Excellent teacher

Excellent Prof

the only sinhala professor i know in the university. he is excellent

An extremely helpful and courteous professor who’s just so small and adorable!

A very kind and helpful professor, he just needs to be a little louder in class and less timid, after all he is the one with the PhD!!!

Awesome profe and class (Stab22)

He makes the material easy to understand. Awesome prof!!

killer final!

I can honestly say that he's the best prof i've had in 3 years. He teaches the material in a way that is very easy to understand.

very nice professor, always there to help...sent a reply to my email within a few hours of sending it to him the NIGHT BEFORE THE FINAL! VERY easy midterm....EXTREMELY EXTREMELY EXXXTTREEEMMELLYY hard final. otherwise, loved his class.

Man this class was JOKE until the Final. I mean seriously he didn't even care if the class was getting a 90% class avg. he knew that he was going to kill us all in the final. His Midterm was a joke, so are his quizes. Was going with 92% to the final exam which was 50% and I ended up with 73% overal. The exam was the hardest exam I ever faced!

As many people already said, everything before the final was easy peasy. The BEST way to prepare for his final was to go into the professor's hours during the weeks before exams and go over the practice final over with him. Another way is to make friends. That's how I got 2 additional copies of other final exams to study from (tottaly legit).

oh man, i was breezing this course till the final. so killer, my advice make sure ur truly ready for the final go over the practice exam, ask question, don't think that just because you're doing good the final will be the same cause ur wrong. but he's a good prof, make stat easy.(and i'm not a math person)

the prof is amazing! so basically the midterm was a joke...but the FINAL IS KILLER!!! i literally guessed every question but 3 out of 30. i was soo scared i was gonna get like 50 something...but they bell curve like crazy and u get really surprised when u see ur mark! it made my life when i saw what i got in the course...

The course was easy except for the final. The prof was really friendly, and was extremely fair in all of his grading.

MIDTERM AND QUIZZES ARE EASY. BUT FINAL IS REALLY HARD

amazing prof, always there to help, midterm was easy, but the final definitely kills you

i had him for three semesters straight (that's one full year) and like everyone said, everything's easy except for the final exam. my advice is to make sure you do the sample exams and dont be scared to go to his office hours if you need help and im sure you'll be okay. i ended up have three As in the three courses that he was teaching.

Prof. Samarakoon goes above and beyond. He teaches with heart and this course (however boring I thought it would be) turned out to be a lot of fun actually. Key is: ALWAYS ask questions. Never go home not knowing something and ALWAYS read ahead! And do his final exam past paper! You'll do great.

excellent!!! best prof ever!

He's funny but yet monotone. Midterm easy like high school test; but final is killer. U can't study 4 da final cuz it's not related to da past finals or text Q's. U basically random guess w/o doing any calc. Quizes R easy. TA's are useless & boring. They dn't hlp w/ actually answering Q's. He made da crse pass-able & do-able!

i loved him! I got an 85% in this class (so happy) whereas I basically failed other math courses. He is so kind, clear, and makes his exams fair. No question is stupid in his class and not to mention he's so adorable!

Amazing Professor. Super easy midterms, quizzes even easier, but final exam is brutal. Do the example final. I've never had a nicer professor so willing to help when needed!

The best prof I've ever had! Explains concepts so clearly! He's very approachable, and is always willing to answer questions.

He's one of the best professors i've had. He see's the students at their level and makes asking questions less intimidating. extremely nice and helpful! BEST STATS PROFF!!

Great Prof! If you see him one on one in office hours he is AWESOME! Explains everything and this guy is so soft spoken and a NICE GUY! I was so scared taking intro to stats, now i LOVE IT!

The best prof I have ever had.

a truly genuine teacher!

Great Prof! Very helpful in office hours.

Great prof, had him for STAB57. Really helpful and goes out of his way to help students. Explains concepts really well. You MUST ask questions in this course and show you care. Easy midterm, relatively hard final. Ended up with a good mark in the end.

He is a great professor and a great human being.

quizzes and midterm are fine but final is quite hard!! Prof Samarakoon explains concepts well and did do some exam questions/ gives hints to midterm/exams during lectures. try to practice as many past exams as possible b/c as you practice more and more you are building you confidences and starting the see some trends in finals!

