Christopher Kauffman

This professor has taught: CMSC216, CMSC320, CMSC330, DATA320

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Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/09/2024	Absolutely the best professor I've had at UMD. Lectures were so much fun and I never wanted to skip. He's a very helpful and supportive professor who 100% cares about his students and wants them to succeed. Definitely a difficult class but you learn so much.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2024	Amazing professor. Engaging lectures and fair point system. He loves answering questions, and encourages students to come to his office hours to learn more. There are only 5 projects and all were manageable. Exams were also fair. 6/5 stars.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/05/2024	One of the best professors I've ever had. The lectures are super engaging and he does a good job of clearly explaining the content. As many other reviews have said, this class is definitely not easy, I would start the projects early and keep up to date with the lectures. If you do all the projects and labs, you should be prepared for the midterms and final and will pretty much be guaranteed a good grade. Take him if you have the chance to.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/03/2024	so goated definitely take him for 216 if you can! make sure that you put effort into this class because its not easy AND START THE PROJECTS EARLY but professor kauffman is genuinely the goat the class is organized so well & he cares about his students and i would absolutely recommend him
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/27/2024	Kauffman is great. This is not an easy class; however, he provides so many resources (lecture recordings, recommendations for textbooks, answers to our HWs and labs before the exam, active on Piazza, office hours, etc.) I would recommended taking 216 with Kauffman. Lecture is not mandatory but you have the option for "extra credit" if you participate in lecture. He is also a kind guy :)
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/25/2024	Very generous and kind professor who cares about his students and what they learn. The material in 216 is somewhat difficult but Kauffman does his best to simplify it and make it easy to digest. He is very lenient with students, willing to push due dates and deadlines back when necessary. His tests are open note but not necessarily easy, so while notes are helpful it's important that you understand core concepts. Projects get progressively more difficult as the semester goes on but there are plenty of resources from office hours almost every day to relevant piazza posts. Kauffman is always in a happy mood and keeps class very engaging and offers extra credit when you participate in class. Overall an amazing professor and I would recommend taking his class.
Christopher Kauffman Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/22/2024	Two one-star reviews solely to drop this rating. Someone should check these reviews before they are actually added. I would be careful with that saying 216 with Kauffman is easy because it's 216 because the material itself is difficult, but Kauffman is the best professor I've had so far. His organization of the entire class sets you up for success as long as you put in the work and study. He's excellent at teaching and cares a lot about his students. The material is tough, so his office hours were super helpful, and he really made me think about the material. The projects are challenging, but they only have public tests. Exams are fair but require competition for your projects to do well. If you get sick or something happens, Kauffman is very understanding and will accommodate for you. I was sick for two weeks but received an extension and lectures are recorded. He's the goat.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/21/2024	Take Kauffman. 100% will not regret it. pros: - cares about his students, and has great resources and clarity on the subject. - lots of scope to boost grade with labs, hw, and extra credit - only 5 projects and have only public tests - exams are very fair, do the projects to succeed in the exams cons: - projects may be challenging, but keep up with the labs and go to discussion and you will be able to do them easily
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 11/19/2024	One of the worse professors i have ever had. I dont know why people like him the projects r too isnaen and the tests are not easy bcaue they are open note. this guy sucks dont take, take herman instead
