Reviews for CMSC289I

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James Reggia CMSC289I charlieOne 02/02/2013	A truly wonderful professor. I'd heard mixed stories about CMSC289I beforehand, but Prof. Reggia made this class a great experience. He was always friendly, and very approachable via office hours and email. After every homework, quiz, and exam, Prof. Reggia took great pains to make sure we understood the content before moving onto new topics. Even if people had still trouble understanding the material, Prof. Reggia strongly encouraged students to "grab me or one of the TAs after class". The content itself was great. This class provided a great opportunity to see how broad a field it really is. One definitely doesn't need to be a CS major to get something out of this class. In short, excellent professor and excellent class.
James Reggia CMSC289I Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2012	One of the best professors I've had in my UMD experience. His slides were easy to understand, and he made sure that everyone understood the content before moving on. For example, he'd give ungraded quizzes from time to time, and always take time afterwards to explain what was going on. The same went for the exams. After each of the midterms, Prof. Reggia took a good chunk out of his lectures to make sure we got the content. Both in lecture and in office hours, he was very friendly and polite; in fact he encouraged us to stop by if we were worried about grades, homework, or a topic not clearly understood from lecture. If you have a chance to take a course under Prof. Reggia, do it.
James Reggia CMSC289I Expecting an A Anonymous 12/26/2011	This is from the perspective of a CMSC student. Reading the description, I was worried this class wouldn't be as suitable for Computer Science students, but was happily wrong. The class does not require mathematical knowledge beyond algebra(logarithms are briefly explained, and provided for you in many cases). The class also does not require previous knowledge in computer programming. While it will be easier to understand some of the concepts with a ComSci baackground, it is in no way required or required to do well. If you are a Computer science student interested in AI, you will enjoy this class as well. Many of the concepts, algorithms, and techniques taughts can be used in your other CMSC courses as well as CMSC421 of course. The grade is made up of 20% for homework and quizzes, 20% for each of two midterms, and 40% for the final. We had 9 homework assignments regularly spread out through the semester. Each homework took roughly a couple hours to complete, and plenty of time was given to complete them. Part of the homework would be 'randomly' selected and be graded, the rest wouldn't be graded. There was 1 quiz early in the semester, then a second quiz that wasn't graded. The two midterms were difficult, not cumulative, but thorough, and resulted in low averages, about 50-60%. The final was cumulative and mainly consisted of problems that were already reinforced through homeworks as well as trivia-esque questions. While the averages for some of the homeworks and the midterms were fairly low, there was a very generous curve, and Dr. Reggia revealed an estimate of how the curve would be done based on each of the midterms. Though not estimated in class, the curve also affects the homework and final exam. Essentially, if you finished the homeworks and understood them, paid attention in class and did the readings, you could get an A without it being a high-stress course. After every homework, quiz, and midterm, each question was reviewed in depth and Dr. Reggia gave numerous opportunities for students to ask questions. Dr. Reggia is very approachable after class and in office hours.
James Reggia CMSC289I Expecting an F Anonymous 12/20/2011	CMSC289I- Horrible class. Worst class I've ever taken at UMD. Was duped into thinking it would be an interested course to fulfill a CORE requirement. Turned out to be the hardest class I've taken at UMD. On top of that there is no discussion so you don't really have an opportunity to make sense of what you cover in class. If your looking for an easy CORE class, THIS IS NOT IT. Reggia- Nicest guy ever. Went to him a week before the final breaking down bc I had like a F in the class and he was so comforting, and reassuring. Told me if I got a C on the final he'd give me a C in the class. And I did:)