Evan Golub

This professor has taught: CMSC131, CMSC131H, CMSC250, CMSC250H, CMSC351, CMSC388L, CMSC388Y, CMSC433, CMSC434, HDCC106, HDCC208F, HDCC208N, HDCC209C, HDCC209D, IMDM127, IMDM290, IMDM490, IMDM491

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Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2024	I took this class Fall 2023. I'm personally really interested in HCI, so I attended every lecture and participated frequently. Maybe it was because I was so interested in the material, but I genuinely thought Golub was a good lecturer. He did his best to make things interesting and regularly engaged with students. He's a bit old-fashioned and some of his material looks outdated so I'm not sure if I truly learned about HCI as well as I could've, but to me it was an easy A and a chill class. The group project does take some effort depending on the platform you choose and your group members, and there was one part of it that was graded somewhat harshly. But everything else was straightforward and the exams were easy, so if you do well on these you should do grade-wise. Out of all the 400-level CS classes I've taken, this was by far the easiest.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/16/2024	I dont know why people give him terrible reviews. For 434, he was pretty good. I barely attended his lectures, but this class seemed quite interesting. Has a pretty cool psychological aspect and relates to the real world in a way we don't usually realize. The class is structured about 40% exams, 40% semester long group project, and 10% attendance. Roughly. The exams are all very very easy. I studied the day before only by just going through his practice questions he posted and I got A's on all of them. The semester long project is not that bad if you have a good group. I luckily had a group that knew what they were doing and could code in kotlin so they carried me. The reason I got a C is because I didn't do much on the project so when your groupmates decide after each project phase how much each person did, I got a bad review. Golub is a pretty chill professor.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/15/2024	I took CMSC434 with Golub this semester, which is probably a lot better to take with him than most classes (especially 351 or 250, that would've sucked). He wasn't by any means an outstanding professor, but he wasn't the worst that I have had either. He teaches reasonably, uses slides and posts the slide decks to ELMS. He made us participate by discussing with groups throughout the lecture, but participation wasn't worth a whole lot. As a grader, he came off as a bit nit-picky at times, but seemed reasonably understanding about giving extensions here and there. He can be heavy on semantics which can be a bit annoying at times. As for the class itself, 434 is a really interesting course that is rather unorthodox compared to most CS courses, and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. The class persists around things that seem to be common sense, but goes into plenty of detail. If you try to keep an open mind and think in depth about how the course knowledge would apply to some kind of software, you should be able to understand the course content easily. However, the structure of the class is also unorthodox, in that it surrounds a semester-long group project. This project is not consistently just coding, and is spaced out well that you should be fine as long as you and your group are dedicated. At times, Golub's grading can hurt you in this project if you aren't careful, so be diligent and read through all of the project requirements in depth. The class project is 46% of your grade, and the tests are 44%. There are four tests (including the final, however the final is not really a final and is worth the same percentage as the other three exams). The tests are where my biggest complaints are. They are entirely open ended, often 5 questions with an average of 2-4 subparts, totaling in around 15 or so paragraphs on average that you have to write. BY HAND! I had less hand cramps during the English section of the SAT, it really sucked. However, I was able to do generally well on the tests because the questions themselves were not hard as long as you studied. There were a couple exams where I ran out of time without being able to complete all of the questions. In summary: nice dude, can be a bit annoying with grading, project is extensive and sometimes hard, tests suck but not that hard. Overall: interesting class with a decent professor and okay execution.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/12/2024	Horrible professor that doesn't know how to teach. Just tells stories all class that have nothing to do with the exam. Grading on projects is harsh and subjective and descriptions are very vague. It's an easy class but it's an overall headache.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/30/2024	He has four exams (including the final) that all contain lots of writing. The material is easy you just have to memorize terms before the exam. I rarely went to class because he lectures about random things. He does do some in class assignments so you will have to go to some classes. There is one big project throughout the semester that has lots of parts. His description for the project is so long and confusing and when you ask him questions he answers in a even more confusing way. He does answer quickly though. He gets three stars because there is lots of work for the class and the project descriptions are so long and hard to understand
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/30/2024	this is an EASY class. that being said, the topics are very important to know and the material is... alright. minus two huge stars because this is a group project class with some of the worst, poorly designed assignments. class material is extremely disorganized as a loose circle of long ass google docs. at least he releases a bunch of review questions before every exam which makes studying for them trivial. exams are kinda easy. YOU CANT BULLSHIT THEM, JUST GO OVER THE REVIEW QUESTIONS AND YOURE FINE. overall? good curriculum, decent lecturer, easy exams, and god awful yoon-tier project structure. the projects themselves are easy but figuring out what the fuck the project is is a harder task than the project itself
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B- Nigerian 04/11/2024	If I can save just one person—just one person from enduring this professor—then I have at least achieved something during my time in this class. I'm literally in class right now writing this review, and I'm telling you, if you want an A in this class, it's going to cost you either your sanity, morals, and most importantly, your time. The biggest portion of the class involves working on a group project, but be prepared to spend all your time on it, enduring the professor's critiques and constant demands for revisions. I built an aesthetic project, and that wasn't enough for him. When I asked him about the project rubric, he told me not to focus on making a good project. After I presented iteration after iteration, this professor proceeded to tell me why everything I did was wrong. I spent almost 40 hours on the project, and nothing I did was good enough. As for the exams, I studied extensively, yet I didn't perform well. The questions are straightforward, but your descriptions must be highly accurate to earn a decent grade. I'm taking CMSC430, and my grade in that class is almost 15% higher than in this one. This has truly been a terrible experience, and there are few people in my life I would wish this dreadful experience upon. Please avoid this professor. THIS IS NOT AN EASY A.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Anonymous 01/05/2024	One of the best CS professors I ever had! He is very enthusiastic about the class and is engaged with our work, inside and outside of class. He provides quick feedback and tries to give as many examples as he can in class. Exams reflect the review guides he provides, so they are very easy!
