Elias Gonzalez

This professor has taught: CMSC125, CMSC131, CMSC132, CMSC320, CMSC389N, CMSC395, CMSC398N, SPHL601, SPHL602, SPHL603, TLPL101

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Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/08/2024	Intro: great professor and good guy; maybe not the best teaching ever but definitely good and would take him again Pros: - very personable, friendly, - really liked labs/projects were generally not bad, sometimes had to ask a # of questions - piazza was good and my experience with his TAs were that they were responsive and helpful - practice exams get you somewhat used to the upcoming mid term - a little bit of the content/questions transfers over so I would definitely use them - grading expectation is clear and you can clarify with TAs/him - records his videos which is VERY HELPFUL for me Cons: - sometimes the content feels all over the place; perhaps its not his fault necessarily - can rush through content or miss certain details, and sometimes we'll miss stuff during lecture that is somewhat important or pushed back - exams can be kinda tricky/work beyond what we were taught (or sometimes they'll have the problems that make you think beyond the content/examples we went in class) - didnt really respond to my emails but I didn't send many so Neutral: - sometimes goes on a tangent/off topic slightly during lecture but I think they're cool - getting grades can be slow conclusion/tldr: 5/5 professor, would take again dont take the NUMBER of cons vs pros, I really like him as a professor, take him for sure
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/06/2024	Great professor. The only thing I would say though is that he does go through the material pretty fast and that during the mid-terms there would always be a mistake, but besides that he knows what he is talking about and is overall a great guy. There are 3 mid-terms (8%, 12%, 12%) and a final exam worth 18%. As long as you do well on the coding assignments, labs, and quizzes you don't have to score crazy good on these exams to get an A. btw he FILLS UP SO FAST for 132 because everybody knows he's a great professor, so if you are hoping to take him for 132 you can only hope that you have enough credits to register earlier than most.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/05/2024	Good professor. Even though I had some knowledge going in, I think he is a good professor for beginners. He explains concepts pretty well and gives a lot of good examples. The projects are definitely a little more complex than what is taught in lectures, but he also gives ample time to do it and lecture code is usually pretty good to learn from. TA's (shout out Jocelyn) are also very helpful and people use Piazza very often to ask questions you also have. I don't really have many negatives for Elias, I wish I could've taken him for 132 :(, but the mistakes on his exams can be really distracting and annoying like c'mon double check a little bit. Most exams are fair but he definitely tries to throw you off a little bit. Overall, easy to pass and Elias is a good prof.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/03/2024	Pretty good professor. He likes to make jokes to lighten the mood and go on side tangents. He explains concepts pretty well and has two 48-hour project extensions which are nice. He gives lots of practice exam resources, so definitely do them. One thing I will recommend is going to the TA office hours. A lot of people try to go to Elias directly which is good to make a connection, but with so many people, you can only be helped so much. The TA's are very helpful and can directly address problems with your code. The project instructions may be a little vague sometimes, so start projects early so you have time to ask questions. Overall, Elias > other CMSC131 profs.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 09/26/2024	READ THIS IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO TAKE ELIAS! Elias is a good professor, especially for beginners. His teaching style is effective, but projects get progressively harder, making it tough to rely solely on lecture material after the second project. Start your projects early and use all available resources, but avoid using AI or copying answers, as it will waste your time. Elias provides study guides and practice tests that closely resemble the exams. While attending lectures isn't essential—especially at the start, as they can feel slow—you should still review the recordings since they cover expectations or rare cases in Java that you will need to know for exams. TL;DR: Projects are time-consuming; start early and use all resources (don’t cheat or use AI). Elias is a beginner-friendly professor—attend lectures if you're new to coding, but if you’ve taken a AP CS class or have experience programming, just watch the recordings.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/28/2024	You can tell that Elias is familiar with the topics he is teaching and is a knowledgeable person, but it doesn't seem like he knows how to explain them properly. A lot of times, he would explain the data structures or the algorithms but it would all be so theoretical that I would be lost on how to code it. I liked that his exams, quizzes, and labs would focus more on the theory and concepts. Overall, had a great semester with him!
