CMSC389N | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/04/2022	Why the low rating? Class content is pretty interesting if your into web design. The slides in class and relevant documentation is really all you need to succeed in this class since all of the topics are are well established. So naturally I didn't attend lecture. The projects are pretty easy if not repetitive. I do have a small problem with the tests in this class. They rely way to heavy on memorizing css properties, which i think is pretty useless when i can just have a list of css properties open while i code. Also we didn't have React covered by class projects, but ended up being a big part of the final exam. which was pretty annoying since i had no experience with React. He did give a pretty solid curve though so no harm really done with those lost points.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/25/2021	The projects are easy, the exams are pointless because they do not focus on the essential skills of web development, mostly nit picking little details of javascript
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Anonymous 12/16/2021	I have to agree with the other review on 12/03/2021. Yoon is cool but the exams were unnecessarily difficult while the projects took less than a few hours to complete. The last few weeks cover mongo, react, express etc but it felt like the first month alone was on HTML. Also I was hoping for a php section but it wasn't included despite the course name being "php and javascript"
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Anonymous 12/03/2021	Reasons to take CMSC389N: - Introduction to the frontend world - Yoon is a very nice person - Yoon and his course staff are super responsive on Piazza and email Reasons to not take CMSC389N: - Lectures are basically Yoon trying to rush through an endless number of examples that are more complicated and lengthier than what they need to be. - Oftentimes, the goal of the class isn't solely your learning. Yoon allows cheatsheets on exams, and when we encountered a hard question/ example, he simply suggested that we should put an example of the case on our cheatsheets. - A countless number of times, you will find yourself memorizing code without knowing what exactly the functionality of the code is. As CS students at UMD, we all know that an effective developer must read the documentation. However, I am not paying tuition to just read the documentation - Yoon spends countless hours going over syntax and corners of Javascript and then ends up rushing through Express, MongoDB, and React which are mostly the things that people actually want to take away from the class. - Yoon sometimes doesn't communicate points clearly and I found myself trying to decrypt his approach - Project descriptions are unclear most of the times - Exams are really lengthy and you often have to move on if you don't know the answer right away
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Anonymous 11/23/2021	This class is very different from a regular computer science course. Many of intended requirements and documentation for the class is not explicitly written, and you have to watch videos in order to understand what your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is even supposed to do. If you enjoy having explicit criteria for how your projects are supposed to function and do not like to have to watch a poorly made and slow video many times in order to understand the projects, I would avoid this class. On top of having to watch such unorganized criteria for such videos, his written documentation for projects are not very helpful either and lack critical information and details. It is obvious that little effort is made into writing the project descriptions. His lecture slides are not very organized and do not go into proper detail of the course content, so I find myself google everything for the class. I did not attend very many lectures, but his recordings had low audio quality and he rambles quite a lot. His examples are needlessly hard, and loves to go into random edge case quirks of the language that are almost never actually used or even considered in practice. I took this class thinking it would be an easy CS class, but the lack of structure and direction made me wish I was retaking 351 again.
Andrej Rasevic CMSC389N Expecting an A+ Anonymous 07/15/2021	Really chill professor, goes over material really well. Open to questions and highly encourages students to participate in class. Projects are chill for the most part, the midterm was pretty hard but the final was much easier. Highly recommend 389N with Andrej.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting a B Anonymous 02/09/2021	I just want to say this dude is one of the worst professors at UMD. even worse than kruskal or teli or whoever else you want to name. I mean how do you turn a course about Javascript into having similar exam averages to cmsc351? That's absurd and complete blasphemy. You want to learn JS then just learn from w2schools. Don't take 389N expecting it to be an easy elective because it's not if you are taking it with Yoon. I also had him for 131 before which was a better experience but honestly that's the only class he should ever be teaching since 131 is a weedout course.
Krishan Panduwawala CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2021	Krishan was always a great TA and I learned a lot about web development. I learned how to code very well. I am now a pro coder.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC389N Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/12/2021	I had Professor Gonzalez for CMSC389N and he was really nice. He was very accommodating and always willing to help. The content in the course is not very difficult but could sometimes be a little boring. Overall, I would recommend CMSC389N for those who are looking for a computer science elective.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/03/2021	The online version of this class is not easy. Exams are long and very detailed, so Yoon definitely expects you to go over all minor concepts and code snippets before you take an exam. Midterm and final average was around 55%. However, the workload is not bad, and I think everyone was given fair amount of time to complete each project. Yoon applied a roughly 6% curve at the end, according to the statistical information of class. The teaching quality is pretty average. Overall, if you have to take this class, arrange this class taught by Yoon to one of your light-weight semesters, and you will be doing just fine.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting a B Anonymous 12/24/2020	Don't ever take this class with this professor. On exams there's just a lot of problems that are impossible to complete in the given time limit, averages were about 50% for every exam. Barely curved and overall felt like he wasn't effective in getting the important points across. If you want to take this course wait til a different semester when there is another professor, that's what I wish I did.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 10/26/2020	Hard exams, but the content is extremely worthwhile when you get a job.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2020	Good professor. Class is ridiculously easy though.