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2023	for someone whose class is about making things easy for users to deal with, his class materials and resources are extremely convoluted and counterintuitive. projects are super long and important details are hidden in walls of text. his slides are super antiquated, long, and messy. however, if you try on the projects the exams come easy and you should get a good grade.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a C Anonymous 09/18/2023	I know I'm not one to talk since I got a C lol but also he is not that bad as many of the other reviews state he is. He's a nice guy and we had no quizzes in discussions which meant the majority of the grade fell on the exams. Others are right where he is pretty particular with how he wants you to write and his style, but literally if you go to class and pay attention you will be completely fine. It is easy enough to study for his exams since he posts his slides and also provides practice problems. Sometimes he will even mention in class if a problem similar to the one he is giving is going to be on the exam. I had a B+, and A- throughout but I flunked the final because I treated it like another one of his exams (which I feel isn't a bad thing). So if you're debating another professor, sure Golub does put more emphasis on exams, but it's so much more free with less work to do I would take it any day over Klien with weekly quizzes.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 08/03/2023	Very inconsistent grading along with test making up a large percentage of class grade
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B PacerTest 07/10/2023	One of the worst professors I've ever taken. To start off, his project descriptions are just one full page of text that's impossible to get any important information out of. Furthermore, the project guidelines are the most ambiguous and abstract guidelines I've ever seen. There are no examples to follow so it feels like you're always in fear of losing a ton of points. It's more than likely that you will do the assignment correctly but because of the confusing nature of the project descriptions, you will miss a few things that you needed to do. The purpose of organizing the project descriptions this way isn't to make it easy to do the assignment but instead, so Golub can have a valid excuse he takes enormous points off your assignment when you inevitably miss something. (I am talking about 25%+ for minor mistakes). The second grip with this the professor, is his complete hatred of rubrics. If he had a rubric for his projects there it would be significantly more clear what he is looking for but since there is no rubric, no criteria to follow, and no examples of what he wants, you're basically going in blind and trying to follow the project descriptions as closely as possible. This would be fine if his grading wasn't so specific. There are things that he is specifically looking for but they won't be mentioned anywhere except for a passing sentence in the slides and are mentioned so quickly in the giant text of the project description. You'll have no idea what he wants until you get back your grades. Thirdly, this might seem subjective but I am being completely honest when I say he is inconsistent with his grading. It's clear he picking and choosing points to take off and to keep on without reason. Two individuals could submit the same work and would get two entirely different results. Golub will take off different amounts of points for two individuals for entirely different reasons. It could be the same reason he will take off different amounts of points too. It's not even clear if he's doing this out of favoritism. And don't even bother trying to argue with him, since there's no rubric, there's nothing you can fight him on to get the points back. He'll come up with every excuse imaginable and sometimes even contradict himself in the process. Fourthly, his classes are boring and irrelevant to the projects. He will spend hours on side tangents that have nothing to do with Human-Computer Interaction and won't even relate it back to the main topic. It's like he just wants to talk about it to show he is knowledgeable in that area. There are also attendance points discussed as participation points. They are given out at random so you basically have to come every day. His classes regularly go over the end of class and you always have to sit 5-7 minutes after when you're supposed to leave so he can wrap up class. You won't learn anything attending his classes and if you spend the entire class time on your phone, you wouldn't miss anything. Next, he is using way too many platforms. His slides and assignment on elms, we have to check our grades on the CS grade sever, he has his own website and to discuss our assignment with him on a separate Slack sever with 20 different channels. It's way too confusing and convoluted and he needs to condense the platforms he's using. Finally, towards the end of the course when other professors were wrapping up their courses to prepare for the final, Golub was still teaching new information. We had 3 midterms and 1 final exam and he was still teaching crucial new material that was going to be on the exam, one day before the final exam. He has no time management skills and even worst explanation skills. Overall, the class wasn't that hard, but the professor and his project descriptions were definitely the worst parts.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/04/2023	I have never taken a class so disorganized during my time at UMD. There were so many problems with his class that it’s amazing he’s still teaching. My biggest complaint is his project/assignment descriptions. It’s literally a giant blob of text with instructions scattered throughout the page. This almost guarantees that you will miss something and he will take off an unreasonable amount of points off. Then because there’s is no rubric, there’s no way to fight for any points back because there’s nothing you can say. It’s either you did it how he wanted or you didn’t. And best believe he’s not consistent with his grading. Another thing is he is doing too much. He uses slack, his own website and the UMD grade sever to distribute the assignments, grade them and give feedback. But he does this ALL ON DIFFERENT PLATFORMS. He could easily solve this by using just canvas, which he has set up but refuses to use all of it’s features. The result is you will have to juggle between 4 different websites just to do one assignment. Overall, if it was possible I would give him 0 stars.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/26/2023	A decent lecturer. Make sure you learn the proof syntax and do practice problems and you'll be fine. HW assignments were chill and the exams were pretty much the same as the HW and practice problems.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2023	His assignments are the worst thing you will see at UMD. It's just one long piece of text where the things you need to do are scattered completely everywhere throughout the page. There's also no rubric, no examples, or any criteria you're supposed to follow. It's completely arbitrary the number of points he takes off or what he considers important. You could literally have the assignment page next to you and complete all the steps one by one and he would still find something wrong. The man has no time management skills. HE WAS STILL TEACHING NEW MATERIAL TWO DAYS BEFORE THE FINAL, and that material was going to be on the final. Also, class regularly went over by 5-7 minutes minimum. No structure, no time management, and arbitrary grading. GL
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2023	His 434 assignments are impossible to do correctly. All of his assignments are just one long page full of text and the most important parts of the assignment are scattered throughout the page so you have to read through the whole page just to figure out what to do. He doesn't have a Canvas grading page so you're basically guessing how much each assignment is worth and you don't even know what your current grade is in the class until the end. The grading page he does have doesn't have the weights inputted so it's basically useless. His grading is completely subjective and arbitrary. There is no rubric, examples, or even criteria that you can follow. Two people could submit the exact same work and get completely different grades for completely different reasons. (This actually happened!) Also, since he has no rubric he can take off as many points as he needs to, to make sure his class average stays a C.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a B- kathleenMiles 05/21/2023	He was the third choice out of three professors for CMSC 250, after Kline and Justin. Would I have taken Kline or Justin if I could? Of course. But I had to keep moving forward, and so I do not regret taking Golub this semester. If the professor is bad enough, some people skip taking the class that semester entirely. But Golub does not warrant such drastic action. Golub was bad as expected, but manageably bad. He is very inefficient and slow, and his lectures are incredibly boring. However, you absolutely must attend his lectures. He does not record his lectures and he fills out his slides during lecture. He forgets to upload the filled out versions of his slides on his badly-designed, ugly website. That means his slides online are pretty much useless. The man claims to be an expert in human-computer interaction, yet you can only wonder at how ancient his HTML and CSS skills are when looking at his badly designed website and weird divisions and course structure. Golub cannot lecture, but however he is an incredible teacher when approached one-on-one. So my recommendation is to go to his personal office hours, which surprisingly nobody ever went to during my course. He also replies very fast to email, which is nice. Another good thing about Golub is that he teaches exactly what you need to know for his exams. If you can learn to do things in exactly the way that he wants things, you will be fine.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/19/2023	Solid professor and class. He provided a good amount of practice material and the exams were fair. Having the course be 88% exams is pretty tough though.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2023	Golub is a genuinely underrated professor. Going into his class, I was genuinely worried because 250 is considered a hard class, and Golub's reviews weren't exactly anything to write home about. That's why I was so pleasantly surprised when he actually turned out to be a great instructor. He very clearly explains concepts in lecture, and it's very easy to understand them. My only gripe with his teaching style is that he sometimes gets off-topic, going off on a tangent that's only vaguely related to the topic at hand. Still, Golub is a good instructor and deserves a lot of credit for making 250 easily understandable. Golub's exams are very straightforward. His exams aren't deliberately meant to be confusing or tricky. Although he does not provide practice exams, he does provide practice problems that are pretty similar to what are on the exams. Unfortunately, he only provides answers to some of the practice problems, but the TAs also go over them in discussion before exams, which is super helpful. Homework assignments aren't anything too tedious, and they're honestly pretty similar to what you'll find on the exams. Overall, Golub is a very underrated professor and, at least for 250, I'd strongly recommend taking it with him.
Evan Golub CMSC250 DenialWhammy 05/10/2023	The class is relatively simple for anyone with a background in math. Didn't go to lecture after realizing how simple the content was. However, I'm giving Golub 3 stars because the proofs are heavily reliant on proper syntax, so even if you get the right idea, you'll be docked points if you don't do it the way he does it. Find a way to do every problem he can give you, and copy it word-for-word, so you can throw it back during exams.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a C Anonymous 05/08/2023	Professor Golub thinks his project descriptions are like poetry or something, but he's not a poet and he just ends up making such a sloppy mess out of them that it feels like reading them is an assignment all on its own. The environment of the class completely revolved around his dislikeable centric personality. My group felt particularly terrorized in the sense that he seemed to be creating a climate of fear and instability all for the sake of flexing his perceived authority of the course topics. To expand on that, it's scary that he feels obliged to give some teams an F, and when he gives us the most abstract, ambiguous project guidelines I've ever seen in my entire life, with no examples of how we're supposed to follow them, it makes the grading feel completely unstable and up to chance. He seems oblivious to the possibility that there may be students in his class who have no experience in web development, or students with ADHD who can't sift through all his totally unstructured rules and instructions randomly spread across ELMS, lecture notes, and his personal website. Does he just think they're born to never succeed in his class and there's nothing anyone can do about it? Plus, his lectures are littered with irrelevant trivia about himself and his interests, which leaves behind an unsatisfying taste. He did express that he genuinely wants the best for his students, and I think there is some truth in that, but he clearly is too disconnected from the needs and desires of an average student to follow through on that. In a nutshell, professor Golub does way too much for an intro to UI class and he clearly can't comfortably handle everything he puts on his plate, which creates a vicious cycle where he lashes out by adapting an aggressive, unrealistic grading method to make himself feel comfortable again, and then his restored ego makes him inclined to put in even more effort. The feel of the class is sloppy and disconnected and is without a doubt the most unpleasant experience I've had in any class at UMD. I feel like all the problems with the course are reflections of outstanding issues in professor Golub's character. We have already observed how fundamentally attached he is to his problematic methods, so I don't see any direct ways to improve the course besides either re-educating his teaching strategy or terminating him. Would give 0 stars if possible.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/05/2023	Entirely grades on his opinion and is super biased. TERRIBLE experience taking this class still have no idea how he has a job.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a B Anonymous 04/03/2023	Entirely invalidating proofs on exams due to minor mistakes at the beginning of proofs and destroying exam grade.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 02/22/2023	The "postive" reviews are all tainted, Golub has no life he is a text book example of a hoarder with absolutely no life. He goes above an beyond to make sure that the class remains at a C average. This monster will destroy your GPA and then some. Either don't take 434 or find a professor like HuaIshu Peng to take it who is a young cool dude who actually trusts his students and has a chill class where you actually learn something and can take exams AT HOME ON ELMS (NOT LOCKDOWN BROWSER). Golub has no business teaching, he his the Judas of academia!
