Michael Marsh

This professor has taught: CMSC388J, CMSC389Z, CMSC414, CMSC417, CMSC420, CMSC433, CMSC436, CMSC818Y

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Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 06/27/2024	Marsh's greatest contribution to the field of college education is getting out of the way of his students by letting them do the course self-paced. That comes with its own risks that you do in fact fall behind. But do not expect any help from him or the TAs through your journey, you're on your own.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/22/2024	Not a bad professor, but honestly I saw him like once since the class is completely self paced with an at home final, and everything except the final has unlimited attempts until the final day of school. I would say as long as you don't get too far behind this should be a pretty easy A, and you still learn a decent amount about some data structures. I got very behind and had to complete most course work including and all projects the month before the semester ended, and still got and A-, so the work and projects aren't that bad, but still a lot to catch up on. The worst thing in the class was definitely the vagueness of certain projects and quizzes. Sometimes you'd have to brute force a quiz in order to get a 100 because the question or lecture was so vague that the answer wasn't easily figured out. I think I had like 20 attempts on one quiz because of this. The best thing about the class is definitly how you basically work towards your desired grade. He gives pretty solid benchmarks on what you need to and A, A-, B+, etc. and as you submit assignments, you build towards a grade. This is pretty cool and is nice when compared to other professors who leave students in the dark about how they grade and what is needed for an A. Overall this class is pretty easy, just don't fall too far behind, or you'll regret it.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/17/2024	I took 414 Spring 2023. His flipped classroom approach and low-stakes quizzes were a breath of fresh air. His grading policy was very straightforward which made figuring out your grades a lot less stressful. If you consider yourself bad at time management, he may not be the right professor for you. Things may have changed since I took this class, so this might not be accurate anymore, but assignments weren't officially due until the very end of the semester. If you're unable to keep up with the recommended schedule, you might find yourself having to do everything at the last minute. Some of the projects (especially the first one, which was about buffer overflow and NOP sleds) took quite some time to do, so watch out! 414 was very interesting and you learn a little bit about a lot of different things. I think it's quite useful in figuring out whether computer security is a field you'd be interested in pursuing. Marsh was also very nice and friendly; the TAs on piazza were also super helpful (shout out to Julio!).
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/30/2024	Everything is asynchronous, online, and self-paced. There is "class time" but it is optional and only for questions. All the quizzes take maybe an hour to do each, and they have infinite retries, so you can keep doing it till you get 100%. Same with projects, no secret tests. I honestly don't know how anyone doesn't get an A+ in the class lol. Everything also has no due date, so you can do everythin up till the last day of the semester (although I wouldn't suggest that since the projects do take time, but they're fun!)
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 04/25/2024	Marsh is a great dude. Take his classes. Nuff said
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 02/17/2024	Took this class Spring 2023. Self paced, and guaranteed A if you're willing to put the work on it. Highly Highly recommend.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A+ atp236 12/23/2023	I really liked having Marsh for 420 and would highly recommend this experience. This semester is his first semester using a standard-based grading system, so if you completed all of your projects and got 100% on them, got 100% on all of the quizzes, and got a certain amount of “Excellent” for your “exams”, then you would have a guaranteed A. I really liked this style because I knew exactly what I had to complete to get the grade I wanted, and this style forces you to complete your work. There was no curve, and you were not competing with your peers which made the class feel more like a team effort. Like other reviews mentioned, he uses a flipped classroom style so you watch “lecture” videos before class, complete a quiz, and during class, it is like “discussion” where he goes over examples of the data structure. Class kind of felt optional because it was recorded if you really wanted to review it, but he did a good job at keeping track of the notes and posting them if you wanted to reference them later. He is very friendly and knowledgable though, so it was nice to come and support in class. I found this flipped classroom style a little bit difficult for me because it felt like I had to teach myself if I was confused on how to complete the quiz, but this issue was mainly resolved by my next point. There are “soft” deadlines for projects, online quizzes, and online exams (challenge problems) in the class, but you technically have unlimited attempts and until the end of the semester to get 100% on these assignments because you can request for extensions without penalty. If I was confused on how to do a quiz, I could eventually brute force the quiz until I got 100% because the question bank eventually repeats, or I could come to class to watch him do a few more examples and ask questions. The “exams” were not as intimidating as they sound, and I really value Marsh because of the challenge problems. There are 4 problems to complete after each unit, and the questions still force you to understand the data structure (minus all of the theory and math that might be associated with other 420 professors…). I would allocate 1-2 hours to completing the challenge problems per each unit. The final exam was also a set of 4 challenge problems. These exams were little to no stress since if I messed up, then I could get feedback (except for the final) and re-submit. The projects were moderately difficult, but doable if you give yourself enough time and seek out help if you are dying. I would suggest following the soft deadlines that Marsh provides to stay on track because I felt like he gave an appropriate amount of time for each project. I remember he said as long as you dedicate enough time to this class, you can get an A, and I really do agree with this statement.