Krishan Panduwawala CMSC389N Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/12/2020	I was dazzled by his ability to teach. Other TAs should look up to him as a pillar of hope.
Ilchul Yoon CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2019	yoon dropped php and made this a javascript/react/mongo class. exam averages were 50% every time, with good curve (5-8%?) at end. around last half of semester <20 out of 110 kids attended lectures. Mostly a self taught class
Krishan Panduwawala CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2019	Very smart
Richard Johnson CMSC389N Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/08/2018	Really nice guy, class can be bit boring at times. Exams are just like past exams so study them
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC389N Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2018	This guy is basically your favorite high school teacher as a UMD professor. Really, really good dude. If you ever have any problems while you're taking his class, you can go to his office hours and talk to him about it and he will do his best to work through those issues with you. He seriously, legitimately, actually cares about his students, which is something you don't see very often. As much as I'm tempted to give him a 5 star review, I can't just because he's not a great lecturer. He's funny in class, but he gets a little off-topic and distracted a lot, so a lot of what you learn from him, you have to learn from his slides outside of class. He makes this super easy though, because his slides are great and he records all his lectures on panopto, so you can go back over things if you missed something. All in all, he's one of my favorite professors I've had here and if you get a chance to take a class with him, do it. You won't be disappointed as long as you actually take the time to talk to him and get to know him.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC389N Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/11/2018	He's a very funny professor who actually provides a good CS course. His projects are very reasonable, and he even gives code example to help with the projects. Tests are very easy, you just have to practice his old exams that he provides. I never got lower than a B- taking 3 of his classes. CMSC131, CMSC132, CMSC389N.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 03/27/2018	Currently in his 389N class now but this is my third straight spring semester with him as a teacher. Had him two years ago in 132, and last year in 216. So this review will cover all those classes. 132: First time having a class with him and my god he was crazy funny and just all around cool. People don't like him because of his jokes but he does that because he believes that students can only focus for a short period of time and need to take a small break before focusing on the lecture again. I find this VERY effective! He is a really effective teacher. I got a C in 131, barely survived, and when I took Nelson for 132, I had a whole new understanding of the material that was way more invaluable from studying java the previous semester. First time taking his exams at this time as well and he basically makes his real ones the same flavor as the practice exams (because they're all old exams). Naturally he makes the final harder and a little more different but it can be done. 132 was my favorite semester at UMD and nelson was a HUGE part of it. Made me happy to be a CS Major. 216: Ok so i had to retake after fucking it up the semester before with Herman. Most of what I said about 132 can be repeated here as well. Old exams follow the same style as the ones he gives you. The projects, yes are daunting and make you stress a little bit but with a little tenacity it can be done. he made 216 a lot easier for me after Herman ruined it for me. 389N: It's my most favorite class of the semester. Despite the time its taught in the mornings any class with Nelson is a blast and this class is his "child" so to speak. It's web dev which is right up my alley and his passion as well. The first exam was really really (and i mean really) easy. And the projects i can finish in a matter of 2-3 days depending on how much time i spend on them. Unless Nelson offers more classes or teaches more in the upper levels this will most likely be my last semester with him as a teacher :( It was well worth it all three times. He makes you proud to be a CS major.
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2018	Amazing
Nelson Padua-Perez CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2017	This is my third time having Nelson as my CS professor (I had him for cmsc131 and cmsc216), and he's growing on me. He makes so many weird/painful jokes in class which makes it difficult for me to focus, but also keeps me awake so that's good haha. CMSC389N was an alright elective. Midterms were easy as hell and the final probably will be too, but there's a ton of written code required. We had a group project where we had to use php/html, javascript, and bootstrap and that was actually pretty neat and a good group learning experience. This is a great class for anyone looking to get into php/javascript and web app platforms, or databases. I ended up despising web dev this semester, but it was a good experience to learn some php/html, JS/JQuery, and SQL in case I have to use it in the future... plus Nelson is a laugh, haha. Good luck!