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/21/2023	This is a really good class and professor.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2022	Reviews saying he grades on his opinion are pretty spot on. Gets decently rude in comments on the term project, but grades light(ish). Exams are very easy, and course is overall light except craming the coding portion of the project in mid semester. Can be frustrating though.
Evan Golub IMDM127 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/10/2022	There's nothing in particular that makes this a terrible class it's just he explains concepts confusingly. The slides help more than the actual lectures sometimes and for questions he kind of drones on before giving an answer.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/21/2022	I took this course in Spring 2021 Pros: + The inclusion of three midterms and a final in this course means that, even if your group is not doing well, you still have chances to increase your individual grade + For each exam, Golub provides a list of relevant topics along with practice questions to help prepare + Golub himself is very knowledgable about HCI, and is more than happy to answer any question regarding it Cons: - The inclusion of three midterms and a final in this course means that this course is probably significantly more work than you are anticipating - The course is largely based off of a group project, so if you don't like your randomly assigned group, good luck lol - Lectures are largely pointless, technical concepts are not important until exam time - For the group project of designing an app, the help provided by Golub and the TAs is largely design based. If your team is having technical roadblocks, they are, frankly, of little help. - Especially if you're having technical issues, the timeframe to create the actual technical application can very much feel like not enough time
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/17/2022	He is horrible Professor, his grading is based on his opinion. He is a complete d*** and doesn't listen to reason. He has no business teaching and has destroyed my GPA. STAY FAR AWAY!!!!!
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/04/2022	Very great professor. In my top 5 for sure. I find his lectures engaging and entertaining. Just make sure you get a good group for the semester-long project. If you get a group that will actually do their work, this is a very easy class.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Anonymous 03/03/2022	Lectures are pointless, avoid this class if you wanted an easy CMSC course, the professor turns what should have been an easy class into a very frustrating experiance.
Evan Golub Anonymous 12/20/2021	I just want to say that I asked this dude a question during his office hours about an algorithm. He gave me a vague af answer and when I tried to followup and ask for clarification he told me he "didn't want to argue with me" and told me to leave and stop emailing him. This was extremely surprising to me because not just as a professor, but also as a scholar and a researcher, he should have been more open to discussion about computer science in my opinion, but clearly I was wrong. Looking at the other reviews here, it seems like I'm not the only one who thinks he is too vague and weird toward his students.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/20/2021	The class is basically one big group project. One of my group members dropped the class, but I don't think he took that into account. Some of the others said it best. His assignment descriptions can be wordy and vague making it hard to figure out what EXACTLY needs to be included for a good grade. The class just felt frustrating overall
Evan Golub CMSC434 Anonymous 05/04/2021	Was thinking this would be a fun course to take during my last semester as the thought of working on 1 single large project sounded fun, I was wrong. Lectures are very clear, everything else isn't really much so. The course has very vague descriptions of what was to be expected of the student and when grades are released, there is generally no explanation as to why points were removed. You end up not being to fight for points back since there no rubric. You essentially either did what he wanted or didn't, but he didn't tell you, so hopefully you guessed right. The assignments are graded based off personal bias and any attempts to put a creative twist leads to point reduction. I don't understand how a interface design class could be so close minded. Concepts can be applied in different ways. Considering all the concepts taught from lecture, he really need to redesign the course project and assignment descriptions and grading system as I'd rate them as a level 4 on severity because their catastrophic problems. I don't dislike Golub as a person, I however do dislike him as a professor.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Anonymous 02/23/2021	Super nitpicky/strange grading, can be frustrating as it feels like he's desperate to lower the class average. Would honestly prefer a down curve instead.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/12/2021	I had Professor Golub for CMSC434. The biggest weakness from the course is the lack of directions and the grading. A lot of the assignments that are given have very vague instructions, so it can be frustrating to see the feedback when you never knew that you were suppose to include something. However, the class is not really that difficult. The most important thing is making sure that you have a good group because a majority of your grade will rely on the assignments that you complete as a team. I would recommend to take this class in the same section as a few of your friends so that you will at least know who you are working with and that they will contribute equally.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/28/2020	The course is fairly interesting, simple, and mostly theory/definition based. Golub is very engaged in the course and answers questions quickly but his assignment descriptions are vague and because of that, he grades harshly if he feels like a group/student did not follow what he wants (even though it wasn't really specified in the description.) If you go over the Panopto lectures (which are divided into small video sections) and work well as a team, you should be fine. Ask Golub questions if you are doubting anything because of his description vagueness.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/16/2020	Avoid taking this course with Golub at all costs. Grading is based purely on his opinion, which is impossible to predict. Project descriptions are absolutely useless. You put in a lot of work and are not rewarded.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/19/2020	The professor is nice, but the lectures are kinda boring. You don't really need to go to class, especially when they are zoom meetings. The grading of the exams seems strict to me. The average of the exams is also lower than I expected. The group project really takes some amount of time, if you have bad teammates then good luck on dealing with them.
Evan Golub HDCC106 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/04/2020	I had Professor Golub for the DCC Prototyping class. The class itself was interesting, in my opinion. However, the professor spent a lot of time going on tangents, so at some points it took us a long time to get through the material, or it was hard to pay attention to it. The projects themselves were fun, but I think they were somewhat repetitive. The professor was nice and liked talking to the students, especially in a smaller class like this, so that was a nice environment. Overall, I would recommend the class, even if it can be boring at some times.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting a P Anonymous 05/07/2020	Lectures are a complete waste of time, except for the participation points. The material he plans to cover in class, on paper, looks to be interesting, but he completely butchers every topic with long anecdotes, and extreme bias.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/28/2020	He's a good person, but an okay teacher. He lectures every class, but rarely stays on topic. If you know basic Java already you are probably better off taking his class because it will be so easy and minimal work. He does clickers, but it is really just for attendance. So you will have to show up to his class, but do nothing in it. His exams are tough-ish. Its more because he likes to test on the stuff he said once.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2019	I had Golub for 131 and 351. I disliked him for 131, as I was just learning CS and his lectures were very rambling and not very useful. His slides are not that great when he has them, so you really have to pay attention. Despite these complaints I did learn stuff in his lecturers and I think I got the correct grades for the amount of work I put in. For 351 he was great mainly because he was much easier than Kruskal. His tests were very fair in that class and were very similar to the homeworks and lectures. I would recommend Golub for upper level courses, but maybe avoid him for earlier courses, as his non-sequiturs can be really frustrating when you are first learning certain concepts.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/01/2019	I thought he was fine for 131. Lectures aren't great, frequently goes off-topic. Kind during office hours. If you have prior programming expierence you'll be fine. If you don't then develop a hand in Java before starting 131.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/13/2018	I had to take Evan Golub for CMSC131 because I am international student and the seats for Fawzi Emad (Best CS Prof) were full. Its pretty much the same as his other negative reviews for 131 where his lectures are boring and off-topic, doesn't help you prepare for the exam, weird grading criteria, stupid clickers, laughs at his own jokes!!
