Reviews for CMSC216

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Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 03/30/2024	So first off I have to say, Nelson is a genuinely funny and kind and caring person. He is very understanding of your circumstances and is ready to give you a make up or extension whenever you need it without asking for much proof or reason. I was personally super excited to have him for 216 since it has been a while since he taught the course in a normal fall/spring semester. I have realized I made a big mistake of taking him when I realized how his class is all over the place and gets way overly distracted. I appreciate the jokes, but it gets to be too much when I am just trying to learn the content. Like I genuinely haven't ever learned anything from his lectures whenever I go to them. I only learn from watching his summer lectures, in which he explains things better and more seriously. He expects us to watch videos from his lectures back in the summer, and then expects us to come into class somewhat knowing the material and lectures are more like a review session, which I really don't like, because I will sit in lecture for 75 minutes unable to concentrate because he will either talk about something I have no idea about, or go on a tangent about love lives idk. Like personally I do not have the time to watch entire lectures from previous semesters on top of lectures we have in person with all my other classes. Now let me get into the real reason why he's only getting 2 stars....HIS PROJECTS. Oh...my...god, the descriptions are so bad and confusing, and his third project genuinely made me want to cry. Not only does he assign projects, he also assigns exercises, which are like mini projects every week. So we generally have an exercise and a whole project in the same week. And the projects aren't even cool creative projects, they are just plain way too complicated not well described projects. I had heard that Yoon has similar projects to nelson which goes to show how awful they are. People say his main selling point is how easy his exams are, and while so far they weren't bad, they didn't feel easy enough for me to justify all of the other flaws. Please do yourself a favor and take Kauffman for 216.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/28/2024	Excellent teacher, just attend classes, start early (just to get a feeling for it) and labs. Again, great teacher and person.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/27/2024	Prof. K. is the BEST professor for 216 (and likely any other course you see him teaching). He takes time to make very helpful slides + super engaging lectures. He makes help readily available with him and TAs having office hours + being super responsive on Piazza. Exams were open-resource this semester, as he felt it was more fair to make exams similar to how you would actually be doing development in the real world (and the exams were not a trap, they were very manageable). Projects can be difficult, so definitely start early, but there is a lot of help available, including the professor's detailed project website pages as well as his YouTube videos which overview the entire project with hints. He also offers makeup credit on projects which is very attainable. Finally, he gives extra credit w/ a sort of complex system, but basically if you do the labs and ask a couple questions in class, you'll get extra credit. If you see anyone not giving Prof. K. a 5-star for 216, ignore them, this is the best prof at UMD.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/20/2024	Impossible to hate Yoon because he's too nice in person. Absolute monster with everything else tho. Asked the most obscure, in-depth questions about some inbuilt functions on the first exam. He will make you good at finding edge cases because apparently that is all he tests on the exam. Only reason anybody takes him is because there's no other option. It could have been a lot easier if the course was better timed and the projects were released a decent amount of time before exams for practice. Even the practice exams were mostly from Nelson's previous exams which were way easier than Yoon's. If you are stuck with him, all the best and godspeed.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 02/20/2024	Greatest professor of all time. I really enjoy C and systems level programming thanks to this well organized and well taught class with fair exams and easy projects.
Dashawna Lara CMSC216 Anonymous 02/16/2024	I just started CMSC 216 and I would like to say Dashawna is one nicest TAs I have ever met. She really cares about her students and she explained pointers to me so clearly in office hours. She is so helpful, I highly recommend her!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/29/2024	In the eyes of an international student: Pros: Nice TAs (but waiting time during office hours could go up to several hours) Extremely detailed project description (though it could be regarded as verbose) Cons: Boring lecture, it was hard to understand what he was saying Difficult exams, tricky questions Harsh project standards (although they make you a better programmer) Sporadic in-class/discussion worksheets that are graded Conclusion: Among all the courses I have taken at UMD, I would rate this course/professor at about 1.5 to 2 stars.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/24/2024	I've never had a more stressful experience. He is very knowledgeable. Curve was about 3% (89 was an A). The curve for a C was much more generous. If you average high seventies to 80 your chilling.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/18/2024	Slow grader(most projects not graded til after the semester). Mad Boring. Only reason I did well is because I read the textbook. Lecture is required and basically just is redoing the textbook. No cellphones in lecture and he will call you out if he sees you. Discussion is also required and is equally as useless as lecture.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/14/2024	He's a good teacher, and I enjoyed his lectures but some of the project deadlines were a bit tight and overlapping. You'll make a lot of silly mistakes on the test so make sure to be careful.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 01/05/2024	One of the worst cmsc professors ever. His practice exams and the format are not the same as the actual exam. He was not helpful to students who are concerned about their grade. He just demoralize you instead of saying you can do it. This happened to me when we just completed 1 month. I regret that I didn’t check his reviews before I registered for his class. For sure, I wouldn’t take him.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/30/2023	Alright instructor. Slow grading. Kinda dry and lectures are boring although it might be because the lectures are longer than 131 and 132. Really long project descriptions. Not great but not yoon.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/30/2023	He is a great lecturer and he also records his lectures. I do agree that his exams could be on the more difficult side but he doesn't test on anything that he hasn't taught. It's just very detailed based on where a lot of the MC questions are specific. Besides this, I think Yoon is a great professor. He really does care for his students and answers your questions in depth. I would also utilize his office hours as he's extremely helpful.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/28/2023	Larry Herman is undoubtedly the worst professor I have ever encountered. I have never had a problem with any other professor, but I have many problems with Larry Herman. In his lectures he wastes so much time repeating ideas, stuttering over his words, and talking so slowly that by the time he gets 3 words out he has already lost your attention. The fact that he is able to bore everyone to death to the point that when I look around and everyone in the back is asleep is honestly pretty impressive. He not only fails to be a good teacher, but he also fails to be a decent human being. He has no interest or care for the students and treats them like objects. Despite the large class size of 600, I have witnessed many professors handle an equivalent load with less arrogance and impudence. Larry has the tendency to over complicate simple concepts. His project descriptions span an average of 10 pages containing repeated or unnecessary information and claims that tools such as the debuggers are essential, when many including myself do perfectly fine without it. His sense of entitlement is evident in the fact he designs the course as if it is the most important and only class you will be taking with little to no consideration for his students or their time. The moral of the story is unless you want a semester of pain and suffering avoid this man at all costs!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A nmeyerov 12/28/2023	Larry is very particular about how he wants you to write the projects, so the project descriptions are very detailed and important. His lectures are somewhat boring, but you have to go to them because he has unexpected graded worksheets in lecture and discussion sections. He does teach pretty well, and his project descriptions give great hints on what the secret tests are testing and how you should write your project.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/27/2023	Pros: 1. The course is very structured and he follows the schedule to a T, but this can also be a negative thing as he DOES NOT cut any slack and sticks to the course policies 2. Projects are not very bad and the course is structured in a way where not many students can fail if they manage to pass all the exams even on the borderline (but its structured to push many students into the C to C+ range) 3. His exams are small and each question can be a hit or miss so you might lose 20 points just for overlooking a small detail or get 20 points for a simple question, which can be a positive or a negative thing depending on the person Cons: 1. Terrible professor, he does NOT know how to teach or keep students engaged (you will hear a lot of snoring) and he can come off as rude during lectures when he calls out on people using electronics 2. No proper system of communication as no email for any of the staff, you would have to attend Office Hours to clarify anythingg. 3. Does not grade projects on time and releases them at the end, so you have no idea how you're doing in the course. 4. His exams are annoying in the sense that he has a very specific way of questioning and the topics you think are going to be on the test will never be on the test, so a lot of thorough memorization is needed and there is no partial credit at all, so you have to look at his question very very carefully (this is what brought down a lot of kids because silly mistakes would take away 5-10 points at a stretch) Overall not a good professor, he just follows the course structure very adamantly and doesn't deviate from it, so if the policies work for your style of studying you're good, if not you're screwed.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/25/2023	I think Yoon is more possible than a lot of the reviews seem to say, but it is still pretty rough overall. In short, I think the main thing you have to do in this class is invest a lot of time and DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. This goes for not only projects but just understanding what Yoon goes over in class. This is honestly a lot easier said than done, as Yoon's lectures are really hard to understand often. However, not making sure you understand the material will likely just force you to catch up during later lectures or projects, and in my experience just made the class much harder Projects and exercises are honestly (somewhat) fair but they take many, many hours (don't do them last minute). While yes, the MCQ for tests is kinda rough, I honestly think the free response isn't too bad given it's much easier to get partial credit; however, I think in order to FRQ you really need to get acquainted with your labs and the examples given in class. I often threw on many MCQ questions, but free response helped pad my grade. Finally, there are some point buffers that made the class (mildly) more bearable, mainly in the graded lab work that was introduced in the middle of the semester. I'm not sure if Yoon had this in previous semesters, but it gave a 15+% buffer of free points that really helped improve grades. I think this class overall isn't totally unfair if you can put a lot of time in (besides the test MCQs), but you really need to be prepared to spend hours upon hours each week.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/24/2023	Ended the course with an A-. Lectures & lectures slides in my opinion are top tier. I never went to any lectures but watched the recordings (he goes wayy too fast to keep up with the content live). Projects and exercises are doable, but extremely time intensive. Heard that Yoon's projects are better than Larry Herman's. Ended up submitting one project late. Discussions are basically mandatory to attend, you have a lab worksheet to do almost every lab. Yoon or one of the TA's responded within a day on two on Piazza, which was awesome. Midterms & Quiz, this is where Yoon is cut-throat. Midterm1 mean was 66%, Midterm2 66% FinalExam 58% Quiz1 75%. Note the median is probably a good bit higher, as the mean is affected by outliers. At the end of the semester the Median: 77 Upper Quartile: 85 Lower Quartile: 68. I was in the upper quartile and ended up with an A-. Based on my approximations the curve was more than 2.62% but less than 6.62%. Reflection: I also don't like how toxic curve based classes can be as you are competing against your peers for that curve. Make a good group of friends to avoid this. But considering this is a weed out class, Yoon did a great job doing so while being fair. Would definetely retake Yoon over Herman. If Nelson's teaching it, he's probably the best though.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/24/2023	Larry is a pretty decent professor overall. His lectures can be a bit boring, but he explains concepts fairly well and most of what you need to know is in the textbook. His projects were pretty difficult and time consuming for me, but they definitely helped me understand the material better, so I think they were worth it. Exams are fair and he provides a lot of practice questions in his study guides. Attendance in lecture and discussion is kinda required since he sometimes will have graded worksheets that all together were worth 13% of our grade, but you would get 100% for just trying on them and they give a large boost to your overall grade if you do all of them. The main complaint I have about him is how long he takes to grade things. He gave us our midterms back after maybe 2-3ish weeks, but we didn't get most of our project grades back until after the final, so it was kinda hard to know what my grade was for most of the semester which was a bit annoying. I guess if you're confident in the material it wouldn't be so bad, but the week after the final before I knew my final overall grade was pretty stressful since I didn't know where I was grade wise going into the final. Overall, Larry is a pretty good professor, but the time he takes to grade things just add even more stress to an already pretty stressful class.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2023	Not implementing a curve after the final was the last straw.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2023	Well, where should I start? I came into this semester fearing 216 because I knew this course was going to be tough and I had no clue how the professor was going to be since he was new. But Kauffman made the class so much more exciting and fun than it was supposed to be. The way his course is structured really benefits the students quite a lot. 40% of the grade is in your pocket since it's all assignments, projects, and homework, which are fairly graded. The midterms and final exams have the same weight, i.e. 20% each. His projects can get a bit lengthy but the pro is that you can make up on a project that you didn't do well on by attempting the bonus credit for other projects. I would say that his exams can be a little tricky at times, but it is fair given the fact that it is an open book, and he also provided a sample paper, which was almost like the actual paper we give. He really cares about his students and answers basically any question you ask him, even if it is out of the syllabus. His entire concept of bonus engagement points is SO HELPFUL. You answer a question in class or on piazza and that gives you a bonus point! I would highly recommend you all to take him for whatever class he teaches because I can guarantee you that he won't let you down. As long as you do your work on time and understand the concepts well, you are guaranteed at least an A in this class!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	Can tell that he genuinely cares about his student's understanding. He doesn't use secret tests because he doesn't believe that they improve student's learning. He takes time to introduce concepts on an easy level with discussion exercises and homework before testing your understanding of the concepts harder in projects and exams. Kauffman is a great, down-to-earth guy and I highly recommend any of his classes.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	Lectures: 1. He records and posts lectures on elms, most people don't come to class and watch those on 1.5x (lectures are pretty slow in person) 2. The slides don't cover everything -- there's a lot of edge cases you need to know for the exams, and you will need to test these out yourself 3. GO TO DISCUSSION -- you learn new things in discussion that you need to know. They are also recorded. I learned more in discussion than in lecture. Exams: 1. Some questions on the exams are very edge-case based, which is frustrating 2. They are all extremely long -- you can't spend too much time on one question, or you will be short on time Projects/exercises: 1. There will be exercises and projects. If you know the material and understand the layout, you will be fine. 2. Go to office hours -- the TAs help a lot 3. There weren't many projects at the start of the semester, but out last exercise was due after the last day of classes. The course felt disorganized -- from the schedule for the projects to some of the discussion days, it felt like the professor was planning things a day before we heard about them. He is very passionate about C and you can tell that he likes teaching it -- he wants you to understand the material and answers questions fully, however I would not recommend taking this class with him.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2023	Most people either love or despise Herman. I myself found my opinion fluctuating throughout the semester, with him becoming more likable towards the end of the semester. His major pros are detailed project descriptions which often give you suggestions on how to start, as well as his practice homework (HW is optional and for your benefit) and exams. Out of any CS professor, his exam questions are the most fair and directly reflect the practice. Even though I set aside 216 for other finals, I found myself breezing through most of the questions, with a tough one here and there. Some of his projects are also very well-made and outshine the stuff we did in 132. However, his cons are just as important to consider. The first isn't really his fault, but it is the amount of material we have to cover in a short amount of time. I feel that he can do a better job managing his time in lectures as we were scrambling to finish everything before the final and before the holiday breaks. Secondly, most of our projects (all the ones with style) were not graded until after the final. This makes it difficult to know if we are practicing good style in our code when we haven't even received feedback from the first projects. Finally, I feel that the multiple-choice questions on exams can be graded a bit harshly at times but that's just my opinion. If you are a student who truly desires to learn the material and excel on exams, I think Herman's a good pick. However, those with other rigorous courses may struggle to balance Herman's workload.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/19/2023	"Old school" is the best way to describe Larry, and I mean that in all the best ways. He has graded worksheets in discussion and lecture, so you must attend. He does not allow electronic devices but that is seriously not an issue if you just pay attention in lecture and takes notes. Yes, it is sometimes quite difficult to stay awake in class; that is why you ask questions and engage. Most people do not like him because his class is a lot of work compared to the earlier CS professors and they have to follow "old school" styles of learning. But, the old ways do work best. I have NEVER learned as much in 1 class as I have in Larry's class, and I without a doubt do not regret it for a second. If you want that nice easy grade, Larry is not a good option. His exams can be a little daunting but they are 90% fair (sometimes there's a question that's BS) But, if you want to be a good programmer, then Larry is the best choice. Seriously, I am such a better coder because of him. He's also pretty approachable in office hours because nobody goes to them for some reason. HOWEVER, my only gripe with him is that he can be rude sometimes in ways that are a little too much. He'll call you out if he even thinks you are using your phone in class, he has favorites so try to be one of them, he blatantly ignores some students' questions during lecture (b/c of time crunch but still), and during office hours. It's hard to explain but you'll see what I mean in lecture. TL;DR take Larry if you want to learn and be a better programmer. Just be prepared to work a little harder than normal for it (which for some reason a lot of other students have a problem with)
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2023	Larry is very great. The only reason this is not a 5 star review is the excruciatingly slow grading. Larry himself is a great teacher. You will learn a lot and probably learn the most by taking 216 with Larry over other professors. 216 is a very fast paces course with a ton of content, so that will of course make the course hard. But Larry is the most organized teacher I've ever had. He makes it very clear as to what is happening and what the course procedures are. While he is kind of strange, he is a nice guy who is willing to help at the appropriate times. The bad reviews are almost exclusively from students who can't turn off their phone for 75 minutes or from students who couldn't keep up with the speed of the course. While a few of the projects were difficult and time consuming, none of the projects are really that crazy, especially if you take the time to review the slides and the example code. The project descriptions are very long and that can be frustrating, but everything you will ever need to know about the projects are in the descriptions, so you are left with very few if any questions about the requirements. The exams were difficult and heavily weighted, but he gives very long practice problems that help a lot and prepare you well. As far as teaching the material, Larry is the GOAT. Please take him as you will become a better C programmer and computer science student as a result.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	Larry is pretty good at lecturing but I agree as many others have said in their reviews that they can be quite boring. The grading is also quite slow. To put in into perspective the final has been done and we still have not received grades for most projects yet. This includes ones we've been assigned near the beginning of the semester.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2023	Absolute worst professor/teacher I have ever had throughout all levels of education. He has an incredibly monotone voice and terrible slides that make lecture impossible. He does not allow any devices in lecture even if all you use them for is notes. He takes years to grade projects so you have no idea what your grade will be for the class until after the final, especially because so many project grades are dependent on secret tests. Also, the coding platform that we have to use is incredibly frustrating to work on since it is super laggy, normal keyboard shortcuts don't work on it, and overall just looks like something out of the 1980s. One ta also graded one of my projects wrong and gave me a 0 instead of a 90. When I went to Larry about it, he was not concerned with it at all. He told me to file an absence for the date that the project was due and write my issue in the description and he would get to it. I went up to him twice after that, including once on the last day of classes, and both times he interrupted me in the middle of my sentence and said that he would get to it. His exams are also tossups because they test you on information that is often irrelevant and something he mentioned super briefly in class. It is possible to get an A but you will hate your life.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/15/2023	Herman is an decent lecturer, but nothing special. People overexaggerate how monotone his voice is and how he puts everyone to sleep. For every 30 students, there was probably only 1 person who dozed off momentarily. Honestly don't worry too much about sleeping in his class, you'll probably be too stressed in the class to sleep. The class definitely has too much content to be covered in lecture, so he assigns you textbook chapters to read that will NOT BE COVERED IN LECTURE (looking at you chapter 9, 15, 16), which was annoying. He kept talking about how he was 2 lectures behind, which added more stress. He assigns textbook chapters to read throughout the class in general, but you can get by fine with just going to lecture and reviewing lecture notes and taking your own notes. Exams are alright, but the multiple choice requires you to review the slides in great detail. For projects, they are good practice for exam frqs and class content. However, it is two days after the final exam and 7 project grades haven't come out yet. This is including project 3, which was due over 2 and a half months ago. So when you submit a project, there is a good chance you wont see its grade until the semester is done.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2023	I took him in F23, which was his first semester at UMD from UMN. If I could take him for another class, I would. (I assume some of the things he does will change as he works at UMD for longer, so I can't promise that every policy thing will be the same as when I'm writing this. But I doubt his personality or ability to teach or create great assessments will change anytime soon.) PERSONALITY: He's easygoing and approachable but very serious about his class. He made sure that everything he wanted to be covered got covered, and that it was covered well. He expected us to care about the class and to be working hard on it. That being said, he was happy to make geeky references and jokes, signed off his emails with "Cheers", and made sure I got my ADS stuff properly. I just felt like he genuinely cared about all of our success. AS A LECTURER/MATERIAL: He's very competent, and I think he explained things quite well. He moves a little fast, but he did record and has good slides so that was rarely a concern. Ask questions. He didn't follow the same order or material that the other sections did, but I think the order we followed was good for understanding what we needed to and we really learned a lot of material. Like, looking back, wow. That was a lot of material. TESTS/PROJECTS/GRADING: None of my projects had secret or release tests, which ruled. Also we had open resource exams, which REALLY ruled. Will say that projects weren't easy, and many of us spent ages in OH. But they were SO useful for making sure you knew what you were doing. Like after I finished I felt really solid on concepts. His exams were great in content coverage and fairness, everything felt evenly asked about. And his "engagement point" policy was so student-friendly! Tips for students who are taking his class: - haunt Piazza. - ask any questions you have in lecture. it actively benefits your understanding and your grade - go to discussions (not mandatory, but super useful. it just turned into to OH half the time) - start his projects early. it's easier to do when you have a lot of time.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 12/15/2023	Before you judge based on my expected grade, just know that I was not that good of a student so keep that in mind. Yoon is a caring person, but Yoon's lectures can be hit or miss I'd say depending on how interested you are on each lecture's topic. The beginning since it is simple C things, it is not so bad, but once you get to the harder things like assembly, that is where it really gets difficult as it was not very clear of an explanation on how things work. I mainly just used youtube for my understanding of Assembly, which I honestly still don't get too well, but that is also because I am not really interested in Assembly (and a lot of people probably aren't either so don't feel down if you don't understand Assembly well) and I did not study much about it. His projects can be difficult so try to start early (which I did not). If you can, after each lecture write some code about what you learned and maybe watch some youtube videos about it for more clarification, this will compound over time and you will succeed. I just followed the lecture slides along with the codes and messed around with the code by changing some syntax or writing it on my own. Also as soon as you can, start drawing memory maps for all the code from the lecture slides, this really helped me how things work. The exams are difficult as they are harder than what you learn from class, many questions are there to essentially test your experience with writing C and knowing things like Linux commands and the syntax of C will definitely help you in exams. Overall I think if you are able to go to lectures and discussions, and put maybe 1 to 2 hours a day both studying and doing the projects and you will be fine or at least pass.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/15/2023	Since he does not record, you do have to go to every lecture and discussion since surprise worksheets are given randomly. Even if you go, the lecture is boring most of the time and you can't help but fall asleep. The main issue with Larry is that nothing gets graded. Exams get graded after 2 ish weeks which is not terrible, but I am still waiting for my project 4 grade to come back and we just did the final (there are 12 total projects). No one knows their actual grade and it especially sucks if the projects are graded on style so you don't know if your style is good enough because the way style is graded seems very stingy. Exams I would say for the most part are pretty fair except for a couple of MC due to how trivial they were. Just because the exams are mostly fair, Larry is a must-take vs Yoon, you just have to sit through very boring lectures, and Larry makes you read some chapters in the textbook and does not go over any of it at all which may suck for people who do not have that learning style. Luckily the slides are shared through ELMS and there are tons of examples given to you so it's almost like you're self teaching which again may suck depending on your learning style.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2023	I want to preface this by saying that Professor Yoon cares about the students and cares that students understand what he's saying in lecture. He's also very smart and qualified to be a CS professor. However: - He does not explain concepts well in lecture. He's overqualified for his job and makes assumptions about what we already know, so most of my time spent in lecture is spent playing catch up instead of following along with what he is actually trying to teach. That said GO TO LECTURE and GO TO DISCUSSION. It sucks, I know, but if you can do your best to try to follow along you will be miles ahead of everyone else. - He speaks with a thick accent and uses a grammatical structure (Korean) that impedes understanding. Without trying to sound racist, he just speaks in a very confusing way. - Exams are very long - difficult, but time will be your biggest issue. Considering the test average for my class is 62, you should focus on completing every problem rather than making sure every problem is correct, so you can get saved by some partial credit. Most of my friends have left full pages blank on exams. - Take the projects seriously. If you care about being a good programmer that is literally all that is important. Don't cheat on them, or if you do at least make sure you understand what you are copying. Without this I guarantee you will fail tests. - TAs take upwards of a month to grade tests and projects. On this day of writing (12/14) there are projects from 11/16 and lab activities from 11/15 that are still ungraded. Our second midterm took a full 4 weeks to get back. - Try to build a relationship with him by asking him questions after class or going to his office hours. I was able to do that and got a late assignment excused simply by asking. - For the first 2 midterms, review EVERY SINGLE example given in lab. He bases a lot of his questions of these exact examples. If you are registering for Spring 2024: try to take Kaufman. If not, don't believe all the horror stories you hear about Yoon. He's a good guy at the end of the day, and you can try to establish a good relationship with him by speaking to him after class. That said this will be the hardest class you will probably take in the CS department and is infamously known for having one of the lowest average GPAs.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	Kauffman is the best professor I've had thus far at UMD. His lectures are pretty typical, but his course structure is excellent. His slides are well-organized and great review material. He gives out weekly homework and discussion exercises, which along with projects were my main learning drive in the class. His exams are open-note and open-laptop but feature some difficult questions, the class average was about consistent with a typical CS class. I vastly prefer this style of exam, and I did well on both midterms. The final wasn't very difficult either, although I haven't gotten my score back as of writing this review. It is structured the same as the midterms. The projects are pretty good. There aren't many of them compared to other classes, but the middle ones were fairly difficult. More projects might have been a little helpful, but in the end I don't feel like I missed out on much. The last comment I have is on his extra-credit system. Kauffman has 'engagement points', which are optional extra-credit opportunities. By doing every optional assignment and participating in class you can get a couple percentage points of extra-credit, which lent me a sense of security. All-in-all, take Kauffman if you ever have the opportunity. He's a great professor.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/14/2023	An amazing teacher that really goes above and beyond to help his students not only understand hard concepts, but really helps them apply it to things that will be applicable in the future and help these concepts stick. Projects are a little challenging but really interesting and class is extremely engaging.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/13/2023	Great teacher, knows his stuff and is well prepared. start the projects early and utilize office hours. The class is great overall as he makes everything available on his GitHub and is quick to respond to emails
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a D- Anonymous 12/13/2023	I couldn't take the final because I lost my ID
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/12/2023	Man is the master of inconveniencing you any chance he can get. He won't won't let you use electronic projects are always annoyingly vague but will spend multiple pages talking about a backstory of the project or something. Gives you a project due the week of finals. Password protects everything for some reason. And is always somehow behind on lecture content while consistently rushing during lectures. And for a guy who insists on being called a lecturer, he loves delegating important topics to the textbook only
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2023	Pretty boring lectures, but Patrick the TA is the goat. It’s pretty easy to make silly mistakes on Yoon’s tests, so practicing writing code by hand can help.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2023	Very good lecturer, but grading is extremely slow. I enjoyed taking this class, but the fact that grades for Project #3 out of 12 are not back despite it being past the final day of lecture is absurd. Also generally just weird rules like putting passwords on PDFs and stuff. I think that he teaches well, but you certainly have to be ready to deal with oddities.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2023	Professor Herman is underrated. His lectures are really detailed, and his project descriptions are really specific about what the requirements are. He posts his lecture slides online. It's true that he doesn't allow electronics during class, and some earlier projects take a long time to grade, but I think it's because he thinks that electronics are distracting (which they can be) and he wants the projects to be graded fairly. You can definitely tell that he cares about the success of his students, and tries to cover as much as he can and with as much detail as possible during the limited time we have during the semester.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 12/07/2023	Exams are hard, he gave us the hardest project right before finals and is assigning another one during finals, we also have no practice exams for the final, if you want a good idea of how you are doing in the class and a grasp of the material i wouldn't recommend yoon
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/06/2023	Larry is a wonderful teacher my Le Pookie Bear is the only 216 professor I would ever take. But seriously, he is a good teacher and gives you an extremely good grasp of his expectations before each exam. If he stresses a chapter in the textbook, you better have read it because there's a 100% chance that it's going to be on the exam. He is very fair in his grading and has a built-in extra credit system where you get points for just trying on things. However, I would have to dock points because he takes an awfully long time to grade things that aren't exams and his lectures are extremely hard to get through without dozing, don't be surprised if you start sleeping through them, but the slides are very helpful. I feel like a lot of the discontent with him is because he is abrasive, but by no means do I think the class is unfair.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/05/2023	Prof K is on his way to being one of the GOAT's of CS professors. His lectures are great, the exams are manageable and actually test content that has appeared in the course before. His projects are a little difficult but I think that's just the class itself.