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/21/2023	Apart of the reverse classroom era so take this review with a grain of salt incase things change. This semester we had no exams and the final was "challenge" questions that the TAs pretty much just gave everybody A's on. Projects were unlimited submissions and there were no hard deadlines until the last day of the semester. As somebody who doesn't like going to much class, the reversed classroom style was really great for my convenience.. Unfortunately, I can't say I learned as much as I probably should have throughout the semester since the projects and unlimited attempt quizzes were pretty minimal in terms of the content Marsh probably covered in lecture. That being said, this was my choice to not really engage with the material as much as I probably should have. The flipped classroom exacerbated this but if you're into computer and network security and really want to learn a lot, Marsh makes that 100% possible. It seems like everybody's only really on board for the free A, which I can tell you is free as long as you do everything.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/18/2023	Honestly such a great teacher. Please actually watch the lectures and you will learn a ton from this class. He cares a ton about his students
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/14/2023	Great professor, very smart, and loves to help. With that, it feels as if his style is too chill, so if you often procrastinate, it may be bad to take it with him because you can push every assignment to the last week of the semester with no punishment. The flipped classroom for me was positive in that I didn't go to class, but I don't feel I learned that much. It lead me to just do the rather simple projects and just guess and check on the unlimited attempt quizzes until I finished modules. You do not need much knowledge from the course to do the projects (besides the hardest one which is the buffer overflow one), so watching or going to the lectures is up to you. I recommend him if you can handle doing work on your own time and/or will go to all of the discussions (there were max 15/200+ students that went to the lecture by the end).
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/31/2023	do yourself a favor and take any class marsh teaches. ive had him for 414, 436, and 420 - his teaching style is extremely chill and fair. highly recommend, one of the goats.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/28/2023	Used the flipped classroom model with every assignment due at the end of the semester. Personally wasn't a big fan of this. If you do take the class, take it with one or two of your friends so you can do work with them and stay up to date. Also don't wait to start projects or challenge problems. TAs were very helpful for projects. You definitely don't learn as much as you would with a normal class, but you still learn a decent amount nonetheless. Also its an extremely low-stress class due to there not being any exams which is nice.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Charl1e1029 05/26/2023	As you may have seen in other reviews, Marsh used a flipped classroom model for this course and made all deadlines soft for assignments. This made all assignments have a hard deadline on the last day of finals with no late penalties on assignments. I definitely appreciated this classroom formatting, as it made it a lot less stressful to get the grade you're working towards. This class was graded off of 3 core modules: Basic Objectives, Challenge Problems, and Projects. The basic objectives were simply canvas quizzes you had to get a 5/5 on based off of recorded lecture material, and the Challenge Problems were written response prompts graded out of 3. Although you had to get at least a 2/3 on many of the challenge problems, everything was resubmittable, thus making it easy to improve upon any bad grades. The projects of this class were not like standard CS projects you'd typically face. Most of these projects required MUCH more thinking rather than physical coding. I personally spent a majority of the time on these projects thinking it out rather than typing out lines of code/debugging. You will most likely be completely lost at first when starting projects, but one you get it, its a no brainer. To get an A or B in this class, you MUST score 100% on these projects, which is daunting at first, but the ability to resubmit as well as the fact that the projects are graded mostly off of functionality and not things like secret tests makes them more bearable. There is also a group project... and lets just say you can do it individually but finding a good group really helps with it's completion. Lastly, there is a final that is 4 extra challenge problems. It is only required if you want an A or B, and isn't much more difficult than the standard challenge problems. I would say the hardest thing about this class is staying motivated. Because the deadlines are soft, it is easy to brush assignments away and let them pile up throughout the semester. I'd say 3/4ths into the semester, only about half the class had finished the FIRST project (note that by this time you should've been done with the THIRD). This will make this class BEYOND stressful for the end of semester, so if you do take this class, do yourself a favor and STAY ON TOP OF YOUR WORK. Other than that, Marsh truly is an understanding professor, and his lectures are typically helpful practice on project concepts and/or Q&A sessions regarding projects/course topics.