Evan Golub Anonymous 12/01/2018	confirmed bad
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/12/2018	Golub talks a lot during lecture without having a lot of information on the slides themselves. The most crucial information you will learn is what he writes down during class. However, he will not post those notes online, so you can't miss any classes. If you show up to class and take down his notes, you will most likely be successful. Every once in a while, he will post example solutions on the course website - take advantage of them because he will most likely ask a similar question on his midterms. He has many homework and practice questions, but never posts the answers. So make sure that you compare answers with other people before the midterms. Study groups are key since you will never be provided with homework answers. If you go over every practice question and every homework, you will be adequately prepared for the midterms. The midterms are simple compared to the practice questions - just make sure you read the instructions carefully because Golub often asks that you only set up the question and not solve it. He isn't the greatest lecturer, but he will teach you enough to succeed in your class.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2018	Had him for 131 and 434 and I learned that he is good in teaching non coding classes. I hated him so much for 131 but really liked him for 434. He was so organized in 434. Lectures were still boring but they were informative. Project descriptions were extremely well organized. In 434 there is a big group project. If you follow all of his directions, you should get a good grade in class.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Anonymous 05/08/2018	AVOID HIM IF YOU CAN, worst professor ever, you barely learn, exams get a tad harder near the end of course, and the clicker quizzes were so pointless and literally the only reason I bothered to show up to his lectures. Anyone I took to watch his lectures with me all said that it was the worst lecture they'd ever been to, one of them chose Kruskal over him for his 351 class after he watched in on my 131 lectures.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a C Anonymous 04/17/2018	I had him for 131 and did not learn a single thing except how is made world a better place, how is a influential person in many things. He should not be teaching 131 at all. This class needs a person who actually teaches.
Evan Golub CMSC434 Anonymous 01/24/2018	Golub is, well, Golub. This class is fun, but he can really make things serious about the designs and implementations. Design mocks required hours of effort (in a team), but were kinda satisfying in the end. It's a pretty chill class, but I don't recommend skipping too many classes - he seems to love random pop quizzes. Tests were pretty much right off the slides, and the homeworks were just 1-2 page question and answer things. If you take this course, be prepared to spend some time out of class for the project. Designing something in Android can take hours to make look pretty.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/02/2018	Taught me all I needed to know, he had no surprises on his tests and was a great resource when I had concerns about my grade. I failed the first test (like 20%), studied my butt off for the next 2 and the final and ended up with a B.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 12/14/2016	Wow.... Where to start with this monster of person. Not only does he have the most dry sense of humor but it's like he's allergic to teaching in general and avoids it at all fucking costs... IT'S YOUR DAMN JOB MAN don't tell us stories about some bullshit NASA stuff you made up and how people were just begging to use your code. We get it... comment our code yeesh just teach the damn class. The only reason I plan to get a relatively high mark is because I taught myself out of class... I have 100% on all of the projects and labs but shit grades on the exams. Wanna know why??? well i'll tell you... THE MAN DOESN'T TEACH YOU WHAT HE ASKS ON THE EXAM.... although there could just be a situation we may never considered about his case. He could be a savant and only understand coding and can't comprehend how to interact with other humans or do his job... If that's the case I'm sorry for my tone
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 10/31/2016	Golub was a terrible professor. It was extraordinarily difficult to pay attention in his class because he talked about the material in such a fluffy way. There was no concrete information on the slides, and the copies that he put online were half complete and didn't show the work he wrote in class. Also, he refused to put full solutions to homework and thought questions online, which made it very difficult to study by myself. Overall, I was extremely unhappy with how little I felt I learned from this course. You need a professor who can teach the material much more clearly and in a concrete way, not one where he blabs for half the class. I also don't feel that I learned at all how to apply the knowledge I learned from this class to anything I would see outside of this class. He was also very strict and not willing to be accommodating of student concerns for the most part.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/03/2016	Basically if you're the type of person that's pretty good with computers and knows his stuff, and goes to lecture, this guy is for you. I've had 11 years of computer programming experience since elementary school, so I found this class to be far too easy. But I don't think he's a bad professor. He asks questions to make sure people are involved, and he gives hints on what might be on quizzes, etc. Basically, he says to study daily, and YOU SHOULD. I studied C++ in middle school on my own, so these concepts are familiar to me. Also, review the quizzes for the tests. If you have questions, try to go to his office hours to ask a question. But to be honest, he won't help nor will the TA really help. You really have to figure out what's wrong with your program yourself. Once you get to JUnit Tests, make sure to write little junit tests for each method as you go along. That will help a lot. With your JUnit tests, you can figure out what's wrong easily unlike the submit server's JUnit tests.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Anonymous 05/17/2015	He was a horrible professor. He talked about himself the entire class and what you needed to know and why you needed to know it, but would never actually teach you how to do it. His exams were long and difficult and if you need 20 seconds to finish a line of code he will scream his head off and literally rip the exam from your hand. He does not teach the material and leaves it up to the TA. So if your TA sucks good luck in the class. I never learned a thing from his class even though I attended lecture, reviewed daily, and bought the book. Whatever you do, do not take this exam.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Anonymous 05/12/2015	AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Worst professor I have ever encountered. Lectures are the most pointless waste of time(I went to everyone) where he spends time going off on tangents that have nothing to do with computer science. Extremely harsh grader when comes to projects and tests. Due to the snow he attempted to cram every project into the semester, the last being due in a week as we also have finals to study for. If you have zero experience in Computer Science avoid. The tests are tough and so are the projects expect to put a lot of time into this class. He must enjoy wording the most complex questions into exams. Dont be mistaken if you have learned anything by the end of this class its because of your TA or the people you decided to work with, how Golub has a job here is astonishing. He gives you study questions that, guess what, have no real impact on tests and quizzes :). Dont believe any of the reviews that rate him from years ago as they do not reflect Golub's terrible teaching strategy. Not to mention his condescending attitude when faced with question, prepare to be spoken to like a baby. As an intro course designed for people new to Computer Science courses the workload was by far too heavy his expectations are flawed for students. AVOID AT ALL COSTS
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a C Anonymous 03/29/2015	By far the worst teacher I've ever had in my entire life. First off his lectures are terrible. You don't learn a thing from them. He just talks about life experiences and why you need to know something but he never actually teaches it to you. He's so self conceited you'd think the class was named GLUB131. All he talks about is himself. Impossible to pay attention through the stories in his lectures so when he does actually say something related to the class, you're not paying attention to it. He is BATSHIT insane. Would literally rip students tests out of their hands and yell at them at the top of his lungs for finishing a line of code on tests seconds after he said stop writing. Least personable and reasonable person I've met in my life. Comes off as if he hates all of his students. I received a 77.954 average after putting in more work for this class than any other by far and he wouldn't give me the C+ for the class. DO NOT take this class even if it is the absolute last option. You'll regret it. Golub is just the worst candidate for a teacher. I have no clue who hired him with his psychological brain, but he needs to be fired. Doesn't help a soul being there.