Great prof! Covers all the material in lecture, goes over examples well, answers questions, and sometimes he's really funny. Tutorials are really easy, midterm was easy and final is a little tricky, but doable

best prof, very helpful

Nice prof, he treats students equally. Also, he teaches concepts clearly and notes were helpful. Easy midterm, hard exam.

He is a very great and kind prof, just like your father. He marked our mid term by himself, so that he sacrificed his sleeping time, not only for letting students get back their exam paper as soon as possible, but also guarantee the equality for marking. He is a highly respectable prof, not just for his awesome inlustration of the course material!!

He is such an amazing prof. When you asked for his help, he will literary stay longer than the listed office hours. Be prepare to spend 2 hours in his office hours. But that 2 hours is the best hours of your life. Mahinda rocks!!!

Not a mathstats student so I had to sit in the front and away from friends to take in the work, Mahinda does a great job of explaining concepts and showing clear examples. Outside of class he's a really friendly, humble and helpful man, he's there for you and will go over his 2 hours of office hours just to make sure you understand the material.

I highly recommend going to the lectures since it is not videotaped because he gives great examples which are the key to understanding the material. First half is pretty easy, second half gets confusing but if you go to class and office hours, he is really helpful. if you go to classes you don't even need the textbook.

He is the best professor I've had yet! He makes the material quite easy to understand and if you still don't get the material, he's there for you. This course wasn't hard at all. I suggest going to the lectures and doing textbook questions if needed. If you pay attention in class, you'll do well.

Mahinda was a great professor. Explained concept very clearly and took the time to make sure you understood everything in office hours.

Mahinda was a great prof if you actually pay attention to his lectures and take notes. He gives hints about the exams during his lectures. The first half of the course was soft but after the midterm the work gets a bit tough but if you understand the concepts well you will do well. Make sure you ace the quizzes and practice by doing the webwork.

Amazing accent which I don't remotely understand. Covers the last 5 chapters in the last two weeks. What a brilliant professor!

He does a great job explaining concepts and his lectures allow for great notes to be made. He has an accent so sit at the front but overall he is one of the bests profs I've ever had.

very good!!

His lectures are very comprehensive and the notes you great from him are very structured and good to study from. The Midterm was good, but the final was the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life, I swear I walked into a different course's exam.

Verygood

Good lecturer, and incredibly helpful at office hours. He is always giving you little ways to help you out like intentionally giving you similar types of problems to the lectures and not making the calculus too difficult in questions. Also has a very good attitude and spends a lot of extra time just helping students.

He is a great professor who really cares for his students.

very good professor, explains well and the notes are logical.

This course is extremely easy!!! In lecture, he explains everything in depth, but you have to listen closely. The tutorials were extremely easy, my TA would give us the questions before we had to take the weekly "worksheets". The midterm was cake. Luckily I didn't gave to write a final, which I've heard is very hard, due to the current Pandemic.

Mahinda is great at what he does. He is always there for his students and spends a lot of time outside lectures helping people understand the material. He is a really nice guy, the only negative thing I have to say is that I've always had a hard time understanding his handwriting on the board / computer screen, but other people don't seem to mind.

very nice prof. teach with examples, explain with patience, even provide you with e-textbook. easy midterm and extremely hard final.

If you attend the lectures you dont have to read the textbook at all. There's a good amount of content there, and if you get the examples he does you'll be fine for the exams Midterm wasnt too hard, but the final was much harder. You should be able to ace the weekly tutorials though. Keep in mind the tutorial questions are easy compared to exams

IMO, he's actually a great instructor. You can tell he's super passionate about stats and wants to engage his students. The course isn't exactly easy, but it's definitely doable. It gets challenging at the end but the midterm and final aren't as bad as everyone's saying. Just try your best, do the past exams, and you'll do great.

honestly, if you attend every lecture you will ace the worksheet easily. for the midterm, it's not that hard if you attend FSG and do some past exam for practice. he explain every concept clearly. he's definitely a good prof. and he will let you pass if he can see u put effort on the TUT worksheet and exam even you did not do well in final.