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/23/2023	Marsh is a very good professor. You can tell he really wants his students to succeed and puts a lot of time and effort into making sure that happens. I don't know when Marsh's office hours are, but I know he spent way more than those on students a week. Several of my friends needed "skills tests" appointments (basically a live coding, open book quiz you take 1 on 1 with a prof or TA). He accomodated so many that I'm honestly surprised how he found all the time. Marsh also responds to piazza fairly quickly, for the majority of the semester. Marsh also provides hints in project descriptions about what concept to use to implement that part of the project. His projects are very fair. Not too easy, but not insanely difficult. This class was one of the few classes I walked out of thinking I had developed a real world skill. He's seriously a very good professor. My only flaw with Marsh was the format of his recorded lecture. In it, he talks about what code does, which is just a screenshot in a slide. I wish he would execute it and show a demonstration. However, Marsh does have live lectures in addition where he does demonstrate so that makes up for it. My only flaws with this course was the nature of skills test, and the TAs. The skills tests, especially the later ones, are so specific, you couldn't actually expect someone to be able to implement what they are asking. The earlier skills tests are okay though. The next issue was the TAs. Some just weren't that helpful and some didn't seem to understand the projects that well. But Marsh himself was so good this semester that it made up for it. This semester he made this class so theres no hard due date on assignments. But if you take this class, do your best to follow the hard due dates. And watch a lecture video everyday, don't fall behind. Trust me, you can't finish everything in the last 2 weeks. Getting help will become more and more difficult as everyone whos been procrastinating is now also asking for help. Just do yourself a favor and don't fall behind. Anyways, I really recommend this class to anyone. You are given every resource to succeed and most of these concepts can be explained really well with youtube and Chat.
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/22/2023	absolute goat. marsh made the class self paced - each proj had a soft deadline and was allowed resubmissions for a higher score(hard deadline is the end of the semester). lectures are posted on elms while class time is more q/a based where he goes over concepts. as long as you stay on top of the assignments, the class will be enjoyable and easy
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/19/2023	There are no tests in this class. Instead, we have a skill test (unlimited tries) that you schedule with TAs. He really is a professor that wants everyone to do well so he will scale grading requirements depending on how the class is doing. All lectures are posted and lessons plus projects are posted on the very same day which I wish more professors would do. There is no hard deadline (allowing multiple resubmissions too) and was very lenient towards the end, even extending the deadline way beyond what it was supposed to be. That being said, you still have to do work, and if you really apply yourself, you will take away a lot from the class. Great person and very practical class too; I learned a lot! Taking Marsh for virtually any class is a no-brainer!