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a F+ The_Golub 01/30/2015	Imagine the first day of class. As you embark on your journey through the mystifying complex universe of computer science, you have no idea what to expect. You could be dealing with the unforeseen; singularities caused by Eclipse phenomenons, encounters with fierce, atrocious bugs on the submit server, or even bang you head on your very own $800 laptop as you scream at the ambiguous results of the release tests! A toilet bowl of intellectual thoughts flurries around your noggin; there could be computers, video games, cameras, programming, computers, flying cellphones, virtual pinball and more! Then all of a sudden. BAM! Golub's hairstyle is crazy – he’s like the Yoda of comp sci. Don't underestimate his powers. As soon as you walk through the door, the surrounding air temperature drops 30 degrees as you witness the epitome of the human race. A majestic white haired dude strides across the lecture hall and spreads his arms openly– with a devilish grin on his face – so fast you could have blinked and missed the moment of a lifetime. (I strongly advise bringing a camera to savor the moment) Golub E., or professionally known as “Evan de Golub”, is a retired super villain who now only uses his powers for forces of good….. for students of the CMSC major at the University of Maryland. He wears a silk vest every day - except on every other Friday. However, I personally felt like when he wasn't wearing the vest his lectures were more interesting and remained on topic. (Escalating theories in the scientific community that this very vest may have been part of his original super villain costume - and retains faint traces of pure evil.) His vest is swaggy doe. Props to him. Although his receding hairline may fool you upon first glance, he has a magnificent pony tail and has the full-fledged back-head experience. But keep in mind he is no Lebron James. Golub is an extremely young person – his hair is only grey from an abundance of knowledge and sagacious wisdom he has accumulated throughout his career. (One, of course, which would take the average man many lifetimes to equal.) Golub is a young warrior, holding years of experience computer sciencing, playing wacky poker in the devious back rooms of mobster hideouts, taking photographs of people’s feet and farm animals, and executing simulations of the mass genocide of pond fishies. But don’t let me spoil the extravagant, Oscar-worthy backstory though. Let the Golub himself reveal it to you through his eloquent novel-worthy lectures which leave you hanging on an epic, thrilling cliff hanger after each 51 minute session. But don’t worry my fellow Golub-goers, he always comes back the next week to continue the story almost where he left off, even after he has given tests that were not on the future topics he touched in the lectures – but on the stuff you should’ve KNOWN ALL ALONG FROM THE START. Damn, this guy practically wrote Inception. (Before Christopher Nolan bought the rights to it.) Anyway, at first his lectures might seem pointless, spontaneous, random, unconnected, irrelevant, boring, and really confusing - but don’t let that fool you. In each session there is a small ten second topic that will become a pivotal test question somewhere down the road. Trust me. All of the spontaneous, random, unconnected, irrelevant, boring, and really confusing tangents he goes on are actually tests, testing the mental capacity of all 140 stude– I mean 45 students who bother to show up- in search for a new padawan. So if you want the prestigious position of “Golub padawan” on your resume, it’s best you sign up right now and claim your first row seat. I strongly advise not bringing a computer to his lecture – this only distracts you from the true Golub-glorified experience. His signature hand gestures during his elegant lectures engage full houses of students – from all over the world- elevating them to the balls of their feet as he tells witty jokes that no one listens to. Seriously, one time someone almost let out a giggle and the whole universe practically collapsed inward upon itself and imploded. I suggest bringing the classic pen and notepad – which were the slim-lined computers Golub himself used when growing up in college – not those vintage clay tablets developed by the Mayans. (They’re too intricate for the average man!) No matter which type of device you plan to bring, always stare at it and never make eye contact with the master while he speaks – this is a sign of challenge, an instinct Golub has picked up from his years chillin with lions and tigers and preforming weird combos to their portraits. Golub is a man with an infinite bag of tricks – did you know he was bilingual? Early on he’ll amaze you with a programming project that no only asks you to prompt the user in English, but also in SPANISH?!!?! hhhhoooooowwwWWHHHHAAAAAAA?!!?!?! This man is a genius. You’ll soon learn the concept of accounting for different cultural values and measurement systems because Golub exposes the flaws of NASA and unit conversions. During his reign as supervillain, Golub encountered the forces of NASA and recollects how the US measurement of distance was different that Europe’s system, causing the NASA probe to crash (wasting the hundreds of millions of dollars Golub could have used for world domination). He references this story at least once every week, which now in hindsight, I think was a reoccurring subliminal message for comp sci students: don’t trust NASA. Not only will you embark on pointless, unnecessary projects while other classes are sticking closer to reality, Golub will personally teach you the secrets to his mischievous trade of the wacky poker underground. His wacky poker project seemed too wacky for my taste, but then again, I was never playing a high stakes poker game with 300 zoo animals on the line. Golub is truly a modern superhero. When I took this class I never expected to learn essential life skills including: what Rwanda’s flag looks like in 3 bit-resolution, how to do calculus in Martianese notation, how to program, or even the science behind a fish pond exploiting the true concepts of Darwinism. But now I know, and I shall hold on to these precious gifts dearly as I move on with my life. If you have been missing a real Bill Nye the science guy in your life, then this is the opportunity of a life time. Golub is a golden star, which luckily this review system can represent for future generations yet to come. 1st out of 5 stars Would take again…… And audit too if forced by gunpoint.
Evan Golub CamelCase 01/20/2015	Unfortunately, Professor Golub is a decidedly average instructor/lecturer. He's not at all clear about his expectations, and is condescending to the point where it seems one of his primary goals is to leave you feeling inferior to him. Questions about the subject matter are often met with replies that don't answer the question, and his expectations for students are arbitrary and unequal. This is reflected in communications with him both in person and via email (and unfortunately he's not very responsive over email either).
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/11/2014	Terrible professor. Avoid at all costs for your own sanity. The people who give him good reviews are the students that already know everything there is to know about computer science and find his jokes and stories amusing. He spends sometimes up to half of the class telling stories about things he used to do in previous coding jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with the material you are learning, then gives you quizzes on the same material. If you are even somewhat of a visual learner that needs to see how things work, do not take Golub. He explains everything using stupid metaphors that he finds helpful and almost never shows actual code in java. Exams are not very similar to the study question posted. As someone below me said, he definitely leaves core topics to the TA's and barely teaches anything in class. So if you have a bad TA, you are in a terrible position.
Evan Golub CMSC250 Expecting a C wonderful_wonton 05/18/2014	His lectures are good but he's very self-absorbed, biased and will passive aggressively undermine students he doesn't like. He wastes lecture time on repeatedly describing his past exploits catching proofing errors in other people's work, but then leaves core topics for TAs to teach in discussion. Too few exercises & worked problems overall. Pedantic, with heavy focus on empty formalism. He starves his course without adequate worked problems, especially since he places so much emphasis on extremely formal procedural steps. You often can't tell if you got points off because of some formal expression nicety you didn't follow or because your whole proof was wrong. It's difficult to learn well when you have only a couple of examples for each core topic to work off. If he didn't leave so much core teaching to his TAs, the discussion sections could be used for more exemplars and working of problems, but as it is there is inadequate work. He compensates for this all by having limited coverage of topics and never gets to graphs at all. All he really cares about (obsesses over) is formulaic formalism, it seems. Yet, he hands out a lot of A's simply because students who want to memorize off the few worked examples you get and the limited coverage his course provides can do well in his classes. The people who have it worst are those who want to do their own work (not get solutions from other people) and not memorize problem-solving. The average students who do well in his class are ones who band together and pool their resources to create a set of solved problems. What they are doing in effect is compensating for how he starves his course for worked problems and exercises. His personal biases and prejudices against individual students comes across strongly at times in the classroom, like when he snaps impatiently at a student he clearly thinks is a fool. Personality and appearance-wise, he's rather like that character in the Simpsons who runs the comic book store.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting an A chromebeast 04/10/2013	Horrible Professor. I've taken 115 credits of classes, and this professor is honestly the most incredibly lackluster and astoundingly nitpicky professor I have ever seen. The first lab was a total disaster, Golub cannot plan logistically at all. He tried to have over 100 students download eclipse at the same time to complete failure. This was then supplemented by him blaming the students for this failure, and making the due date for the first lab the next morning (this was considered "being nice") I submitted the project the next AFTERNOON, to which Golub was apparently physically incapable of giving me any points for. So there you have it! If you want a teacher who will fail you three days into the class for his own complete incomptence with logistical issues, this is the man for you! I've aced every other assignment he's ever assigned (taken the class in HS), but for your average student, this teacher should be avoided like the plague. Emad is way better, sat in on his lectures, and Emad is much more entertaining/worth going to lecture for.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Anonymous 11/26/2011	I took 131 with very little prior programming experience (I took a god-awful class in Java when I was a senior in high school). Regardless, Golub's exceptional style of teaching not only drilled all the fundamentals securely into my mind, but also sparked a passion for programming in me. He does NOT read off slides; he does NOT drone on the entire lecture. (We all know a professor like that!) He buttresses every concept he covers with fantastic analogies, anecdotes from his own impressive career, and examples of practical implications. He takes clicker polls, which may annoy some, but which I found helpful; they motivate you to attend all lectures (which you should anyway) and they help you commit the more important points in a lecture to memory. His quizzes are perfectly fair as are his projects. His project descriptions are especially great - visually appealing, lucid, and not too wordy. He is not as quick with email responses as some other professors, but he is alright. And he always welcomes questions before/after lecture and at office hours. He is a very approachable individual who gives students' questions a good amount of consideration. I have nothing negative to say about him! Look elsewhere in this page for vicious criticisms (LIES, I TELL YOU! haha). TIPS: Sit closer to the front; it'll help you pay attention, participate, and be entertained. Manage your time well in the exams.