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/14/2024	Kauffman is the ultimate professor. Not only is he a fantastic lecturer, but his policies make succeeding in his course super achievable! Projects are public tests only, exams are open note (and you can write/test code during them!), and he has an insane amount of opportunities to receive extra-credit. He’s awesome, and I really learned a lot from his class!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/17/2024	Absolutely take 216 (or any other class for that matter) with Kauffman if you have a chance. First of all, there are a lot of perks class-wise: no secret or release tests, all exams are open note, bonus points for doing discussion exercises, quizzes had unlimited attempts, etc. He also is just a very kind professor who seems to care a lot about how his students do. I went to his office hours and he spent several hours going through my code with me. My one issue in this class was that I did find projects very difficult, but I feel like that would be the case with any professor and I also think that I struggled with them more than most of the other students did.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/10/2024	TL;DR : Kauffman was an incredibly good prof, and I have almost no complaints. His class was a little tough, but anyone looking to take 216 should definitely take this prof. Pros: - He's a pretty chill guy and he just has a good energy to him. Lectures are pretty enjoyable, and he answers questions very well - Each of his discussion sections have 3-4 TA's so there's lots of opportunities to get extra help if you need it. - There's no secret tests for his projects, so you'll pretty much always know what parts of the code you're failing - Lectures are recorded - He gives extra credit for engagement in class lectures and discussions, and answering questions in piazza - He gives optional makeup credit for projects, so if you lose points on a project, you can make them up in the future or vice versa - His exams are open note, so you don't really need to spend time memorizing all of the small stuff Cons: - The projects got to be pretty tough near the end of the semester. While they started off fair and balanced, as the semester when on, the project instructions started to become more and more unclear, and this would lead to errors that wouldn't really be the students' faults. The test cases for the projects also because more sparse and the semester went on. - During lecture, you can get extra credit for asking questions, but a decent amount of the time, questions just ended up being not realted or very loosley related to the content, and so many people were asking questions that the lectures could feel very broken up at times. For 10 minutes you would be learning stuff, and then the next 10 minutes would be questions that aren't helpful for the majority of the class (at least, in my opinion). It would just kind of be a cycle like that, so it's kind of difficult to keep focus in lectures - This isn't really Kauffman's fault, but office hours would be packed near project deadlines. While this sould partially be expected from students, the queue would end up being 12-15 students long near project deadlines, so you would be better off just going to a friend for help.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/01/2024	Amazing professor. He really cares about his students and wants them to succeed. Exams are straightforward and open note (averages were pretty high). There are weekly labs and hw, but they only take like 1 or 2 hours tops. Projects are really time consuming. I got away with doing the project the night before they was due in Fawzi's 132 but could not do that for this class. Some of the project descriptions are confusing, but if you start earlyish you should be fine. There were 5 projects and no secret test for any of the projects. He also offers a lot of extra credit (lecture participation and extra stuff on projects). I thought project 3 was the hardest - mostly because of the puzzlebin part. Would definitely recommend prof k!!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/31/2024	my goat, only got a b+ cuz of my own fuck ups, probably the best professor ive ever had at umd, highly recommend for 216 projects are moderately difficult, exams are butt easy, and gives free points for labs and hws, late policy is very fair as well
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2024	Kauffman is a fantastic teacher and the best CS professor I have had. Lectures and slides were all available online and were very detailed and helpful. Labs and homework assignments were straightforward but are important for understanding concepts at an easier level before they appear on exams and projects. Projects were a bit long, but if you start fairly early, they are definitely manageable. Exams were open-resource and at times can be a bit tricky, although still fair. As long as you do what is expected, you’ll be more than fine.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	I was kind of dreading 216, but this course moved at a pace I could understand. Prof K has the structure of his class down to a science, and it strikes a really great balance between students' grades and students actually learning. There are five projects, and the first few are LONG (particularly projects 2 and 3), so start early!! This class literally has the craziest office hours situation I have every personally witnessed, so if you anticipate needing help I'll reemphasize starting early. The projects were a little buggy towards the end of the semester, which a lot of people complained about, but if you’re habitually late to starting the project (💁‍♀️) it should all be fixed by the time you start, and plus they were totally manageable. The exams are a great situation all-around (open resource, not designed to trick you).