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/18/2023	Start projects early. Never went to class and but his videos and slides were super helpful. Because of the flipped class and all of the lectures are recorded it's sometimes hard to ask questions but if you go to his or any of the TAs office hours they are super helpful. Marsh is the goat fr. One of the top 3 CS class I've taken behind taking 420 with him.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/16/2023	Marsh used a flipped classroom model with soft deadlines for 414, which based on other reviews is something that he does frequently. As a lecturer he is pretty good and engaging, however, I disliked pretty much every other thing about his teaching style and class structure. Soft deadlines is great on paper, until you realize that they provide absolutely no motivation to get any work done before the end of the semester, which is something that every other student I've talked to has also struggled with in this class. Additionally, it is much harder to be motivated to watch an hour worth of lecture videos than it is to attend lecture. Finally, his instructions for the projects are essentially completely useless and don't give any guidance at all. I legitimately do not believe I learned a single thing from this class.
Michael Marsh CMSC388J Expecting an A Anonymous 05/09/2023	Flask is a cool framework, but this class just is really poorly taught. I think the TAs are decent with responding to Piazza posts, grading leniently, and helping with projects, but many of the slides/examples are really hard to follow and actually apply to the projects. The projects (except project #1 which is a Python primer) are also really poorly explained and should be revamped. The descriptions within the README are very vague and very hard to understand. Most of this class is just searching stuff up and reading documentation and trying stuff until you give up. The final project is also quite lengthy, especially for a 1 credit class and we are expected to utilize different Python packages and create a new project which towards finals season is a timesink. I would be okay if we were getting 2 credits at least, but yeah this class is not worth it for 1 credit. Too much of a workload and very few resources provided.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 02/02/2023	I think Marsh really nailed 420. He has a rhythm in how he teaches a class and it really is on the student if they do not leave with an A+. I blame myself for not achieving an A. A few more hours focusing on the projects or tests, and I would have easily left with it. I will say, the first project was pretty difficult, because it was a slap in the face of everything I forgot about Java. Other than the first project, he extensively goes over each project in his slides and in his lectures. If you read up his slides, attend lecture, and ask questions, this class should be an A for you.
Michael Marsh CMSC389Z Expecting a C Anonymous 01/24/2023	The only reason why I didn’t rate prof Marsh a 0 is because he seems to be a generally nice guy, lenient on deadlines, records his lectures, and replies to piazza quickly. But that’s just not enough to be a good teacher. You have to teach. First off, This class is horribly put together. Marsh uses scripts to grade, but doesn’t show you how those scripts are written, so its constant guessing to know if you’ve done something right or wrong. His projects (in this elective at least) are very loosely defined, and after reading the description you don’t have a great idea of what exactly your supposed to do and what his scripts are expecting.. Second, the lectures do not really “teach” you anything. The amount of times I had to go to youtube or use an online resource with a proper explanation.. too many to count. The only requirements are 216, however from the first day Professor marsh was already using terminology as though we had taken 417. His lectures are just him talking about things only people who already knew the material could possibly hope to understand. Prof marsh seems not to understand that we have no background in this subject and never uses images or diagrams in his explanations.. only words. What good is a word if you have no concept of what it means? This is a networking class, a picture would go a long way. Marsh Never breaks down a complex idea into basic ones, just expects you to know what he’s talking about. His style of lecturing is really just rambling. It is really easy to get bored when you are lost Even the pdf he put together for the class has several typos where bits off code are just cut off, causing errors when you run them. In the book, he uses words that he hasnt explained (just like his lectures) and all the ideas seem disconnected Perhaps I’m being too harsh and this is merely the 1 credit winter STIC experience at umd. But if given the chance I would never have taken this course