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
04/04/2022

Why the low rating? Class content is pretty interesting if your into web design. The slides in class and relevant documentation is really all you need to succeed in this class since all of the topics are are well established. So naturally I didn't attend lecture. The projects are pretty easy if not repetitive. I do have a small problem with the tests in this class. They rely way to heavy on memorizing css properties, which i think is pretty useless when i can just have a list of css properties open while i code. Also we didn't have React covered by class projects, but ended up being a big part of the final exam. which was pretty annoying since i had no experience with React. He did give a pretty solid curve though so no harm really done with those lost points.

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
12/25/2021

The projects are easy, the exams are pointless because they do not focus on the essential skills of web development, mostly nit picking little details of javascript

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Anonymous
12/16/2021

I have to agree with the other review on 12/03/2021. Yoon is cool but the exams were unnecessarily difficult while the projects took less than a few hours to complete. The last few weeks cover mongo, react, express etc but it felt like the first month alone was on HTML. Also I was hoping for a php section but it wasn't included despite the course name being "php and javascript"

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Anonymous
12/03/2021

Reasons to take CMSC389N: - Introduction to the frontend world - Yoon is a very nice person - Yoon and his course staff are super responsive on Piazza and email Reasons to not take CMSC389N: - Lectures are basically Yoon trying to rush through an endless number of examples that are more complicated and lengthier than what they need to be. - Oftentimes, the goal of the class isn't solely your learning. Yoon allows cheatsheets on exams, and when we encountered a hard question/ example, he simply suggested that we should put an example of the case on our cheatsheets. - A countless number of times, you will find yourself memorizing code without knowing what exactly the functionality of the code is. As CS students at UMD, we all know that an effective developer must read the documentation. However, I am not paying tuition to just read the documentation - Yoon spends countless hours going over syntax and corners of Javascript and then ends up rushing through Express, MongoDB, and React which are mostly the things that people actually want to take away from the class. - Yoon sometimes doesn't communicate points clearly and I found myself trying to decrypt his approach - Project descriptions are unclear most of the times - Exams are really lengthy and you often have to move on if you don't know the answer right away

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Anonymous
11/23/2021

This class is very different from a regular computer science course. Many of intended requirements and documentation for the class is not explicitly written, and you have to watch videos in order to understand what your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is even supposed to do. If you enjoy having explicit criteria for how your projects are supposed to function and do not like to have to watch a poorly made and slow video many times in order to understand the projects, I would avoid this class. On top of having to watch such unorganized criteria for such videos, his written documentation for projects are not very helpful either and lack critical information and details. It is obvious that little effort is made into writing the project descriptions. His lecture slides are not very organized and do not go into proper detail of the course content, so I find myself google everything for the class. I did not attend very many lectures, but his recordings had low audio quality and he rambles quite a lot. His examples are needlessly hard, and loves to go into random edge case quirks of the language that are almost never actually used or even considered in practice. I took this class thinking it would be an easy CS class, but the lack of structure and direction made me wish I was retaking 351 again.

Andrej Rasevic
CMSC389N

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
07/15/2021

Really chill professor, goes over material really well. Open to questions and highly encourages students to participate in class. Projects are chill for the most part, the midterm was pretty hard but the final was much easier. Highly recommend 389N with Andrej.

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting a B
Anonymous
02/09/2021

I just want to say this dude is one of the worst professors at UMD. even worse than kruskal or teli or whoever else you want to name. I mean how do you turn a course about Javascript into having similar exam averages to cmsc351? That's absurd and complete blasphemy. You want to learn JS then just learn from w2schools. Don't take 389N expecting it to be an easy elective because it's not if you are taking it with Yoon. I also had him for 131 before which was a better experience but honestly that's the only class he should ever be teaching since 131 is a weedout course.

Krishan Panduwawala
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2021

Krishan was always a great TA and I learned a lot about web development. I learned how to code very well. I am now a pro coder.

Elias Gonzalez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
01/12/2021

I had Professor Gonzalez for CMSC389N and he was really nice. He was very accommodating and always willing to help. The content in the course is not very difficult but could sometimes be a little boring. Overall, I would recommend CMSC389N for those who are looking for a computer science elective.

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
01/03/2021

The online version of this class is not easy. Exams are long and very detailed, so Yoon definitely expects you to go over all minor concepts and code snippets before you take an exam. Midterm and final average was around 55%. However, the workload is not bad, and I think everyone was given fair amount of time to complete each project. Yoon applied a roughly 6% curve at the end, according to the statistical information of class. The teaching quality is pretty average. Overall, if you have to take this class, arrange this class taught by Yoon to one of your light-weight semesters, and you will be doing just fine.