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/08/2011	Dr. Golub has received a few negative reviews, but I disagree with them. Sure, he's a bit on the crazy side(good crazy), but that's par for the course in college-level science courses, especially in the UMD Computer Science dept(according to friends of mine who are Comsci seniors). Dr. Golub's teaching style in CMSC131 regularly includes real-world examples and previews of things to come in future CMSC courses. Dr. Golub and his TAs this semester kept a very wide amount of office hours(26 Office hours/week for our course, in addition to the 5 50-minute inclass hours each week). You likely will not need the textbook if you're paying attention in class. Grading wise, the 2 tests had 105 points but graded out of 100(5 point curve). For our class, the median on the 1st test was 79, and the 2nd test was 80. In addition he dropped the lowest quiz and the lowest lab grade. Grading for this course was pretty lenient, and it is very possible to earn a little over 100% in the course. I can't comment on how effective he is at teaching as I took this course with a decent amount of prior knowledge of the material. On the course webpage, we had access to study questions and answers for each week, the powerpoint slides, project descriptions, and some code examples. The study questions and answers are very helpful in preparing for quizzes and tests, and pretty much all you need to study from. The slides were pretty much a skeleton of what's covered in class, and were not much help if you had to miss a class or 2. Project descriptions were clear about what was and wasn't allowed in a certain project, and how to obtain the maximum points. I can't comment on the code examples as I didn't look at them often.
Evan Golub Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2011	I am an engineering major and I found this class to be ridiculously easy. It is by far the easiest CORE class. There were 5 projects and the lowest grade I got on them was a 95. He gives step by step directions so its really easy to finish them. The last graded project was to create webpages which was the most fun and useful thing we did in class. His class is really boring and hard to stay up in. But he has clicker questions for attendance, so I tried to be there as much as possible. He assigned two papers which I completely BS-ed and got an A on both. For the exams, I looked at all the lecture notes (which he posts online) and I got A's on the exams. If you are good with computers or are an engineering major, definitely take this class. It is an easy A. Just make sure to take you laptop to class or have other stuff to do because its the most boring class ever!
Evan Golub CMSC131 Expecting an A- atloud 12/19/2010	Golub was an okay teacher. His lectures were pretty boring and not always helpful, but he was very approachable and always willing to help. The quizzes were very difficult however. Fawzi Emad is the better option for CMSC131 and 132.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Anonymous 07/03/2010	This guy is the worst, one of the worst professors ever. Don't pay attention to any of the good reviews, they come from people who got good grades because of his "curve", who studied in groups and did the homework in groups. His curve only benefits people who do well on his exams. Yeah...this class is easy if you study really hard everyday, attend every lecture, studying in a group, ask questions about everything, and pay attention to every little detail Otherwise if you don't do ALL of those things you won't get a good grade, now that's what an easy class is. You are technically not allowed to work together on homeworks but I'm guessing the good reviewers who studied in groups did anyway. You basically have to study in groups or be very good at algorithm theory in order to get a good grade
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/23/2010	I don't know what the deal is with what ALMOST EVERYONE told me but this class has been fairly easy. One thing to note about this class (which is perhaps why I found it easy) is that the material that you learn is actually extremely relevant to the field of computer science. If you tackle the material with that attitude you're bound to do much better in the class. I have had internship interview questions based on material learned in the class -- so learn the material any way that you can! The only thing about Golub's class is that you need to be in lecture. You need to learn how he wants all of the problems' solutions to be set up -- exactly the way he does them in class. Do your best on homework and try to imitate his examples in lecture to get the best grade. Also, definitely do the thought questions -- get a study group. I can't stress this tip enough. His exams seemed to be based much more on the thought questions than the homework questions (how convenient..) -- and if you've done the thought questions, you're bound to ace the exam. Go to office hours if you are confused about something. He actually is very helpful in office hours (not necessarily in class), just make sure that you have notes from class because the first thing some of the TA's and Golub sometimes asks is "okay, well lets look at your notes." If you do miss a class make sure to get the notes from someone else. If you miss some classes you can still get away with an awesome grade, but if you miss even a single one of the classes where he discusses critical material, you're grade will drop like a rock unless you have access to someone else's notes. All three of our midterms were pick 4 out of 5 questions. It was not this way in the past semesters (not for all 3 exams anyway) so don't bank on it, but it did make the class a hell of a lot easier. He also tells you he weighs grading as follows: 17% per exam, 14% homeworks+quizzes+projects, 35% final. For us, he changed it to 12% lowest midterm, 17% middle midterm, 22% best midterm, and for the homework section (which totalled 150 pts), he took the score out of 125 instead. He also seems to curve exams arbitrarily..but everyone else has already touched on how he curves. Our first exam was taken out of 88 points, our second was 95, and third 97 or so. I would have expected a much higher curve for the second exam, which makes me wonder where he gets his numbers from (the 12 point curve on the first exam was unnecessarily high, but I'm not going to complain). Also, the book is unnecessary. I would have given him 4 stars but if you try to ask him questions right after an exam even if it's unrelated, he will yell at you. He is also very condescending sometimes. Even if you have a legitimate question he will cut you off and say "I'm not answering those questions right now" or "I can't solve new problems for you right now" or "that's not relevant to the topic" even if a) it's a general conceptual question, b) you're not asking him to solve a new question, and c) it is relevant to the topic. Golub many times (not always) assumes that his students are idiots and comes off as being extremely mean and as someone else has said, his head can be very far up his ass. Finally, when you're taking a test, make sure to get your question across if you have a legitimate question. Many times the TA's too (and Golub) may think you're fishing for the answer even when you're not. This has happened so many times it makes me want to smack them and tell them to listen to my damn question before cutting me off. You're basically on your own. Also I don't know what the other people are smoking who gave him 5 stars. I ended up with ~99.5% (so it's not like I'm biased against or bitter about his grading) in the class and I still think he was not a very "patient" and "approachable" and friendly guy who cared for his students...