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	One of, if not the best CS professors at UMD. He is funny, engaging, thoughtful, and seems very genuine. Slides are very useful and are worth looking at, lectures are recorded, projects are decently difficult but fair, and exams are open note. He cares for his students and I cannot recommend him enough. Take one of his classes if you have the opportunity.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/22/2024	the goat‼️ easily a 5 star professor. he explains concepts really clearly and lectures are recorded, so if you’re like me and zone out a lot in lecture, you can just rewatch the videos later. kauffman’s exams (including the final) are all open note/open resource/open compiler which really helped in the sense that you can have little refreshers in the middle of the test. he has weekly labs and hw quizzes, but you can do the quizzes as many times as you want until you get a 100. there’s 5 projects in the semester, with 4/5 being C focused and one of them being assembly. there’s no secret tests for the projects, and he lets you locally run the tests before you submit to gradescope. overall, would definitely recommend kauffman for 216!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/21/2024	Great Professor. Open Note exams, and teaches with passion.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2024	Yeah he's the goat. He literally made it so easy to get at least a B, and if I weren't a terrible student and gotten extremely complacent midway through the semester it probably would've been a super easy A- (and I have terrible grades so that's really saying something). There's a reason he has a 5.0 rating okay just take him. His exams are super easy (they're open notes so you can have your laptops out) and his homework assignments (10% of grade) are a free 100% (and same with the labs as long as you show up to discussion). The projects were not terrible all things considered. It is definitely a tough class because you're learning a ton of new material (C/Assembly) but he basically gives you the solution to half the project if you show up to lecture and do the labs. He also revealed one of the questions on the Final Exam so that was also pretty nice. Just take him. Trust.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2024	The best professor I've had in general. You can tell he genuinely puts so much effort into the class. It's by no means an easy A, but if you engage and pay attention it's more fun than not. Just can't recommend him enough!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2024	I heard horror stories about CMSC216, but after taking it with Kauffman I can't help but give him a stellar review. He made the class extremely engaging with his slides, the labs struck the perfect balance between challenging and informative, and his system of Engagement Points (bonus credit for asking questions, responding to people on Piazza, and doing labs) made it worthwhile to come to class (though, lectures ARE recorded if you happen to miss a few). He clearly loves the subject and it shows; his enthusiasm is contagious. Absolutely cannot recommend him more highly. Just a note that his projects are pretty tough, but the lack of release tests & secret tests means that you have ample opportunity to ace them if you start early.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/15/2024	When I say absolutely one of the best professors I’ve had, I mean it. He’s a great lecturer who records and has incredible slides, is super nice and has student-favoring policies, and his projects don’t suck. If he’s an option, take his class.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2024	GOATED PROFESSOR EVERYTHING IS RECORDED EVERYTHING IS OPEN NOTE DOING ALL THE WORK GETS YOU EXTRA CREDIT ONLY HIS PROJECTS TAKE LONG
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	Prof. Kauffman is a perfect professor. He's a very talented lecturer with strong, well-informed opinions about what's the best way to approach programming, teaching, and learning. He injects his own humor into the lectures, makes time for questions, and gives you all of the resources and assignments you need to succeed in the class. His discussions have up to 4 TA's who walk you through weekly labs. There are also homework assignments to reinforce the material. His exams are all open-resource (compiler, notes, textbook, manual, slideshows), which I somewhat disagreed with but appreciated. This does not make them an "easy 100" because they test you on deeper conceptual knowledge. His projects are hard, so it's important to start early. But if you like CS, they are very rewarding. For example, you recreate a build tool called make that's used in C and you make your own heap manager. He writes all of the tests for you ("secret tests are stupid") but compensates for this with harder material. His style rubrics and exam rubrics are very lenient - you'll lose 1 point for something that for another professor would lose at least 3. The fact that the class was not stressful does not mean you can blow off the class or that you're not gaining important computer skills. I learned so much about computer systems in this class that I would not hesitate to take another class with him again.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/14/2024	HE IS GOAT!!! take his class