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/24/2020

Don't ever take this class with this professor. On exams there's just a lot of problems that are impossible to complete in the given time limit, averages were about 50% for every exam. Barely curved and overall felt like he wasn't effective in getting the important points across. If you want to take this course wait til a different semester when there is another professor, that's what I wish I did.

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
10/26/2020

Hard exams, but the content is extremely worthwhile when you get a job.

Elias Gonzalez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/02/2020

Good professor. Class is ridiculously easy though.

Krishan Panduwawala
CMSC389N

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
02/12/2020

I was dazzled by his ability to teach. Other TAs should look up to him as a pillar of hope.

Ilchul Yoon
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/21/2019

yoon dropped php and made this a javascript/react/mongo class. exam averages were 50% every time, with good curve (5-8%?) at end. around last half of semester <20 out of 110 kids attended lectures. Mostly a self taught class

Krishan Panduwawala
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/03/2019

Very smart

Richard Johnson
CMSC389N

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/08/2018

Really nice guy, class can be bit boring at times. Exams are just like past exams so study them

Nelson Padua-Perez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
05/23/2018

This guy is basically your favorite high school teacher as a UMD professor. Really, really good dude. If you ever have any problems while you're taking his class, you can go to his office hours and talk to him about it and he will do his best to work through those issues with you. He seriously, legitimately, actually cares about his students, which is something you don't see very often. As much as I'm tempted to give him a 5 star review, I can't just because he's not a great lecturer. He's funny in class, but he gets a little off-topic and distracted a lot, so a lot of what you learn from him, you have to learn from his slides outside of class. He makes this super easy though, because his slides are great and he records all his lectures on panopto, so you can go back over things if you missed something. All in all, he's one of my favorite professors I've had here and if you get a chance to take a class with him, do it. You won't be disappointed as long as you actually take the time to talk to him and get to know him.

Nelson Padua-Perez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/11/2018

He's a very funny professor who actually provides a good CS course. His projects are very reasonable, and he even gives code example to help with the projects. Tests are very easy, you just have to practice his old exams that he provides. I never got lower than a B- taking 3 of his classes. CMSC131, CMSC132, CMSC389N.

Nelson Padua-Perez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
03/27/2018

Currently in his 389N class now but this is my third straight spring semester with him as a teacher. Had him two years ago in 132, and last year in 216. So this review will cover all those classes. 132: First time having a class with him and my god he was crazy funny and just all around cool. People don't like him because of his jokes but he does that because he believes that students can only focus for a short period of time and need to take a small break before focusing on the lecture again. I find this VERY effective! He is a really effective teacher. I got a C in 131, barely survived, and when I took Nelson for 132, I had a whole new understanding of the material that was way more invaluable from studying java the previous semester. First time taking his exams at this time as well and he basically makes his real ones the same flavor as the practice exams (because they're all old exams). Naturally he makes the final harder and a little more different but it can be done. 132 was my favorite semester at UMD and nelson was a HUGE part of it. Made me happy to be a CS Major. 216: Ok so i had to retake after fucking it up the semester before with Herman. Most of what I said about 132 can be repeated here as well. Old exams follow the same style as the ones he gives you. The projects, yes are daunting and make you stress a little bit but with a little tenacity it can be done. he made 216 a lot easier for me after Herman ruined it for me. 389N: It's my most favorite class of the semester. Despite the time its taught in the mornings any class with Nelson is a blast and this class is his "child" so to speak. It's web dev which is right up my alley and his passion as well. The first exam was really really (and i mean really) easy. And the projects i can finish in a matter of 2-3 days depending on how much time i spend on them. Unless Nelson offers more classes or teaches more in the upper levels this will most likely be my last semester with him as a teacher :( It was well worth it all three times. He makes you proud to be a CS major.

Nelson Padua-Perez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
01/25/2018

Amazing

Nelson Padua-Perez
CMSC389N

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/14/2017

This is my third time having Nelson as my CS professor (I had him for cmsc131 and cmsc216), and he's growing on me. He makes so many weird/painful jokes in class which makes it difficult for me to focus, but also keeps me awake so that's good haha. CMSC389N was an alright elective. Midterms were easy as hell and the final probably will be too, but there's a ton of written code required. We had a group project where we had to use php/html, javascript, and bootstrap and that was actually pretty neat and a good group learning experience. This is a great class for anyone looking to get into php/javascript and web app platforms, or databases. I ended up despising web dev this semester, but it was a good experience to learn some php/html, JS/JQuery, and SQL in case I have to use it in the future... plus Nelson is a laugh, haha. Good luck!

Reviews for CMSC389N