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting a B- Anonymous 06/23/2024	Elias is a rather nice person but his teaching style is jumpy and all over the place. He tends to teach the material at a very surface levels but his projects require extensive knowledge of the material. His projects tend to by copycats of Nelson and/or Fawzi with a twist making them much harder with little to no direction. He can be quite a confrontational person and always bats for he's TA's. He always claims their right and never listens to here your thought. His office hours are disorganized and TA's can help much giving very little surface help most of the time that you could have figured. He gives practice but it's also surface level, though his exams are easier than others . He constantly forgets to update information and has typos all over the place. He also has favorites and will exclusively only write them rec. letters because they suck up to him. His rating is much higher due to how likable he can be with the masses, but his teaching is subpar and disorganized. If you have the option, take Nelson or Fawzi. Otherwise you are probably stuck with him.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting a B- Anonymous 06/12/2024	Nice guy but he teaches very surface level and doesn't go into much detail, leaving it on you to figure out. He will bat for his TA's and always take their side when a problem occurs and has a bit of a superiority complex. He thinks he is the funniest guy out there but really his jokes are not so. His exams are comparably easily, but the 3rd one was very hard as little time is spent on data structures in his class. He really overemphasis other concepts while this class mainly a DSA in java. Gives very little practice. He gets people to like him and seems nice which is the reason his rating is high. Projects are mostly Nelsons with a twist making them harder than they need to be. Very little instructions are given and there is very little direction given , something needing to rely on the public tests to even figure out what is happening. TA's can even really debug during office hour and only give you knowledge that you know most the times. (Best TA's are Enric and Dominic by far)
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	Pros: Elias is a really sweet professor and imo is a better lecturer than Nelson (whom I had for 131), as he tends to stay on topic better and is a very clear speaker. He's also very young, so he understands situations that come up very well. All of the exams were very easy including the final, and this semester he used MCPS grade rounding (so an 89.5 became an A- rather than a B+), which was very nice of him in an easy class. He also has ample extra credit opportunities on his projects, and he gives a free point on all the exams. Cons: He will often say he'll post something (study guides or answer keys) on some day, and it won't actually be posted until several days after the date he said he'd post it on. He doesn't go over lecture code really, it's mostly theory. This may be problematic in labs where you need to write code you haven't learned yet. Also, piazza for this class (response-wise) is pretty dead. Nelson's 131 piazza was consistently answered/active, but Elias' wasn't.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	The course is well structured and the projects were very good. I went to all of the lectures but didn't really learn much from them, since Elias's teaching style just doesn't suit me very well. However, Elias is very nice and understanding. He provided good resources to prepare for exams, and exams were graded very fairly.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2024	For reference, I review all my professors, and my average review is 4.2, 4.13 weighted by credit. Singularities/Unique because: - 3 "late tokens" on projects. Submit 48 hours late thrice a semester for no penalty. Outside of those, submit on time or get a zero (dw, extensions are a thing). - 3 75 minute exams, which including the final only weigh 50%. - About 15 labs and quizzes, all in discussion (go to discussion). - In his early-mid thirties - Lots of office hours You will probably like: - Genuinely a good human being, is understanding, does actually want you to succeed - Can actually have a conversation about normal topics you would talk about with your friends (apologies to Arsenal fans) - Funny guy, you'll stay engaged during lecture, though he manages to have time to start classes off topic and the occasional tangent during boring topics You may be frustrated by: - He is still learning how to properly conduct a class on his own, meaning: - In an (successful) effort to increase discussion participation, Elias structures the class so that all but 3 discussions had graded work. - Directions/instructions will often be unclear - Majority of projects will be borrowed but don't always line up with what he's taught. Original project(s) you get from him may still be rough around the edges. - Covers a lot of content compared to other 132 options, but at the 30,000 foot level (see below reviews) - Intentionally doesn't cover stuff at times so that you practice it in the corresponding project. Makes it clear when/why he is not, at least. - Lack of cohesion between Elias and TAs. He keeps most stuff under wraps to avoid leaks, but this has its costs, like conflicting answers to the same question, or no answer at all from TAs. People who TA for Elias are all very kind people, but they're also put in a bad spot by his system (they don't recommend :)) Think of it this way: If we had to teach a college course ourselves, we would all be worthy of a 1-star review after our first year. In just a few years, Elias has earned himself a 3 from me and an overall 4.5 star, and you'd think it's only getting better as he settles in. Yes, he was far from my favorite professor this semester, but I have patience and faith that he will improve in the coming semesters since he is committed to doing better, and hopefully this review will be outdated in a few years.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/18/2024	Pros: Elias is a great lecturer, and I'm really glad I took 132 with him. His teaching style really clicked for me. When learning data structures, he would give us time to practice drawing out the structure ourselves. He's very clear on what topics will be on the exam, and they were overall fairly easy (80s averages). He also has his and Nelson's previous exams for practice. Lectures were really engaging, and Elias was always helpful during office hours. He's also a very understanding person and always wants you to succeed in class. Cons: Lecture pacing is fairly inconsistent. In the first half of the lecture, he puts a lot of time and care into helping us understand the core material. However, the final third of the lecture feels kinda rushed. He takes a long time to respond to emails and usually doesn't post the solutions until the day before. Some of his lectures do lack some detail, it was sometimes difficult for me to start my projects. Overall, the positives for Elias heavily outweigh the negatives. I strongly encourage taking him for 131/132 if you can; he's awesome despite some organizational issues.