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/13/2024	Best Professor at UMD. As long as you do all your homework, labs, and projects you'll pass the class easily. Exams are pretty easy and open notes but the projects are pretty difficult and take a lot of time. You need to know the material for it! On the bright side, there's no secret test you can see what you're testing for. Koffman is the best professor I've had. You will not regret taking him.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2024	best professor i've ever had, the class was pretty easy because of how well he can teach. offers many chances for extra credit. he truly has a talent for teaching.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/13/2024	Kauffman is awesome for 216! His lectures are really entertaining and I really learned a lot because of this course. Exams are open-note and open-computer which it really low stress. Exams were generally very similar to the practice he provided and they all felt fair. Projects is this course can be hard but if you start early then you're chilling. Also, projects are ALL PUBLIC TESTS which made it much easier for me to finish. There's also extra credits available if you participate in class or make a helpful post on Piazza. Kauffman is a really kind professors and you should definitely take him for 216 over anyone else.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/08/2024	Prof K is great, the open note exams are fair and well, open note. He also recorded his lectures, which was great, but also decentivized going to the actual lectures. Every week there was a lab and a homework, which you could just click through the homework but the lab was <20 minutes. The projects could have been worded better, but in general were ok.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/07/2024	You do not have to go to a single discussion or lecture. He records everything. He even provides instructions for projects through his YouTube videos. The exams were very fair. Projects were slightly time-consuming. Labs and homework quizzes were extremely easy. You also have many opportunities for extra credit. His exams are also open-note. The gold standard for a computer science course.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/05/2024	Super passionate about what he teaches and he is able to keep the class engaged. His labs are useful and he records his lectures. Extra credit is available if you participate and complete all the labs which is also helpful. His exams are fair and similar to his practice exams(all open note). However, don't take it lightly because you still have to study hard and understand everything well in order to do good in his class. The only negative things(that aren't really even that bad imo) that I'll say about Kauffman is that he breezes though C. After the first three weeks, you will be done with C, structs and pointers and move onto x86-64 assembly for a while. So make sure to study C before his class starts to get a foundational understanding because the rest of the course is based off this knowledge. For example, I've heard nelson spends way more time on C. The only other thing is that his projects are super long. You get around 7-10 days, and you must absolutely start them around 5 days before because they take anywhere between 20-30 hours of pure work/debugging unless you are super smart and have been programming for a long time. Other than all that, Kauffman is the way to go since you will learn so much useful information and understand computers from a new perspective.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/05/2024	In general, he is quite a good professor: very smart, so you are guaranteed to learn a lot, will challenge you but makes much of the course doable and manageable. Pros: - First and foremost, he has OPEN NOTE EXAMS (including laptop use, but no internet) - Gives plenty of opportunities for extra credit, and it is merely for just engaging normally in class and with coursework - You can tell he cares deeply about students' learning and gives many opportunities for asking questions in lectures - Explains new ideas very well by relating them to known ideas for prerequisite knowledge - Holds office hours a lot, where students can get help (if it's not too close to a project deadline) - Gives "take home" homework quizzes, that are a guaranteed 100% (can check answers) - Records lectures and posts videos! Cons: - Occasionally can be a bit hard to understand and sometimes slurs his words (again this is not very common) - Because he enables such a platform for questions and getting extra credit for them, lectures can be clogged up by insistent question-asking - For me, and many students, the projects were often quite difficult, disproportionate to other assignments and in-class exercises - To me, though this is not unanimous, lectures could be a bore at times (perhaps this is because I felt this way about much of the class) Overall, to me, Kauffman is by far the best option for CMSC216 because he will enhance your learning and make a generally quite difficult class more manageable and doable, all while providing his best effort all around.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/18/2024	Best Prof, mind you I have failed 216 once, so I know in comparison to other profs too.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 03/28/2024	Excellent teacher, just attend classes, start early (just to get a feeling for it) and labs. Again, great teacher and person.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/27/2024	Prof. K. is the BEST professor for 216 (and likely any other course you see him teaching). He takes time to make very helpful slides + super engaging lectures. He makes help readily available with him and TAs having office hours + being super responsive on Piazza. Exams were open-resource this semester, as he felt it was more fair to make exams similar to how you would actually be doing development in the real world (and the exams were not a trap, they were very manageable). Projects can be difficult, so definitely start early, but there is a lot of help available, including the professor's detailed project website pages as well as his YouTube videos which overview the entire project with hints. He also offers makeup credit on projects which is very attainable. Finally, he gives extra credit w/ a sort of complex system, but basically if you do the labs and ask a couple questions in class, you'll get extra credit. If you see anyone not giving Prof. K. a 5-star for 216, ignore them, this is the best prof at UMD.
