely recommend taking a class with him.

He is definitely a good professor but exams are hard.

Provide clear explanations in class. Talk about interesting materials outside textbooks. Wish he could use more measure-theoretic languages to describe Markov Chains and Brownian Motions. Careful treatments in Durrett are skipped. Homework too easy and infrequent. I would expect weekly homework with greater difficulty.

Professor Valko is probably the most competent professor I have had at Madison. His lectures are awesome and he makes sure you understand the material before he moves on. He is also willing to help you out and weigh things differently if you do bad on the first test but improve over the course of the semester.

My favorite professor in UW! I was the last one in my first midterm (for somewhat reasons), but surprisingly progressed because he still believes my abilities... I think that is what a distinguished teacher is--students of all initial levels maximize their potential and grades don't kill the pure enjoyment of thinking and learning)

Amazing Professor!

Mr Valko is very responsible and is always ready to help students. He is excellent in academic skills.

Challenging HW and exams. Willing to shift the weight from midterm to final if you did badly on your midterm.

Awesome professor. I highly recommend taking his classes. Grading is easy and he really is interested in helping students understand and learn the material rather than memorizing it.

One of my favorite math professors. I am a PhD student in Statistics. I would highly recommend taking any course by Prof. Valko.

He is a very helpful professor. He has an accent, but it's easy to understand (I am a Chinese and I am not good at English).His Math275 is challenging but also full of fun. I went to his office hour several times and he is so nice & helpful. I strongly recommend his courses. What he teaches in class is difficult but he has detailed review sheets.

Valko was a solid professor. Sure, if you have a power lecture with him, it can be a little boring and hard to pay attention. Yes, he has a little bit of an accent. His tests a very fair though (really, no surprises in my opinion) and his curve at the end of the course was VERY generous, with over 20% A's. Overall, I'd pick him over a random prof.

Valko is overall a solid prof who knows what he's doing. Has an accent but isn't bad at all. The occasional proof and his crazy versions of Greek letters get a bit mind-numbing, and the class itself is tough but doable. A little intimidating at first, but try to go to office hours because it all gets rough sometimes. Study hard and you'll survive.

Has a genuine interest in making students learn. Lectures are pretty hard to get through, attendance was about half at the end of the semester. He will be very helplful if you ask him questions one on one. Gives challenging but doable midterms. Final 40% of your grade. All in all a solid prof, take as a safety net if the other sections are bad.