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2024	great professor! you do have to put the work in if you want to do well (going over lecture code yourself, redoing labs/worksheets, etc) but Elias and his TA's are really helpful in office hours. Also occasionally drops hints about exam questions which is helpful. Exams/quizzes are pretty easy too as long as you understand the material.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/17/2024	Elias gets great reviews because he's nice and his exams are relatively easy, but that has made him overrated as a teacher. The biggest issues are that he is very disorganized and has a bad TA system. Elias is not responsive to emails and often makes mistakes in his work, even on his own answer keys. On Piazza, the wait time is often very long even right before project/exam dates because the TAs are slow and also seem to cancel office hours all the time. He needs to keep them on a tighter leash, because the contrast between this and Nelson's class is crazy. Additionally, his slides aren't detailed and gloss over important info, and he screwed up a LOT when we were covering topics like hash tables and tree traversal. However, he is very helpful and articulate when you talk to him individually, so I think the potential to be an excellent professor is there if he cleans up the issues with more experience.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2024	Professor Gonzalez is a great teacher who keeps the classes interesting and understandable, especially during more complex lectures. He has a great sense of humor and keeps things casual with students to limit stress and tension. Quizzes were made very easy since we could write a sheet of notes prior and use it during the quiz. All lectures are recorded, making it easier to review for exams. The only issue I had was that he taught TAs the material in a different way than he taught current students, making it challenging to determine certain problems were meant to be completed. Besides that, I would definitely recommend Gonzalez.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2024	This was a very messy class. I want to deal with the Pros/Cons, and I hope this will be helpful to anyone considering Elias in the near future Pros: -Elias is an incredibly kind and understanding professor. His office hours are accessible. -Projects are constructive and pretty free reign. I enjoyed them. The free reign thing seems to lead to weird grading disputes though. -Quizzes are somewhat open-note and straight-forward. -Exams are not too bad in the scheme of things. Final exam is a little less cumulative than you'd expect. Not A Pro or Con?: -His lecture style is informative, but somewhat boring and a bit too focused on singular problems. A lot of lectures had ~50% of time allocated to going over one example. Cons: -You will NOT get a response in emails and Piazza is 50/50. -There is a good chance you will need to address some sort of errors in this class. I had 2 separate TAs give me 0/100s on distinct projects without thought due to their own lack of care and technical difficulties only to go through the regrade process and get 100%s on both. It is hard for me to not place some blame on the lecturer for this when it occurs multiple times. -The practice exam keys he makes are full of errors and sometimes even the exams had confusing/outright incorrect information on them. -Elias himself sometimes sends a hundred different mixed signals on things like which concepts will be on the exam. -Discussion sections are full of labs. It got tiring and non-constructive at certain points. They should have been spaced out a bit more. I am very mixed overall about my experience in this class. He is still probably worth taking over Hogan/Yoon if they're teaching. I believe in the future he will iron out these "growing pains," since he is relatively new and pretty young, but for now, I cannot justify a score above a 3/5.
Elias Gonzalez Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/13/2024	Honestly, the best teacher out of the ones available for 132 by far. His lectures are pretty good. He clearly knows the subject very well and is knowledgeable. His exams are very, very fair. He is also very understanding if you need extensions for projects and such. HOWEVER this man is not responsive to emails, if you need to reach him goodluck. Additionally, he says he will do things, for example, put out the answer key for a practice exam, and he never does it when he says he will; he always releases it at the last minute, which is very annoying, but otherwise, he is a good professor. If you come in with little to no programming experience, expect a B or a B plus in the class if you're working very hard. If you have had previous experience, you can easily get an A.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Anonymous 05/07/2024	He has some flaws, but I honestly don’t these issues are serious enough to take him down to a 4-star (he’s often very late to respond to emails, but there are a lot of opportunities to talk to him in person and TAs are also very helpful in most cases). He’s incredibly nice and understanding. Exams are easy if you look at his study guides and practice exams. Great CS professor!
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/07/2024	He is great but not the best at teaching and his class can be hard to take notes. though he does recorded his lectures.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/24/2024	Pros: - Understands content well, easy exams for the most part - Willing to help & cares Cons: - Not responsive to emails at all - His lectures are extremely bare bones and often inadequate for learning - He has limited practice material and is very late at posting keys - Office hours for TAs are disorganized and usually pretty useless
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/24/2024	I google "GOAT" and it took me here. But seriously Elias is an excellent instructor. He makes learning fun and his classes are very enjoyable. He truly wants to see you succeed. Open note quizzes, relatively easy exams, and he uses Nelson's projects and they're not too bad. Lectures can feel kind of useless at times and you should prioritize reviewing the material outside of class. Tbh, I've been to maybe 7 lectures all semester and have been putting in medium effort and I have a 97%. Take this class with Elias, he's probably better than anyone else teaching it except Nelson (depends on who you ask).