I have taken multiple classes with this professor. He is approachable and friendly. His lectures are fast-paced, but he explains things very well. His office hours are super helpful. His assignments and quizzes are relevant to lecture content. His midterm exams are usually ok. His final exam is ummmmmmmm... yeah :)

Professor Mahinda is one of the most passionate lecturer I have ever met. He clearly explains concepts and always inspire student to discover the answer and also the charm of statistics themselves. During online classes, professor Mahinda is willing to stay after class for any unsolved questions and he had great patience in office hour as well.

Final was hard but he curved a lot about the final exam.

Mahinda is a nice professor to talk with. His exam weights heavy but not very difficult if you finish your assignment and understand the lecture well. Besides, he is interesting to talk with, he will talk with you about what he known as more as you can.

Kind and nice. Slides are useful.

Clear lecture, assignments and tests. You will not get too bad if following him.

Professonial in both academic ways and giving lectures. Careful, kind and respectful. It's a pity for CMS students not learning with him.

Generally good and respected. However, you may become much more patient when waiting for his reply by email.

He and Sohee is the best Stats prof in UTSC in my opinion. Excellent lecture and the lecture slides are really nice. Midterm exam is a little surprise to me but the final exam is fair. If you see a course is taught by him, don't hesitate to take it.

His teaching methods are very good and let's me understand the concepts. But he fails at teaching us on how to combine them which is on the final. The midterm is easy but for the love of god never underestimate the final, he just decides to make it way harder for no reason and make it worth 50%. Not reccomended, try a different campus if need be.

I took STAB22 in the winter semester in 2023, and I got 98 for this course. I would say he is the best professor ever!! He will repeat and articulate every important key point during his lecture. For those who said his exam is difficult probably never take his lecture seriously. His exam will only cover what he taught in the lecture and worksheets.

Mahinda's course is challenging. You will have to put in time and effort to study and understand the concepts. Doing practice tests go a long way. If you need help, talking to him after class and emailing him is very useful. He really takes the time to explain concepts to you, especially if he knows you are trying hard to learn the material.

GOAT!!!

Best professor! Very easy-going. His teaching is very good

Very good lectures. Caring and patient to students. Tests are a bit hard but he curves a lot.

He is very helpful

Lectures are easy to understand and he explains very clearly. I used the textbook during the semester, but to study for the finals I used past papers and the lectures. The final is not that difficult if you study, the only reason people say it is "brutal" or SO hard is because it is harder than tutorial worksheets but it is definitely doable.

Professor Samarakoon is the goat. To do good in STAB22 make sure to utilize the old exams he provides and go to tutorials as the worksheets are free marks.

He is a nice professor but you need to sit in the front seats to hear him. He speaks very softly. His explanations are very clear, he gives you many examples to make sure you understand the subject. I highly recommend the textbook exercises it helped me prep for exam. In general he was fair.

Very good professor! He responded to emails very quickly and answered questions patiently.

He is a very good professor, always patient to answer students' stupid questions, his class is very interesting, grading rules are very clear, would take his class again!

Professor Samarakoon covers concepts well, but the final exam is brutal. Using old exams and Unstuckstudy helped me prep effectively. Definitely not an easy A, but worth the effort.

Explains really well! The best professor for STATS; explains really well...

Amazing professor, easy midterm and final if you pay enough attention and go to office hours. Please do not complain about his accent because you can always ask him questions about what you are confused about, so those complaining are too lazy to ask.

I really enjoyed this professor, the only downside is lectures aren't recorded, but as long as you find time to watch online videos or use the textbook to catch up you should be good!! The quizzes aren't half bad, and the midterm is also not too bad if you study. The final is definitely brutal, but with hard work and determination you can do well!!

always the GOAT

He doesn't record his lectures because that apparently brings his class average down. Some questions on the midterm and exam needed to be solved a specific way that was taught in class; so sucks to suck if you missed that lecture. He curved his final like 10% though. He's a nice enough guy.

He talks fast during lectures so make sure to attend and pay attention. He's great at explaining concepts and does 2+ examples for each idea. The quizzes are basically free marks. The assignments can be tough but he dedicates 1hour for hints about the assignment. No piazza but he responds to emails. He permits a cheatsheet for midterm and final