Akshay Trivedi CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2023	If I could ever describe my role model, I would say Akshay Trivedi. He's my hero; literally one of nicest, funniest, and most mature people I have ever met in my life. Every time I hear his words, a new type of motivation rises in me. Every time I look at his beautiful brown eyes, a fire sparks within me. The way he walked me through my program and debugging process really helped me educate myself on the foundational structure of Computer Science.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/05/2023	He's a nice guy but a bad/boring lecturer and makes even worse tests. The multiple-choice/short answer section is essentially all trick questions just testing you on edge cases most of which you would never expect to know, and you can't even figure out how to study for. Exam averages are consistently in the low to mid 60s, which no matter how far in advance, or how much you study it just feels like it always amounts to a barely passing grade. Yoon gives Nelson's past exams as practice exams which does not even come close to accurately replicating the difficulty of the one's Yoon writes. Coding assignments are alright, some of the projects are stupidly long and difficult, and some of the exercises can be knocked out in a few hours, so it somewhat balances out. Overall, this class is definitely a struggle, obviously no one is going to voluntarily take this man if other options are available but if you are stuck with him, please know it is not the end of the world, it is very doable however you must come to terms with the fact that your gpa is just going to take a hit.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/02/2023	Doesn’t record. Haven’t got the grade of a project from 2 months ago. Only hands tests back in discussions so have to wait longer. Doesn’t know how to teach. Cannot have computers phone any electronics in class. Hasn’t coded anything in class just looks at examples and explains them. Puts stuff on practice exam that r not even on exam. Only tests on certain sections he taught instead of all of them. Tells u to read things from book and doesn’t test u on them.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/29/2023	definitely a hit or miss professor depending on what you like in a teacher. The class material definitely felt less conceptual and more so like memorizing c and assembly syntax/functions. midterms are extremely fair and he gives a significant amount of practice in the form of practice mids, ungraded hwk, and ws. Ws requiring you to either go to class or make friends with people in earlier classes was an experience. projects were fair as well and it definitely will introduce you to sifting through bs to find what you need in the descriptions.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 11/29/2023	Lectures are great, assignments and exams are relatively easy
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/29/2023	Larry's a pretty polarizing figure, i think he's okay at teaching, but for being a teacher he's defintely not my favorite. Pros: 1) project descriptions. The 10 page project descriptions are intimidating at first, but they're actually a blessing in disguise compared to the terribly vague 132 descriptions. Even then, I still felt like some descriptions were needlessly wordy, but you just had to sift through the filler. 2) Good practice for exams. He gives a huge practice exam as well as optional homeworks that are good for studying. Cons: 1) Even though he's pretty good at explaining topics, it doesn't change the fact that his lectures are some of the worst I've ever had to sit through. He has a super monotone voice and the topics themselves are a bore. Combine this with the fact that he bans any form of electronics and you'll have an extremely difficult time staying awake for any more then 2 minutes at a time. Also he seems to be weirdly adverse to answering any questions during class. Oh and he doesn't record lectures and the slides themselves can be very barebones at times. Great. 2) The class itself always feels incredibly behind. He's actually the slowest grader I've ever had in my life which is saying something. What makes it more frustrating is that a nearly half of a project grade can be secret tests + style. How am i supposed to know what to improve on if I literally get my grades at the end of the semester?? Also there's a lot of reading you have to do by yourself. "Mandatory" textbook readings are the most main issue I have especially cuz the textbook itself kinda sucks. There were entire chapters we would have to learn solely from the textbook and then be tested on. 3) Tests are kinda bs. The frq is fine, but the mcq is a joke. It's a bunch of random questions that show up once or twice in a lecture or notes. You'd think guessing would be a viable option, but Larry seems to disagree as you get penalized for choosing the wrong option. You can definitely do good on them, but it just felt like a memorization game more then actually understanding the material. Overall, I wouldn't recommend him, but he was the lesser of two evils between him and Yoon, who I've heard is somehow worse.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 11/24/2023	I took this class over the summer along with 250 and it was manageable. If you don't have any internship then you can take both classes. Nelson makes this class very easy. He is a very good professor and records his lectures. Projects are fairly easy and same thing with exams. I barely put any effort into this class, that's why I got a C+, otherwise, an A is very doable. Highly recommend him.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/22/2023	Teaches as if you have already learned the content which is like ok for C because its similar to Java but not great. When we got to assembly, I was totally lost. He has this expectation that everyone likes to figure out c on their own for fun or something because a lot of times he will just be like "this might cause problems. You should figure out how on your own". Instead of assigning weekly projects like we had in 131 and 132 we will go weeks without having anything and then you will have one thats insanely hard. When an exam comes up you have to put aside everything for over a week to even get a semi decent grade because you have written programs that covered maybe half of the topics on the exam and he gives out Nelson's practice exams(which apparently average like a 90 when his exams have like a 60 average). I will say that if you do manage to pay attention in lecture he does sort of tell you like "I might ask you a trick question on this" so like I guess you can kinda tell what hes putting on exams. However, I would say that I have above average time management skills and I pay attention in lecture and I still am struggling.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2023	This class seems to be extremely polarizing. As my first time taking him, it was initially off-putting seeing 10 page, single-spaced project descriptions with files for everything you can think of, but I can see how organized and well-structured this class is now. Everything is rather fair, expect to go to discussion and lecture to do the graded worksheets, but overall, everything in this class has some purpose that ultimately helps come exam time. Although its very by-the-books, I think it was a really enriching class despite how difficult the content is
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 11/19/2023	Just for clarification the review below mine is sarcastic. Tests are not open note and are very challenging
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 11/17/2023	I have never had such a difficult time with a professor in my life. How does he not let us ask questions in class, but is still unable to teach us all the content without making us learn by ourselves from the textbook. Also, I have a hard time staying awake in every class because it is so boring and not engaging at all. We can barely take notes because he flips through them so fast, so we're basically expected to stay awake and pay attention for 75 minutes. Also, we're not allowed to email him or the TA's, but every time I have gone to office hours the TAs have either been really rude or really unhelpful. I will NEVER take this man again.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/15/2023	I can see why Larry is very controversial - his teaching style is very high-school-like, he teaches out of a book a lot and his exams contain a lot of 'trivia' type questions more than stuff that might be practical coding knowledge. It's definitely a tough class, but mostly because Larry recognizes how much needs to be taught and pushes the class along quickly. However, he's incredibly organized and offers a lot of helpful resources (like practice exams, optional homeworks, and a lot of worksheets graded on participation), which I feel like a lot of students take for granted. His projects have annoyed me with how specific and descriptive they are and he requires a decent amount of reading outside of lecture to keep up, but the more I get through it the more I realize that it's out of love. Plus he wrote a program that gives X random students from our section chocolate because he bought too much for Halloween. Don't be afraid to take Larry - just don't expect to glide through like some professors in other CS classes. And at the very least, he cares about his profession and he wants you to succeed.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/09/2023	Awesome lecturer, extremely fun, smart, and just overall a chill person. Projects are challenging but really improve and solidify my understanding on the course material. Exams don't have any surprises or curveballs and I feel that I can only blame myself when getting subpar grades. His late policy and extra credit on projects really cut down my stress when struggling to figure out that one bug in my code one hour before submission time. He takes suggestions very well and is extremely communicative with students. Also, guest lecturer Parker solidifies him as a solid professor.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 10/06/2023	His grading policies can definitely be annoying, but he has the most comprehensive project descriptions out of any professors, and I actually learned the most in his class. He is also, while boring, really good at conveying new concepts and getting you to understand the 'why' behind them.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 09/30/2023	The best CS prof that I ever had
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ andruepabloske 09/15/2023	I took Larry for 132 in Fall ‘22 and 216 in Spring ‘23. You won’t get much better than him! He gives an absolute ton of examples and practice material. Exam questions and project descriptions are extremely clear. If you submit projects early you get EC, and worksheets are a free 10-12% of your grade. Only downside is that lectures can be boring, but these are pretty dry classes for the most part so I don’t blame him (he also makes really funny jokes every once in a while, to wake you up). Take him if you can!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/10/2023	I love Larry and I really enjoyed that everything he does is so organized and thorough. He can come off as harsh and inflexible but I think he’s actually really sweet and funny, and if you abide by his rules his class is great. He’s a really good lecturer and I really enjoyed the content of the class, even though it can come at you quite quick. I never needed to read the textbook even though he told us he wouldn’t cover the content, it felt like he did anyways. Exams are pretty hard but he gives huge practice exams that seriously cover everything you could need to know if you just do them.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/01/2023	I am glad the CS department has this amazing filter.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/30/2023	Easiest Professor I've taken. You do not need to show up to class and makes projects very easy. Tests are open note and can ask TA for help. Great guy!!! TAKE YOON!!
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/25/2023	Nelson is an absolute gem of a professor. He is truly passionate about CS and wants all of us to succeed. In high school, I didn't really enjoy CS that much, but coming to UMD and taking Java with Nelson was one of the best decisions I could have possibly made. I am very grateful to have had him for all of the CS introductory courses - 131, 132 and 216. Absolutely do take Nelson, especially if you have just entered UMD and are starting with 131.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 08/17/2023	Yoon is a rough teacher. He is a very nice guy and I do like him generally but he will absolutely destroy you on exams. He does not test you on useful or fair knowledge but on petty content that does not relate to important concepts. I found him to be confusing and difficult to understand overall, would highly recommend another professor or waiting a semester if needed.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 08/13/2023	pretty awesome lecturer. all the reviews below are accurate. he'll make you work hard and has pretty strict rules to follow. while you'll hate him for it, you'll come out on the other end a better programmer and student. you got this
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/05/2023	I was debating giving Nelson 4 or 5 stars, because if there's one drawback to him, the class isn't really as comprehensive as other professors from what I've heard. For example, Larry and Yoon teach assembly with MIPS, whereas we get AVR. I don't know MIPS much at all, but for one it has an explicit frame pointer unlike AVR, and I believe they have to learn about stack frames right off the bat, whereas we learned it as a subtopic during the last week. I still don't know how frame pointers work in assembly, as we really didn't go over it at all, but I could probably learn fairly quickly by the time I take ENEE350 next semester. It's still a whole lot better doing AVR assembly than going into ENEE350 blind like most EE's do. Honestly though, that's a minor nitpick compared to the benefits it gives. For one, Nelson's exams aren't hard in the slightest. They're like Pedram's, but much easier. The averages for the three semester exams ranged from 87-91%. For the most part, they're pretty fair in not testing crap no one cares about, and when it does pop up on occasion, it's not worth a whole lot of the exam. Most of the weight are in the coding questions, and they are pretty easy. If that's not enough, Nelson gives us so much review material. For exams 1 and 2, he gave us material dating back to 2014. For exam 3, he gave us a ton of process worksheets and quizzes. The final review material was a bit lacking, as nothing really covered threads all that well, but that's minor if you could understand exercise 6 and actually watched the lecture videos at the end. Even then, the final was only worth 10% of the grade, so if you did well on everything else it's nothing to worry about. The exercises and projects were kinda neat, but it was kinda back to back to back on that front. Just, please work on them early. If you get stuck, especially if you can't go to in-person office hours, virtual office hours were pretty crowded this summer by the project due dates, so go early. You may lose some secret test points here and there as I did, but if your implementation is mostly correct, it shouldn't be a big issue regarding your overall course grade, granted you do well on the exams. If you do take this course over the summer and want to do it mostly asynchronously, as Nelson set up another section just for this, just please don't try and take advantage of Nelson. It will not work. Piazza was kind of a nightmare this summer, and part of that was due to requests like "can the lowest project be dropped," despite the grading scheme being clearly laid out in the syllabus at the start of the semester. Nelson laid out from the beginning of the semester that this is a very demanding course, and he cannot grant extensions for arbitrary reasons (he is very lenient about extensions and whatnot when it comes to genuine issues unrelated to workload). Unless you have plenty of experience in C and assembly, you will likely struggle at some point in the course, so start things early. Even worse, do not attempt to cross Nelson by cheating. He is not lenient at all about academic dishonesty, and he will request an XF if he has any proof of someone cheating. He has the terms laid out in the syllabus like just about every CS professor. If you can pick things up semi-quickly, and you don't flood yourself with other responsibilities, you will have a good time in this course. Nelson said at the beginning that if you do your part, there's a good chance you'll get an A in his class. It's certainly doable to take this alongside either another class or a job/internship, but just know that the class doesn't slow down because you're doing that. Overall, with some of the horror stories I've heard about 216 (particularly with Yoon), this class was nothing like that. It was exceedingly fair in my opinion, and Nelson genuinely wanted us to succeed.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/30/2023	Pros: -He is extremely friendly -His exams are easy as they have similar if not the same question from some of the previous exams (which he gives you access to) -There are a lot of review materials to study -He records the lectures so you don't have to attend -His TAs are very helpful -You have Piazza as a resource to ask questions Cons: -I took it in the summer so there was a class every day so if you missed a class you were automatically behind -Some of the projects were very hard so you must start early -There are no breaks in the class as soon an assignment is due the next one is released -There is no curve, however, you shouldn't need it -Some of the project and exercise descriptions were confusing, especially the last project and exercise Overall, most of the cons are not Nelson's fault, but the course structure comes with the professor. If you have the option to take you should take him. TLDR he is the GOAT and I stan Nelson and you will too once you take him!
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/25/2023	I am so grateful for this man. He is truly the people's teacher.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/22/2023	Took him for 132 and 216. I liked him a lot because his teaching style meshed with my learning style well, but I see why others would dislike him. I personally think he's great. Pros: Really planned class - what he says in class and what the TAs say in discussion is what's on the exam. Answers all your questions, and well - if he brushes you off during class, wait until after class or office hours to ask again. I asked him the same question like 4 times after class because I didn't understand, and he was very willing and even said he would change what one of his slides said to stop people being confused in the future. TAs are great too, all the ones I've had experience with were really smart and willing to help. Projects are graded fairly and style is made clear. Project assignments are exceptionally clear and I was never confused on what to do past just a little information overload at times. Worksheets are a free 10% of your grade - show up, try, and you're already 1/10th of the way there, and the feedback is quick and TAs will help you understand the answers. Again - main pro for me was that he was really willing to answer questions after class. Cons: Project grades take ages to come back - really annoying at times. Exam grades are not much better, but they're a little more reasonable. Exam multiple choice is punishing - he really will ask about that one thing he mentioned that one time, then take 6 points off if you don't know it. He expects you to take notes on only what he's saying then go to the slides after class to take notes on those, but that's stupid and bad and doesn't work, and so you will have to give yourself carpal tunnel to keep up in class. He is also really not accommodating for absences, even for sickness, which sucks. Tips: Lectures and discussions are must attend - missing one when you have friends who take shitty notes is really hard. The lectures are information-packed and you must know all of it - exams are very likely to ask you about a specific topic that he mentioned that one time. If you have a slow note-taking speed, yikes, he speaks a lot and quickly and it's all informative, interesting, and on exams and projects, and he will not let you use a computer/tablet to take notes unless you are very good at hiding it and he does not notice (or you have accommodations). He will tell you to read textbook chapters (optional and required). Do read and take notes on the ones he calls required - that, or have a friend who does and lean on them for the worksheets that rely on that info (i was that friend. it was okay but also I really think that's not a very reliable method of learning and my friends rarely seemed to "get it" - I am not a teacher haha). I never read the optional ones and I was fine, but I assume that if you can't keep up notes-wise with everything he's saying in class it would be helpful. The first exam is also always worth way less than the others - I got a C- on my first 132 exam (went to it sick. do not do that.) and still finished the class with an A, although with a lot more effort than I would have usually needed to put in. Worksheets - actually try on these, they really really help you internalize material. Also they are worth a lot of your grade lmfao. When they are graded and collected, write the answers they give on a scrap sheet of paper so that you have them for later.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/18/2023	In 216 he's an actual God he makes the class super manageable and explains concepts really well. Even though he jokes around like he usually does he has extra time to explain everything. He also posts videos of him explaining things with zero jokes. If you're going to take 216 nelson is the man and will carry you success it's worth it taking it in the summer just because he's teaching. If you want an A and learn everything take nelson if you want to barely pass and come away with nothing take the other choices for 216.