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A- Anonymous 04/18/2024	He is a really nice professor and knows the material he is teaching. As a student coming in with no previous knowledge about java and had cmsc131 with Nelson, I think that Elias is pretty bad at explaining the topic since most of the time he would simplify too much of the topic that students will only know the basics of how a function works, but they would not have enough knowledge to actually code it. He barely goes over the lecture code and does not explain what the code does, which makes it hard to understand when he talks about it.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Anonymous 03/09/2024	Pros: - Really sweet professor, nice, younger - Knowledgable, definitely knows the subject well - Exams are relatively easy, provides some practice Cons: - Not responsive to emails - His lectures aren't super detailed at times. He goes over topics, but skips over on some of the smaller details that exam questions specifically test. It will fall upon you to fill in gaps of your own understanding. - He posts Nelson's past exams and a few of his past exams but doesn't post the solutions to his until last minute. - TA resources are decently inadequate. OH system is disorganized (and quite frankly not long enough), TAs don't respond to Piazza posts in timely manner
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/18/2024	The class itself was really easy in my opinion. Elias is very helpful and actually teaches in his lectures. He even lets you know what topics will be converted in the midterms. This semester, he didn't make any mistakes (other than an occasional spelling error or something on an exam or quiz), but made the class very manageable and easy to pass. His TAs and office hours are really helpful and he is a great guy. TLDR - amazing teacher and easy class, take Elias if you wanna pass :)
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/05/2024	Elias is a great lecturer and professor overall. As someone for whom this was their first ever cs class, it was a bit overwhelming, but going to his and the TA's office hours is a huge help and will come easier over time.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/04/2024	Elias was about as good as a teacher as you could hope for. CMSC131 will be a bit challenging if you have no programming experience but he did a good job explaining the concepts and was happy to re-review things if you asked. 1/2 weekly discussions are required because he will give you a 'lab' to write in class, which is graded. Otherwise, discussion is completely pointless, Elias is very lenient with TAs, and honestly, TAs weren't very helpful with questions either. Use piazza to ask for clarification on projects because it will be much quicker and more accurate. Elias is also super responsive and is happy to talk to students so feel free to drop in to office hours.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/19/2023	Prof. Gonzalez is a sincere professor and truly wants his students to succeed, which is something really rare. He tries his best to make computer science fun and interesting and isn't just a boring coding lecture like most other professors. He is really understanding and accommodating to students' situations. He is thoroughly a good person.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2023	GOAT!!! Very helpful with everything and all TA's are great. Open note quizzes and group labs make maintaining a good grade easy. Midterms weren't to challenging and the final was extremely easy.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2023	Coming into 131 with somewhat prior knowledge of coding, I'd say Elias did very well with this class for Fall '23. Even though many other reviews seem to be shaky on Elias with his lecture style, frequent mistakes, glaring problems, etc, they seem to have been very much improved over this semester. While there were indeed still some typos on exams and quizzes, they were almost immediately addressed. Though while it would be better to see none, I assume it's going to be improved as time goes on as this is his second time teaching 131 (based on when reviews started for him). He is very humble, kind, funny, and like others have said, down-to-earth, especially being the product of UMD CS this past decade. Elias seems very passionate about teaching this course at his alma mater so I don't doubt his classes will only get better. His practice exams are extremely similar to the real exams, which have been very helpful studying tools! His office hours are also very chill and has no trouble explaining concepts or even just having a chat with him. I'll post another review of him in the spring as I will also have him for 132!
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/09/2023	Really nice guy, but can't comment on lectures because I didn't go at all. Office hours are helpful, he's understanding and will take the time to help you. He tends to make mistakes on assignments and exams, which is annoying but not a big deal. Start projects early and you shouldn't really have a problem finishing them on time, and he gives 3 48 hour extensions. Exams are pretty fair but the study guides can be a bit confusing. Class really shouldn't be that hard if you have prior experience or just make sure to not fall behind.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/05/2023	Elias is a great lecturer who explains all of the topics very thoroughly. He's kind, has a great sense of humor, and is always willing to help if you don't understand certain topics or need help on a project/assignment. He's also a relatively younger lecturer here and is a UMD alumnus himself, which is a huge plus for freshmen adjusting to campus. It does take a while for him and his TAs to grade certain assignments, but that's perhaps the only drawback I can think of. I 100% recommend him for CMSC131 and plan on having him for CMSC132 next semester!