Christopher Kauffman cartorh 12/23/2023	Lectures are recorded and all the materials are online. Though you get bonus points for interacting during the lecture (just answering his questions or asking a question of your own). The bonus point are calculated based on a log base 2 function so for each bonus point ("engagement point) you get the next one will need twice as many questions. so if you ask 15 questions you'll get 4 engagement points (l,ll,llll,llllllll). Each discussion and hw is worth an engagement point, so if you miss one, but still talk in lecture you're fine. You can also submit projects up to 48 hours late with each 24 hour increment costing an engagement point.
Christopher Kauffman Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/23/2023	He teaches the course like he's preparing you for industry, not an exam. He has a great sense of humor and occasionally brings in fun guest speakers. His project descriptions are very detailed, but not overbearing. It's nice to have the guidance of project descriptions and the video semi-walkthrough he makes for each project. The exams are open notes & computers, but not open internet. So you can check the slides and test code during the exams, as he's preparing you for industry and how programming is actually done not a silly test. Overall a great professor and a great human!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2023	Well, where should I start? I came into this semester fearing 216 because I knew this course was going to be tough and I had no clue how the professor was going to be since he was new. But Kauffman made the class so much more exciting and fun than it was supposed to be. The way his course is structured really benefits the students quite a lot. 40% of the grade is in your pocket since it's all assignments, projects, and homework, which are fairly graded. The midterms and final exams have the same weight, i.e. 20% each. His projects can get a bit lengthy but the pro is that you can make up on a project that you didn't do well on by attempting the bonus credit for other projects. I would say that his exams can be a little tricky at times, but it is fair given the fact that it is an open book, and he also provided a sample paper, which was almost like the actual paper we give. He really cares about his students and answers basically any question you ask him, even if it is out of the syllabus. His entire concept of bonus engagement points is SO HELPFUL. You answer a question in class or on piazza and that gives you a bonus point! I would highly recommend you all to take him for whatever class he teaches because I can guarantee you that he won't let you down. As long as you do your work on time and understand the concepts well, you are guaranteed at least an A in this class!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	Can tell that he genuinely cares about his student's understanding. He doesn't use secret tests because he doesn't believe that they improve student's learning. He takes time to introduce concepts on an easy level with discussion exercises and homework before testing your understanding of the concepts harder in projects and exams. Kauffman is a great, down-to-earth guy and I highly recommend any of his classes.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Anonymous 12/21/2023	From my course eval: "Professor Kauffman's lectures were extremely helpful in understanding the material and I appreciated the amount of time he spent going over concepts and the depth at which he covered them. His in-class activities were a breath of fresh air after previous lecture-heavy CS courses and helped solidify concepts. He answered questions during class thoroughly and was clearly passionate about the material and about his students' success. His slides were both informative and visually appealing (as a hobbyist graphic designer, I approve). His nerdy lecture examples were memorable (I recall a Lord of the Rings-themed one demonstrating OCaml records). When extenuating circumstances arose, he was quick to respond to emails and quick to be accommodating. He was extremely open to feedback and willing to sit down in office hours with his students discussing said feedback at length. I do not think I could have had a better 330 professor than him, and I will be looking forward to taking future courses with him (if possible)."
