| Information | Review |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/22/2024 |
Pros: - Great lectures and slides. - Projects 1 and 2 are easy and fun. Projects 3 and 4 are very hard as we have to add additional features to Berkeley's codebase, but they are very useful for real-life applications. Cons: - Required attendance through clicker questions. - Lectures are not recorded. - Does not post answers for the midterm + doesn't post the questions nor answers of the final after they are graded. - Flipped classroom (you have to read the textbook and take a quiz on readings of concepts we have never learned in class. These quizzes are quite difficult but only count for 5% of your grade). - Not enough practice questions for the midterm and final (the only practice material is the reading quizzes). - Really low curve. The midterm median grade was curved to ~83%, and the final grade to 72.7%. The final could have been curved more, considering it counted for 35% of your grade. No other curves other than midterm & final. My main problem with this class: The textbook readings are very time-intensive and difficult, with very little learning occurring. They were overall a massive waste of time. Professor Abadi should flip the ordering of the reading quizzes to be done after we cover those concepts in class. Also, the lectures were a big waste of time. I could have learned much more in less time if they were recorded so I could watch them at home at 2x speed and hit pause. Easy to zone out during lectures. Verdict: CMSC424 is a very useful class for software engineering. Definitely take the class. If you're stuck with Professor Abadi, you'll still learn the course content well, but you could probably optimize your time & grade better with another professor. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2024 |
I think some of the reviews are being a bit unfair to him, and I'd say he strikes a good balance between making the course useful and challenging without the experience becoming completely demoralizing. The reading quizzes were often pretty difficult, and require a strong understanding of the fairly dry textbook readings. But they were a small percentage of our overall grade, so as long as you consistently tried on them, it wasn't going to impact your grade that much. I still think the quizzes were useful to tease the concepts that would be taught in class. They were also helpful in keeping me on track with the course material throughout the semester (which I presume was the point of creating them). His lectures are not the most engaging by any means, but they were still helpful in clearing up things I didn't understand from the reading quizzes. In addition, almost every lecture had graded clicker questions, which were annoying at times, but I have to admit that they helped me stay focused in lecture. The projects were not easy, but still pretty manageable and I didn't think any of them were excessively long or difficult. For the last two projects I do think some instructions were a bit barebones, and I would have saved some time if they were more clear. The exams were relatively hard and raw scores were low (averages in 50-60s), but they were both curved enough that class averages were reasonable (~85% on the midterm and ~75% on the final). He was also nice in rounding up students' grades that were near cutoffs at the end of the semester. The course content was pretty interesting and you will learn a decent amount about databases from it. The structure and material of this class forced me to take ownership of my learning. But it's clear he didn't design this course to fail a bunch of students nor did he make the class so difficult to understand that it prevented us getting anything out of it. If you're at least mildly interested in databases I'd recommend taking the course with him. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/20/2024 |
Taking 424 with Professor Abadi has been an experience. Not very pleasant at all and I do not recommend it. As a person, he is very approachable and kind but the way he teaches this class is an absolute nightmare. - Quizzes on textbook chapters graded for accuracy that are very hard and confusing before going over any of the content in class. - Lecture quizzes that are also graded for accuracy and hard - Projects straight from hell with how confusing it is - Brutal exams even after the curve. Partial credit is offered but many of the questions are short answer and partial isn't given there. Curve does not really help. - Poor communication as the ELMS page is dead and Piazza doesn't have any reminders. Rather everything is done through an email list. - Not enough study material for the exams and doesn't post the answer key for the exam that you took In summary Professor Abadi's 424 is not an experience that I recommend to anyone who values their GPA and mental health. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/19/2024 |
I'd say others are too critical of him... homeworks were fine and exams were challengingly fun. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Anonymous 12/16/2024 |
Sigh.... Where do I even begin? This class has been the biggest pain in my side all semester, and may be the reason why I need to take an extra semester to graduate. Professor Abadi himself isn't a bad guy at all-- he's kind and understanding, and his lectures aren't that bad, but all those things mean nothing if he plans on purposely giving students constant stress and headaches with his class. Here's a list of reasons why I personally hated every second of being in this class (and why you may as well): - He assigns textbook readings to learn class content before he teaches it in lecture. I have never once agreed that this is a good way to teach any course, ever. - He assigns reading quizzes before class and lecture quizzes during class, both of which are graded for ACCURACY. So essentially if you found anything in the textbook confusing on any given night you can forget about getting your participation points that day. - His projects are wayyyyyyyyy too complicated. The first project on basic queries should have been clear and straightforward, since we were only about 2 weeks into SQL at that point, yet all of the queries were something the lines of: "create a query to find passengers between the ages of 16 to 44 who took flights with American Airlines in January or Delta in May where the passengers also flew with at least 3 other passenger above the age of 60 that normally fly with an airline other than Delta or American" (students will vouch that this isn't much of