Toby Lin

Sort By:

Information	Review
Toby Lin Expecting an A Anonymous 07/16/2024	I took Toby's class last year and tbh at the time I wasn't super happy with how he came across because it felt like he expected you to know everything already. But after having gotten some internship experiences, I have to say that his class was not only so helpful in knowing what commands I have to use for the job but also it's helped me be more confident in answering open ended questions from peers and my manager. Because the question styles very much reflected how Toby asked questions for the exams, it was just very open ended. He also told me one time that "if you don't know, it's okay to just say I don't know, you don't have to make something up." At the time I thought he was kind of rude, but looking back at it, he did explain the concept to me after in detail. So whenever I don't know something at work, I've just been telling my manager that I don't know and my manager's been very proactive in helping me understand it. I wasn't punished for not knowing something and clearly communicating that has made it way faster for me to learn it. I think Toby brought the industry experience with him and that directness was too harsh for us as freshman, but looking back on it now, it was actually so useful because now I feel way more confident and ask for help whenever I need it. Basically he's actually not a great professor in terms of teaching concepts, but he's great for preparing you for industry work.
Toby Lin Anonymous 11/16/2023	Pretty knowledgeable about honeypots and containers, just expect to be 100% ghosted or torn apart if you ask him a question.
Toby Lin HACS200 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/26/2023	Honestly, I took Toby in Fall of 2021 and came across these reviews and felt I could expand. When completing the honeypot project, he was pretty hard on our group. However, I am thankful to him because I think he made me better at presenting and creating slides after he roasted our slides and presenting method after the first presentation. Though I felt it was pretty harsh at the time and I was quite angry, I realize now that I learned a lot because of that experience. With that being said, Toby does come off as patronizing and rude but he does have good intentions(I think). If he can just reflect on this issue and slow down when explaining concepts, I think he can be a solid professor in the future
Toby Lin Anonymous 04/27/2023	Toby is a smart instructor who is passionate about what he is teaching, but these skills do not necessarily translate to teaching well. He lectures for fifty minutes on one topic and then expects you to finish the lab and complete the homework without much assistance. Although the TAs do their best to help the students, there are so many that are unable to help due to the size of the course. The midterm was unreasonable as the core concepts that are emphasized throughout the course involve scripting, not the concepts tested on the exam. Although he gave test corrections, he emphasized that we should have known everything. When you do receive help from him, he can come across as condescending and rude although that might not be his intention. If the course was structured differently, with more support, more credits, and less intensive homework, I would enjoy the course and learning the content more.
Toby Lin HACS101 Expecting an A Anonymous 04/27/2023	Rude and dismissive to students. Full of himself. Expects students to figure out most of the class by themselves. Grades unpredictably.
Toby Lin Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/26/2023	I'm only giving him 1 star because I can't give him 0. Honestly, Toby is smart but he's a horrible teacher. He doesn't know how to teach. AT. ALL. He goes way too fast and in the Monday lecture will scratch the surface of a topic and expect you to use Google and the man pages to figure out the rest by end of the week. The homeworks are way too hard and grading is super harsh. The TA's barely know how to answer half of our questions. The only useful thing in this class are the slides because they tend to have some of the code you'll need. Google is your only hope...
Toby Lin HACS101 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/26/2023	Manages to give a 4-credit class worth of work within a 2-credit class. Purposefully avoids directly answering questions, leading to miscommunication on expectations on assignments and projects. I understand he is trying to make learning topics more independent instead of relying on him for answers, but it gets to the point where he literally provides no guidance, acting as if we should already have complete confidence in the topic after just 1 week. The class overall isn't difficult, but his grading techniques can be questionable.
Toby Lin HACS101 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/24/2023	Absolutely useless teacher. Acts stuck up and like he is doing a really good job, but is actually overloading a 2 credit course with completely unnecessary technical work. This course would be excellent if they spread out the content over more time, and taught it in depth. However, Toby will give a 30 minute presentation on Mondays and expect you to know the topic as if you were a veteran expert in the field.
Toby Lin Anonymous 04/09/2023	Doesn't like helping his students. Gives vague answers to any questions you ask. Makes students feel dumb for not knowing the answers to complicated questions.
Toby Lin HACS101 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/27/2023	Super unclear with just about everything. His class is more about how much you understand the stuff that he's talking about rather than the stuff on the slides. If you're good at taking notes from a person talking then you should be fine.
Toby Lin HACS101 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/07/2023	Smart guy but kind of indirect.