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Expecting a B ibrahim 12/21/2023	Incredible Professor, definitely the best CS professor I've ever had, and he makes it a point to answer everyones question and make sure the class understands topics at a high level. Study the material in class and practice on your own with all the examples he provides in slides and discussions as well as actually understanding the projects, you'll be fine
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/20/2023	Kauffman is a great dude, and I really enjoyed his lectures. He was co-teaching with Cliff this semester, but his exams and quizzes were still fair and he owned up to when they were not. His lectures are super engaging and have good activities baked into them. Overall, 330 was not what I expected it to be - I thought it would be more of a software engineering course, but it was more the theory behind programming languages and deep exploration of functional programming (Ocaml)
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/16/2023	Great lecturer. I had him when he was coteaching with Bakalian, but the content was well-taught, and the online notes were good. Has extra credit for participation in lectures and discussions, which can be a huge advantage, and course is project weighted.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/15/2023	I took him in F23, which was his first semester at UMD from UMN. If I could take him for another class, I would. (I assume some of the things he does will change as he works at UMD for longer, so I can't promise that every policy thing will be the same as when I'm writing this. But I doubt his personality or ability to teach or create great assessments will change anytime soon.) PERSONALITY: He's easygoing and approachable but very serious about his class. He made sure that everything he wanted to be covered got covered, and that it was covered well. He expected us to care about the class and to be working hard on it. That being said, he was happy to make geeky references and jokes, signed off his emails with "Cheers", and made sure I got my ADS stuff properly. I just felt like he genuinely cared about all of our success. AS A LECTURER/MATERIAL: He's very competent, and I think he explained things quite well. He moves a little fast, but he did record and has good slides so that was rarely a concern. Ask questions. He didn't follow the same order or material that the other sections did, but I think the order we followed was good for understanding what we needed to and we really learned a lot of material. Like, looking back, wow. That was a lot of material. TESTS/PROJECTS/GRADING: None of my projects had secret or release tests, which ruled. Also we had open resource exams, which REALLY ruled. Will say that projects weren't easy, and many of us spent ages in OH. But they were SO useful for making sure you knew what you were doing. Like after I finished I felt really solid on concepts. His exams were great in content coverage and fairness, everything felt evenly asked about. And his "engagement point" policy was so student-friendly! Tips for students who are taking his class: - haunt Piazza. - ask any questions you have in lecture. it actively benefits your understanding and your grade - go to discussions (not mandatory, but super useful. it just turned into to OH half the time) - start his projects early. it's easier to do when you have a lot of time.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	Kauffman is the best professor I've had thus far at UMD. His lectures are pretty typical, but his course structure is excellent. His slides are well-organized and great review material. He gives out weekly homework and discussion exercises, which along with projects were my main learning drive in the class. His exams are open-note and open-laptop but feature some difficult questions, the class average was about consistent with a typical CS class. I vastly prefer this style of exam, and I did well on both midterms. The final wasn't very difficult either, although I haven't gotten my score back as of writing this review. It is structured the same as the midterms. The projects are pretty good. There aren't many of them compared to other classes, but the middle ones were fairly difficult. More projects might have been a little helpful, but in the end I don't feel like I missed out on much. The last comment I have is on his extra-credit system. Kauffman has 'engagement points', which are optional extra-credit opportunities. By doing every optional assignment and participating in class you can get a couple percentage points of extra-credit, which lent me a sense of security. All-in-all, take Kauffman if you ever have the opportunity. He's a great professor.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/14/2023	An amazing teacher that really goes above and beyond to help his students not only understand hard concepts, but really helps them apply it to things that will be applicable in the future and help these concepts stick. Projects are a little challenging but really interesting and class is extremely engaging.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 12/13/2023	Great teacher, knows his stuff and is well prepared. start the projects early and utilize office hours. The class is great overall as he makes everything available on his GitHub and is quick to respond to emails
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Expecting a B+ Purplefox 12/10/2023	Professor Kauffman nailed everything you could want and expect of a professor. Despite being new to the department and the class, he quickly took charge of the material. His slides were excellent, covering history, documentation, example code, and exercises with answers. He gave us time to work on exercises, discuss with classmates, and always answered questions. He genuinely cared about making sure we understood the material. He had amazing integrity, owning up to his own mistakes. He even provided recordings of the sessions. Professor Kauffman went above and beyond by sharing his opinions on the topics and discussing their practicality. He questioned why we covered certain topics and where the information came from. Overall, Professor Kauffman is a great addition to the CS Department, and I would recommend taking a class with him if you get the chance.