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/11/2023	Like Marsh's other classes, he uses a flipped classroom model for 414. For Fall 2022, he did something a bit different for 414. He made all the deadlines soft, meaning he had suggested deadlines but you didn't actually have to finish the coursework until the end of the semester. He said it was an experiment for this semester, but I believe he planned on doing it again. This also meant that there were no tests. This lead to some people putting off projects for the whole semester, which I do not recommend. I think like 3/4 of the way through the semester, he said only 50% of people completed the first project. Marsh had quizzes "due" before every lecture, but since we had soft deadlines you could complete them at any time. The quizzes had unlimited tries and it told you what you got wrong. His lectures for some of the latter course material could be a bit tough to understand. He has to quickly explain complex topics like cryptography and networking, in order to dive into the security exploits for them. A lot of the material is tough to understand, but he doesn't test on it aside from the lecture quizzes and challenge problems (more on that later). There were 3 solo projects and 1 team project. The first and third projects (buffer overflow and cryptography) are the hardest. The hardest part of Marsh's projects is starting them because you can be completely lost in the beginning. Once you figure out how to start them, they aren't that bad. His lecture videos don't really help at all, but he tends to answer questions for in-person lectures that help you start. The second project is easy and the fourth is a group project which is not that hard, but you have to do it in C so that makes it hard. You had to get a 100 on all the projects and quizzes in order to pass the class, but that isn't as daunting as it seems. He gives detailed notes on the projects to tell you what you did wrong if you didn't get a 100 so you can fix it. Your entire grade is calculated by "challenge problems" which are scored from a scale of 1-3. These are free-response, practical questions about a module usually based on lecture material. You get unlimited time to do them, they're all online, and you are encourage to look up stuff to help with them. These were graded very leniently with most people getting full points on them. They can be a bit of pain to research, but as I said, they are graded leniently. You also get to re-submit them for corrections. If Marsh keeps his soft deadline model for this class, I would definitely recommend it. Without it, this class could definitely be tough. I enjoyed not feeling too stressed when a project deadline loomed since I could submit it a few days later. If Marsh actually tested on the lecture material instead of doing challenge problems, I would not have done well on the tests. With this system though, the class was not that bad and I believe the average was an 85.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 01/11/2023	Great teacher for 420. As everyone else says, he does a flipped classroom model which means you don't have to go to class ever. He does go over useful examples for tests in lecture, but he uploads all his notes. A lot of the time the lecture videos assigned for a day were less than the lecture time (75 minutes). You have ELMS quizzes due before every class, but you get unlimited tries and they are 5% of your grade. There were 5 projects for a total of 60% of your grade. Most of them weren't that difficult, although as a warning there was a super hard part for the warm-up project for some reason. There's plenty of time in between projects and it's 100% release tests. He evens posts all the projects at the beginning of the semester. There were 4 module tests that accounted for 25% of our grade. It was a little annoying since we would sometimes have module tests two weeks apart from each other, and there was one like a week before the final. These tests were easy and online, however, with averages in the high 80s to 90s (one of the tests had a median of 100). I also ended up liking that we had smaller tests instead of 2 big midterms, since it made it easier to study. The final was definitely much more conceptual and abstract, but it was only 10% of our grade and he graded it pretty easily with averages in the 80s again. Bottom line: Comparing my experience to my friends in other classes, Marsh is definitely the easiest 420 teacher. I don't know if he is as good as Marsh at teaching, but you still learn a good amount in his class. He has easy tests and heavily weighted (and not that difficult) projects.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/05/2023	He changed his course around a lot for this semester which made it extremely easy. With the new system, everything is self paced and you can do the assignments/projects whenever as there is no true due dates. One person speed ran the entire class in a few weeks. In addition, he utilized standards based grading which means that there are no tests, but rather goals which are to be completed. Instead of tests, there are challenge problems which are little assignments that are very easy but make you think. Lectures are not required (but are helpful nonetheless) Overall, this semester’s version has been the most laid back and least stressful CS class I have ever taken as you can easily self pace the entire course and not feel stressed.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/30/2022	I first saw his reviews being like a 3 star and I was worried because the other professors like mount had 4/5 stars. But alas, if you look closely youll see all the low reviews are from his 414 course. I cannot speak about those courses but cmsc420 was a very positive experience. The projects were all given at the start of class and you could pretty much start working on them early. They were somewhat challenging but the projects made most of the grade so with enough effort getting a 90+ on the projects wasnt hard. The unit exams were very fair and were only like 5% each. There were lecture quizzes you needed to complete but those had unlimited attempts so it was an easy 100. It was a flipped classroom model meaning the lectures were all prerecorded and the class time itself was just like a discussion session. I personally never went to class but before exams id study the problems done in those sessions. Final was randomly abstract and hard but i got a C on that and still maintained my A in the class the class itself was very like focused on the content like how to add and remove stuff from a structure versus in mounts class you would do like deep proofs and analysis of time complexity which we never really talked about in this class Compared to my friends in mounts section I can definitely say Marsh is easier than Mount in cmsc420