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2010	I don't see where the hatred stems from. All the negative reviews about this guy and all the complaints about how ridiculously tough the material is - is complete bullshit. I am by no means, a top student. I merely got a B in CMSC250, and that was with a curve. I found this class to be somewhat enjoyable and predictable in terms of what would be on the exam. I agree with the guy below me, form study groups. Most of the "lone warriors" ended up failing the course, or barely passing with a C. If you honestly go to all lectures, office hours, and do all the homework problems and thought questions intuitively, then you have no problems getting a B or higher. The guy was nice enough to curve exams (although randomly and not by much) and drop 25 hw points. Verdict: Go to every class, attend office hours if you sincerely get stuck, form a productive study group, and do ALL the homework and thought questions. Assuming you aren't the type to choke during exams, you should net a relatively A or B.
Evan Golub CMSC351 sashah 05/18/2010	This course is pretty easy in my opinion. Especially if you found cmsc250 easy, this one is similar. However, the professor himself is a total loser and a-hole. First of all, he thinks he's the smartest person alive, talking about how he can do pretty much any proof alive and how him and his friends go around cracking systems. He will tell you countless stories every class about how he outsmarted one thing or another. It's funny one kid told me about how we should do a drinking game where everyone takes a shot whenever he boasts about himself. Of course, all professors have some ego but that is not why he's a terrible professor. He can be excessively rude and repressive during lecture and office hours, up to the point where he will yell at you if you ask a question he finds trivial. Personally, I went to his office hours once to explain how he did a certain proof, and he yelled at me, "okay you are not doing this the way i mentioned in class, you have to pay attention!" Forget about even asking any tangential questions, because he will automatically shoot down anything that's not related to the topic at hand. His default response: "we're not talking about that. see me in office hours." Also if you approach him with your own problem and ask him to solve it, he refuses to do so out of concern that others won't get a chance to see the solution. As other people have mentioned, he does not post up lecture notes or worked out examples, so you must attend class or get notes from someone else. the only good thing i have to say about the class is that his exams are reasonable and predictable; there is very little deviation from his homework and thought questions. Also, he is generous in that he allows you to answer 4 out of 5 questions and curves each exam score. I was able to coast through this course with an easy A, but I still hated the professor.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Anonymous 05/04/2010	Okay number one if your major is computer science you should be expecting hard courses. The teacher is a great teacher, provides plenty of extra help and if you DO NOT wait until the day of the exam you can get plenty of help. He will explain something as many times as necessary until you completely comprehend the topic. He does not post his in class notes online because he wants to encourage student to attend class and once again if you are a computer science major you should not be looking for the easy way out. The class takes place in the afternoon so there is no excuse to not attend class. His Homework’s are fairy difficult however, if you email him or seek help during his office hours he will provide you plenty of help and clues. His test can be Extremely hard or Extremely Fair, it’s all based on how much you have actually learned. It is not impossible to get an A in his class. Also, he is very patient, approachable and does not make you feel stupid for not understanding a topic. Also, he cares about his students!!!! I would recommend him to other students.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/04/2010	Such a lovely person. He's always so nice and smiling to you whenever you talk to him. He made such a amazing adjustment for the percentage distribution to try to help the class. He has a unique way of encouraging students to go to his class and office hours, yet it's really helping people to understand and learn the material. Didn't really appreciate what he did in the beginning of the semester but now I understand why and am truly grateful. Unlike some of the CS professor, he's friendly and approachable. People whoever don't want to make any effort and slack off but still hope to pass better not take his class.
Evan Golub CMSC351 snooki 03/31/2010	This guy's head is so far up his own ass that he can see out his mouth. He has made 351 to fail you. This is one of those courses where you will have to come to his office hours or the TA's office hours if you want to actually learn anything. If you do show up for office hours, don't expect to get help for about an hour because EVERYBODY ELSE is also trying to get help. Good luck. His slides are absolutely useless. For whatever reason, he does not post his written examples online. Make sure to take good notes. He will do examples in class on his fancy shmancy Tablet PC, but not post them afterwards. He posts extra assignments and examples online, but again, he does not post solutions. Same deal with the homework: NO SOLUTIONS ARE POSTED EVER. This alone makes the course hell for the math illiterate. You want to learn from examples and build up your confidence, but you can't because you have NOTHING to work off of. Exams are generally based off the homework and his "thought questions," the extra problems he posts online without solutions. Don't expect any extra help with those exams because he doesn't post sample exams. (If he did, they probably would come without solutions. So useful.) Of course, how he expects you to master some of theses proofs after one or two examples is beyond me. His exam grading policy is the worst. If you get a problem wrong, you will lose almost all the points if you don't lose them all. Don't expect points for effort. You can write out an elaborate proof and get maybe a couple of points for it. And then his "curving" system... Since he's all into his mathematics, he "curves" by dividing your exam grade by a decimal he magically calculated or pulled out of his ass which is now also his mouth. Now your simple arithmetic abilities should tell you this is an issue. If you got a 100 on the exam with a curve of .90, you'll enjoy an extra 11 points. If you're the unfortunate guy that only got say a 50 on the exam, you get a mere 5 extra points. So if you do well on an exam, you get an extra boost. If you're already failing, expect to be failing even more. The rich only get richer in his world. This guy always talks about how he's "clever" yet he doesn't do a damn thing to endow his students with his "clever"-ness. This guy is incompetent as a teacher. Just dodge him for your own sanity.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting a ? Anonymous 03/26/2010	This is the worst professor ever The book does not cover the material on the exams The slides also do not cover the material on the exams All of his posted examples are either half of the problem or very unclear and vague All of the most important real work he does in class on a note pad for a few minutes but he never posts these notes online on the slides at all, instead he just assumes you get it You are not allowed to study together on homeworks or use notes from online This makes this class nearly impossible to study for Overall, one of the worst experiences so far
Evan Golub Expecting an A- a3ng25 12/17/2009	He's enthusiastic about what he's teaching... but that doesn't make it less boring. The course is for non majors...so don't expect coding. The hardest thing you'll do code wise is probably a basic cascading style sheet for an html page. You learn about email... and file transfers...and html...and spreadsheets...sound fun yet? 20% of the first test grade was on dates like when the first mac graphical os came out... or when the microsoft mouse came out... and the dates are one digit apart... things like that made this course ridiculous. I'd never take it again and never suggest it to a friend.
Evan Golub Clover89 12/17/2009	The first half of class is pretty easy. I am not great with computers, but I got an A on the first exam and the first 3 projects. Then things get harder, and his notes are not that helpful, so I just looked stuff up and didn't use his notes. In class, a good way to stay awake is to play GOLUB BINGO. Under the G, put "blows his nose". Under the O, put "Tells a story about the inaugration". Under the L, put "Tells a story about an East German spy." Under the U, put "Talks about his sister, who is in law school." Under the B, put "Mentions the New York Times". If you get all 5 in one class, you WIN GOLUB BINGO! YEAH!! Note: You may win very, very often.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting an A- blackshellbowser 05/26/2009	Oh Golub... His lecture notes aren't the best in the world. He'll show how to do a proof on his Tablet PC...but not post those notes online. Sure it discourages the class-skippers but what about those who actually take notes and need to review them? He might have the occasional "generic" proof posted online but thats about it. His exams are painful but doable. The biggest thing is reviewing all those homework/thought questions he gives and manipulating them. Practice practice practice! One of Golub's bright spots: He'll happily answer "any" questions in class. If you missed something in the examples he does, he'll gladly go over it again until you get it. Please don't be asking "what-ifs". He often cut you off. He does curve the exams. Often it's drop a question and add a few points. With the final exam, he'll give you about 12 questions and you only have to do 8 of them. They are grouped into sections...like a section of three questions, a section of two questions, etc. Overall Golub does know his material very well..but he's quite arrogant about it. He can be helpful but his teaching methods are questionable. And yes, he doesn't give much partial credit.
Evan Golub Anonymous 05/22/2009	If you're a journalism major and do not know a whole lot about computers, do not take this class with Golub. The lectures are boring, his notes are awful, and overall he is an absolute nut job.