Akshaj Gaur CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/18/2023	Had Akshaj as my discussion TA for CMSC132 and CMSC216. He is chill and knows what he's talking about. He will send out ELMS messages to clarify things that might have been confusing. The goat.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a D Anonymous 07/11/2023	please don't add this to your schedule its only there to waste your time and wreck you on exams he will give you practice exams that have no correlation towards actual exams studying them will throw you off even more. His lectures are useless to watch and attend often not starting recordings and having a thick accent, while teaching you information that doesn't correlate towards relevant information.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 06/21/2023	It blows my mind his ratings are so good. Yes, he's not as bad as Yoon, but Yoon is horrible. That does not mean Herman is a good professor. Cons: - Is very "quirky". Frankly speaking, weird. Talking to him feels a little uncomfortable at times. He gets mad if you call him professor because his title is "lecturer". - Has an old textbook from 1997. It's not that bad of a textbook, but a textbook shouldn't replace teaching and sometimes he tells you to read the textbook because he won't cover it in class. - Doesn't let you use laptops in class because they weren't a thing back in his day. Especially since he isn't recording, it makes life sm harder. - Doesn't record lectures. - Slides aren't very detailed. - Project descriptions are overly long. I get adding detail, but he repeats the same thing too many times. - Exams test heavily on random edge cases. - Paced the course very poorly so much so that we were learning brand new content 2 days before the final. - Requires you to come to office hours to discuss any absence, oftentimes waiting for over an hour in the line. - Kept trying to use Quuly, even when it kept creating issues. - Speaks in a monotone voice that puts you to sleep Pros: - Has good metaphors for explaining stuff in lecture (if you stay awake) - Very organized - Projects really help you learn content
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a W Anonymous 06/02/2023	After missing the curve in Fall 2020, I tried to retake the course in Spring 2021 with a different professor, and the day before classes started it turned into a Larry section. My mental was already full boom at this point. I knew the content it was still just the same problems again. Awful lectures, completely unapproachable, awful Office Hours, slowest grader ever, impossible exams, time-consuming projects worth little to nothing of your grade. This man made me hate anything backend related so I shuffled over to Info Sci and life is good. Literally the worst professor you could ever have. TREAT HIS CLASS LIKE THE PLAGUE AND STAY AWAY.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/29/2023	Unfortunately, he is probably the better option for this class so you have to take him but by no means is he a good teacher. He cares more about the way he does things and following his own philosophies instead of what would be best for the students. One would hope that the policies and the way the class is run would be in favor of putting the students in a position to succeed but that is not the case with this man. It takes months to get grades back (so you cant improve on projects or even know what your grade is) and he doesn't really seem to care about the students. For example, he will blatantly not answer students' questions in lecture for absolutely no reason but at the same time, spend the first 15 minutes of lecture explaining how his teaching style is the best- then he wonders why we are behind on topics. On top of that, his exams don't test your understanding of what is important but small and relatively unimportant trivia about the programming languages. The only positive is that the class is organized and structured but that holds zero value when someone cares as little about their students as he does.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/28/2023	This is just a list of thoughts, so sorry if its somewhat convoluted. The topics covered individually are not difficult at all, its just the sheer amount of content there is that may be overwhelming. Larry teaches the material very well, but he is very boring, enough to make you fall asleep (real). His project descriptions are long but helpful in covering all the secret tests as long as you read through them (I recommend using the highlighter in Adobe Acrobat). He has a somewhat built-in curve through worksheets graded for participation, but beyond that he really doesn't curve grades at all. His exams were both fair and unfair depending on your perspective. On one side everything on the exams were covered and even emphasized during lecture, but on the other side his exams probably cover not even half of the lecture content. However, considering the amount of topics in the course, this seems somewhat reasonable. Also, considering that his exam practice, homeworks, and worksheets cover the supermajority of what will be on the exam (at least this semester), I personally think his exams are mostly fair. If you took 132 with him, you would probably if not already find a pattern with his exams, enough to predict most of the content. I'd rarely went to office hours, so I don't really have much to say about them except for the fact that he implemented a new system where you have to use a web app to join a queue to get help. Overall, as long as you put in the effort you will most likely succeed in the class.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/28/2023	In terms of materials, Herman at least has you decently covered, but when it comes to the structure of the class, it feels like a mess. I had him for 132 as well, and the biggest problem that persists through his class is that grading takes absolutely forever to happen, and that you really do not have a good idea of how well you're doing because most project grades take absolutely forever to get published. Most of the grades for this class were released in the last WEEK, and the final exam grade was published TODAY. I do not know why it takes so long for grading to proceed in this class and I never know if I am doing well enough in projects because it always takes so damn long. You'll think you're at a good standing in this class because your percentage has stayed pretty consistent, but then you realize half of the class' grades aren't even published. At the very least, in terms of material, the lecture slides are okay with what you need to remember, but it can be frustrating to keep up with them because they can be very lackluster in coverage for certain topics, and it can take a hot second to remember what the slides are talking about if your notes weren't the best. They assume that you have gone to lectures and have paid proper attention (which is a fair assumption to make), but they also assume that what they cover clicked immediately with students, and it was especially difficult this semester to go back to slides because for some reason Herman decided to abandon recordings for 216 where in 132 recordings helped a lot with going back to material that I did not fully get. The slides are decent, but not always good enough to go back to review what materials you may want to go back to. Where Herman's class succeeds, there's way more that frustrated me and it comes from how his class was overall structured, and a lot of issues that he had from 132 in Fall also carried over in Spring. I'd recommend taking Herman anyway though, because out of 216 instructors (at least this last semester) he's overall the best one, but keep in mind that his class may be unreasonably frustrating due to how bad it can be at keeping up with how students do.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an F Anonymous 05/28/2023	Larry is the WORST CS professor I have ever had. His lectures are 75 minutes, incredibly boring, graded worksheets in almost every one of them, and you can't have laptops in his CS lecture. He stopped grading in the middle of the semester and at that point I had a B-. Grades dropped today 15 days after the final, and I just found I failed.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/28/2023	Good professor. Teaches the material well though I don't feel like his tests really test understanding, more how good you are at catching tricks
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ HashedString 05/28/2023	Let me preface this review by saying I think most complaints against Larry or more accurately a complaint against 216 as a class. Lectures & Discussion: Larry as an instructor is decent. His lectures are explained thoroughly and he tries to spice them up with some occasional larry humor or interactive demonstrations. (Touching and piping students :3) His slides however are relatively barebones due to him heavily explaining them with lecture. Since he doesn't record his lectures this means that skipping lectures and going through the slides is NOT a good idea. Thus attending lectures is something you should do, or at the very least get notes from another student. Discussions I felt were pretty useless, but he does have attendance worksheets for both lecture and discussion so make sure that if you skip, you know there's no worksheet. Projects: His projects are extremely well-detailed, which is both a pro and a con. He provides a clear understanding of what you need to do and how to do it, but sometimes the project descriptions are so long that you miss one or two instructions in there due to the sheer size. Overall though I think his projects are quite fair and decent to complete. Sometimes there's up to 6% extra credit for the projects too which makes it even better. Exams: His exams are.... hard to quantify in difficulty. Generally, his exams will only test you on concepts clearly discussed in class, so there are no surprises in there. However they are often very specific about small topics sometimes, so if you fail to study for 1 small niche thing you may end up with an abysmal exam grade. For example, you might have a test that only covers ~40% of what you learned in the lecture, so even if you studied the other 60% you might still do bad. Simply put, his exams cover certain things more heavily so you gotta study everything or get lucky. Additionally, extra credit on exams is pretty sparse depending on the question type. This combined makes it tough to get a high grade on the exams generally, but they are fairly decent to earn a "passing" grade. This is made especially better due to the fact that he gives extremely thorough practice tests. The question types are identical usually, but the actual exams just change up the weighting of what's covered on the exams. For example, a practice exam might be 30% about process control, but the exam might only have 10% about that and the rest be about something else. Either way, though the practice exams are VERY helpful and are ESSENTIAL in doing well on exams. Personality: This is where people often hate Larry the most. He can come off as rude or abrasive at first because he has some very strict and thorough policies required for you to meet with him, and what you can and cannot discuss. Follow these and you'll get along fine. Don't follow them and you will get thrashed. It is what it is. While definitely annoying, I rarely had to contact him for anything so I never experienced a thrashing. Be warned Overall tl;dr Larry is a good instructor with one of the most organized classes I've ever seen. The difficulty comes with tough exams so it may be hard to clinch a high grade, but passing Larry is something that you will be able to do as long as you put in the effort. The class is hard, but very studyable. For reference in my semester, the class avg was ~82% compared to the overall 216 avg of 2.45 GPA. (So a little above avg) I think Larry is a good pick, esp compared to some of the other profs.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/28/2023	He is a pretty good lecturer that teaches you everything you need to know, but the lecture slides on their own aren't informative, and the lack of recordings makes it difficult to go back and review material. This means you have to write down a lot of what he says, but he also complains when he sees people writing too much since he thinks the lecture slides are a good source for reviewing. Overall his lectures are boring and you have to listen to every word he says carefully since it may be on an exam or important for a project, this makes it kind of difficult to sit through. My biggest issue with Larry is the way he grades. They take forever to release grades and most of the time all grades aren't released until late May (they were just released today). I had a A+ throughout the entire course, but this was because he had only entered about half of the grades. By the end of the semester he entered some more grades, and my grade dropped to an B+, and now he has entered all grades, I have dropped to a C+. This is an issue because you will have no idea how good or bad you're doing throughout the course. You can't get feedback on projects quick enough in order to improve. Now, the biggest issue with this is that I DIDN'T do bad on the projects or exams. After all grades were entered except the final exam I had an B+, a score I felt showed my knowledge on the course, but after the final my grade dropped to a C+. I understand that Finals are weighted more and will have a larger affect on your grade, but this is because they are cumulative exams that test your knowledge on all topics that were taught previously and any new topics. Herman doesn't seem to know this and only really only tested us on material he had rushed through for the last couple weeks of class. This exam was much harder than the rest and the average was an D+, and the worst part is that he refuses to bump up grades, even if you are on the edge (89.5, 79.5, etc.). I would still recommend Herman though since he is your best option. The material itself is not not difficult, but instead it is annoying and tedious because of the way he grades.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/28/2023	Okay, here's the thing. Yoon is probably one of the sweetest people in the CS department. I agree his exams are hard, but they are made hard by design. He wants you to have a deep understanding of the material of the class. There is a reason we cover much less material than the other professors teaching the class. Like, if we are studying pointers, he wants you to understand what are the weird limitations of the pointers. This was a very common theme, where you had very application-based questions, rather than theory. The best way to do well in Yoon's class is to take initiative. Now, the initiative does not mean just turning up to lectures and discussions, but a whole lot more than that. You have to get your hands dirty in the material, wayyyyy before the exam. In fact, what helped me was office hours. The TA and Yoon's office hours were fairly empty, and I made it a point to go to them, not just for projects, but for understanding the concepts. The most important thing, however, YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO ASK QUESTIONS. Why does this work? What is the basis for this claim? What happens if I change this? Things like this are very important, and you have to learn how to ask things like this, and then go to the TAs and Yoon if you cannot figure it out. If you start comparing whose the better prof for 216, I would say it depends on your personality. I had Larry for 132 and absolutely hated his style. The class did not suit me, and I ended up getting a B. Whereas Yoon's style was right up my alley. (style does not mean teaching style, but rather the style of the class in general) The only reason I have given him a 4 star instead of a 5, is because his lectures are hella boring. To the extend that you don't wanna go to them and, there is little to no practice material for a majority of the course, so you have to go in blind in the exams.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/27/2023	Okay, here's the thing. Yoon is probably one of the sweetest people in the CS department. I agree his exams are hard, but they are made hard by design. He wants you to have a deep understanding of the material of the class. There is a reason we cover much less material than the other professors teaching the class. Like, if we are studying pointers, he wants you to understand what are the weird limitations of the pointers. This was a very common theme, where you had very application-based questions, rather than theory. The best way to do well in Yoon's class is to take initiative. Now, the initiative does not mean just turning up to lectures and discussions, but a whole lot more than that. You have to get your hands dirty in the material, wayyyyy before the exam. In fact, what helped me was office hours. The TA and Yoon's office hours were fairly empty, and I made it a point to go to them, not just for projects, but for understanding the concepts. The most important thing, however, YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO ASK QUESTIONS. Why does this work? What is the basis for this claim? What happens if I change this? Things like this are very important, and you have to learn how to ask things like this, and then go to the TAs and Yoon if you cannot figure it out. If you start comparing whose the better prof for 216, i would say it depends on your personality. I had larry for 132, and absolutely hated his style off the class did not suit me, and I ended up getting a B. Where Yoon's style was right up my alley. (style does not mean teaching style, but rather the style of the class in general) The only reason I have given hima 4 star instead of a 5, is because his lectures are hella boring. To the extend that you don't wanna go to them and, there is little to no practice material for a majority of the course, so you have to go in blind in the exams.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 05/26/2023	Most likely C- because I got screwed from Midterm 2 and final exam. Had a 96% after the first midterm. Pros: -Does his best to manage a class with 600 students -Very detailed project descriptions -Very clear with objectives/intentions Cons: -Sometimes hard to hear in lecture if not sitting near or at front -Slow grading process -Lectures aren't recorded -Doesn't permit allow technology use - will call you out in class if you are using your phone/laptop/ipad (makes no sense because the students who are on their phone will just find a way to hide it).
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a D Anonymous 05/23/2023	Terrible teacher please avoid at all costs, the projects are easy but the exams are the worst I've ever taken in university. He will give you 5 hand written coding problems and will nitpick points for missing one line of code. The exams are worth 60% of your grade and the coding questions make up 70% of that. Also the study guides aren't like the exams at all, he will purposely put irrelevant questions to throw you off. His lectures are pointless to go to and have relatively no useful information relating to the exams worth 60% of your grade. HE IS ONLY ON YOUR SIGN UP SHEETS IF YOU HAVE LATE REGISTRATION. WAIT A SEMESTER OR TAKE ANY OTHER PROFESSOR ITS NOT WORTH THE HEADACHE AND THE STRESS OF HIS EXAMS
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2023	Larrys pretty funny and seems like he cares a lot about his students. He's kinda grown on me over the semester, but that could just be stockholm syndrome. Unfortunately 216 itself is just an annoying class. Projects weren't bad, but exams felt like a series of gotchas testing you on random C trivia rather than ability to understand and apply core concepts. Doing well comes down to how much time you're willing to grind memorizing random function headers and return types.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/21/2023	He knows what he's talking about. Everyone saying he over repeats himself doesn't realize that he's repeating himself because that specific piece of information isn't on the slides, is really important (and should be written down), or can be confusing if you only hear it one time. He is very thorough with his projects (some people say he writes too much, but there is only enough information to help you pass all the secret tests) which take time but you actually learn something. His class is mind numbingly boring at times, and there are (supposed to be) no phones, electronics, etc. being used during class time. Office Hours is hell as well, good luck trying to get help in less than two hours. Random graded worksheets in discussion and lecture to keep you on your toes. Provides hella exam practice but his exams are so rough, they test on such specific knowledge.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/20/2023	I had CMSC133, CMSC132, and CMSC216 with Nelson. He basically taught me how to code from the ground up. His lectures are funny, and explains concepts really well. Always releases a bunch of exam prep material, that was super helpful. He listens to student feedback and makes changes accordingly. I would recommend taking any class with Nelson.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/19/2023	He wasnt as good as he was in 132. His explanations are fine as always and he gives materials but his lack of recording lectures this semester is really disadvantageous for people who like to go back and rewatch lectures to learn better. I would say the midterms were fair however the final was much harder than the practice and previous exams. That being said he will make sure to cover everything. Also his projects are very detailed but I still found myself failing some hidden test. Overall hes still good but the lecture recording needed to change. He still has the same nuances that he has had too.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/18/2023	Larry is a really good instructor. He explains concepts clearly and tries to make his lectures interesting. He does repeat some things but that is just to emphasize them. He has good examples during lectures and his discussion worksheets are helpful as well. He provides all the content you need to succeed, such as extra homework problems and long practice exams. He's very well organized, and as long as you use the material he provides you will succeed in the class.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	Yooooooon. The goat himself. In all honesty, he probably was as bad as everyone has been saying but I don’t know since I took him this semester. The best part of yoon is that he is a genuine nice guy who isn’t trying to make his class tough. Maybe he changed his project/exercise schedule because it was honestly pretty fair. From what I heard from friends taking Herman, we actually had less work this semester. Yoon has probably realized that his class is too hard. The dreaded quizzes are no longer in his curriculum. While it’s true that the test average is usually around a 60, yoon curved the grade at the end of the semester. Make sure you get all the project points you can because the padding will help tremendously. We also had a 4% extra credit project after cutoffs and curve so the grade distribution is probably significantly better this semester.