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting a B Anonymous 11/01/2023	Elias is a good person. And he is who you want if passing the class is all you care about. However, if you want to have a deep understanding of the content, you probably shouldn't go with him. He has a lot of positive reviews because people tend to remember not what you do but how you make them feel. Elias is a poor lecturer and made mistakes on nearly every exam and project we had. He was too lenient on the TAs to the point where most of them basically weren't doing their job. His study guides are also misleading. This is due to him adding topics to previous study guides and calling them new. For example, he had concepts from the beginning of the semester and even from 131 on the study guide for the 3rd midterm. And, big surprise, none of those old concepts were on the midterm. But everything on the study guide is "fair game" for the exam so it can be confusing to decide how you should spend your time studying. BUUUUUUUT, Elias has a really great personality and is EXTREMELY forgiving and just wants to see you succeed. He makes you feel good as a student. That's what people tend to remember. And that's why his reviews are so good. I would try to get him if you struggled in 131 or are still unsure about pursuing CS beyond 132.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/25/2023	Very nice and down to earth teacher. He was a CS student here not too long ago, so he is understanding if you talk to him. Knowledgeable on the subject and generally prepared. Explains topics well. The projects aren't too bad, but it wouldn't hurt for him to be a little more specific at times. Same goes with the occasional poorly written test question. But I believe these are largely due to him being a newer teacher and I'm sure he will improve as time goes on.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A- Anonymous 06/04/2023	I had Elias for both 131 and 132. He is an excellent professor that all should not hesitate to take. He is helpful, responsive to emails, and cares about all the students a lot. The reason I gave a 4 star despite giving him a 5 star for 131 is for two reasons. First off, my TA was terrible. If you get a bad TA consider going to a different section. My TA was not very knowledgeable and discussion was a waste of time. Also, throughout this semester I felt that Elias' lectures tended to be very boring. Besides these two semi minor details, Elias is excellent and deserves a 5 star rating.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/04/2023	So good!! Elias is so understanding and his exams are fair. He records his lectures so I learned by watching the recordings and they were really helpful.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC125 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 06/01/2023	Great professor, class was engaging and he was approachable and helpful
Elias Gonzalez CMSC125 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2023	Perhaps the most caring professor I've ever had. Makes class engaging and is super attentive to the feedback of his students. Workload is manageable and work is straight forward.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting a B kathleenMiles 05/20/2023	Gonzales is actually not a good professor. I wish I had taken Fawzi instead and not trusted all of these positive reviews. Gonzales is nothing but a copy of Nelson with a few twists. If you are given a choice between Nelson and Gonzales, then it would be better to take Nelson anyway. Gonzales for the entire semester wore a face mask, even when coming to lecture. Evidently he cared a great deal about the risk of COVID infection. Also evident was that he did not care about this enough for his students, because the office hours room was a windowless room in the AV Williams Building with no ventilation in which students were supposed to go to be crammed as sardines. If there was ever a greater risk of infection, it was this place. However much Gonzales cared about his own health, he did not care enough about that of his students to get a different room for them. With regards to the projects, the only advantage over Nelson was that the first deadline would not cost you points if you missed it, but was rather just extra credit. However, the extra credit would barely be one or two points. I doubt that it would be enough to swing your grade by any significant amount either way. Gonzales cannot lecture or teach well at all. His teaching style is terrible, with no continuous train of thought. His slides are atrocious, with the code lacking basic things which he asks for in the same projects such as proper indentation and variable names. You are far better off using Nelson's slides for the subject. I stopped going to his in-person lectures early in the semester. I could not understand anything. He records his lectures anyway, so you can be confused at home instead of in the lecture hall. Office hours were brutal and a complete mess. It was common to find a ten-person line of students for two TAs who were in attendance. In any case, Gonzales would go to bat for his own TAs. He seemed to forget that this class was being run for the students and not for his teaching staff. He allowed them to cancel and reschedule their office hours however much they wanted. You might end up in desperation at office hours, only to find out all the TAs cancelled last minute. Because of the extreme latitude Gonzales gave his TAs, they abused it to the point where you would have days where there would be zero TAs at all, followed by days when there would be three or four TAs all at the same time. Never present when you actually needed them, of course. Most of the time, there would just be one brave TA (Dominic) holding down the fort reading through some crummy