Math 55 to Hold In-Person Midterm in Shift from Past Semesters

Freshman math course Mathematics 55B: “Studies in Real and Complex Analysis” will require a 75-minute in-person midterm exam later this month, in a change from past semesters.

In recent years, Math 55B — known informally as Harvard’s most difficult math course, along with its preceding counterpart Mathematics 55A: “Studies in Algebra and Group Theory” — assigned a take-home midterm exam over the course of one week.

“I have decided to pare down the scale of the Math 55B midterm to an assessment of basic skills,” course instructor Denis Auroux wrote in a Jan. 31 email to enrolled students.

Auroux wrote that Math Department Director of Undergraduate Studies Laura G. DeMarco had “requested that all undergraduate math classes should have an in-person assessment as part of their semester grade, preferably before the drop deadline.”

DeMarco wrote in a Monday email to The Crimson that the shift was a “suggestion” and not a mandate.

Auroux wrote in his Jan. 31 email that the in-person exam would be administered on Feb. 19, before the deadline to drop courses, in order to leave time for students to gauge whether they are keeping up with the material.

Some undergraduates in the course said they were unfazed by the change to an in-person exam, saying they expect the new model to take less time and decrease their workload — especially considering the required problem set assigned in the same week.

“I don’t think most people care that deeply, to be honest,” Ryan M.J. Shin ’28 said.

Last semester in Math 55A, students were assigned a problem set alongside the take-home midterm, which Albert Z. Tang ’28 said “was just very hard.”

“I think forcing it to be in class will just make it easier for us, because we won’t have to spend excessive amounts of time solving so many extra problems outside of class,” Tang added.

Shin said he would feel motivated to take the course regardless of its exam policies. Students “want to take the course because they’re interested in the subject. I don’t think grading policy is going to change that,” he said.

According to DeMarco, all introductory math courses at Harvard — such as Math MA: “Introduction to Functions and Calculus I” and Math 25A: “Theoretical Linear Algebra and Real Analysis I” — require in-person exams.

On the Math Department website, Math 55 is described as an “intense but very rewarding” course that will “require extensive work outside the classroom,” and a class for which “you must like doing mathematics for its own sake.”

“I’ve taken a lot of math classes here now, and I actually think, from my perspective, an in-person midterm is kind of a blessing for you,” Math 55B course assistant Jinho Park ’26 said.

“In terms of actually learning the material, there’s something demanding about having to sit down and know all the material by heart. And I think that can only really be a positive experience for you,” said Park, who took Math 55 in his freshman year and has been a course assistant for two years.

“You’ll be a little stressed about it — but I mean, it’s 55. It should be a little stressful, right?” Park added.

—Staff writer David D. Dickson can be reached at david.dickson@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Ella F. Niederhelman can be reached at ella.niederhelman@thecrimson.com.