Patrick Gough CMSC216 Expecting an A DenialWhammy 05/17/2023	Honestly take Yoon just for the chance to get Patrick. Absolutely one of the top TAs at UMD. Very engaged and entertaining teaching TA as long as you go to discussion and participate.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2023	Larry's class was great. The man is a solid lecturer. Everything is organized and clear on concepts and whatnot. Unfortunately the lectures are super boring and I slept through most of them, but even so I could still get an A without much worry. The exams are fair, and fully reasonable so no real worries there if you put some studying in. The projects are also all fully reasonable and can be done relatively quickly. Larry is the man. #LiveLaughLarry #LarrBearForLife
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2023	Had him for 132 and 216, and I have to say he has grown on me. He seems like a weird dude who is strict at first, but he's want you to succeed. His slides are pretty informative and he explains/draws things out well, but I'm not gonna lie his voice has put me to sleep a couple of times. For the projects - start early, look at slides, and go to OH if you need help. The exams are decently difficult but really fair - just do the very long practice test and review slides/notes. Everything about his grading is pretty fair, the only reason I didn't do the best in 132 and kinda threw at the end of 216 is totally on me.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/12/2023	Someone else commented, he makes this class way more weed out than it needs to be. Projects are hard to get started coming from someone with little coding experience. Larry being "quirky" is usually him being rude / condescending. He repeats the same spiel, sometimes for the first ten minutes of lecture, about reading the announcements paper he has on the middle projection the entire class, then complains he doesn't have enough time to teach and doesn't allow questions. I've had weird interactions with him, and the most recent time I went to his OH he asked if I wanted the door open or shut, I said shut, and he made snarky comments about it for no reason. I'm very ready to never have him as my prof again.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/12/2023	This guy is GOATED!!! He explains concepts very clearly during lectures. Because of that, I legitimately turned off my brain for every quiz, project, and exam and aced everything. SUPER EASY!!!! MAKE SURE YOU TAKE IT WITH YOON!!!!!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Agt 05/11/2023	Pros: -Well-structured course with detailed review materials provided by Larry -Challenging, but fair exams and assignments -Strong lecturer; can feel boring or repetitive at times but Larry is highly knowledgeable about his subject, and you'll definitely learn new things! -Comprehensive study guides; homework and projects accurately reflect content on exams -Larry is hard to approach & talk to (see below), but he will help and support you under proper circumstances. Cons: -Larry is a HIGHLY pedantic instructor. His course procedures are distinctly methodical, numbering multiple pages in-length and taking time to understand. Larry also rarely forgives penalties occurred as a result of course misunderstandings. -The CS department assigns 300-600 students to Larry's classes, which means that individualized help is difficult to come-by with Larry. (Granted, this is an issue which plagues most CS professors anyway) -Larry bans phones, laptops, and tablets from lecture, although Larry cannot comprehensively enforce this rule. -There IS mandatory attendance on unspecified days via a graded-worksheet system, and lectures were NOT recorded during this semester. However, worksheets are always graded for-effort (not for-correctness) and I didn't find either of these features to be too disruptive.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2023	Larry is great. I have had him for 132 and 216 and I would keep taking his class if I could. I am hoping to TA with him someday. Yes, attendance is mandatory, and electronics are not allowed in lecture, but I honestly find him pretty funny in lecture in quirky, out-of-pocket ways which helps to break up the occasionally monotonous course material. I find his explanations thorough and helpful; I think if you go to lecture consistently you won't need to go to office hours for help, though doing so is definitely a pain. Exams are not easy but are definitely fair, and he provides a long set of practice questions for each exam that cover everything you need to know. I think Larry would easily have a 4/5 star rating overall but gets hate because of his no electronics policy and mandatory attendance. If either of those are dealbreakers to you, then find someone else, but otherwise, I definitely think Larry is worth taking.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 05/10/2023	He doesn't deserve all the hate he gets from the students. If you actually listen to what he says in class, the projects aren't terrible, and his examples provide a strong basis for projects and exams. However, his lecture slides aren't the best, and you have to rely on your own self-studying from time to time. ChatGPT is very useful side-by-side with lecture slides if you are self-studying.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A leggomyeggo 05/08/2023	Really good content and exceptional projects. Can be boring but you will learn a lot. Also has a good sense of humor. You just need to work for your grade. Would def recommend Long live Ellie the Elephant!!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/08/2023	Larry gets a lot of shit, but let's be clear about his strengths and his issues. For starters, it is impossible to be unclear about expectations for this course -- essentially every piece of information about the course, daily updates, practice material, etc. are available from the beginning and updated very frequently. Deadlines for projects are also fair, given that you start early. Basically, if you stay on top of studying from the textbook (Reek is goated), keeping up with material, watching videos online, and doing the projects yourself, you can succeed in this course. That being said, there is a ridiculous amount of content, so it doesn't take much to fall behind. Larry's lectures and examples, while well-organized, require an immense amount of patience to stay awake in (at least after halfway through the course). He is, without mincing words, super boring. The lecture and discussion worksheets are usually very helpful, but how much you get out of them will often depend on both the quality of your TA and your resourcefulness. Ultimately, with hard work it's not impossible to succeed in this class.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/08/2023	Lectures: Pros: Incredibly important and dense. If you get these, you should pretty easily pass the class. Cons: Incredibly boring, and dense. A genuine struggle to listen to because of how sleepy it can sometimes be. I have ADHD so sometimes I want to just run out of the lecture hall. If you don't pay attention, you are going to hurt your grade significantly (My grade suffered a lot). It's genuinely really difficult to pay attention. Projects(Huge part of your grade): Pros: Each project comes with a file that basically tells you exactly how to do it. If you follow these, you don't need to think a whole lot about what to do. Lots of bonuses if you are diligent. Cons: Each project comes out right after the other, so it's a neverending grind. There is always barely enough time to get them done, if you slack off you will be tweaking the last few days. The projects are still pretty hard and debugging them is very pinpoint. And the TAs can be hit or miss. Exams: Pros: He gives out practice exam material that is very lengthy. Cons: Really hard, really specific details you can only get from the lecture or the textbook. Sometimes the grading is insanely harsh. I still haven't really cracked the code on how you are supposed to do well on these(I've basically failed both). The practice material is (as he says) a good metric for how much you actually know. You still need to extensively study after that. Other things to know: 1. There are a lot of attendance-based worksheets that are 11% of your grade. The TAs are pretty cutthroat with these so make sure you attend and have an excuse or two. 2. The office hour system is awful. Too many people and not enough TAs. When we switched to Quuly, I literally waited 6 hours in line before I got help. 3. Cheating in this class is basically impossible. I would not try and bullshit with someone else's code. Someone accidentally posted their code to GitHub and within 3 minutes they got emailed by the UMD CS department for cheating because apparently, Larry has a web scraping bot that checks the internet for similarity in code between submissions and the internet on at least an hourly basis. And before you say "cheating is impossible in any cs class" not it isn't. Yoon barely checked his student's code for plagiarism. 4. Larry is a fairly nice and interesting guy. He's just very strict if you don't have a good reason for not doing something.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2023	Mr. Herman is a really awesome professor all things considered. I was admittedly a bit hesitant to take CMSC 132 with him due to all the bad reviews on here, but I was so pleased with the way the class was taught that I gladly signed up with him again for CMSC 216. Pros: - Hard, but fair. The test averages are Bs and Cs, but the tests are very fair. As long as you pay attention in class and take detailed notes, then you will be fine for the tests. For every test, I would review the lecture slides, my notes, the quizzes, past exams, and homeworks online. If you do this, you will get an A in the class. While the questions on the exams are tricky, you will be fine as long as you pay close attention. There are no surprises on the exams. - He wants you to do well. Even though he is hard to reach and can be terse at times, he really does want the class to do well. He gives tons of practice work through ungraded homeworks, graded projects, and huge practice exams before the real exam. - Extremely well structured. All the assignments for the entire semester are laid out very clearly on ELMS. All the projects and exams are very clear on what he wants you to answer. Cons: - Difficult to reach. He does not supply his email to the class. The only way to see him is after class or in office hours (with a mask on), which he will sometimes cancel unexpectedly. - Dry lectures. His lectures can seem very boring and dry, but they are very informative. He often repeats himself multiple times (this is when you know it will be a question on an exam) - No electronics. He does not permit phones, computers, or any electronics in class.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/06/2023	He is so boring but he can teach the material well
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/04/2023	11 projects, 2 midterms. midterms are fair but multiple choice can be tricky and grading rubrics for exams can be harsh (eg. one multiple choice was worth 7% of the entire midterm). projects are fairly straightforward. gives a lot of practice material Grading rubric for Spring 2023: Practice worksheets (11%), 11 Projects (27%), Exam #1 (11%), Exam #2 (23%), Final exam (28%)
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/03/2023	Larry provides you with basically every resource humanly possible in order to not fail his course. Unfortunately, he also expects you to use every resource possible to pass the course. While he is very detailed, this can easily lead to content overload if you're unfamiliar with Larry's teaching style. His lectures are well-organized, but he tends to over-repeat himself, the lectures can become very boring, and towards the end of the semester he'll always mention how he's behind in teaching course material. Projects are relatively easy to follow and quick to do as long as you pay attention in his lectures. His exams, on the other hand, are notoriously difficult, and if you don't have extensive knowledge of any piece of content learned so far (as well as not doing his exam practices), you are bound to fail. His system for office hours is abysmal, but that's mostly due to the number of students who need help on studying or projects. Not to say the other options for 216 are better than Larry, but if you're planning on taking any of his classes, make sure you have good time management.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a W Anonymous 04/29/2023	Yoon's lectures are chaotic and disorganized. No, its not his job to be entertaining, but saying "I hope you can survive [my class]" is not a great sign. I was not on top of my work because of having a hard time with life, so I am sure plenty of students better than I can succeed in Yoon's 216 course - I was just not able to at the time. Also, my TA was pretty clueless. I cannot recommend Larry enough for 216. glhf
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 04/29/2023	Larry's lectures are well-planned and clear. The use of worksheets throughout the course lectures and discussions promote attendance very effectively and comfortably. Projects are assigned in a manner that complements the pace of the material covered in lecture. I am so glad I re-took 216 with Larry, because when I took it and dropped it with Yoon the delivery of the content felt chaotic and disorganized.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/18/2023	Herve makes the exams extremely fair, but the lectures are really boring. Most of my learning was done outside of class time because he reads straight off the slides. That being said he is worth taking just because you know what you are in for
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/25/2023	Easy to fall asleep to. But other than that good professor and provides substantial practice material
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/16/2023	Herve is the absolute best professor.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an F Anonymous 02/25/2023	This dude is a literal boomer he teaches 216 using emacs only instead of vs code
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C+ akl2025 02/20/2023	A nice person overall but not the greatest professor. The lectures are quite confusing. The projects are difficult. The quizzes are the most horrible. The exams are nerve-wracking. The class has great TAs so that was how I survived.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/27/2023	The exams were fair but the quizzes were not. Crammed a 30 min quiz into 15 minutes. By the time you read the instructions, you only had 5 mins to to think and write.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 01/26/2023	Not an awful person. Is a bad teacher, unfair exams and quizzes designed to not be finished. This guy's only on the registration sheets to ruin your GPA if you have a late registration date.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 01/22/2023	Don't take this professor at all. terrible. only take as a last resort. basically, ur grade depends on the curves and all u can do is pray and hope you pass or you dont
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- theGreat 01/19/2023	Had Larry for 132 as well so I went into this class knowing what to expect, and it was exactly what I expected. Pros: - Good lecturer - Answers all questions - Covers content well - Well organized - By the book - Old fashionedish professor that is very straight forward - Knows his stuff Cons: - Sooooo boring - Is not generous with points - Attendance is part of your grade
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/18/2023	How to survive 216 with Yoon (extensive): I'm going to begin by stating why I am rating with 3 stars. I'm giving him 3 stars because he is a genuinely nice teacher who wants to help you (especially if you go to his office hours). I also noticed that progressively through the semester, he made his incredibly difficult quizzes slightly easier, learning from student's complaints. Quiz 1 and 2 were incredibly difficult, but the last few quizzes were arguably easier than the other professor's quizzes and were a bit fairer. He started off writing some content on an incredibly small white board, but listened to student complaints and shifted to projecting onto the large screen. His practice questions were also pretty good practice for his exams, despite what some people might say below. You just have to study ALL practice tests, not just one, to have the best chances. At the end of the day, he is a caring professor so I'll give him that. BUT, his lectures lack a lot and it is very hard to follow him sometimes. You have to be prepared to put in a lot of extra work and try your hardest in this class. It has to be your top priority if you want to get an A or B. That being said, here are some tips for this class: 1. Always try to start studying for quizzes and exams A WEEK before (Every quiz and exam MC or Short Answer may have tiny details that will be found from the large amount of slides that are posted on Elms). You NEED to go back to each and every slide and try your best to understand and remember what it said on each slide. You will not get away with two days of studying unless you absorb every lecture well, which is not likely to happen. 2. CODING EXAMPLES and PROJECTS. The coding examples that are done during lecture or labs are insanely helpful and amazing practice for coding questions on quizzes and exams. Some coding examples or project codes are very close to what you will see on this examinations. If you practice the codes from your projects/exercises and lecture examples, you will do fairly well in coding questions. 3. Go through every year of Practice exams provided. Before midterms we were given practice exams from multiple years. Focus most of your energy on the coding practice for this exams, but short answer and MC are great too because if you are lucky, they may reuse some former questions. 4. START PROJECTS ON THE SECOND OR THIRD DAY (or first day if you really want). We are college students and sometimes we have better/more important things to do than starting projects and finishing them quickly. But, some of the projects released for this class have very difficult public tests and even harder release tests. The good thing is that they enforced an early deadline for the first two public tests for each project and usually if you passed the first two tests, you might pass almost all the other tests. Using this early deadline to your advantage is crucial because if you pass all public tests at the first deadline, you will have more time for release tests and office hour help. DON'T make the mistake of starting release tests very close to the final deadline because you won't get much help from the TA's who will have their office hour schedule filled up from other students. 5. Rewatch Yoon's lecture videos after reading his lecture slides. This was a big one for me since I learn better by reading content and then listening. Yoon's lectures are very hard to follow in person (for many people) and I often zone out in his classes, absorbing nothing. This is what causes many people do perform poorly in this class. They don't go back and rewatch the lectures which can actually be great supplements to the lecture slides (which I'm guessing is most people's only resource for content studying). Now, I'll admit that I did not rewatch every single lecture because I did not have time, but for concepts you are very confused in, I recommend it because Yoon does have some good info in lecture if you actually pay attention or look back. 6. BE PREPARED TO SELF-TEACH AND HAVE DISCIPLINE: You need dedication in this class and you need to actually care about it to do decent in the class. You need to set schedules for yourself to code up the projects and you need to try to make some attempts to attend discussions because some can be very helpful. During the Assembly and Processes unit of 216, it was mandatory to attend discussion. Many students were not happy about that but I think it fared well for them in the end. Those concepts would be incredibly difficult to understand by just reading the lecture slides and I'm sure many students would have failed those portions on the Final if they were not forced to attend discussion. In my honest opinion, discussion was very helpful during the last couple months when they made it mandatory (it was a bit "useless" earlier which is why many skipped). All in all, if you care about this class and prioritize it, you can most definitely get at least a B (especially with the curve at the end).
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/06/2023	This was my first semester at UMD, so not a lot of comparisons to make in this program, but boy did I enjoy learning from Herve this semester. My experience is that Herve is a smart and approachable, and makes difficult concepts easier to understand.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Anonymous 01/06/2023	As a professor, Herve isn't too bad. He includes a lot of examples in his lectures which really helps sometimes, if you can stay awake long enough to listen to them. The course structure was terrible, OH waiting times were nearly impossible, and since Herve doesn't check up on grading with his TAs, we always got our grades back really late. It was also his first time teaching at UMD so I understand why the project descriptions were so vague, since he told us he didn't handle anything about the projects himself. Also, no curve or cutoff adjustment. Final average was 79.5 which isn't too bad imo.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/03/2023	Overall, I think Herve did the best he could with what he was given. The project descriptions were abysmal (which might have been because Herve was co-teaching with Yoon), but the exams were generally fair (minus a few typos that were significant but mentioned during the exam). He held exam review sessions which were pretty helpful, and I think it was a pretty fair course.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/02/2023	honestly, run or learn how to self teach. it’s very difficult to keep up during lectures unless studying ahead of time and it’s very easily to fall behind so there isn’t much time to read ahead. the course is designed to have a lot of projects and other work that take up a lot of time, and there isn’t much you can do about it. unfortunately, since the lectures weren’t great, there was a lot of time also allocated to self learning the material. the exams and quizzes were sometimes fair and you can’t really change the course curriculum or pace but i wish the lecture style was better
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/30/2022	Inconsiderate of the fact that students are likely taking other classes outside of his. As a result we had a lot of deadlines in a short period of time, which made it impossible to get help from the TAs since they were overloaded all the time.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Anonymous 12/29/2022	I was a bit unsure about him at first, he can be a bit dry and boring during lectures. During office hours, he's a completely different person. He's always willing to meet one-on-one to help you debug code or go over the material. His second midterm was pretty abysmal, but he made up for it with a more than fair final. My biggest gripe with 216 was that its design is atrocious. This is not necessarily a reflection on Franceschi, however, as it was his first time teaching the class with Yoon. The projects are likely leftover from one of Nelson's past semesters but are nevertheless poorly written/explained. So much so that the wait time for a TA during office hours would be 1-2 hours on a good day. Given the natural stresses of 216, Franceschi was very fair and understanding of circumstances and was great at reading the class and adapting to fit their best interest.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C ddayan 12/28/2022	One of the most disorganized, artificially difficult, and just terrible classes I have ever taken with a professor. This review is hard to write because he is a sweet man and does want to help you, it just seems like he does everything in his power to make you fail when you aren't 1-1 with him. This class made me breakdown multiple times over the semester due to his ridiculous project and exercise deadlines, his nearly impossible quizzes, and his brutal exams. His final is not bad though, you just CANNOT TRUST the guide he gives you for it. Study as many edge cases as possible and get ready to completely forget that office hours exists, since they are always packed with 30+ people. The TAs are nice, albeit absolutely exhausted from Yoon's constant barrage of work that requires grading. Due to this, we took out final on 12/14 and then I finally got my grade in Testudo today (12/28). Please do not take this man for 216. I know what you are thinking, that you are different and can survive off of documentation and willpower. That may work for 131/132, but not for Yoons class. We were given a hefty curve at the end which only seemed to barely help.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/27/2022	The level of disorganization and pettiness is deliberate. Avoid at all costs.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/26/2022	okay man. theres a 3 star review below this one that doesnt understand why yoon gets all the hate. let me spell it out for you. claim: yoon is a terrible lecturer. yes? you know what that means? you have to spend extra time outside of class to learn what he is incapable of explaining claim: just start the projects early so youre not dying at the deadlines everyone works at a different pace and 216 is not the only class you will take in the semester. there is absolutely no justification for the pace of the work. seriously, who assigns projects on NEW UNITS, BACK TO BACK? like i just mentioned, you already have to teach yourself the entire class, and now you have almost no breathing room to do projects. claim: just dont rely on office hours what, because yoon cant teach and its absolute RNG if your TA cant teach either? claim: just stay up to date with the lecture material see below. claim: just understand [class topics] shut up man. you know who was supposed to teach us that? yoon. did he? no. your review summarized: just work hard and the class is fine dude, people have lives. a 4 credit class should not have the workload of a 6-8 credit class. duh if you had 278 years to take this class its fine, dumbass 5 star review somewhere below this one: stop trolling.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/24/2022	Very nice guy who gives fair quizzes/assessments, but has kind of boring lectures and his TAs grade slowly. That being said, he's still very knowledgeable and is very willing to answer questions and help students.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/24/2022	Keep in mind for this review I literally didn't go to a single lecture but I tried my best to understand his videos because it was easier for me to pause, go back and digest, google search along the way. However, being in class for this lecture seems very useless. I'm Korean and I have 0 clue what he's saying so I cant imagine how it is for other students. It's literally not the accent its the things he's saying that makes no sense. Common sense seems to elude this man because he used a small whiteboard to draw a memory map on in the iribe lecture hall. The course work seems very heavy at times with little to no time to take breaks in between assignments. Start assignments the day they are assigned because otherwise you will not have access to office hours because the lines can be 2+ hours long. The exams were relatively fair, but the quizzes were RNG jokes for the most part that you can't really expect to get good scores on. However, doing the projects before the quizzes could help but its kinda hard to do that because you have like 2-3 days before. Overall its manageable but you can expect to learn everything from TA or on your own.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/24/2022	Herve was doing well until midterm 2. His lectures were okay, but boring to me. Midterm 2 had a big typo but we didn't get any notification until the end. I thought he would do better for the final exam, but no. I have to agree that the final exam was pretty easy but it was so bad due to the typos and vague questions. It has about 6-7 errors in the final exam
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/24/2022	I didn't pay attention to a single lecture. I put that I'm expecting a B- but it could honestly be a B+. I'm also writing this a week after the final and there are still several grades including the final that are still in the process of being graded. This is a common theme throughout the entire class because it takes over a month to grade everything including but not limited to projects, quizzes, tests, and exercises. This meant that studying for the final, two quizzes weren't graded for me to look at and review. Herve got their final grades yesterday meanwhile Yoon hasn't graded the last three projects and final. This class is already hard to begin with, and this professor makes it considerably harder.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/23/2022	An absolute disaster of a class. Organization was terrible, quizzes were impossible, and exams covered edge cases. Never take unless you need to. He is a nice man however and very responsive to questions.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/22/2022	That 5-star review is so sus. First of all, there is not a single person on campus who will say that Yoon is better than even Herve, let alone Nelson or Justin. Second, the quizzes may have been 15 minutes long, but that doesn't mean there was 15 minutes' worth of content on there. No, those quizzes needed at least 25 minutes, and they were always tricky for no reason. Third, he gave us zero time for our projects and exercises. We had due dates one after the other, nonstop. We would have a project due date, followed by a quiz the next day, followed by an exercise due date. And this happened multiple times throughout the semester. Keep in mind that all of us taking this course were also most likely taking 250 and linear algebra or stat. Yoon thinks that we live and breathe 216. Lastly, he is very much not lenient. We had a due date for one of the projects the day after Diwali. We all know that a good chunk of computer science students consists of people who celebrate this festival. Students were on piazza begging for just a one-day extension for the project, and his TAs were so rude with their responses. Yoon didn't even bother to acknowledge any of these pleas. He probably expected his students would prioritize a CS project over their religion. Apart from all of this, there's also the fact that he's a terrible lecturer. He used the tiny ESJ whiteboards in a giant lecture hall on multiple occasions. I was sitting in the middle and I could barely see what he was writing. I could work past that if I at least understood what he was trying to say, but the man cannot get a point across. He has a whole storyline but he can never get to the point - he just hovers around it. That's the best way I can describe his teaching style. Finally, there are office hours. This isn't a Yoon thing, but I'm just preparing anyone who's signing up for this class for what they're about to go through. You have to wait for hours in the office hours lines, only to get ten minutes of help. It's not worth it at all. I would recommend attending discussion sections and just asking your questions there. It's much easier to get a hold of the TA then. To conclude: Take ANYONE other than Yoon.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/20/2022	Yoon is a good person, but I can see how he is not particularly liked as a professor by many students. It's kind of difficult to follow along during lectures and his way of teaching is definitely disengaging. HOWEVER, I don't agree with all of the hate he receives, and as long as you make sure to start projects early (omg this is SO important) and stay up-to-date with the lecture material, you'll be fine. If you want to prepare for this course, you should understand topics like programming in C, Assembly, memory management (huge), processes & shell, etc. Also do NOT rely on office hours to help you for your projects, there WILL be a waitlist for at least an hour before TAs even get to glance at your code. The entire thing is a circus if you are dependent on it.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 12/19/2022	Terrible teacher. He should’ve never taught 216. I feel ripped off from this semester thanks to this atrocious “professor”
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2022	Yoon's CMSC216 is the first CS class at UMD that I've felt lost in. A lot of things were more difficult than they needed to be, which gives off a very "weed out class" vibe. Yoon's accent makes lectures hard to understand, and he usually goes into minute details of programming which can make it extremely hard to pay attention during class. However, lectures are recorded, and they are watchable when you pause every once in a while to really understand what he's saying. The quizzes and exams' tested materials are mentioned in lectures or at least referred to, but they're often lost in a mountain of additional info that never got mentioned again or seemed very insignificant. The first quiz was a disastrous time crunch, but he hasn't made the same mistake again in my opinion. Office hours were always full, and attendance was suddenly graded halfway through the semester. Attendance grading was very superficial and felt more like an annoyance. All in all, I wouldn't recommend Yoon as a 216 professor. But, if you really have to take him, I'd recommend looking at Ekesh's 216 notes, lecture code examples, having a study group, making sure you finish the projects on time by yourself and watching lecture recordings if needed.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/17/2022	Pros: - Incredibly extremely knowledgeable about the subject, very clear that this is what he's good at. - Projects and exercises are designed in a way that forces you to learn. Very helpful for learning subjects that are tested on exams. - Exams are typically fair (with exceptions, explained later), both content-wise and time-wise. This includes the final. Cons: - Lectures will leave you confused, bored, and with a realization that he just covered enough information for a week of most other classes in just one lecture by BLAZING through insanely content-dense slides, skipping a decent amount of them that will end up being testable - The downside of exams: they are only fair if you review every slide of every slideshow and have notes on all of them. This class will require you to go back after every single lecture and take notes on the entire slideshow that he barely went over in class, because it is all testable material. This is one of the only reasons I passed the class, and I highly recommend you do the same if you have the unfortunate luck to end up with him as a prof. - Going off the previous point, this class will require 8+ credit hours worth of work. Every project is assigned back-to-back, with exercises (essentially mini-projects that are also submitted to the submit server) assigned with overlapping deadlines to the projects. This class will essentially train you to have the mindset "If I have free time, I work on the project" for the entire semester. A fair number of students start giving up near the end, just doing the bare-minimum to pass the projects. I chose to put in an unnecessary amount of work to this class to complete them, and it forced me to skip most extracurriculars and free time activities that I enjoyed. Pick your poison I guess. Also students complained about this aspect of the class, and Yoon's response was essentially "this class is challenging, deal with it". - The quizzes. were. the. WORST. The averages were horrendous because for some reason, he has the inability to understand how to create a reasonable assignment for a 15-minute quiz. Most of the time will be spent reading his page-long small text explanations for the code writing question at the end, and by the time you've figured out what you actually have to accomplish, there's 5 minutes left. This was incredibly surprising considering there was never a time crunch for exams, but I guess his exam writing skills don't translate over to the quizzes. - As a principle, I despise professors that require students to show up. We're paying to be here, it should be on us to go to class. I skipped discussions because my TA was incredibly useless, typically mumbling to himself the entire time as if he's never interacted with another human being in his entire life. Near the end of the semester, Yoon decided to grade (as put by another review on here) "nothing" assignments at every discussion. Typically, it was a small worksheet that would take about 15 minutes that would cause us to leave incredibly early anyways. Complete waste of me and every other students' time that would have been better spent working on the projects. Overall, avoid him. Definitely a passable class, just be prepared to put in WAY more time into the projects, exercises, and studying than you're used to from 131 and 132. The only reason he gets 2 stars instead of 1 for me is a) he's completely oblivious to the way his course design tortures students outside of class and b) the exams are pretty fair. Best advice: review all the slides and take notes outside of class, and START PROJECTS EARLY. I don't mean just early, like the literal hour they are assigned. You will typically end up having a time crunch with the deadline if you don't, especially near the end, and you absolutely need the project grades to boost your overall grade in the class.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2022	Pros: - Yoon is a genuine guy - Lots of TAs for office hours - He will answer questions in class Cons: - Difficult to take notes and understand concepts because he rambles too much and speeds through slides - Exams are difficult (Averages below C) - Office hours have too many people in them (Average wait time is 1.5 hours) - Interpreting wording on quizzes is incredibly difficult to interpret (Quiz average consistently below D)
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/16/2022	THE GOAT!!! Yoon is better than Fawzi, Justin, Nelson, and Jose combined!! Strongly encourage taking this professor :) Exams are fair and he hosts a lot of study review sessions for the quizzes (the quizzes are short). He gives a lot of time for the projects and exercises and is very lenient (I didn't do two of them).