an exaggeration). Don't get me started on the B+ tree project, it was easily the most unnecessary information overload I've ever had to deal with. If I ever want to feel the feeling of being completely and utterly overwhelmed again, I'm just gonna read over that project again. - He purposely makes his tests hard (and tells you). He claims it's because he cares about you and that there will be a curve and that we shouldn't worry about our grades too much, so I walked out of our midterm thinking I got a B+ after a decent attempt and ended up getting a 63 after a 15 point curve. He also claimed that he tried to design it to give as much partial credit as possible, but I got all 0's on a series of 8 short answer questions that didn't even have options for partial credit. - He doesn't post announcements on ELMS for critical information, nor basically anywhere for that matter. He has a piazza, but not often will you find a helpful disclaimer or reminder that is clearly marked. Don't take this course with Abadi, and if you do, you better hope you aren't signed up for any other difficult courses, or you will be pulling hairs out of your head all semester. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/14/2024 |
I'm not sure why this guy designs his class so that people score low on everything. He says that there will be a curve, but studying for an exam which you know has intentionally been designed to trip you up and have an average score of a 60 is so demoralizing and takes the interest out of any of the material. This could've been a fun and cool course, but instead you're focused on memorizing every single detail from the genuine 600 pages of content from the textbook that is on the exam. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/14/2024 |
The projects and the content of the course are very interesting; I think Abadi does a good job of making sure you know the material (as long as you put in the normal amount of effort to learn course content) through his reading quiz questions and projects. However, he is not a very good lecturer. Definitely knowledgeable about the topics. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/12/2024 |
such a hard class for no reason, 100% wait for another semester to take it with a different professor. this course would be interesting otherwise |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/11/2024 |
Very good course overall. Abadi is a good guy and cares about his students. The midterm and final are moderately difficult, but slightly curved depending on if the class doesn't do poorly on them. Projects are not easy so start early, and go to office hours because the TAs are awesome. He has a required reading and reading quiz before most classes which is annoying, and attendance to class is mandatory which he checks with in class quizzes. Not the easiest of classes, not the hardest either, and you get a lot out of it. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/11/2024 |
This class is so ridiculously hard for no reason |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Anonymous 12/11/2024 |
He's probably the smartest professor at this school and his credentials speak for his itself, but this does not mean that he's a good professor at all. He expects all of his students to catch up with his level of understanding, and this means that the reading quizzes cover niche edge cases that are not even covered in the textbook. He genuinely enjoys creating hard questions on the exams (he will smile and giggle in class going "I really enjoyed this one"), and the material is genuinely so difficult and dense to go through. This class used to be easy and fun with Herve, but it is my hardest class this semester despite going through it for stat420!!! |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2024 |
Super nice guy and a really great teacher. His version of this class is fairly demanding; a (usually challenging) reading quiz due before every lecture, in class clicker questions, 4 pretty difficult projects, and some of the most difficult exams i've ever taken. I found the textbook for this class to be a slog to get through, especially towards the end of the semester when the material gets very complicated. Nonetheless, the professor is an extemely knowledgeable and effective teacher, so if you're even somewhat interested in the subject you will probably like this class. If you find you have no interest whatsoever . . . you'll hate it. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/03/2024 |
I think we need to find a better way to teach students than just buying a textbook and reading off the textbook all the time. It's also a very very boring textbook and I think the author is trying to be the most boring they can be. There's also discrepancies between the slideshows and the textbook. The last two projects took way longer than they should have just because you have to look around to understand all of the surrounding code and the project description does a very poor job of giving context. So really, I spent more time reading and trying to understand code I didn't write than actually implementing the algorithms in class. Finally, I think the reading quizzes could be improved upon, I know they require extra thinking, but if that's the case maybe they should have two attempts each with the attempts showing what you missed. The point is to learn some material before coming to class, instead, it feels like time wasted after reading the boring textbook for 2 hours and getting a 50%. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/11/2024 |
He's really knowledgeable about databases and his topics, but he is the type of professor to enjoy creating hard exams and projects. When reviewing his exam where the average score was very low (he also said several times in class that the exam was "not trivial" with a smug smile every time), he seemed proud of the toughest questions that he concocted. I think this course has traditionally been on the easier side, but I'm not sure what happened here. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A+ juiceman 08/26/2023 |