Google Doc office hours queue system instead of something respectable like the Quuly that Nelson used. Out of desperation I just stopped going to office hours. It was less effort for me to spend the weekend holed up in my room, than to waste time during the week trying to get a few minutes with a TA who would never show up. What was also frustrating was the sheer number of typos that Gonzales is capable of. During the final exam, he actually had to pause time for him to go through them. On the second exam, he gave us some hashing question with some ridiculously large calculations. He realized that we were wasting our time on them and put up the values of the calculations on the projectors. Good luck if you were one of those people who had already wasted large amounts of time during the exam calculating things by hand. This kind of flip-flopping and lack of consistency was typical. For instance, he allowed, then banned, then allowed again notes while doing the quizzes. Gonzales provided little support for his exams. His "practice questions" would be mostly unrelated to the final exam and hopelessly RIDDLED with errors. You will spend more time trying to figure out what is wrong with the question than actually answering it. Most frustratingly of all, Gonzales always REFUSED to do the common-sense thing and provide answers to his own sample questions. He would constantly tell us to crowd-source answers on Piazza. Which of course, never happened. At least had past exams WITH SOLUTIONS that you could practice with which would make things dead easy. Gonzales' communication was just very snarky and condescending in general, although he was decent enough in person. You will be going to him in person often, because he often does not resopnd to email. He would write things like "as a treat for you all there will be no lecture today". I wonder what that implies about his own evaluation of his own teaching. Discussions were really depressing. My TA in particular would give a confusing explanation, then react sharply to the most innocent clarifications.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Anonymous 05/20/2023	DO NOT HAVE UME HABIBA as a teacher assistant. SHE IS THE WORST. You will teach yourself everything. if you go to office hours, just know you will be helping yourself. She says i dont know; i dont think so. Then it actually is. like how are you so clueless. Elias says one thing will be on the exam then it is not. He says this won't be on the exam; it is on the exam. like, come on bruh.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2023	His reviews are true. He is very very good. I had him for 131 and 132 both. He is an amazing teacher and makes the class very engaging. I looked forward to his lectures. The class is not that hard. If you put in the work, you can do well. He does not throw any trick questions on the quizzes, tests, or projects. It is all straightforward.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2023	This dude is such a goat. His lectures are amazing and I can always relate to him since he’s not old and weird. He is also such a NICE AND CARING person. Class is very straight forward. Same with the projects. Take him
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/11/2023	Gonzalez is a very nice person and one of the most down-to-earth professors I've met at this school. Despite this ,I feel as though his lectures at times can be subpar in terms how he teaches the content. But with a combination of good TA, I think most of them are good but apparently there is one who isn't, and taking at least a little bit of time to go over concepts you might struggle with (either office hours or self studying), you should be good. Projects were never to hard as long a you take time to understand the concept and work on them consistently. His exams were definitely a curveball from how you would expect a CS exam to be like, but I think they are really good at forcing you to understand some of the topics conceptually and I think this is reflective of his teaching style. I think the lack of practice exams compared to 131 may also be a bit of a shock. Overall a pretty good professor and class.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2023	Insanely nice, projects were the same as nelson, but he made the class super enjoyable. He had some really good TA's, office hours were super key before exams. He was very reasonable and ha just moved up from high school. Take him if you can
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 05/08/2023	Elias is great. His projects are literally the same projects as Nelson's, so I don't really understand what the review below me is talking about. However, it's true that his project descriptions are unclear (for example, due dates contradict with each other in the title and in the body paragraph). He doesn't respond to emails sometimes, but literally GO TO OFFICE HOURS!! I only started going after some midterms and I really wish I'd visited from the beginning of the semester. He's very accommodating in-person. Just be honest about your reason for an extension, make-up, or grade concerns, and Elias will do his best to help you. In terms of lecture, I honestly preferred him over Nelson because they're fun and engaging, but not straight up stand-up comedy. That way, I was able to come out of lecture with understanding of the material instead of several concerning (yet still funny LMAO) jokes. (Regarding my expected grade -- I got 0s on a few project assignments because I'd been struggling to get my grade up for MATH141 (UGH) so I just messed up on those. Before taking a 0, make sure to talk with Elias. This was my biggest mistake y'all... Don't do what I did! My other project grades were all solid 95s-100s, so you really would be helping yourself by talking to the instructors.)