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/16/2022	Yoon is a caring professor but is bad at explaining topics. He is very monotone and has harsh exams. For this semester, I have needed to go to private tutoring sessions and learn all the concepts for this class through anyone else but Yoon. If I could take this class again, it would not be with him.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2022	Larry beary is a quality instructor (not professor). Exams were very fair and reflective of course material. He puts a lot of effort into his projects and lectures. 10/10 would recommend. Quality Guy.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/15/2022	You know, reading a bunch of these reviews, there is one thing you should notice. Any reviews above 2 stars are for really really basic classes like 106 or 131. CMSC2xx or above class? Run. Do your damned best to not get this background noise making, high-on-a-horse, out of touch, straight from the late 80s wreck of a "professor". The first thing you need to know about him is his lecture is straight up USELESS. He will go on extremely long, remotely related tangents that will not be on the quiz/exam. Then, after having wasted an hour of your time you paid for, he will realize he went on a tangent and then lightly breathe over important concepts that he will squeeze questions that had content you didn't realize were covered because he spent 2 sentences talking about the topic total. Or, he will bring extremely irrelevant concepts into something basic and make it incomprehensible. Or, he will jump back and forth between different parts of something he is explaining so you won't make heads or tails of it. It's also important to note that if you have an exercise or project due a few days after an upcoming assessment, stuff from that assignment is fair game for the assessment. Anyway, he got so butthurt that no one was coming to discussion/lecture that he assigns graded "nothing" assignments during discussions so you are forced to go to discussions. Now, about quizzes and tests: It's really BS. Because Yoon has such a bad grasp on what he thinks you can do, the quizzes range from RNG to straight-up unfair. Coding assignments on these quizzes are sometimes on the same tier and difficulty of assignments you usually have a whole week to complete. Questions usually cover things that are too easy to things that you would never ever consider in any applied use. Will this class make you a better programmer? Skill-wise, meh. Knowledge-wise, yes. 216 is a class with an excellent curriculum, this is coming from someone with a lot of experience in Linux and enterprise programming. Yoon just manages to make this very important class in your CS career absolutely painful and unnecessarily annoying. Learn what you can. If you have to take this useless professor for it, I really hope you have a better choice, but it's possible to survive.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/15/2022	Absolutely treacherous. Avoid at all costs. At no point in the semester was I taught anything in a way that was coherent or immediately made sense. I had to rely on past knowledge and other resources to learn the material. In fact, I probably learned more from Herve's review sessions before the exams than I did in any lecture. Also, the quizzes and exams are unnecessarily tough. This class was structured and taught so poorly that it was comedic. As for the final, I think that the review material provided did a great job at instilling a false sense of confidence just for the final to the most nefarious and difficult exam of the year. As a person, Yoon seems to have kind intentions and a good sense of humor, but I absolutely could not recommend even my worst enemy take his course.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 12/14/2022	Prof. Yoon is a really, really great guy. However, he lectures are confusing. If you want to go to office hours, good luck. You'll probably need to wait for at least a few hours before you get help from a TA. The class is just very disorganized and you get your grades back super late, even a week before finals. 216 literally gave me so much anxiety and I really can't say that I learned much either.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2022	Meh. He was a great person, he's really funny! But his teaching is kind of lack-luster so minimally I had to self-study a lot of the material with no prior C experience (tbh if you did well in CMSC131-132 with Java, C isn't too much harder so don't stress too much). The quizzes were quite long for the time provided and often had D averages. I'd say the last quiz was fair no doubt, but the other 3 were kind of ehhh. Project wise, they can be quite difficult! Start early, but you'll really grasp the concepts after you do them. The exercises are normally related to the following project and the quiz, so make sure you understand them and try to do them before the quiz if feasible!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/01/2022	I love Larry. People don’t like him because he’s hard, but I enjoyed his lectures. Yes, his tests are hard. And the material is hard, but if you READ THE TEXTBOOK and go to class, you’ll do well. The projects were fun and actually very creative. Definitely recommend taking classes with Larry.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/30/2022	Yoon was a very confusing lecturer. I could almost never understand lectures and would have to teach myself everything for the projects and exercises, which was doubled the time I had to spend on the already fast-paced and intensive course. I'm aware that this course is supposed to be hard, but I truly believe that Yoon made it much more difficult for me. It was a really horrible and stressful experience; I would recommend taking a different professor.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/22/2022	Agree with the other review posted. His lectures can be a little bit boring at times but you can tell he cares about you trying to understand what is going on and takes things step by step. He is new and co-teaching with Yoon so I can't speak about how he organizes his classes because he just does what has always been done in 216 at UMD. All of his exams and quizzes have been very fair- if you feel comfortable enough with the material you'll do well. There's no "gotchas", just go to class and discussion and make sure you know everything on the slides. He also records lectures which is nice!
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/22/2022	Do not go to lecture. He is so badly out of touch with everyone and resorts to obsolete teaching and grading methods to try and make up for having no idea what the average student feels about his course. He is incapable of explaining basic topics in an easy to understand manner. Quizzes and exams test on random bullshit, just be exceedingly familiar with memory and understand the basic mechanics of programming in assembly/C. DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. I understand that getting the non-yoon professor block is tough. It aint impossible to survive this course, but it unnecessarily, annoyingly hard. Like others here, I have a lot of experience in many languages, and he is god awful at explaining even basic linux/C concepts. On the 216 website there is a big PDF of notes on all topics this class will cover, and that will be your holy bible for this class because damn, a few hundred KB pdf is a far better teacher than yoon will ever be. I stopped coming to lecture after the second class. Your quiz/exam grade may suck, so be prepared to spend a lot of time on the projects/excercises, you NEED to nail them. If theres an exercise due a few days after the quiz, stuff on that exercise is fair game on the quiz, which is really stupid, so DO EXERCISES BEFORE THE QUIZ.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 11/15/2022	Yoon is a great programmer, horrible communicator. He himself can do everything in this class, but you're expected to be at that same level. He started taking attendance for discussions, overlapped assignments, and typos across all of his assignments and quizzes. Made 216 absurdly harder than it needs to be, I had programmed in C/C++ for 1.5 years at another school but was not ready for this.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/11/2022	If you don't consider yourself to be an insanely masterful programmer, then there's not a lot of hope for you with this professor. You quickly realize that going to lecture can actually be detrimental at some times because self studying can get you far further in the course than Yoon can. Prepare to rely on YouTube videos, because trust me when I say there's not a lot you can get from his lectures. He's a nice guy, it's just that I don't really think he's a good professor for a beginner level class that some people take as their first semester in college. Quizzes are unreasonable and difficult, exams aren't too bad but not ideal, and he randomly started taking attendance for discussion halfway through the semester. If you're planning to register with this professor, my best advice is to go with literally anyone else.
Herve Franceschi CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/10/2022	Herve is a solid prof. He is new to the CS department, and he has been co-teaching 216 with Yoon this semester. Honestly, his lectures can be a little dry, but he teaches you all the key points (outside of some things you need to go to discussion to in order to learn). From what I've heard, his exams/quizzes have been much fairer than Yoon's have been. I can't speak for the comparison, but in my experience, the quizzes and exams have been very fair. He obviously wants his students to learn, and takes time to answer student questions thoughtfully.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/10/2022	Like a lot of people mentioned, he has his quirks. Very strict when it comes to certain things and can be a little boring as a lecturer. However, he teaches very well. I learned so much in this class and I felt like he really wanted his students to succeed. I also had to go to his office hours a few times to discuss something unrelated to the course material and he was very nice and accommodating. His exams and grading are also very fair. Projects are fair too with mostly public tests. I would definitely take him again for another class.
Patrick Gough CMSC216 Anonymous 10/19/2022	You better go to his TA hours if you are lost in the sauce.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/19/2022	I took Larry in Spring 2022 fearing the worst as he had 3 stars on PlanetTerp. Honestly, he really is a prof- sorry lecturer that is an acquired taste. Some of you will absolutely hate him but I really liked him. His lectures are boring as hell but he is really good at explaining things and he seems like he just wants everyone to succeed. Sure, his pedagogy may be old-fashioned (don't use electronics, always come to class, etc) but the statistics don't lie. Those who came to his class were more likely to get an A. He cracks some really out of pocket jokes sometimes but his jokes keep you from falling asleep. If you go to his office hours he actually is a chill guy, even though he seems like a hardass in lecture. His project descriptions are super detailed and practically tell you how to do the project, which I didn't realize I'd miss so much in CMSC330. The exams were very fair in my opinion and matched the difficulty of the practice exams. The only annoying questions are the multiple choice ones that can give you negative points if you pick the wrong ones. I recommend overall and definitely don't take him for granted.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 terpsCompSci12 10/17/2022	This guy is awesome
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/17/2022	If you asked me last semester what I would give Larry Herman, I would have said a 2. He essentially makes attending lectures mandatory because of the unannounced classwork. He is a stickler for the rules, like having KN95 mask instead of the generic blue mask (last semester when it was mandatory). He puts a password for all his attachments which is really inconvenient. His projects are probably the hardest among any other classes I have taken and the deadline is not generous (compared to other classes at least). His lectures are extremmmelllllyyyy boring. He essentially didn't curve at all last semester for like the first time because of "over-performance." He doesn't like being called a professor because of the technicalities of the word (lol). I could go on and on about him. But when you take the other CS classes, you'll start to appreciate him. The biggest issue I have with the current CS classes I take is the inconsistencies in practice content and real exam content. The cheating that goes around doesn't make things any better. In this respect, Larry Herman is tough but fair. Occasionally, yes, you'll get a question that you would not know if you strictly did the practice exam, however, this was rare and often would not take you down too much in points. Also, the amount of time he gives for his exams is more than enough. For the final, it seemed like more than half of the people finished early and left. Also, Larry rarely makes grading mistakes, at least not to the degree other professors do. For the current classes, I am taking, to put into perspective, I have to make a regrade request almost every single time. I only had to fix a mistake with him once. Admittedly, as one of the reviewers here pointed out, I have learned programming outside of the class. And if I didn't have prior experience, I probably would not be as successful in this class, or at the least, I would have had to put more effort to achieve the same result. But honestly, if you genuinely have a passion for coding, that is the only way you can possibly succeed in this major for the average person. And if you have a genuine passion for something, you should have prior experience. And even if you are just here pursuing a CS major for the bank, you gotta admit, there is no CS lecturer fairer than Larry Herman. Of course, because I mentioned his flaws with him at the beginning, I had to take a star away. I wish he was a bit more lenient in many respects than I listed above; trust me, I'm not happy that he did not curve grades at all when I took 132 with him. But when you advanced further into the CS major, you'll soon come to realize what a privilege it was to learn from a fair person and the things you complained about are minor inconveniences that even have some sense to it (for instance, he wants people to come to class so learning is more effective, hence unannounced classwork). As one person mentioned in my GroupMe recently, "You don't know what you had until it is gone." Don't take Larry Herman for granted.
Patrick Gough CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 10/02/2022	I've only interacted with him a few times in office hours but he is absolutely amazing at helping me with my programs in CMSC216. This legend is wicked in gdb and showed me how I can run tests in gdb in a matter of minutes without having to recompile my code. I did have to wait a while in office hours but that is because there were a lot of students, but it was absolutely worth it for him to help me. Overall great guy!
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 09/29/2022	bro pick anybody, not him. When he explains things in class, its really bad. Like id look up YouTube videos on almost every concept. His lectures were really bad and he just doesn't qualify as an effective professor. His exams are a lot more different than other professors, and he doesn't put as much effort into his course as other professors do. If you have the opportunity to pick someone else, do it.
Patrick Gough CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/21/2022	Patrick is so helpful! He's really flexible with his hours and cares about students, even outside of the classroom. 100% recommend.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a W Anonymous 09/14/2022	Do not listen to positive reviews of this professor, almost all that are positive are because they have programming experience outside of class. This professor is not worth it for those who are beginners in programming, do not be deceived into taking his class. Please sign up for another professor instead! This is from my perspective as a transfer student. I don't know why everyone says Larry is such a good professor. I took him last semester in my first semester at UMD from transferring from cc. I noticed right away that his lectures are incredibly boring and he is very rude to his students. His overall demeanor comes off very negatively and he doesn't seem friendly like other professors. His projects are insanely long and require you to know practically every word by heart if you want to do well. I would spend entire days doing projects to no avail, and when I came into the office hours I was yelled at instead of helped. His class was an absolute nightmare and was one of the hardest classes I've taken. I think the exams were the worst part by far, they were complete nonsense and there's way too much information crammed into them. Of course he's one of those professors that makes you physically write down code with a pencil and paper which doesn't make sense for a computer science class. Exams have a lot of weight to them and really have a big impact on your grade as well, and they're just too hard for what they are. This class felt like 2 or more classes crammed into one. He assigns way too much work way too quickly, so you will be coding everyday until the class ends. You likely will not have enough time for your other classes while you are taking this class, there will be so much work that you can't divert your attention anywhere else. This class made me switch out of computer science, I'm not sure about the other professors but don't take him if you want to pass and if you want to keep your sanity. Most people in my class dropped quickly and that was the right decision.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 08/13/2022	This guy is the GOAT. He gives practice exams that closely mimic the exam you will be taking. The multiple choice is almost identical and the coding is very similar to the lecture examples and much easier than the projects. The projects are tricky though so make sure to start them early. Lectures are easy to understand and his jokes make class enjoyable. If you don't have an internship in the summerI highly recommend taking this class as he makes this difficult course so much easier.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Anonymous 08/09/2022	216 is the only course at UMD that I've taken so far, and it was great. Nelson was awesome, it sucks a bit that the class size was ~120 students, but that's UMD I guess. This class was very fast paced during the summer but Nelson made it manageable. + He's funny + He's dad + He's nice
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/06/2022	I’ve taken CMSC131 and 132 with him and he is great. His lectures are good paired with great slides(and are recorded!), cares about students (if you ask him for extensions he will most likely give it if majority needs it), and makes the class enjoyable. He can be annoying sometimes(calling out people a lot) or fooling around, but if you don’t care about that he’s a pretty good lecturer. He gives you past quizzes and exams so you know what to expect on the midterms/quizzes (not including finals though). His code examples are really good to refer to for projects in 216. In my opinion, if 216 is the only class you’re taking in the summer you shouldn’t be too worried about the projects and exams. Just start early on the projects and do all of the practice he gives you for the exams. If you do that and try, you will at least pass with a B. If you’re willing to get ahead in the summer, I would say go for it.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/23/2022	Honestly one of the more underrated professors in the CS department imo. His exams are very fair if you’ve covered the practice exams and the homeworks. The projects are usually not too difficult if you start early and reference the example code; the project descriptions are usually very long but I think they do a good job providing all the necessary information so I never felt like anything was too ambiguous. He uses worksheets in lectures and discussions to keep track of attendance but they’re largely graded on completion so that’s like free points to me. He has his quirks, usually strict about wearing masks and using devices in class. His lectures can also be boring at times but they were recorded so it wasn’t a big deal. Exams are usually given back promptly but we didn’t get back projects until the end of the semester. Ultimately the class structure is fair and Larry gives his students ample opportunity to pass and do good in the class. Highly recommend.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/20/2022	I've gotta say coming into this semester I was not a huge Herman fan. 1st lecture drops all of these what seems to be outdated stupid rules with a voice that could put you to sleep in seconds, I thought he was going to be the worst. I kept coming back lecture after lecture and I gotta say even though he will bore you to sleep, he is a great lecturer. His code examples and slides are amazing resources, the projects were clear, office hours with him were great, and his occasional humor in his lectures will sometimes bring you back to life. I'd give him 5 stars if he had gotten things back on time which I'm honestly surprised he hasn't. So far it's a week and a day after the final and I only have 3/10 of my project grades in and no grade for the final. My A- is a very rough estimate since I don't know how half of my assignments went which is definitely a pretty annoying grievance if you do something incorrect on project 3 for example and continue it up until project 10. Anyways, take him if there's no other great options available. As someone who has now had both Pedram and Herman, I would say take Herman. He gives far better exams than Pedram and far better resources to prepare. He very clearly also cares for his students despite his sometimes what seems like random unhinged rules
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/17/2022	Had Herman for 132 and enjoyed him again for 216. I really just like the way he delivers the course content. It is straightforward, but he also sprinkles some humor to make the class more engaging. I thought his lecture examples were very clear and well detailed, and his exams were pretty fair. Projects were very challenging, but Herman's detailed descriptions helped quite a bit. Overall great INSTRUCTOR and def recommend.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/16/2022	I did not have good expectations of Larry coming into this course, however so far, he has been one of the best CS instructors i've learned from at UMD. One pro about him is that he provides countless of opportunities to gauge your understanding of the course material through ungraded homeworks and graded worksheets. The worksheets are graded on completion, and are given randomly during lectures and/or discussions. Another pro is that he provides extremely detailed project descriptions. He is also very kind and helpful in office hours. Highly recommend.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/16/2022	I took both 132 and 216 with Larry and he is an amazing lecturer who keeps his class engaged with jokes and fun activities. You do have to be there for every lecture/discussion because you never know when he's going to have a graded in-class worksheet but he doesn't really care if you're not paying attention as long as you don't use any electronics in class. He's also super considerate about assignments and deadlines - he gave extensions on almost all the projects and if you talked to him, then he pretty much gives you as much time as you need to finish the project. His worksheets/slides/homeworks/practice questions are a godsend when you're reviewing for an exam and his project descriptions are super useful when you're trying to come up with edge cases for secret tests (because he literally writes them out for you). One last thing - no release tests! You pass all the public tests, write some student tests if you want, and submit your project. Sometimes, if you submit 48 hours early and only use one submission to pass all the public tests, he gives you extra credit (up to 10 points depending on the project). His class isn't exactly easy but as long as you put the work in, you should do well. Expect to spend 4-6 hours a week in his class if you want to do well.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/15/2022	He is a good professor. His exams are fair and are much easier than the review guides. If you attempt all the questions on the review and spend time understanding each question's solution, you will do fine on the exams. The exam questions are typically simplified versions of study guide questions. Maybe not for the multiple-choice, that will be the same difficulty. Also, I suggest rewatching lectures and taking notes on topics you do not fill comfortable with. For the projects, use office hours and START EARLY!! If you know you usually do badly on projects, spend some time before the class starts to remake a 132 project for example in C. (Also, I highly suggest understanding the basics of malloc() before the class starts)
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/09/2022	Herman is a decent lecturer. His projects are difficult. And, he has a lot of silly rules that get annoying. Herman's teaching style is Draconianly strict. He gives you a 12 page list of directions detailing exactly how he wants you to do every little detail of an assignment. You'll do fine with Herman, but you'd probably rather take someone else. If it means anything, Herman taught CMSC216 better than CMSC132.
Larry Herman CMSC216 amazingmonkey25 05/08/2022	Larry gives a lot of practice through homeworks and worksheets. Also, his projects are thoroughly detailed, but extremely annoying to read. The thing is, Larry is extremely boring. Most people sleep throughout his class and are forced to rewatch the lectures. Also, his exams don't test you on most of the material in the class, they only test you on some very specific topics. Like for example, for the second exam in the semester, we only had one small problem on processing that we had to correct as the "test" for that unit. That was a MAJOR unit, and we didn't even have to trace any fork calls or anything. The coverage in the exams is horrendous.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a W log_n 04/22/2022	(Obligatory disclaimer: I took this course with Larry Herman in Spring 2021 when it was taught fully online. However, I currently tutor students in CMSC216 and from what they tell me, nothing is different now with in-person instruction.) As someone who studies pedagogy and is looking to be a professor, I can confidently say that Larry Herman does not know how to teach, especially in computer science. The fact that he will not allow any electronics (even for note-taking) during lectures on computer programming should tell you enough about what kind of instructor Herman is. Exams are simply excruciating. While other instructors are moving to exam formats that function more like open-note timed projects (a more realistic scenario in software development), Herman insists on the practice of writing and debugging computer software using a pencil and paper... Additionally, exams often involve questions needing a specific process not covered in the course, and the multiple choice questions are outrageously formatted and graded. During online instruction, Herman insisted on Zoom proctored exams that required invasive lockdown browsers (I love taking exams with a TA staring directly at my face 24/7. Really calms me down). Projects are mostly fair in terms of what they cover, but the administration over them is needlessly awful. Firstly, project descriptions are convoluted and unnecessarily long. This may help to uncover some edge-cases, but it takes about a day just to digest everything. Secondly and most importantly, you will be penalized if you submit too often before the deadline. No more convenient project backups or even just seeing if you're passing all public tests. Course structure and lectures are not the worst, but Herman is weirdly against answering questions during lecture and fully embracing things like ELMS and Piazza so there's that. Overall, Herman makes this course much harder than it needs to be and for absolutely no payoff whatsoever. I will say that he is understanding if you need an extension and have a valid reason, and he does at least seem to like what he covers. However, this does not change the fact that you should avoid him if you like having a good GPA.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A log_n 04/21/2022	Nelson is simply fantastic! Super passionate, engaging, and offers so many resources for students to be successful! His exams are also very fair, especially if they're online. Best instructor for computer science at UMD by a mile. Had him for CMSC133 too.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 04/04/2022	He is a good lecturer indeed but I believe good lectures only go so far as if you provide the proper material to grade. I understand that he was not in charge of exam designs but I think washing your hands about it is not the solution. Last semester, when Shankar was in charge of exam design, questions weren't properly worded and the level of difficulty was not in the same range as the time provided. I really hope that changes and they allow more control regarding his course, but I believe that as a teacher, he was required to put his foot down and say: I don't agree with this exam unless you do agree.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/02/2022	jose is a good prof mans is the throat goat. def take if available
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 03/28/2022	One of the worst instructors in the CS department and the university, avoid it!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/24/2022	Larry is a good professor if you're willing to learn. His pace is slow, and he cares about you actually learning the material. He is very strict and rather boring, but he will get you the information. I recommend him if you can sit through boring lectures without using your phone and are genuinely willing to learn the content thoroughly.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/29/2022	Shankar expects you to engage with the material and THINK! CMSC216 can not be memorized and requires consistency with the material. It's a big step up from CMSC132. Shankar was an effective instructor. While his lectures did not rely as much on the slides, he conveyed the course content well, provided many detailed examples, and always answered questions. This class is tough, but if you are willing to put in the time, you can succeed. Do not rely on old practice exams too much, and focus on the code examples, making changes to it, and predicting the new output. Understand the purpose of every code example and every function used in the example. Be able to use the syntax and functions in novel scenarios. Truly understand the concepts so that you can apply them in novel problems. I recommend previewing the slides the night before a lecture and preparing questions to ask during lecture. Take note of key points and especially about code examples. Review after class. Form a weekly study group. Don't just start coding the assignments; spend time thinking through a plan and edge cases first. You got this!! Go to office hours! Shankar is extremely knowledge and patient. He really wants to see you succeed and cares to help you engage deeply and accurately with the course content.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 01/28/2022	The course was co-taught with Jose... I dunno why everyone says Jose gave fair exams while over here I see a lot about the exam being ridiculous(which I agree with 100%). Just find it a bit weird over the inconsistency. Lectures from both professors were mid in my opinion- I found it really hard to study for the exams / be prepared as the questions were borderline random. No worries bc everything is "fair game". Grading took forever, and unfortunately the TAs were as knowledgeable as the students this semester. Overall, a dumpster fire of a class.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/03/2022	AMAZING
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/02/2022	Great professor, very knowledgeable. However, terribly organized class. Exams and projects took forever to be graded.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 01/01/2022	I only attended his lectures during important dates because I could not understand a thing. He teaches like you know the content already and its already hear to hear him. His exams are way harder than the practice exams given. If you are going to take him be prepared or have fun on repeating the course.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/28/2021	This man is the greatest professor of all time...