Christopher Kauffman Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/09/2023	For context, I am BAD at cs. I’ve never learned more from a professor than from Prof K. His lectures are fantastic. I am insanely antsy so focusing for a 75 minute lecture is HARD, yet when he’s teaching I am locked in. He’s also a huge advocate for his students!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2023	Professor Kauffman is easily one of the best professors I've had at UMD so far, up there in Justin levels of greatness. Right here is a teacher who really seems like they care about the subject can teach it in a way thats easy to understand and seems to care for the students as well. He's personable, funny, and I am probably more engaged in his lectures than I am in any other CS lecture I've had before. One thing I love is that he'll always answer questions and is happy to do so. He's got funny little nerdy references in his slides as well which is nice coming from Larry. Overall, his command of the subject is impressive but not surprising given his experience. Everything he teaches in based off of textbooks or some source so you know what you're learning is legit and is following some level of a standard (and not just the arbitrary musings of some researcher). He comes off as a little passive agressive sometimes, but in a funny way and only when its warranted (a kid won't stop asking questions that are pointless and interrupt class, someone asks a question that was just answered, etc.). His slides were also pretty good, sort of dense but filled with useful motivating examples. The worst part of this experience with him was that it felt like he was always being hampered down by coteaching with Cliff, which makes sense. This is a man with 20+ years of educational experience, coming from the University of Minnesota and GWU (with raving reviews at both) and he shouldn't really have to coteach so I hope he isn't in the future. The projects that he himself wrote (project 7 and 8) were easier to understand and do compared to the collaborative ones which is good and I felt like I put in my time, learned something, and could walk away happy. If there are seats open for this man, take him. I just hope he stays at UMD because I think his ways of teaching should be an example for the whole department.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/05/2023	Prof K is on his way to being one of the GOAT's of CS professors. His lectures are great, the exams are manageable and actually test content that has appeared in the course before. His projects are a little difficult but I think that's just the class itself.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Anonymous 11/29/2023	Lectures are great, assignments and exams are relatively easy
Christopher Kauffman Expecting an A Anonymous 11/28/2023	Kauffman has been an incredible teacher... highly recommend!!!
Christopher Kauffman Expecting an A+ Anonymous 11/17/2023	Truly incredible. A super genuine guy who takes teaching seriously. Prof Ks class is super engaging and fun
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Expecting an A andruepabloske 11/17/2023	Very funny and helpful guy who cares a lot about your learning. Take him!
Christopher Kauffman Anonymous 11/13/2023	TAKE HIM. New and learning the UMD specifics but will quickly become one of the best in the CS Department
Christopher Kauffman Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/09/2023	So I took this class when he was co-teaching with Cliff and I really wish I had taken it when it was his own class with his own exams, quizzes, and projects because he always talks about how he would do something even if it's not what he can do in the present moment. In case you need some sort of statement of his character he dressed up as Peter Parker for Halloween and it was hilarious. Also, he has a dad-tone sort of lecturing style and I'm here for it. He will adjust the lectures to account for students' questions. He also admits when mistakes are made or something doesn't work out like he hoped it would. (i.e he wrote some open-ended questions for the exam for it was a shit show but he owned up to it)
Christopher Kauffman CMSC216 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/09/2023	Awesome lecturer, extremely fun, smart, and just overall a chill person. Projects are challenging but really improve and solidify my understanding on the course material. Exams don't have any surprises or curveballs and I feel that I can only blame myself when getting subpar grades. His late policy and extra credit on projects really cut down my stress when struggling to figure out that one bug in my code one hour before submission time. He takes suggestions very well and is extremely communicative with students. Also, guest lecturer Parker solidifies him as a solid professor.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Anonymous 11/08/2023	I'm not actually his student for this course, but I've relied entirely on his posted lectures and supplemental code to get me through this course, so I felt I should leave a review since I chose another professor over him due to the lack of reviews. He's very knowledgeable, charismatic, and sometimes humorous. I've heard great things from his students. The way he explains things just sit super neatly in my head which I am not used to in CS. Take Kauffman!!
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Anonymous 11/03/2023	he can quickly adapt to teaching any course even if he's initially unfamiliar with them. very understanding when a huge curveball exists and is unafraid to admit mistakes. if you are ever curious and want to go more in-depth in the content, he links resources to do so.
Christopher Kauffman CMSC330 Anonymous 10/19/2023	first review!! prof k is awesome, he explains concepts super well, has awesome content (slides, code), and is truly passionate about what he teaches. i never thought i'd be so interested in programming languages, but here we are.