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/04/2023	Best CS professor ever!!! Very chill, records all his lectures, can use three 48-hrs extensions among all the projects per semester (but if u email him, he will grant u more). Very reasonable and flexible.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/04/2023	Best CS professor ever!!! Very chill, records all his lectures, can use three 48-hrs extensions among all the projects per semester (but if u email him, he will grant u more). Very reasonable and flexible.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Anonymous 05/02/2023	Elias is a nice teacher, but overall his projects are harder than Fawzi or Nelson projects in my opinion. He is also very lenient and understanding. The one issue is with the TA's. Certain TA's like Hana, Dominic, etc. are all very nice, but there are some exceptions to this. There's one really condescending and rude TA, he's been named here for a 131 review before, and mentioned without a name on another review.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Anonymous 05/02/2023	Good teacher. His projects are harder than Fawzi or Nelson and his exams can be inconsistent and confusing sometimes, but he's a very nice professor. Lenient with extensions. Only downside is some of the TA's in this class can be condescending or rude to students sometimes. The discussions are also pretty useless or boring at times; in my discussion most students don't even bother to show up unless there's a quiz. Overall not a bad class, mostly due to Elias being an understanding and fair teacher.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/01/2023	Elias is one of the best professors I’ve ever had. He genuinely cares about his students and their success in his courses. If he makes a mistake he holds himself accountable and will not penalize you for it and in fact it will most likely benefit you. The lectures are useful and he will provide great examples which really help you learn the concept. He also gives out fair exams that you will do well on if you study. His TA’s are really really good. Specifically Hana, Dominic, Ipsa, and Tanaya. They all will go out of their way to explain things if you don’t understand something and work hard to provide the best assistance. There’s only really one TA that is unhelpful. Regardless, if you get the chance to take Elias for 131 or 132 you 100% should.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/01/2023	Hands down one of the best CMSC teachers, if you get the chance to take him take it. Super helpful, and will explain and answer questions . Lectures are interesting and recorded in great quality, his office hours are very useful and he will help you and link you to valuable resources. His tests and projects are very fair, and often link with what Nelson is doing. Ta's can really help you out, but overall he is just a great guy. He taught high school before and doesn't care if the exam scores are high, he also curves and gives bonus points on exams and projects. Great guy, and his exams, lectures, projects, and overall class are a billion times easier and more interesting than Fawzi's. Elias GOATzalez
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/30/2023	Super chill, exams are reasonable, easygoing professor
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/10/2023	Professor Elias was a fantastic teacher. He genuinely sounds passionate about the things he's teaching and most often is able to explain in a way that anyone, even students who have never taken a programming class before, could understand. We had 3 midterms which were curved according to class averages and, with a certain exam, Professor Elias recognized that it was too long to be finished within the given time constraint so the class was given extremely lenient grading. We also had about 8 programming projects which were actually pretty difficult despite being an intro-level CS course. You are however given a generous timeframe to complete them (about a week or-so). I definitely recommend taking Elias.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC132 Expecting an A- Anonymous 03/08/2023	I want to disagree with a lot of these reviews about Elias. Don't get me wrong, he's a super cool guy and very supportive/understanding of his students. However, his teaching methods suck. His lectures are absolutely useless because his teaching style is just so jumpy. He doesn't go deep into what he's talking about and only provides a super shallow and confusing explanation of a concept. I feel like we haven't learned much in class. We've been learning more from YouTube videos than lecture themselves. I've heard Fawzi is better because he can clearly explain things and says it in a way that actually makes sense. Overall, the class is easy, but it's just annoying that he doesn't teach well. I guess that's going to be every CS class from now on, (especially seeing the reviews on CMSC351).
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 02/09/2023	His lectures are kinda useless (records them too) but Elias is a fabulous instructor and really cares about the success of his students. Class isn't too hard. Make sure utilize office hours if you need help.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/11/2023	Elias is down-to-earth, lenient, and very smart. His lectures are well planned out and very informative. He's very easy to approach about issues your having with your code (or anything really). He gave someone in our class an extension on half of the projects because their computer got bricked earlier in the semester. One complaint I have however is that he sometime does not respond to emails but that's what piazza is for so it is not too big of a problem. I made sure to take CMSC132 with him next semester.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/08/2023	Elias is a great professor, very lenient, open, helpful, and genuinely wants you to succeed; if you have him, do not be scared to talk to him if you are having trouble in his class. He made lectures relatable and engaging, you could even submit a picture of your pet, and he would put it on the slides the next time we would have a lecture. The reason why I am giving 4 stars though, is because of certain TAs. Later in the semester, I began to realize that TAs that do not teach discussion was not helpful at all. I would often find myself and other students at office hours staring blankly at our code because we would be more confused after asking for help. A certain TA though, Takeshi, who would be at office hours in the morning had a terrible attitude towards students, there would be times when he would make comments and snarky remarks that discouraged me from even attending office hours in the morning. I hope no other student had a similar experience to what I did but I prefer TAs who teach discussion for help with coding projects.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC395 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/04/2023	He is a very nice prof.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC125 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/28/2022	Super chill and lenient professor. You learn a lot and it should be an easy A if you do the work.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC395 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/17/2022	Easy A, good prof