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/27/2021	Amazing lecturer. Always answered questions during lecture very thoroughly, and he seemed very knowledgeable about all of the topics. Would recommend taking him if possible.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/26/2021	Dr. Shankar is for sure knowledgeable, but you really need to force yourself to pay 100% of your attention during lectures. He doesn't repeat information and assumes you have previous knowledge.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/25/2021	I agree with all the other review of Jose so I'll keep it short. I'm a sophomore so this was my first semester of in person classes. Jose is the best lecturer I've had during my time at Maryland, or at least he is a solid S tier CS lecturer. Attend lectures and put time into studying the lecture examples he points out. Like actually try modifying the examples and predict what happens when you change something in the example. That's how you study and learn. I never really knew how to study for CS classes until I took 216 with Jose and will be sure to use this method of studying in my future classes. Had I studied the correct way for the earlier exams, I believe attaining at least a B was incredibly doable in this class.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2021	Notice that most of the reviews for Shankar are by students that did not attend his lecture. I attended his lecture all semester, and I felt that he did a good job. I ended up with a good grade in the class. This is just a difficult subject. It was actually nice that everyone went to the other lecture. We had a more personal experience, and he had more time to answer individual questions. I'm even curious if students that went to the other lecture did any better.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2021	When I took this class (Fall 2019), I didn't enjoy it mainly because I hate C. However, Larry is a really good intructor and does a good job of explaining concepts, even if his lectures are really dry. His teaching style may not work for everyone, which is probably why he has a lot of negative reviews, but after taking some 400 level classes with professors who don't know how to teach, I think that Larry did a great job. He can be very particular about seemingly random things, like sitting in the back row or using tech in class, but overall you can tell he cares about the class (unlike a lot of CS profs at this university). His slides are comprehensive and he gives good review materials for the exams. The only thing I didn't like was that he took attendance and had 2 participation points (which means you had to ask 2 questions or answer his questions at some point throughout the semester).
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Anonymous 12/20/2021	I only went to his lectures during the first week of school, and I did not understand a thing. He speaks incredibly softly and it is hard to hear him, and he teaches like you already know all of the content. He co-taught with Calderon this semester and I just attended Calderon's lectures instead. Half of the TAs were not even doing their job and some actually got fired and we never got any grades back on time, so we went half the semester without even having a single grade. Overall, this class was a mess.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Anonymous 12/17/2021	Jose is a fantastic professor. He is an incredible lecturer and very patient with students/willing to take questions. His lectures are never boring and his office hours is always super useful. Jose cares about the quality of his teaching and students' understanding a lot more than most professors. If you have the option to take 216 with him, do it. From personal experience he's far better than Shankar, and from what I hear, he's much better than Herman and probably comparable to Nelson.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/16/2021	Great lecturer, very knowledgeable, and took the time to answer questions. I left every lecture with a deeper understanding of the topics we were being taught, it was definitely worth my time to attend. The course itself was pretty mismanaged with tons of pushed deadlines, TA drama, and minimal communication with students, however, I strongly believe this was a product of the course being cotaught with Shankar. I would still go out of my way to take Jose again.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2021	Jose is fantastic. He is extremely funny, communicates the material well, and is extremely willing to help students learn the material. Take his section if you can.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/10/2021	He's a very good lecturer and will make sure you understand the concepts. Highly recommend you take his section if possible.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Anonymous 12/09/2021	Shankar seems like a nice person from the very small amount of personal interaction I had with him during the semester in the form of fleeting after-class conversations and from Piazza. But - and this is a major BUT - he's a terrible lecturer. I got through the entire semester by reading from the slides posted online (as the class was cotaught this semester) and frequently skipped lectures, they were just straight up unhelpful. By the end of the semester, there were about 12 or 13 people still attending the lecture hall that should seat over 100. He seems incredibly knowledgeable, and I'm sure he's very very well-versed in the subject that he teaches, but his ability to convey that knowledge to the students in a lecture format is very poor.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/06/2021	Jose is a great lecturer. He was funny and always took time to go over examples and questions. His exams were challenging but not unfair. An effective lecturer. There were problems with grades coming back slow and TAs not doing their job properly however he did his best to respond and fix these concerns. Highly reccomend.
Jose Calderon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/02/2021	Amazing at lecturing and making the material easy to understand. Seems like a super nice and down-to-earth guy too. You will need to put some work into the class for an A, but with JMT getting a B is super attainable with not a whole lot of effort. If you can, choose Jose for 216 hands down- he also records his lectures which are super convenient.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/29/2021	Herman was a pretty good professor honestly. His exams were really hard and and it took his TAs forever to grade anything, but he explained things well and his project descriptions, while really long and tedious, covered any edge case questions people had. Just study well and you'll be fine
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/13/2021	Took him in Spring 2021. I've seen so many negative reviews on him, but honestly, he was one of the best CS professors I've ever had. His class is extremely clear. Lectures go through all necessary content, project descriptions detail everything you need to know, and exam practice questions are really similar to what is on the exam. If you follow his direction, you will do well.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Anonymous 10/06/2021	The stutter isn't even in issue if you pay attention - he's just a bad teacher. He talks like he expects you to already understand everything and doesn't repeat or clarify anything he says. It's almost as if he is just regurgitating a text book or something, his in person instruction is no better than what you would get from just reading the lecture slides. I ended up going to a different section for my lectures and my understanding of the material improved dramatically. Do not take his class.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 07/09/2021	I found his lectures to be very clear. He is a good instructor and also quite reasonable when it comes to handling issues. The only issue I found with his class was that project descriptions were overcomplicated and unnecessarily long.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 06/02/2021	Disclaimer- this review was done during online instruction so it may not be entirely accurate when it comes to in person, but please read because it can give you a general sense about who Larry is. This man is the worst professor that you could ever have. People who review 4 or 5 star must be on something or just naturally gifted at cs. Class setup: You only got to go to lecture once every 2 weeks. I even got lecture zoom links for times when I was in other classes, so I couldn’t go. The rest was watch the lecture videos which are posted roughly 8-16 hrs later. Worst experience ever, literally COULDN’T go to live lecture for a whole month. Had to schedule other classes around finding time to watch lecture videos whenever they got posted out of the blue, screwing up any relative organization of my classes. He often cuts of students asking questions and just says come to my office hours. No Piazza, cannot email him and regular office hours with TAs are a mess. Also have fun seeing your exam and project grades a month after completing them. Very hard to guess where you grade is at for 80% of the semester. Projects: First off, only public and secret. Can only submit up to I think it was 6 times before you were penalized. Have to run tests using Grace. Oh that’s another thing, the super ancient system and the way that everything is taught using emacs. Just use vscode. There should be a document floating around about how to set it up. Content wise they are fair ngl. The project descriptions are about 10 pages long so I’d say 95% of common errors and edge cases are explained. If you follow the documentation and code to covers those cases the projects will still be hard but you will be fine passing the public tests and probably some of the secret tests. DO NOT procrastinate on them. They are weighted incredibly low so they do jacksht for you grade. Exams: These are basically the do or die of this class. I think majority of averages were around 68%, with one at 56%. The way you have to answer the multiple choice which pretty much usually has more than one answer is super stupid. Let’s say there are two answers out of 5. Suppose that A & B are correct but you put down A & C and, so the points gained and lost for that question equal out to zero, so it is like you never attempted the question. You have to be super confident to get points on these because any incorrect answers will lower your grade. Don’t even try to guess on these questions because you will just hurt your grade. If that wasn’t enough there is a question at the end which takes the longest, but also in a sense is a simple you get it or you don’t. It is worth 25% of the test grade and around 3-5% of you course grade so prey that you know the answer or your grade will hurt just from that. Please avoid taking him at any cost. Then again, have heard that he is better in person.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/25/2021	This class will take up so much of your time, from projects to preparing for exams, there are literally no breaks. You'll seriously be tested on how well you are able to study for exams and actually look at material outside of class. If you don't understand something, there are always resources to help you, it's just a matter of making time to use them outside of lecture and discussion. This is relevant regardless of any person teaching the class. As a lecturer(don't call him professor meme), Herman can only do so much although there are some critiques of him in the other reviews that can be accurate. The class is hard, but it's not like Herman makes it harder. He explains concepts well and the worksheets and homework are a must if you really want to get a concept down. Expect the outcome of this class to be a function of how much work you put in.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/25/2021	Lectures are very dry and pedantic. He gives generally fair (though difficult) exams and a lot of practice material to go along with it, and his project descriptions are great. Grading takes absolutely forever and isn't always accurate on the first run-through, but I'm not sure how much of this is his fault specifically vs. his TAs. Absolutely refuses to answer any questions by course-mail/e-mail/some other online means like Piazza - he always expects you to attend office hours if you want to ask something, even if it is a simple clarification question.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/25/2021	These reviewers be like "I got a good grade, therefore herman is 5 stars!" If you can avoid him, avoid him, if you can't then I guess fight for your grade. He grades SLOWLY, his project descriptions are probably the only good thing about him. His lectures are useless, his slides for the lectures are incomplete and barely help. Exams are tough, projects are worth next to null in this class, despite taking days to complete. The TA's in this class were almost as bad as him, this class was an awful experience and I cannot wish this upon my worst enemies.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/21/2021	I get that his teaching style doesn't please everyone, he can be somewhat harsh and it's hard to ask questions. Still, he is a great lecturer and has a sense of humor. The exams are fair, project assignments are very clear. The grading does take forever though.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/18/2021	I really do not get all the 4 and 5 star reviews below, at most he gets a 3 star. So for starters his lectures are very dry, this may be due to online semester, I do not know completely. I may stun a lot of people by saying this but I believe his exams in terms of content are quite fair, almost all the topics are touched upon in the review guide and I was never like "oh wow i have never seen this before". Now the problem with his exams is: 1) Multiple choice questions with like e options where there are multiple answers and say you picked A and D when the Answer is A and E, you would in that case gain 0pts because when you pick a wrong option, you lose points. 2) He made us install lockdown and join a live zoom call, now I understand why he does this, but its important to note how extremely intrusive lockdown browser is 3) Every exam has a 50pt "find the error" type problem which is great if you find the error, but obviously if you cannot, there goes 50pts on a 200pt exam Now that isnt the only problem with this class. His projects have almost 1% weight in the class. For the hours of work required to finish these projects, they have almost no significance on your grade at all. Speaking of grades, he takes a century to grade exams and projects and then uses the "TA's are busy people" excuse. Like we have not received grades on projects we completed over a MONTH ago. Not to mention there is NO Piazza, so I can see how easily it is for students to fall when they do fall because their is a lack of help. The TA's also are most of the time complete and utterly useless when it comes to project help, not to mention the wait times were quite long. Herman also has this extremely weird obsession with the book for this class, like he will make you read like 40 page chapters of it and then test you content that was covered on the book. Herman himself seems like a Nice guy, he comes across as condescending a lot , he is very thorough in his project descriptions (the pdf handout for the projects are like 20 pages minimum). He however, does not understand his students very well and if their are other options for professors, i'd gravitate towards them, however, if you get herman it really isnt the end of the world and I am sure you will make it out fine.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2021	People obviously have a lot of strong opinions about Herman. He definitely isn't the best, but I thought he was fine. Pros: 1. Informative lectures. He explains things pretty well. If you don't like going to lecture though, his slides are informative enough. 2. He's easy to talk to in office hours if you don't mind his sarcasm and bluntness. I didn't mind it, but I know some people might. 3. Curves pretty generously. 4. The Good Faith Attempt for every project was to just pass half the public tests, which I liked much more than how it was in 131/132. 5. He has a lot of memorable quotes lol Cons: 1. Grading takes way too long. Project and exam grades easily take over a month. 2. Exams were insane. He gives several multiple choice where you need to pick all the answers that apply. If you pick a wrong answer you lose points for that question. He also gives a debugging problem that's worth 20-25% of the exam grade, and if you can't find the bug or change it correctly then say goodbye to a good amount of points. 3. For some reason, the release date for a new project always seemed to be a day or 2 before another exam, so you're stuck studying but you also have to worry about a new project. Unless you procrastinated, I would STRONGLY advise putting off studying and trying to finish whatever new project is released before an exam. His debugging questions are usually related to whatever new topic the project covers. Overall I don't think he's a bad professor, but I can definitely see why a lot of people don't like the way he teaches.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/12/2021	• Having a good grade in a class doesn’t mean an instructor was good • Being able to manage a trash prof- oh I meant lecturer, doesn’t suddenly make them good Just had to put that out there towards the students who, in their reviews and group me’s, like to downplay just how shitty this instructor is. For one, he restricts the kind of material that you can use when completing projects, so that the only way to know the acceptable concepts you can use, is to watch is lectures, where he frequently cuts students with questions and says “come to my office hours” to pertinent questions. Managed to find alternative, clever ways to arrive at an answer during your projects? How cute, can’t use it, wasn’t covered in class. Imagine i asked you to compute the roots of a polynomials; anyone who’s taken precalc knows that there are several ways to do this, and everyone has a preference for which method to use. Imagine i told you: oh, you only have to do it one particular way, and it turned out to be the way that hasn’t clicked for you. Well tough luck This is only beneficial to students who have little programming experience, because, otherwise, you start filtering out lots of concepts you’d naturally internalized over your years of programming. Never in my life have I seen such idiotic modus operandi for a course, not even Intro to DS which is a super difficult course. His excuse? I dOnT wAnT sTudEnts to make mistakes that are hard to debug , as if students don’t already struggle with the concepts taught HIS way! This means that you can’t rely on learning from SO or YouTube, unless you can ensure that their methods of teaching, illustrating a concept or constructing an algorithm are pedantically similar to his ways. Tell me again how such a “lecturer” manages to earn the “hE’s hOneSTLy gOoD” review. Again having a good grade in the class doesn’t make the instructor a good one. The icing? You blow this fuss over projects that will end up having so little weight towards your overall grade. Can’t even skip some of them though, because GFA will give you to complete them. His excuse? We want you to make sure to understand the concepts as following topics will rely on them. Guess what? It’s possible to understand concepts and do poorly on projects, especially given the insanely long descriptions (that magnify the likelihood of Missing crucial details) and the self indulgently silly requirements. But who cares? Do as Larry says Now the tests: ah, ain’t it beautiful that the last question of every test is not only the longest, but also weight 1/4 of the overall test’s grade? Not only are the projects insanely painstaking (with little reward), but the exams are set up for you to fail. And he has the audacity to pretend to be shocked at the consistently low averages in the class The kicker? With all this perfectionism of his, he has no qualms about cancelling lectures/discussions to “go to a doctor appointment”, no qualms about making mistakes in project descriptions, no qualms about missing certain topics in lectures. Basically a “do as I say, not as I do” kind of person He is honestly the kind of person you’re sl disgusted at that not a single word or rant can describe how pointlessly despicable he is, and for no reason!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/07/2021	This man will make you hate computer science. He will also make you hate yourself and the entire university.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/07/2021	He's honestly a pretty good lecturer, except for the fact that he seems super against people asking questions. And sometimes I don't really feel like I understand a lot of concepts until I watch the lectures over again, but that might just be me. Like people said, his project descriptions can seem super dense and overwhelming, but they're pretty helpful and I found the projects here to be easier than 132 (since you're doing a lot of basic stuff, just in C). His grading is pretty ridiculous, the first exam was returned over a month later and many projects are still ungraded even though we're coming close to the P/F deadline. He did, however, grade the last exam in about a week, so I'll give him that. His online tests are pretty ridiculous because of the brutal multiple choice (each question have multiple answers and you have to choose all) that he claims is only graded harshly because that's how ELMS says it has to. The averages on all our exams have been around 68%, I think. He does come off as rude and condescending, probably due to his voice, but he's honestly a nice guy. He does have lots of annoying policies like no emails, limiting questions in lectures, only submit projects once, etc. though. If you have him, it's definitely going to be a challenging and annoying class/semester, but there are certainly far worse teachers here.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/29/2021	Larry is a great teacher. He teaches concepts well and gives very detailed explanations of why it's so. However the reason why this review is a 3 star is because of the exams. They are completely unfair and do not accurately test one's learning in this course. Many questions are multi select and test over obscure one off questions rather than the high level concepts that are very well explained. The most you will learn in this class is from the projects where you get to implement the ideas that are discussed in class and in discussion. This class could be great if the exams were a bit more fair. In my opinion if Larry dropped the lowest scoring test and raised the project weight, this class would be a 4 or 5 star.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/26/2021	The way Larry formats his online classes is very unpleasant. The class is time-consuming and unforgiving. His lectures are OK, very boring but they get the job done. He is not great at answering student questions, cutting students off often, so go to office hours for help. His projects are fair, just make sure to read every sentence of the wordy document very carefully. The problem is that exams are very unforgiving and weighted very heavily compared to projects in the class. He is a slow grader. If you want to do well, make sure you pour in 110% of your effort.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 04/19/2021	OK lecturer but is highly pedantic and nitpicks projects/exams. Helps students as minimally as he possibly can in lectures and office hours, moreso in online than in person
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B abhimod 04/18/2021	The class can be difficult at times but if you start the projects 1-2 days after they are assigned you will be fine. Project descriptions are very long but reading every sentence is important if you want to get a good grade.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a P Anonymous 04/15/2021	Genuinely the worst professor I have ever had. His lectures are completely useless and boring to watch. The exams are completely unfair, with one small trivial question on each exam (minimal partial credit) corresponding to 3-5% of your ENTIRE grade. If I could give negative 5 stars, I certainly would. I would not recommend this class to anyone, even my worst enemy.
Aki Praveen CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/14/2021	ABSOLUTE G. He spent so much time with me and helped me get a good grade on the class. Deserves 10 Llamas as a prize for being the GOAT.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/05/2021	I had him this semester and was nervous but he turned out to be a really good teacher. The class is just time consuming, but he teaches the material really well because everything on the exams and projects is always covered in a clear and straightforward way in the lectures. I loved his lectures. His lectures waste 0 time and are super direct and packed with material (useful in online learning where you can just note everything he says, and use that note sheet as most of your studying). He is always very clear in his lectures to its easy to follow along. He gives tons of resources to prepare for exams (practice exams, homework and worksheets which are usually optional) and he really seems like he wants us to do well.
Arun Dhingra CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 02/12/2021	Best TA ever. Best teaching, best help, and deadass a G.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/11/2021	Actually the GOAT! I could see how some other people don't like him because he's very pedantic, especially with projects. However, because he's very exact, you know exactly what to do and there's "what if's" to worry about. Also, he provides tons of study material that, if you do and understand them, you will get at least a B on the exam. When taking him, the amount of work you put in correlates to the grade you receive.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/11/2021	Disclaimer: I took these courses in 2018. I'm a senior now. Herman was pretty much the epitome of a hard but fair professor. He can come off as kind of a dick and he certainly has his quirks but he is by far the fairest professor I've had in CS. His exams are pretty much identical to the practice exams and there are generally little to no trick questions involved. His project descriptions are extremely thorough and well written, which any upper classman would know is a rarity in this department. I don't know how he handled the transition to online but as an in-person professor he's my absolute favorite. If you're willing to put in the work for his class, you will do good.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/04/2021	Although Yoon is a decent (in-person) lecturer, once the pandemic started his exams were insanely difficult, with barely any time and literally nothing we learned on it. Half of the class would fail these disastrously bad exams. Also, projects were vague and confusing, and the lectures online were scratchy, boring, and equally confusing. DO NOT TAKE.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Anonymous 01/03/2021	As a senior, who is doing a double major with engineering, I say that he is the worst professor that I have had at UMD. He rambles and does not connect with students at all. If you learn on your own, you will have no problem with him because you would have already taught yourself everything that you need to know. It is unfortunate to have professors like this who you technically pay to teach you. However, learning on your own is an essential skill in Comp Sci anyways. Stay away if you can.
