HACS208E | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Ian Serbin HACS208E Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2025	This man was infuriating. He could not teach, and it seemed like his approach to lectures was just "wing it." For the lecture about using gdb, he spent at least a full hour of class fumbling around in his terminal, populating endless error messages. During this full hour, the class was forced to blankly stare at him muttering frustrations under his breath, trying to figure out how gdb worked... we had no choice, as our lab that week required us to learn what he was supposed to be teaching. Over the course of the 3 hour class, he never figured it out. While he did release a video later in the week, he never apologized for wasting all of our time. This wasn't the first time something like that happened, too. Earlier in the semester, he needed a student to walk him through how to allocate memory in c. Again, we watched and stared as he struggled to get his demo working. His teaching style in general was also not great. He never looked up for questions, so you had to shout it out if you wanted it to be answered. As for the course itself, it was pretty difficult. Labs in the beginning were fine, but they got exponentially harder as the semester went on. This is expected, of course, but I don't think the content level in lecture accurately reflected this increase. It was easy to see how lecture examples could be somewhat related to the lab each week, but Ian's explanations were not clear enough to really help with the lab. In addition, the final for this class is terrible... really terrible. Nothing we've been taught really prepared us for this. Sure, we know how to use the tools, but the strategy to complete the final was completely different from any other the whole semester. All in all, take this class if you're willing to figure out hard labs on your own. While Ian did offer some office hours and answered questions through email, there was always a long wait for hard labs and he was not super responsive. This is mostly a figure it out yourself class. Also, the 216 prereq was removed this year, but if you have not taken CMSC216 yet, I would not recommend.
Aaron Hertz HACS208E Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/14/2024	Well taught class, but really hard and intense workload for an elective. I struggled significantly in this class and balancing it with my other classes. Hardest class in ACES LLP but definitely the most useful.
Aaron Hertz HACS208E Expecting an A Anonymous 05/10/2024	Class is at most half lecture, and the rest is time to do and get help on the weekly lab. If you actually use the time to do the lab, you're chilling outside of class. As for the dude himself he is clearly knowledgeable and passionate about what he does. He is also very responsive and willing to help students. Would recommend taking this seminar.

Ian Serbin
HACS208E

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/11/2025

This man was infuriating. He could not teach, and it seemed like his approach to lectures was just "wing it." For the lecture about using gdb, he spent at least a full hour of class fumbling around in his terminal, populating endless error messages. During this full hour, the class was forced to blankly stare at him muttering frustrations under his breath, trying to figure out how gdb worked... we had no choice, as our lab that week required us to learn what he was supposed to be teaching. Over the course of the 3 hour class, he never figured it out. While he did release a video later in the week, he never apologized for wasting all of our time. This wasn't the first time something like that happened, too. Earlier in the semester, he needed a student to walk him through how to allocate memory in c. Again, we watched and stared as he struggled to get his demo working. His teaching style in general was also not great. He never looked up for questions, so you had to shout it out if you wanted it to be answered. As for the course itself, it was pretty difficult. Labs in the beginning were fine, but they got exponentially harder as the semester went on. This is expected, of course, but I don't think the content level in lecture accurately reflected this increase. It was easy to see how lecture examples could be somewhat related to the lab each week, but Ian's explanations were not clear enough to really help with the lab. In addition, the final for this class is terrible... really terrible. Nothing we've been taught really prepared us for this. Sure, we know how to use the tools, but the strategy to complete the final was completely different from any other the whole semester. All in all, take this class if you're willing to figure out hard labs on your own. While Ian did offer some office hours and answered questions through email, there was always a long wait for hard labs and he was not super responsive. This is mostly a figure it out yourself class. Also, the 216 prereq was removed this year, but if you have not taken CMSC216 yet, I would not recommend.

Aaron Hertz
HACS208E

Expecting a B-
Anonymous
05/14/2024

Well taught class, but really hard and intense workload for an elective. I struggled significantly in this class and balancing it with my other classes. Hardest class in ACES LLP but definitely the most useful.

Aaron Hertz
HACS208E

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/10/2024

Class is at most half lecture, and the rest is time to do and get help on the weekly lab. If you actually use the time to do the lab, you're chilling outside of class. As for the dude himself he is clearly knowledgeable and passionate about what he does. He is also very responsive and willing to help students. Would recommend taking this seminar.

Reviews for HACS208E