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/15/2022	Elias is a great teacher, he is a very down-to-earth guy and definitely puts students first. His class was not too difficult and the pace of the class and lectures were great.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2022	HIghly recommend him. He goes over the concepts of this class very well. If you are a cs major, which I'm assuming you are if you're taking this class, I recommend taking it with him because it will build a good foundation for cs. Exams, quizzes, and projects become so much easier when you actually understand the material conceptually. He does many examples throughout class of every new unit we learn. His style of explaining and teaching makes it so simple to understand what he is saying. If you do not know any cs, you will be fine in his class. He is also very very nice so if you talk to him after class or go to his office hours, he will help you a lot.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2022	I enjoyed Elias's class. His lectures were kind of slow, but if you go to all of them you will definitely pass. He explains concepts really well, and strongly encourages students to ask questions about things they don't understand. The projects were a good level of difficulty; I didn't find myself struggling too much as long as I started early and went to office hours. The only part of his class that I had an issue with was the exams, I felt like they were pretty inconsistent. The first one was of comparable level of difficulty to first exams of other classes, but the second one was way too long, and I the third one was overly difficult (at least for me). However, I'm sure this is a side effect of it being his first time teaching this class, so his exams will only get better from here. Definitely recommend you take Elias if you get the chance.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/14/2022	I thoroughly enjoyed 131 with Elias. The concepts can be challenging if you don't have previous experience, but Elias will make sure you understand the material. Lectures can be a bit boring at times, but nothing that is a big problem. Office hours are super helpful so utilize them if needed. As long as you start projects early, you will do fine. Elias is an excellent choice for 131 and is lenient with grading and assignments. Definitely would recommend.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/11/2022	Pretty cool guy. He is very understanding and granted a lot of extensions. However, if you slack off you probably won't do so well. This class requires a good amount of effort/studying to do well. From what I can tell, he gives easier quizzes and homework than the other 131 professors but his midterms are more difficult. Came in with no cs experience and thought I was going to fail the class after the first midterm. He helped me work through some stuff and now I'm very confident about 132.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC395 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/10/2022	The class is just very chill in general when it comes to just talking about our experiences as a TA, and how we as TAs can better accommodate for students. He's extremely knowledge within pedagogy and education as that's his speciality and truly believes in helping students understand the material which I greatly respect. Overall, Elias is just an awesome guy to chat about a bunch of different things and he's very receptive to feedback. As for the logistics, there are some assignments ranging from in class assignments to two page papers but are very easy to complete as it's a reflection of our experiences. This class is definitely a no-brainer to take. It's an easy A+, a free credit, and an enjoyable one hour session mingling with other teaching assistants and Elias.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2022	He's the third CS professor I've had and he is by far the best. He's really good at teaching first year CS students especially if you've never touched code before. Not only does he explain the concepts really well, he spends most of lecture showing examples and actually reviewing code which helps a lot on projects. As long as you pay attention in lecture and go to discussion you'll pass no problem.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/09/2022	Elias is great, he makes lectures interesting and tries to interact with his students. He is always helpful and seems to enjoy answering questions. Elias understands his students and tries to make the class a learning experience rather than a testing environment. I really enjoyed his class, none of the lectures felt useless and the discussions helped me a lot too.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC131 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2022	Elias is a solid teacher, the lectures are not super boring, and he gives in-depth explanations. Plus when the exams were harder he would give a nice curve, he really seems to care. Find out which TA's are good, as that will make the class easier. The exams cover exactly what is discussed in discussions and lectures, always go to the discussion before a quiz/exam as they will drop helpful hints. No complaints
Elias Gonzalez CMSC320 Expecting an A- Anonymous 09/08/2022	Did a good job with the course although the content and lecture was kind of boring at times. Projects and exams weren't too bad.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC125 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2022	If you have the opportunity to take a class with Elias, I highly recommend you do it. He's very easy going and lenient with basically everything. He's a good lecturer and tries to make things interesting when they're not. Any extension requests are always accepted and honored, his email is always open, very helpful during office hours, and is overall a great person. The class was pretty easy, as long as you put in effort you can get a good grade. The coding in the class is pretty basic and if you have a little background you'll be set, even if you don't the assignments are very doable and he always explains things in detail during class. The rest of the class is about the tech field and is still relatively interesting, but there is one section of the class that's done on code.org and it's not really that interesting in my opinion. This class was my first one that was about tech and he made it a better experience than I could've hoped for. The only complaint was that there always seemed to be issues with my grades being wrong and assignments not being able to be opened (we used google doc links for a lot of them), but that's partially due to the TA's. This was the most annoying part of the class, but it's an easy fix if you talk to him in class or over email, he'll usually regrade it and give points back. Overall, I would take his class again in a heartbeat.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC389N Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/12/2021	I had Professor Gonzalez for CMSC389N and he was really nice. He was very accommodating and always willing to help. The content in the course is not very difficult but could sometimes be a little boring. Overall, I would recommend CMSC389N for those who are looking for a computer science elective.
Elias Gonzalez CMSC389N Expecting an A Anonymous 05/02/2020	Good professor. Class is ridiculously easy though.