Larry Herman CMSC216 hermanhater 12/31/2020	HES THE WORST, If you have him game over
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/29/2020	Not a great choice, slow grader, everything gets graded the last second. Everything is self-taught which has a change on grades. If you know everything pick him, otherwise stay away
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/22/2020	I took this course in Spring 2020. Cons: - Lectures are quite boring, and once we went online they became significantly longer. - Exam content was completely unlike the practice, ESPECIALLY for the final. Practice material given was utterly insufficient in terms of relevance.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2020	I am so torn. I have come to really like Larry over the past two semesters with him (216 and 132), but I will admit he is 100% not for everyone. His project descriptions are legendary, and the projects were delightfully challenging. His exams can be difficult, but he'll curve accordingly. I think he is understanding of students when the students' sentiment is widespread. The discussion work is graded for participation which is such a nice change. He's quirky, and weird, but works really hard for his students. I see why he gets the bad rep (I did not like him at first, even completely after 132), but I personally have come to like him.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2020	shut the fuck up about his stutter. if you think a stutter makes a class hard to teach, how about you cut off your tongue and see how hard it is to ask questions. he goes slow in lectures, yes, but he's not unprepared. I had this class online so it was co-taught with Herman, and yes, if you want a "better instructor" in terms of quantity of content and breadth of content covered go for Herman. But Shankar knows his stuff when it comes to explaining concepts in memory with diagrams. he is thorough in his lectures, but yes, slow, and perhaps, for you folk who can't sit down and listen, you will "lose interest quickly". at times, he might not fully divulge the nuances for concepts that require more exposition, or detail verbally. he will not explain the slides for a lecture, or clarify them in the clearest way (in my case, it was with: register spilling, clarifying the functions of registers, and the instructions to load values into registers). That being said, the way the course is designed itself is very good. the homeworks, worksheets, and projects are your ticket to a good grade in this class. The lectures, resources, and textbook correspond to a good majority of the content, and you will not have to fuss to find more content to learn from if you pay careful attention to the content given.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/10/2020	Taught in joint with L. Herman. Although I feel horrible saying this, he is very hard to listen to (stutter). He seems like he really cares about students, but his lectures were boring. He's always willing to take questions, unlike Herman, and always willing to take the time needed to answer them. The only interaction I had with him was during one office hours session, were he was quick to find the issue and resolve my problem. Probably would avoid him if possible, but take him over Herman.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/10/2020	Tought in joint with Shankar. He's a knowledgeable guy as a CS teacher, but he never let students ask questions, and his lectures were so boring. There were a LOT of projects, and the PDF descriptions seemed as if he went out of his way to make them hard to interpret. The exams were hard, but I suspect that's standard across CMSC216 sections. Wouldn't recommend him to anyone. PS, Start your projects early. It often took students 1-2 days just to understand what the project was asking for.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/10/2020	He is the textbook definition of a lecturer that does it because they have to and not because they like it. If he does enjoy his job it is not reflected at all in his lectures. He frequently interrupted his students when they tried to ask simple questions and told them instead to go to office hours (which I was told were super busy). There were times where the questions were too in-depth for him to answer quickly, but often times he didn't give students a chance to ask the question. You can do well in this course, and if it was in person I feel like it would be a better experience, but he was almost harming accomodation for students rather than helping by restricting lectures to certain sections earlier in the semester and only lecturing once a day instead of 3 times a day like he was supposed to, which meant that if you had class during the time that he decided to hold lecture, you had to then accomodate another 75 minutes out of the day to watch his lecture. There are better lecturers than him.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Anonymous 11/23/2020	Took his class when it was co-taught by Herman. He is, in my opinion, a far better lecturer than Herman IF you can pay attention through his stuttering. It was definitely more interesting and easy to understand the concepts Shankar taught. Again, this is if you can pay attention through the stuttering. I can't really speak about his exams or quizzes though b/c I'm pretty sure they were Herman's, at least for my year.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 11/18/2020	Honestly, Herman is probably the worst professor I've ever had. He's not a bad lecturer but he's not great either, he shuts down students asking questions and has such a rigid structure to lectures is pretty annoying. Also the way he's formatted the class virtually is kinda annoying too, from requiring a password to access any files to how office hours work. I do feel like he'd be a better professor with an in person class but he hasn't made a good transition to online classes and expects too much out of students.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 11/18/2020	Honestly, Herman is probably the worst professor I've ever had. He's not a bad lecturer but he's not great either, he shuts down students asking questions and has such a rigid structure to lectures is pretty annoying. Also the way he's formatted the class virtually is kinda annoying too, from requiring a password to access any files to how office hours work. I do feel like he'd be a better professor with an in person class but he hasn't made a good transition to online classes and expects too much out of students.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/16/2020	Truly the worst professor I've had at UMD.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 11/16/2020	The worst professor I've had at UMD so far.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 11/09/2020	He does try to make lecture engaging, albeit not very successfully. It is possible to do well in this class, but be prepared to spend an obscene amount of time studying and reading from the textbook. He is not accommodating despite having an online semester and feels that only his class matters.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 10/29/2020	Nice guy, much nicer than Herman. Knows the course material very well and is response to students. Unfortunately, he has a stutter that makes his lectures very hard to understand.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 10/27/2020	This professor has been THE LEAST accomodating professor during this pandemic. He assumes so much about his students. He assumes that if you aren't on top of everything 24/7, then you don't care about the class and you don't care about your grade. Although the university is telling their professors to be accommodating, his policies are still incredibly strict. He's also the most condescending professor I've ever had. Don't take a class with him if you value your mental health.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/15/2020	I love herman. He is arguably the best lecturer we have in the CS dept
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- kjmehta 05/17/2020	Sometimes hard to keep up with during lectures, but he knows his stuff
Ilchul Yoon CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2020	Yoon is a good professor for the material he teaches. I see that he has taught CMSC411 in the past, which does not surprise me. Yoon likes to attack the details of memory and other minutiae of the work done in the class. This is a good thing for those who can get a conceptual grasp of the content, but for those who are just here to code, it will be considerably difficult. Many students took to watching Nelson's lectures from previous semesters after the move to online because Yoon's lecture style proved too difficult to keep up with for some without being able to ask questions as they came to mind. Taking the time to understand Yoon's lecture style did prove very useful and I felt I learned quite a bit from the course overall. Yoon's exams are tricky for similar reasons. Unlike Nelson, who will usually make his exams based around high-level understanding with code, a lot of Yoon's questions felt like tricks. There was a "catch" of some description in almost every coding question across all three exams, which can be annoying if one detail causes you to lose many points. Yoon (and moreso Shankar) unfortunately did not do the best job of transitioning to the online environment after COVID-19 began making its rounds. I think they were unprepared for the scope of what they had to transition to, and as the semester progressed both got fairly crass. I don't hold this against Yoon too much, however, because the transition was hard for everyone. Overall, I'd recommend Yoon if Nelson is not teaching the course. You can always fall back on Nelson's material if Yoon's style does not make sense to you. Be prepared for tricky exams, but if you understand the low-level implementation of many different features in C, you should be able to score at minimum a B in the course.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/03/2020	Horrible lecturer. He is very hard to listen to and doesn't seem prepared for lectures. I ended up going to a different section's lecture for the class because I couldn't focus on him.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A+ jschne55 04/10/2020	Lectures were basically useless because of the stuttering and volume, ended up just going to Larry's lectures. Definitely knows his stuff, just can't teach it very well.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/10/2020	Great lecturer, has very reasonable exams and practice material, and INCREDIBLY CLEAR project descriptions.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/10/2020	Took him in Summer 2019. The best!!! Such positive energy and lighthearted jokes to break up the content :) Loved the way he taught the class, so now I'm about to TA for the first time for 216 (not for Nelson tho :(((( )
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 01/09/2020	Larry can be very monotonous, which may make it tough for people to pay attention, but he does try to make 216 easy to understand. He may seem unapproachable but if you go to his office hours, you will find out that he is a pretty nice guy. Overall, I would say he's not great, but good.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a W Anonymous 12/21/2019	I had him before for 132 and I hated him. I only picked him again for 216 because he was better than Shankar. Herman is completely boring once again and makes me fall asleep with his monotone voice. So I would have to go home and review his powerpoints and examples (since he doesn't record nor allow phones/laptops in class), which are extremely vague. I even read the textbook for goodness sake and was still confused in a class because there is so much information in the textbook that I don't know what he wants us to know for class. By far the worse lecturer I've had.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2019	Solid lecturer. Awkward and strict about things but good guy. Attendance is important. He repeats key things in lectures a lot. Slides are kinda incomplete.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/18/2019	Herman may seem unapproachable, but if you understand and like his odd sense of humor then you'll have an easier time approaching him. He does talk very fast, but if he repeats something he says it's probably very important. His slides are super detailed, but reading the books and going to office hours will help fill in the gaps. I repeat, go to office hours, because you're going to need all the help you can get for his projects. The projects are tough but the descriptions are very detailed, so read those before you even touch your keyboard. As for his exams, you either know the answer or you don't, since you can't really look at one part of the exam to help you answer another part. And yes, Herman does have laser vision and will see through the tables to find you on your cellphone, so use your phone at your own risk. All in all, this class is challenging and Herman does a good job of explaining it. As a bonus, he gave out chocolate to random people for several lectures in a row. Additionally, he made his Halloween lecture about zombies, so if you want to learn more take him in the fall when lecture falls on Halloween.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/18/2019	Larry is awesome, and underrated as hell. Never had a better professor than him. Yeah, he doesn’t let you use electronics, and yeah, he doesn't let you sit in the very back. Who cares? That’s to your benefit. Larry is the best teacher I’ve had at this school. Nobody can explain concepts like him. He just makes everything make sense. His assignment descriptions are fantastic. Long, yes. But the few extra minutes it takes to read could save you hours of work compared to professors who don’t really make it clear what they want. He provides practice exams that include every single topic that could possibly be on the exam, so if there’s anything you don’t know, you now know that you should study it. Compare it to, say, Jason, whose practice exams inevitably leave something off that appeared on the real exam, and include something that isn’t on the exam, wasting everyone’s time. The point of the practice exam is to let me know what I don’t know! I don’t know that I don’t know something unless there’s a question asking me about it! Larry is underrated. The GOAT, if you ask me.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/17/2019	Stutters, which makes his lectures impossible to follow. You're better off reading the slides or just showing up to Herman's lecture.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2019	He is a fun and knowledgeable instructor. He tries to make jokes in class and explain things in an interesting way. He might be boring and strict on administrative stuff, but his teaching is beyond doubt fantastic.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/02/2019	Extremely harsh and unreasonable teacher. His curriculum doesn't make sense and makes time management extremely difficult. He assigns project due dates the day after exams and breaks. He focuses more on people not emailing him and not sitting in the back of the class more than he teaches. Very bland and hard to understand lecturer.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/27/2019	He's Nelson... enough said
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/17/2019	Really good lecturer. Some of his antics can be annoying, and his insistence that students sit close to the front of the lecture hall and not use electronic devices and that contact with TAs or instructors must be done in person were all silly or somewhat annoying, but otherwise he's great at explaining the material and his project descriptions are very clear, outlining every single edge case for students so that there isn't much of a need for a forum like Piazza. You'll have a very good understanding of the material by the end of semester. Would definitely recommend.
Austin Starnes CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/29/2019	Best dude ever
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Anonymous 10/24/2019	Amazing amazing amazing. Best CS professor in the department honestly. He cares so much about his students, actually understands that we might be going through stuff and offers help. He cares. If you tell me your favorite professor is Fawzi, then I'll know you never experienced having Nelson. Sure, the class is hard. But Nelson gives you a really strong foundation, and motivates you to do the comp sci major.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 10/20/2019	He is very nice if you talk to him, but if you want to understand the material I would recommend either looking for another teacher or preparing to rely heavily on the textbook.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/26/2019	Great exams/projects, seems to care about his students. I found myself distracted in lecture a bit by his lecture style, since he tends to go back and forth between topics. Because of this, I think Pedram might be better at conveying the information we needed to learn
Michael Donahue CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/24/2019	He is a good TA. He gives you pointers and hints to get you to the answer on your own, which really helps you understand the problem.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2019	He is really great at engaging the majority of students but I tended to find his jokes to be childish and distracting. I didn't always feel welcome in his lectures. He had a routine where he would repeatedly pretend to interrupt students while they asked a question, and I found this to be disrespectful. Well-intentioned but lacking execution. His exams and grading are fair, and he gave a decent curve.
Michael Donahue CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/15/2019	He's a good TA. Very respectful and willing to help out and answer any questions, along with providing tips and tricks based off his own experiences.
Michael Donahue CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2019	He's alright. Nothing special.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Anonymous 05/12/2019	Great professor. I was lucky enough to have him for both CMSC132 and CMSC216. Straightforward exams, great sense of humor. Encourages the making of memes on Piazza. Very approachable
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/24/2019	Funny guy who will engage you with his demeanor and slides. If you have been doing well in 131 and 132 you should expect to do well as long as you put in the work for projects.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a D Anonymous 01/04/2019	I had him for both 216 and 132. He's one of the best lecturers ever, but the classes are HARD. You're going to have to study a lot in order to do well in the class. For reference, I didn't pass 216 even while working a lot. Projects are only public test and secret test based, no release tests. Exams are fair, make sure you study from the practice exams and HWs often in order to do well.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2018	Larry is a solid lecturer. He is tough but extremely fair when it comes to grading.
Pedram Sadeghian CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/11/2018	Very boring. Does not engage the class very well. His voice has a habit of putting half the class to sleep and his lectures do not keep your attention. He goes over concepts pretty well, and his diagrams/drawings in class are helpful at times. When he makes his own exams, he is very pedantic about specific concepts, which is guaranteed to trip up most students, including those who have a strong grasp of computer science.
Pedram Sadeghian CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/10/2018	I had Pedram for 216 and for 132. I think Pedram is a great lecturer and does a good job of explaining concepts. He tries to spend most of his time going over live coding examples as opposed to just reading off of the slides. For 216, Pedram co-taught with Herman so we had Herman's exams and projects. If Pedram is co-teaching definintely take him. However, if Pedram is not co-teaching like he was for my 132 class, his exams are definitely way more difficult, but not impossible. I recommend him!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2018	Herman is a great instructor. Sure, his policies initially can seem pedantic, but they are intended to help you learn. Herman not only knows his CS stuff very well, he also knows how to run a class so that the students learn the material effectively. He doesn't want you to use your electronics during lecture because research has shown that it impedes your learning, and from my personal experience, I found that I have been able to focus in lecture a lot better, and have followed this policy in my other classes. Additionally, he wants students to sit in the front and actively participate and answer questions because it actually helps you learn the material better. Everything he does is for a reason, and people who criticize him for these policies is not understanding the point of what he's trying do. In regards to his teaching style, I personally think he's a funny dude, and he does a really good job at explaining the material comprehensively and thoroughly. There are worksheets in discussion that you really should do, and he provides really comprehensive project guides that pretty much give you all the information you could ever need. His administrative procedures are very refined, so you should have all the information you need about that. His tests are also very fair; they follow a similar format to his practice exams but sometimes with some curveball questions, but you should be capable of answering those. If you want to succeed in his class, just pay attention in lecture, do his discussion worksheets, and start projects early. He's a great instructor, and you'll definitely get a thorough understanding of the material if you take him. Plus he's such a meme.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/19/2018	people who complain about his no phone or laptop policy should just try to take a different professor, i mean how hard is it to spend 50 -75 mins not using your phone? i personally like this policy as it helps me focus during class better. he can be strict at times, but he is overall a nice and funny guy. his lectures can get boring but that's just because the material is dry at times. his tests are EXTREMELY fair, as they are exactly like the practice exams. the projects (this semester at least) heavily relied on your ability to test your own program which is a practically skill in an actual job, but may seem annoying when doing actual projects. overall, i recommend herman for 216
Shyam Pujara CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2018	definitely recommend this TA
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/11/2018	Shankar is a nice guy if you were to ever speak with him. However as a professor i would avoid completely. The class relied heavily on a generous curve and the entire semester was a struggle to stay afloat. Good luck if you have him
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 02/15/2018	He makes silly jokes, feels very passionately about very specific things (like sitting in the frontest row possible), but overall he's a good instructor. His project descriptions are super clear and that's fantastic.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/23/2018	One of the worst lecturers I have had so far. He has a stutter and doesn't communicate material well. Be prepared to teach yourself everything. His PowerPoints are incoherent and you would be better off using Wikipedia or a textbook as a resource. He does curve to compensate for the lower averages, however if you really want to learn something I would suggest taking another teacher.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a D+ Anonymous 01/02/2018	Overall he's a pretty good professor that knows the material, however that being said the way he does tests is completely arbitrary with one having to know some minute detail that he covered for a brief time during his monotonous lectures. His projects are actually extremely well done and are very straightforward with him having a project description for each several pages long. But even if you pass all of the projects 100%, while it should give you insight into his testing methods, it does not. Herman I'd also completely unapproachable and hates being bothered for anything other than administrative reasons (which he will reiterate almost every lecture, yes really). If you had to choose between Herman and another teacher, Herman is actually a solid choice but be wary that his tests while not overtly difficult, are extremely roundabout and arbitrary.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a D+ thunderd568 12/23/2017	Nice guy but as a teacher, very ineffective. He's too by the book, doesn't explain things in a conceptual way but instead the technical way. He made CMSC 216 a painful experience for me. Tried to befriend him and he wasn't having it. I followed his advice on how I could be successful in his class and I missed the curve by half a point... He likes to cite studies that were done that show how to improve students learning and I followed every single one of them. I sat in the front row, I got to know him on a first name basis, I asked questions (and sometimes he would answer in a condescending way), and participated as much as I could with his worksheets. Find a better option.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/14/2017	Gives ample resources to study with (lengthy practice exams before every exam and the final) along with detailed solution guides. I don't think anybody could possibly write better project descriptions. They can be upwards of 10 pages long, and cover literally everything you could want to know about how to write it. I have never had any confusion in terms of not knowing how to handle a certain case in a project due to this. Exams aren't difficult if you study, but you will certainly have to know some small little details for each exam if you want to get an A or above on them. Definitely recommend Herman for 132/216/anything else he's teaching
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/30/2017	Full disclosure, I was initially biased against Herman at the start of the semester due to a few exchanges I perceived as callous and unnecessarily severe. As a few other reviewers have said, he can come off as unapproachable and abrasive. But since taking his class, it's obvious that he is a good professor that puts a lot of effort into teaching. If you pay attention in lecture, take notes, and do the readings, you will do great. Herman simply demands that you put effort into the course to get a good grade. His exams are fair if you've been taking notes and doing the readings, and projects are a non-issue if you start them early enough, and pay attention in discussion when debugging tools are covered. Essentially, attend class as expected, learn, do the readings, and you'll do fine and learn a great deal in the process. If that much effort is too much, then take another professor who may have lower standards.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2017	If someone actually gives herman a 1/5, they are in for a rude awakening as the program continues. Herman is a strong lecturer if a little dry, and has very clear project descriptions. His exams are fair and do not try to trick you, if you do well on the projects and pay attention in class you will have little trouble with them. Likely one of the best professors throughout the CS program as a whole.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/19/2017	I've found Larry to be fairly entertaining and his lectures are useful. His project descriptions are extremely in-depth, so you have to read a lot, but I think that makes them fantastic. I think his exams and quizzes are fair once you start to figure him out and what he's looking for you to know. It seems like people either love him or hate him, but I love him.
A.U. Shankar CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/19/2017	Stutters. Slow lectures. Exams are exactly the same as Herman's but the coding problems are much harder. Do not take.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A AnnieS 12/13/2016	Very un-engaging lecturer. Lots of self-studying required. Tests and quizzes are nit-picky and unexpectedly difficult, and grading can be inconsistent and unfair at times. Projects are too time-consuming, changed at the last minute a lot of the times, and graded in a way so as to maximize the points you lose. Doesn't grade in a timely manner at all. Focuses too much on just insisting everyone stick to his banal policies and strict expectations. Unapproachable and abrasive at times.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/13/2016	DO NOT TAKE THIS MAN. Disclaimer: I understand that many like his style; he's very clear on course expectations, covers almost all content in class, and is a good programmer, conveying concepts clearly and effectively. STILL: He's boring. Beyond monotonous and un-engaging. I know that sounds like a me problem, but it's nigh impossible to focus on him for the whole 90-ish minutes, and so many times the tested material is in the small details of what he says, or the tools/materials he explains briefly - and then you find yourself playing catchup. Also - always changing project requirements, sometimes to the last day or so. He jokes that this is the only class you should worry about in your semester, but it's painfully true - projects are a pain in the ass if you don't start right away and know what you're doing each time. Tests are a little unfair - practice material either isn't sufficient or doesn't reflect the difficulty of quizzes, etc. Unapproachable AF. Lots of self-studying is required despite his teaching style. This semester they added a lot of material, and so he just kind of charged onwards, covering all these complex threading, library function, etc. concepts and making them a significant portion of the final. Don't expect any grade-related leniency, or leniency in general beyond one excused absence.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a C thunderd568_ourumd 12/08/2016	Herman is NOT my kind of professor. He is too by the book, uptight and relies on you to learn the material by reading a text book (again not my style). Personality wise he is a great guy. I would like to work WITH him some day but I have no intentions of taking him for a CS course again. His projects were fairly simple. I finished them well before they were due all the time, he always has the best TA's as well. His quizzes and exams are designed to trick you (a methodology I do not advocate) and his lectures tend to be a little dry. He uses the slides like a script. I am relying heavily on the curve just to make it out of his class. Take that for what it's worth.
Alan Sussman CMSC216 Expecting a B student8 04/26/2016	I'm giving Sussman 5 stars because honestly, he's one of the better professors in comparison to the other CS professors in this department. It is hard to pay attention in lecture because he doesn't make things very interesting (although, an intro computer science course will never be that interesting). However, he for sure knows what he's talking about, and he definitely explains things thoroughly. Just try to get enough sleep and stay focused during lecture so you can learn because he does say good things. He really does care about his students. He is very nice during office hours and will respond to your concerns.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Bucket_hats 12/21/2015	He's awesome, but his timing of assignments often left the class scrambling to get things done. If you can figure out how he runs his class and writes his tests, then you're good. Work hard and you'll do fine
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/22/2015	Nelson is a wonderfully funny professor who really values his students. I would certainly recommend that you take him, if possible, because he makes his classes very enjoyable. His exams can be fairly tricky, but if you study well you will be fine.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Anonymous 05/19/2015	In my opinion, Nelson is a solid CS professor. I took 216 with him, and he made it a point to ensure us that it wasn't a weeder course. Once you get around the accent, he's great at explaining the topics at hand. He keeps his lectures fairly lighthearted and relaxed, and he also has a sense of humor. He, along with his TAs, are stationed on Piazza to help students with any problems or concerns, and this is very convenient and helpful. Projects take longer to complete than those in 131 and 132, and starting early is essential. Quizzes and Exams are fair, and he provides a test bank from previous semesters. The final was challenging, so be prepared. Regarding the cons of a class with Nelson - he can be very annoying. The amount of times he will stop the lecture just to call out a student fooling around is just unnecessary and it also distracts everyone in the class. His humor also doesn't appeal to everyone. In addition, be prepared for your inbox to be flooded with his email updates on the course material. I once remember receiving six emails in a 15 minute span from him alone. Overall, he's a great CS prof, and the only professor I would take over him is Fawzi Emad.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2015	Here's the thing with Nelson: he's a great guy and fun to be around, but sometimes that gets in the way of his teaching. He jokes a lot, which makes lecture interesting, but I feel as if I could've gotten a lot more out of 216 with someone else. His projects and quizzes are fair. The tests are fair too, although he likes to test very nit-picky, minor details that any normal person would just test out in a dummy program rather than memorize.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/04/2015	I think he is an amazing professor. He is a pretty decent lecturer, but I think what makes him stand out is how receptive he is to student concerns. Every decision he makes is meant to help us succeed and have a better understanding of the material.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/09/2014	He's a pretty good professor. His lectures are extremely boring and he sticks unfunny jokes in them, but all of the slides and recordings of his lectures were available online. I needed to start my projects right away because the last half of them were given back-to-back with little time to work on them and I couldn't get any help from TAs. If enough students were confused about some part of an assignment, he would explain it in detail during lectures, but individualized assistance was hard to find. He never gave any of the pop quizzes he threatened to give, but if he says that something will be on a test or quiz, it will be.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting a B watergems 08/23/2014	Nelson's class was very disappointing. The first half was challenging and interesting. The second half died for me. The projects were super simplistic but overly complicated with external obfuscation/unclear specification. He seemed to claim this was some kind of test of character or professional challenge. But it just made the last 1/3 of the course into a technically inadequate, stressful game. He is funny but that's not why I'm in school. Nor am I in school to be stressed and have my character tested. There were way too many cheaters, collaborators and brown-nosers who had their strategies for getting their projects done, and they really benefitted in the second half of the course during the b.s. projects. The students who were doing their own work were then at a disadvantage. Meanwhile the technical quality of the material covered during that last 1/3 was very low. i'd rather have a less engaging, entertaining teacher and get a good education throughout the entire class.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/29/2014	Great professor , absolutely hilarious. Very fair in terms of exams , quizzes , and projects. You can find everything in his lectureExamples if you are confused on any topic. Would highly recommend, best teacher i've so far in CS.