Evan Golub Expecting an A dk12 04/19/2009	He is probably the most boring lecturer I ever had. He cannot teach at all and just so painfully boring. If you take the class with him, you better be good at UNIX. That being said the class itself was pretty easy for me. I am an Electrical Engineering major and I found this to be the easiest class I have ever taken through out my academic career. I got above 100's on all 8 projects with curve/extra credit. Exams were really long and was not able to finish in 45 minutes, but he curved them anyway. The final for the class was the easiest test I have ever had. It was all html coding/trivial question about html and I found it really easy. I even finished it in 15 minutes and got above a 100. On the other hand a lot of other people found the class hard because they never was exposed programming or not used to UNIX. But if your some one like me and your in engineering you probably will find this class really really easy.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Anonymous 01/22/2009	As bad as the CS department professors are I would say Golub is the worst. To start, his lecture notes are very bad. He hand writes his lecture notes on his tablet PC during lecture and says these will be online. The bad thing is that he works through a problem in class and doesn't put that work online. This is no help at all. He post thought questions which are supposed to be sample like questions but he posts no answers or ideas about how to go about approaching them. You never really know for sure if you are even close to getting the right answer. His exams are extremely hard. He does not have sample exams because as he says at the beginning semester "He never really thought they were helpful". Are you kidding??? If a question is worth 20 points you will only receive around 4 points for work if you are wrong. There is so much more to say about this guys teaching that is bad. The sad thing is that in the past 4 or 5 semesters he is the only professor teaching 351 during the fall and spring so you are pretty much forced to take him. I think it is better to take this class during the summer with someone else in my opinion!!!!
Evan Golub CMSC351 nd4speed348 12/17/2008	As previously stated, Golub isn't the greatest professor the CS department has to offer, more like one of the worst I've had. As others said, he knows the material, but you never will. Algorithms aren't for everyone, but he will make you regret taking the class in the first place. His notes are USELESS, and I mean utterly, supremely pointless. He will give examples in class that are on the slides, yet he leaves out the actual answer. He uses a tablet PC to do most of the lectures, writing in the answers to questions as he goes along. He fails to keep those handwritten items in what he posts. His homeworks are difficult and you really have to take them head-first. He doesn't post any practice exams, etc... NO answers posted to HW's, NO answers posted to his "thought questions", NOTHING. So if you don't go to lecture, you will have no reference as to how to do the work. Despite all of this, office hours with him help a lot, but he still doesn't want to give you the answers to anything.
Evan Golub Expecting a B osykes 12/10/2008	I would have had an A if i hadn't screwed up submitting one of the projects. This class is not easy if you are unfamiliar with Unix and have no real computer background. I found myself trying to do a simple command for hours. His project directions are extremely vague. I am a journalism major and took this class thinking it would be easy. Definitely DO NOT take this class with Golub if your looking for an easy A. A's are possible, but not fun to get. Lectures are boring as hell and are mandatory for good grade because of clickers. Overall he is nice, but just a bad teacher.
Evan Golub Expecting a B Anonymous 12/04/2008	Golub is a terrible lecturer who is extremely hard to follow. The first few weeks of lecture youll learn that taking notes is impossible and pointless (he posts notes online.) Going to lecture is pretty much pointless except to get attendance points via clickers, afterwards you would be best served to leave. The class consists of three exams which are 15 percent of your grade, 7 projects all worth 3-7 percent, attendance/scheduled in class discussions, and one monster of a final exam worth 27 percent. The projects are just step by step instructions that take anywhere from 1-3 hours. You work with UNIX command lines (yes, in an intro class), HTML code, spreadsheets, and a few other things. the exams are pretty tough, but if you study you can definitely pull off a B. Im pretty good with computers and had experience with HTML, but the class was still confusing. Had to take this for journalism requirements, but avoid it if you can.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Anonymous 05/20/2008	His lectures are okay, but his examples can be a bit hard to follow. It's not difficult to do well in his class, but some of his exam questions are overly difficult and can be vague in terms of what he is really asking. No quizzes. Were assigned eight homeworks throughout the semester. Homeworks aren't too bad and are actually useful as a couple of homework questions were asked to me in job interviews. He is very helpful during office hours and will go out of your way to explain things to you before and after class. Make sure to do all of his "thought questions" and alter some of his homework questions to study for his exams.
Evan Golub CMSC351 MadVillain 05/18/2008	Golub is a guy who seems to mean well, but his flaws are pretty serious. For one his grading methodology is questionable at best. If you read the syllabus he claims to curve each assignment...but his curving method is random and mathematically suspect. For example, on one exam we were told to divide our scores by .8. The problem with this curve is it gives MORE of a curve to people with higher grades...seeming to violate the point of a curve. Another time he gave everyone in the class 5 extra points as a "curve" but admitted that he had not yet calculated the average. He will intermittently claim that he has to "recheck his formulas for final grades"...so basically he leaves your grade as one of his thought questions. I finished the final for class yesterday, so the final grades aren't up yet, but it will be interesting to see what he does. I know kids who are brilliant and very knowledgeable about the material who currently have Bs. Then there are the exams which give little to no partial credit, and somehow expect you to answer questions based on information that he doesn't give you. For example, when he says "use the quantified definition" somehow in Golub-speak this means "use the quantified definition using an inductive proof"...the later part being a crucial piece of information I wish I had. His class is set up like a discussion. He gives you limited notes, and then you work out the details in class. This looks good on paper...but the problem is all those damn smart-ass CS kids who want to show off instead of letting everyone else learn. They'll derail him and let him think he can gloss over the details because everyone gets it already. Don't let him get away with this, shy people! Also, because his notes were so sparse and I'm a bad note-taker, I was affected negatively by his teaching style, but not everyone will have a problem with this. If you want to do well in this class, you HAVE to come to class. His notes aren't going to help you. Trust me, come to this one. Also, see him in office hours if you can. This is kind of irritating to me, because this isn't feasible for everyone, but unless you have prior knowledge of the material, you're going to want to get extra hours with him to clarify some of his vague details (especially towards the end of the semester when the algorithms get weirder). Ask questions in class! He's more than happy to answer them. Also, submit regrades even if you have the slightest question about your exam. He will sometimes expect answers for questions he doesn't ask, and you can get those points back easily...once I got an exam bumped up a full letter grade because of this. He can be very stubborn about some things though...I know one student who had a log base 3 in one of his answers which golub argued with him for at least 5 minutes over whether it was a 2 or 3.
Evan Golub CMSC351 pluralfacade 05/17/2008	An awful professor. He really knows what he's talking about, but nobody else does. He is very stingy with grading and will give little to no partial credit.
Evan Golub Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/25/2008	He clearly knows the material very well, but is terrible at teaching it. Lectures are painstakingly boring, so try to bring a laptop and stay awake, though almost no one will attend. You can definitely get an A in the class, but it is not fun and you will not walk out with any practical knowledge.
Evan Golub CMSC351 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/25/2008	People really scared me into thinking Golub was a terrible professor. I don't think he is really that bad. However, you will need to goto his office hours if you don't understand something and make sure you practice the material. He is sometimes overly tough, but generally fair. For example for the first test this semester he gave us decimals and fractions all over the place. It was really just a pain in the ass more than a test of knowledge. However, he is a competent though not excellent teacher, and is more than happy to help you out during office hours. That said though, he is not the sort of guy who will bump you up if he sees you in his office a lot or w.e. He will give you what you earn and nothing more. That said, I abused notes from the previous semester with Bonnie/Vibha's sections because Golub just has garbage for notes sometimes. So, pro tip: look at Fall 07 section notes :)
Evan Golub CMSC351 Anonymous 12/23/2007	Golub does not really aim to prepare you in lecture for exams or homeworks. After the first midterm I found myself ignoring his lecture notes and working entirely off of the other section's (taught by Bonnie Dorr and Vihba) posted notes. Golub was also indeed stingy with grading, and people in the other section could get points back on midterms that our section could not get back via Golub. I rather wish I had been in the Bonnie/Vihba section.