1. Did you find the exams and major assignments fair? · The reading quizzes are connected to the readings, but some questions can be tricky and require close attention. · Clicker questions are free as long as someone provides a reasonable justification during class. · The midterm exam was fair. The final exam was challenging but had a significant curve (20%). · The projects were manageable, taking about 10 hours each. The last two projects are based on Berkeley's database class and require understanding the existing codebase before applying class concepts. · The breakdown was projects (32%), midterm (20%), final (32%), clickers (8%), and reading quizzes (8%). — 2. Did you feel the professor had reasonable expectations for the students in the course overall? · Yes. There were reading quizzes almost every week. Clicker questions were challenging but thought-provoking. Exams were reasonable. Participating during class and answering non-trivial questions was expected. Fair application of what we cover in the textbook and class. — 3. Did you like the professor's teaching style? · I enjoyed the professor's teaching style as he provided clear guidance on how to prepare for and succeed in the course. · He offered ample practice problems, gave advice on studying for exams, and emphasized hands-on practice. The midterm heavily focused on the projects. · What I particularly enjoyed was the professor's dedication to creating a positive classroom culture. He made an effort to personalize interactions by remembering and using our names. He encouraged questions and fostered discussions. It was evident that he cared deeply about the subject matter and his students. His enthusiasm was reflected in his attire as well, as he wore a suit to every class. Very caring. — 4. Was the workload appropriate for the number of credits? · The workload was appropriate but slightly heavy, considering 17 reading quizzes (approximately 1.5 hours each), 4 projects (each taking 10 hours), and 2 exams (requiring 10 hours of study each). — 5. Was this course valuable or a waste of time? · This course is highly valuable, especially for those interested in software engineering and data science/machine learning. Interacting with databases is a crucial skill in various careers. He emphasized making 424 practical rather than overly theoretical. · The first half of course covers advanced SQL, ER diagrams, schemas, normalization, and database building components. The second half focuses on theoretical aspects, considering memory constraints and algorithm costs. Cost considerations of queries was one of my favorite topics. B-trees are a significant topic as well. · Projects 3 and 4 provide excellent practice working with large existing codebases. · The TA's (Pooja, Cuong) contribute to the positive learning experience. — 6. How much support did you receive throughout the semester (office hours, extra resources, etc.)? · Four hours of TA office hours were available each week, and the TAs were responsive to Piazza and willing to provide assistance with code privately. · The professor had office hours by appointment (after class) and was always willing to explain clicker and reading quiz questions. · He offered a bonus project to raise project grades and had a generous project late penalty. · Three reading quizzes and three clickers were dropped. · While the professor sometimes spoke quickly and didn't record classes, the classroom culture, energy, and support were excellent. Attendance was required. — 7. TLDR Weekly reading quizzes, clicker questions, mandatory attendance, relevant concepts, fair projects and exams, exceptionally caring and intelligent professor who encourages participation during class. Decent workload, but this is my favorite CS class at UMD. I highly recommend it with Abadi. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/29/2023 |
Incredibly knowledgeable about databases. Great lecturer, projects and weekly quizzes are difficult but you get all the help needed. Definitely recommend! |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/20/2023 |
Enjoyed this class with Dr Abadi. You will learn a fair amount about SQL and using DBMS properly, but even more about the in depth technical details of designing databases. The first half of the class is straightforward and fun, learning about writing SQL queries and E/R models. Midterm was pretty easy if you paid attention. The material gets very very difficult towards the end of the semester. Reading quizzes get hard as the semester goes on. The projects become very time consuming and somewhat confusing as well. As always, if you start early, they are doable. Final was egregiously hard, but Dr Abadi informed us that there was a mistake made regarding the difficulty level. A quite substantial curve was provided on the final exam. Overall, would recommend, but be ready for a moderately heavy workload at times. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC624 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/07/2022 |
Abadi is the best professor I ever had and he's also the smartest person I ever seen. The lectures are very engaging and he asks a lot of non-trivial questions. Projects and homeworks are not easy, but they are well organized and you can learn a lot from them. You can tell he cares about students and the material he taught. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC624 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/15/2022 |
Abadi is the best lecturer I have had at UMD, he is extremely passionate about the material and very good at explaining topics. He goes at a very fast pace but I was always able to follow along and learned more from this class than any other. Course material and exam was very difficult but if you care more about learning than grades you will really enjoy his class. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC624 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/25/2022 |
Abadi is a genius about databases. The material was difficult and he asked questions to challenge us. The midterm was very hard but he provided a generous curve. Try to participate in class (ask questions, answer his challenge questions, demonstrate you read the papers, etc.) and you will do well. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Anonymous 07/08/2019 |
Pros: Nice guy Lenient grader Listens to student's concerns Easy and fun material in the beginning Cons: Extremely boring lecturer The class material is extremely boring for the most part Towards the end of the semester the material becomes very difficult |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2018 |
Good Professor, kinda boring to listen to during lectures but the material is interesting. Willing to listen to students about concerns with the class and will actually do something to address these issues. Exams are pretty hard though, but he curves them enough. |
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Daniel Abadi
CMSC424 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/02/2018 |
Really nice and lenient grader. Exams aren't too hard |