Neil Spring CMSC216 Expecting a C Anonymous 11/21/2013	I don't know about others. But I would definitely not recommend him to my friends. He teaches really fast and he just seems to be too smart to explain much things. May 216 is a very hard class but honestly I don't think Neil Spring did a good job lecturing. I got both A's in CMSC131 and CMSC132; but I found following Neil Spring in lecture very hard. I might do better in other professor's class. Reading books at home or going to TA's are a lot more helpful than sitting in his lecture and feeling awful for not following. The worst part is, I don't even know what is it that I don't understand. Challenge yourself if you think you are a pretty smart guy and have experience with C and linux before. Good luck!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting an A Turing 07/24/2013	Two semesters ago I took CMSC 132 with Larry Herman. I hated it. Every word that came out of his mouth filled me with aggravation and contempt. I thought he was an egotistical, straight edged jerk not to mention being completely boring and seemingly condescending to students. I was dreading the previous semester knowing that he was the only teacher for CMSC 216. As every other reviewer has mentioned he does in fact take attendance, force people to sit in the front, prohibit electronic devices during lecture, etc. He will also ask the trickiest, exception-to-the-rule questions on tests that are generally the difference between an A and a B. Some of the projects can also take a pretty good amount of time and probably average to about 20 hours or so but can be done in a lot less time with good planning/understanding. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing, he tends to not include some of the key details on his slides so you will not be able to get a lot of the practical information unless you are regularly attending lecture even though he says that the “lecture notes will be posted on line so you don’t need to take notes” which most students mistakenly interpret as “you don’t need to come to class”. Yet as the semester went on I slowly came to the realization that he was actually doing almost all of these things to the benefit of the students. As was noted in a reviewer below me noted, the no-electronic policy forces you to pay attention with the exception of an occasional text. Preventing students from sitting in the back gets them closer to the material and allows him to police for devices better. His stringency on the honesty policy is annoying on face value, but definitely one of the most annoying things are when people who have no understanding of material get credit for things other people came up with, so his strictness could be out of respect for the students that are actually doing their own work. His attendance taking is also not in the grading policy, so lack of attendance will not directly affect your grade. He claims to use it simply as a statistical study on the grades earned versus attendance, but I also suspect that he uses it for curving. For example, he will be much more likely to curve up a grade from a B+ to at least and A- if he sees that they have attended almost every lecture. Almost any time a good portion of the class is in jeopardy of missing the project deadline, he will extend it even though if the whole class wouldn’t have been remiss in their responsibilities as students and started even a few days earlier they would have been fine. He always assigns them with ample time in the first place. Ample. Also, early in the semester I discovered that I had a scheduling conflict with the final exam and he said that it wasn’t a problem and let me take it with three other people at a later date. I also missed a quiz and hadn’t notified him or the TA until the day of and he still allowed the zero to be replaced with the average of my other quiz grades. Concerning the lecture material, he is good. He is always well prepared and he always drills the important parts that you need to remember. Always. Drills. Knowing these drilled points should secure you a B in the class. To achieve an A in the class, Larry expects a mastery of the subject material. He expects an A to signify Excellence, unlike other classes where A stands for Average and anything below that stands for Stupid. Therefore, Larry is a great teacher. Anyone who argues otherwise is either too stupid to get the grade they want, or too arrogant to put in the work he requires. In short, if you are smart and willing to work, you will like him and you will do well. Or even if you don’t like him, you will at least respect him, and he will do the same for you. No question about it.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/21/2013	Despite what other reviews here say, I Larry Herman is one of the best teacher I've had in the CS major. It's fair to say that Larry can be strict and "by the book". He does forbid electronic devices during his lecture, doesn't allow students to sit in the back, and taking attendance at every lecture. If you're looking for a class to sleepwalk through, you aren't going to do well under Larry. He fully intends to educate you, whether you like it or not. For those who put in the effort, Larry will "go the extra mile" (his words) for making sure you understand the content. This desire to help students took the form of extensions on half of the projects this semester as well as providing extra TA office hours as project deadlines approached. Both in lecture and office hours, Larry could be extremely friendly (not to mention downright funny). Throughout his lectures, Larry also made it clear where he was going with the content. One never failed to understand why he was illustrating a topic. CMSC216 can be a difficult course. However, Larry makes it seem a lot easier. It was a pleasure to take the course with him. I wish he was teaching CMSC330 this fall.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 04/30/2013	STAY MILES AWAY FROM HIM. It doesn't matter how smart you are. You will get stupid points taken off because he is so nit-picky. He is the most unfair professor I have ever seen. He is so disorganized and doesn't keep his word about anything. He is the devil. I wish I could give him zero stars.
Neil Spring CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/01/2013	Neil is the best teacher I've had at UMD. I'll preface the rest of this by saying that I'm a pretty competent programmer, and pick up CS-related information quite quickly. For students like myself, Neil is the ideal professor. He really knows his stuff, and likes to do a lot of his teaching by working through code examples (he doesn't like the slideshows). For those that aren't as familiar with the course content, I can see Neil getting a bit confusing. His way of jumping around on the terminal and in vi might be a bit to take in at first, but I think it gets easier as the semester goes on.
Neil Spring CMSC216 Expecting an A- zaqu413 12/22/2012	Lecture: I honestly don't know how we are supposed to learn from a compsci lecture. Instead of paying attention during class I would just go through Dr. Spring's lecture file and if I was going at the same pace as him I could ask questions. Otherwise I would just figure things out by myself. It was nice that he allowed laptops during lecture. If you want to keep up with Spring during lecture you either have to be a genius, already know C really well, or study the lecture slides the night before (Note: Spring doesn't use lecture slides, but we had access to Nelson's lecture slides.) Discussion: Was somewhat useful I guess. We had about five quizzes and two unannounced graded lab projects. The quizzes and lab projects were fairly easy. If we didn't have a project or quiz the TA would go over something useful for the current project. Projects: Range of difficulty on the projects. We had six projects and the most difficult one was probably the Shell project (#5 for my class). I was lazy about testing and would fail a couple of secret tests on the projects. The secret tests are much more in depth than they were in CMSC132. Assembly: This class is on C and Assembly. I thought Assembly was fun and not that hard. If you are one of those people that rely on compilation and debugging to see if your code works you are going to have a hard time with assembly. My advice is just to go slow and keep very careful track of the registers. Debugging in Assembly is very hard, so your goal is to not have to debug. For our assembly project I wrote 2/3 files perfectly on the first try because I was VERY careful and coded very slowly. Tests: The first exam and the final were very hard multiple-multiple choice questions (like circle all correct answers, not just circle one letter). I think they made the 2nd and 3rd exam a little easier to account for the fact that the average on the first exam was like a 60%. They liked to make you code parts of the project on the exams to make sure you knew what you were doing on the project and that you weren't just guessing on the project. Last Remarks: I didn't treat this class with enough respect, which is why I got an A-. I didn't really study for the first exam and got a 63%. Studying before lecture (even just for 20 minutes) would have been very helpful.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Don't_Take_Larry 12/08/2012	DO NO GLOSS OVER THIS REVIEW BECAUSE IT'S LONG! I've been right where a lot of you are right now. I'm sure there are a lot of you reading this review to see if "Mr. Herman" (don't call him Dr or Professor) isn't terrible and you can suffer through his class. The answer is no. Look there are some cases where Larry has shown some compassion to individuals, but I haven't witnessed it. I've had him for both 216 and 330 and both classes were made more difficult just for the sake of being difficult. Project descriptions will range from about 10 to 15 pages that is mostly filler that will take you over an hour to sift through. Somehow, the descriptions still end up being vague and don't bother emailing him or asking on piazza. Instead of just giving you a simple yes or no for what is usually a simple question, you will most likely be told to look somewhere in the project description that doesn't help you, or give you an answer that is completely vague. He's just a stereotypical awkward computer science professor that's liked by some stereotypically awkward computer science kids. Some of his exam questions will focus on a topic from lecture that was covered on a single slide for five minutes in lecture. All that most of us should be trying to take from these programming classes are better programming skills. We shouldn't give two s#!t$ about some of the obscure topics that his exams can and will likely focus on. Don't expect to get any grades back for months and you may not until the end of the semester. Most likely I'm going to get a high B in his 330 class and I got the same in his 216 class the previous semester. I'm not bashing him because I'm going to get a bad grade. I'm not even bashing him because he's a terrible lecturer. I'm writing this because he should never be put in charge of a class. He can lecture fine but he is terrible in regards to every other aspect of being a professor. Anyone that says otherwise is kidding themselves. To sum this up with a simple comment: DON'T TAKE HERMAN! WAIT A SEMESTER TO TAKE THE CLASS!
Larry Herman CMSC216 Expecting a B- ashivkum 11/12/2012	Larry Herman is a very kind-hearted guy, as much as you think otherwise. The poor guy shattered his vertebrae last semester (for those who had him for CMSC216 Spring2012) and missed the first 3 weeks of class. He might have been a bit cross last semester, but that would be due to all that stuff he was under (medicines, etc.). I tore my ACL this semester, and I have him for CMSC330, and he was more than understanding of my plight, allowing me generous extensions on almost all the assignments that I turned in. I hated to try to push the deadlines for him, but there were times I had to. However, he is a wonderful teacher, and will answer your questions during the lecture at a specific time. When you ask a question and he says "We'll get to that", mark my words, he will "get to that". And far from being a douche or a dick, as many comments here described, Herman is doing his job as a low-level CS Professor, being harsh on the kids who are in the weed-out classes, those who think Computer Science is something easy you can BS your way through. I highly recommend this professor for future classes.
Alan Sussman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 08/30/2012	216 is nobody's favorite class, from what I hear. I was dreading taking it, especially with an unfamiliar professor. But Sussman proved to be a very competent, engaging, thorough, and considerate instructor. Sure, it helped that I was already well-versed in the language the course is taught in (C) so that I didn't have to worry about syntax. Still, I believe Sussman covered things pretty well. He is not very energetic, which would be nice for a 75-minute class, but I've had much worse. What matters is that he is a nice, sincere, accommodating guy who tries his best to deliver a good lecture and leave nothing obscure. I doubt you can do better than Sussman for 216...unless Fawzi is teaching it! The first 2 exams, in my opinion, are perfectly fair. You can reasonably expect a A- or B+. The final was kinda hard and intentionally so; it was curved accordingly. I got an A+ in 216 (slightly higher than my grades for both 131 and 132)!
Alan Sussman CMSC216 Expecting an A autonym 05/24/2012	Dull voice, and comes off as a bit... insecure, but not quite snarky. He cares about his students, but wants them to take responsibility for their learning. By no means a creative lecturer. Don't expect him to do much more than read off the slides - going to class is not really necessary, just make sure you read and understand. I have few complaints about this course, and think that 90% of it is extremely clear and relevant to CS. It's worth noting that there were a few things that were not explicitly covered in class/slides that we were expected to know from the textbook (which is actually a very solid resource if you ever crack it open). For example, we needed to use exit() in a project before we went into process control and would have naturally encountered such system calls. Also, Assembly is tedious, but not devastatingly so. Overall, this is a very interesting course; as for the professor, it's probably not a huge factor in your experience. Do the projects early and be sure to understand what's going on.
Larry Herman CMSC216 Anonymous 05/23/2012	Herman is a fine instructor. Not great, but far from the terrible instructor that some of the reviewers suggest he is. He did a good job teaching CMSC216 and didn't really rely on the slides. He doesn't get 5 stars because he's somewhat boring and can act a little harsh at times.
Alan Sussman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ dfarias 05/21/2012	Sussman really isn't as bad as some of these reviews pose him as. It's a very difficult course designed as a "weed-out" and you really need to work hard and study continuously to do well. Sussman, however, gave very fair quizes, especially compared to the previous semester, with Keleher, and the quiz material was almost always predictable. He's a pretty decent lecturer, even if he does read off of the slides a lot. When you go to him for office hours, he really shows that he cares about you and will even stay longer than his hours if he's not done figuring out your issue. Overall, I felt he was a great teacher with fair assignments, especially for a non "lecture" professor.
Larry Herman CMSC216 NotAnonymous 05/03/2012	I had him last year for a class and did poorly, and back then I would have given him one or two stars.. this semester though, he seems to have improved a lot. He definitely intelligent, and knows the coursework and material really well. He often asks questions and encourages students to participate, and his lectures are a lot more entertaining now than they were back then. However, he can be dickish and may be hard to approach, but he's far from the "useless lecher" that the other reviews make him out to be. Things to remember: 1) if you go in there expecting to hate the class because he's cocky, monotone, etc, you've pretty much just made a self-fulfilling prophecy. 2) he's not the "best teacher ever", but he's really far from the worst. 3) Call him MISTER Herman. He is not a professor, and he is not a doctor. He gets surprisingly touchy about this.
Peter Keleher CMSC216 Anonymous 02/25/2012	Teaches reasonably on the current subjects but makes quizzes ridiculously difficult. Instead of putting the topics we've covered and practiced on the quizzes, he not only puts the most recent material but also the most abstract and picky questions. Projects were very difficult like any other teacher in 216. Very full of himself and difficult to approach. If you read all of the readings yourself and start the projects early, it's a manageable class.
Jandelyn Plane CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/26/2012	I thought that Jan was a good professor who did an excellent job explaining confusing concepts in Lecture. All lecture slides are available online, and she also posts many coding examples that make life a lot easier when it comes to doing the projects and studying for the exams. In office hours she is friendly and willing to help. The class definitely is a lot of work, but just avoid procrastinating and you should do fine. For many of the projects extra credit is offered if you pass all of the public tests by a certain day, so definitely start early and take advantage of this option. There were also office hours from 10-6 every weekday, so if you are stuck on project just go to the TAs and they will usually clear up the problem for you.
Jandelyn Plane CMSC216 Anonymous 01/23/2012	Jan is a very nice and knowledgeable professor. Because of the nature of the course, she has to cover a lot of material in a short amount of time so blanking out for even a minute will leave you lost for the rest of lecture. She's not one to care if you're messing around on the internet during lecture (as long as you're not disruptive to the rest of the class) but I highly suggest you pay attention. One of the most efficient ways to study for this class is to attend and understand the lectures - and this is only a quarter of the work. This class is curved around an average of 75, despite what she might say about only ever curving 2-3% ... this is a lie. Quizzes - She says "you are always to expect a quiz in discussion" but she really only gives them about once a week or every 10 days. The topics are never announced but you can bet that it will be on slides covered about 2-3 lectures ago. If you use those topics as a guide and prod around, Jan can't lie, so I suggest you straight up ask her if, say the quiz will have 'Assembly' coding on it. If she says 'maybe', or does a slight nod, it's probably a yes. Use your best judgement. Labs - you can tell that no one put any effort into these as my labs were titled with the previous semester with the wrong directory name. We spend the first third of the class trying to locate the file, the 2nd third trying to figure out what the directions were asking and the rest trying to follow the confusing instructions. Put out your best effort and hopefully your grader isn't a dick and gives you a 2/2. Highly suggest consulting the people around you. Projects - start early. Try to talk to Jan/TA(/friends). Use Piazza. They are hard and you never know what the Secret Tests are looking for. If you think you're done, you're not done yet. Exams/Final - You'll be able to pick up clues on what's to be test in lecture and if your TA is nice, in discussion. Give yourself code to write and run them on your computer before you have to spit it out on paper. If you've had to do it on a project, expect to do a simplified and different version on an exam/final. TA - possibly one of the worst TAs I've ever had. Thought he was too smart for anyone else and just sat in the front of the class not answering any questions. Complained about now being paid enough ... -__- Overall, if you're not a CS genius, work your ass off if you expect to even pass.
Jandelyn Plane CMSC216 bigbabby 12/20/2011	Alright, so this class is gonna suck, regardless of who you chose for 216. 216 is a fast-paced course by nature and on the way you'll likely be learning two new languages - C and assembly. If you barely passed 131/132 or had trouble on some of the assignments I HIGHLY recommend you work on projects early. These are not the kinds of projects you just sit down and burn through in a few hours like in 132, and I took the honors version. Anyways, Plane is a decent 216 professor, she uses the same slides as all of the other professors use and she remains fairly engaging at 9 in the morning, so that's good. She does a good deal of coding examples in lecture which helps you understand topics. I would recommend you go to lecture and work a bit on your projects while she teaches, and pay attention during the more important bits of the lecture. There are six projects in this class, each with about two weeks to do. The spec for each one is drawn out and boring to read, but make sure you do, as there are a lot of hidden tricks and requirements hidden in the text. Gone are the days of private tests - 10 percent of your grade is public tests, and 75 is secret tests. You don't get to see what your project grade is when you submit - you wait a week and you get a magic score. Again, start these early. If you finish early, great, you can relax for a week and you are prepared for the quizzes. Again, this is NOT like 132. Secret tests often test a bunch of odd things (malformed input, large sample size, etc) and since you can't see the results until it is graded you can't just spam submits like in 132 until you get that perfect submission. Quizzes are slightly tough. If you haven't started the project most likely the material on the quiz will be brand new to you, and considering you are given 15 minutes to do a few concept questions and a programming assignment, you need to know the subject matter going into the quiz. Labs are the same as quizzes - if you have started the project, you should know what you are doing because the labs are a derivative of the project material of stuff that has gone on in lecture. Tests are fairly hard, alot of programming questions, and the graders seem to love taking points off on things like syntax (I always found that rather stupid - a compiler will catch syntax errors, not logic errors). All you really need to do is look over all of the slides (posted online) before each test and refresh yourself. If you do well on the quizzes, labs, and projects up to the test, you should do fine. I learned so much from this class - and that's because the class moves insanely fast. You'll be doing C projects while learning assembly, then going back to learning C and doing assembly projects. If you are not up to date with the latest 131 and 132 concepts (recursion, structures, blah blah) you will get your ass handed to you in this class. I aced 132H and this class was much more time-intensive.
Jandelyn Plane CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/24/2011	I'm going to start off by saying that this class was hard. Really hard. Probably the hardest class I've ever taken. I breezed though 132 and pulled an A easily, but 216 kept me stressed almost the whole semester and especially during the last two weeks of the course. This is the review of the course: -From what I've heard from friends the books are useless, don't buy them. (I didn't) -The entire course is in a Linux environment, through GRACE. If you're already familiar with Unix commands and such, you're in luck. Unfortunately I wasn't, and this made the first few weeks using it very, very confusing. Even at the end of the course I still felt weak with Unix. -You use Emacs to code in which is OK. The debugger is complicated and I never bothered leaning how to use it. I just debugged using print statements and other little tricks. -The major topics for the course were as follows: Learning basic C, Arrays in C, Structures, Pointers and pointer arithmetic, Makefiles, Dynamic Memory, Assembly, Process Control, Function pointers, Threads, and some misc. -Both Midterms and the Final were good. They were challenging but definitely not unreasonable and tested fair material. -The quizzes, on the other hand, were plain rude. The difficulty was unreasonable, they tested stupid material, they were graded harshly, and everyone failed the shit out of them. I failed every quiz except for 2. -Lab exercises were really hard for me, and I felt like everyone knew what they were doing except me. I would recommend trying to study the material that the lab is on beforehand. It's hard to ask questions when you're completely lost. -There were 6 projects, each of them took around 10-18 hrs to complete. Projects for this class were hard and stressful (a recurring theme). I didn't need office hours at all in 132 but I went for 4/6 projects for 216. The difficulty of the projects went up for each one. Even though the projects were extremely challenging, I thought they were all semi-reasonable as long as you started early. Except for the last one. -(Mini rant) The last fucking project. Assigned literally 10 days before the final, it was easily the hardest and longest project of the year. Project 6 stressed me out so much that I felt like I was going to vomit in the coming days before it was due. (Right before the final remember) You have to pass 75% of the public tests for each project to pass the course, and I couldn't pass any of them until the day before the project was due. I tried to go to office hours all 3 days before it was due, and each day office hours had at least a 20 person waiting-list for 1 TA. I have NO IDEA what Jan was thinking. How difficult was the project to complete? Fuck if I know, I didn't even try to implement threading because I needed to study for my two hardest finals that were the first day of finals week. -Overall the course was VERY fast paced. Looking back I definitely learned a ton from the course, but I didn't really have time to get a thorough understanding of all the topics. This is the review of Jan: -I'm giving Jan 4 stars mainly because I think her current rating of 2 is too low. -Jan is a very nice person and a pretty good lecturer. She has a good grasp on all the material and knows what she's talking about. It's not too hard to pay attention in class, there is just so much material that it's easy to instantly forget a lot of it. -The format of the class is a bit boring. Powerpoint lectures. -Some of the powerpoints are not well done and confusing. You really need to pay attention in lecture to figure out what's going on. Especially the powerpoint on Assembly, which I thought explained Memory very poorly. Advice: -Go to class, study before the Lab Exercises and quizzes. -Start the projects as early as you can. I wish I hadn't procrastinated some of them. -Make a couple friends and talk about the projects together. Yeah it's technically against the rules, but it will keep you from going insane when working on the projects.
Alan Sussman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/23/2010	This is my first B of college, and it was a travesty the manner in which I lost my 4.0 gpa. To quote a previous review: "He is one of the most terrible, boring, and unresponsive professors you'll ever deal with. He DOESN'T care about you, nor he cares about your concerns. He is there to do his research, to get paid or whatever other reasons he might have. He is not there to teach you." Sussman's projects were awfully and strictly graded, with averages in the 60%'s, and his tests were even worse, and had such difficult questions that everyone knew they failed (average on the tests were around 60%). Many people dropped this class with a W, others dropped Computer Science as a major, others got horrible grades and planned to retake the class. Whatever it is, this class was the doom of many people, and I took it the first semester it was offered, which means it was even more horribly taught than 212 since it was a new class. F*** you Sussman, and the computer science department, for making such a bullsh*t class with nothing to gain. I have no real-world knowledge of C or Assembly language programming from this class. Just my first B of college. That's all.