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/26/2022	one of the goats. i slacked off near the end but the exams and projects are extremely fair. the final is worth only 10% of your grade. all the lectures are online while the actual lecture time in class is a q/a style or office hours which is handy when u r stuck on projects or concepts. i really enjoyed this style of teaching, i knew what to expect in terms of assignments and could plan in the future as everything was already posted and online.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/22/2022	The GOAT. Would definitely recommend taking him for CMSC420. Some notes about his class: - Projects were weighed pretty heavily on our grade. It is important to keep in mind, however, that projects aren't trivial and definitely require starting at least a week in advance. That being said though, all of the projects are posted at the beginning of the semester, so we had quite some time to finish them. - We had 4 module tests. As long as you know the concepts well, they aren't bad at all (very reasonable). - This class follows the flipped-classroom model, which I actually really liked. We learned course material through prerecorded lectures, had quizzes on the material (unlimited attempts), and reviewed the topic/completed relevant exercises during the actual lecture time. Sort of like discussions, except you get to talk to the Professor and review material that way. - Everything was available online for us-- exams, quizzes, lecture notes/recordings/the annotated exercises/etc. - The final was kind of abstract (and somewhat harder than the module tests), but Marsh told us what to expect since the very beginning of the semester, so definitely no surprises there. - TAs were great for this class and gave quick and detailed replies - Marsh is very understanding, does his best to answer questions, and works well with feedback. Also, his shirts for the Zooms were always the best! Again, would recommend!!
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/12/2022	414 teaches a lot of useful concepts in computer and network security! And taking it with Marsh is a no brainer
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/07/2022	The course is very well organized and the professor and TAs respond quickly and do adjust the course based on how the course goes. He uploads pre-recorded lectures which do a great job of explaining stuff that I had to go to lecture 0 times to do well in the course. Tests were all online. For the first test out of four, most students thought the format was bad as drawing trees and uploading them took most of the time rather than testing the concept. So subsequent three tests had no drawing of the tress. All test materials were directly covered in the class so if you paid attention or put some time in, you will do well. Professor actually does listen to student feedback and is willing to adjust if students have point. Projects are straight forward and all grades come from semi-public tests and no secret tests. We get plenty of time for the projects as we only had 5 projects throughout the semester. And material necessary for the project was taught at least 2 weeks before the due date so we got plenty of time. I am no genius but before taking the final, which is 10% of our grade, my grade currently sits at 96%. If you put in work in this course, you will get results. No surprises. I would be sitting at 98% if I didn't miss quizzes due before each session which has unlimited tries. I just forgot about them sometimes.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/20/2022	Marsh has a bad rep for CMSC414, but I don't agree with it whatsoever. All his exams are online open-book open-internet, so they aren't stressful at all. He gives quizzes before the scheduled class time, but you have unlimited attempts on them and all together they added up to 6% of your grade. He had 4 midterms (one for each unit: programming errors, cryptography, networking, human incentives) and some of them can be tricky, but even if you mess up they aren't worth a lot of your grade. He uses a "flipped-classroom" model, where he has us watch videos before class and during class he answers our questions on any material. As a result, not many people showed up to class (I personally stopped going after the second week). One thing I will agree with the criticism about Marsh is that his projects are extremely open ended. The lectures are more or less useless in trying to figure out what he wants you to do in these projects, and you'll find yourself banging your head against a wall for a few days trying to get started, but he gives a lot of time (close to three weeks) for each project. Overall, I'd whole-heartedly recommend Marsh to anyone wanting to take CMSC414.
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Anonymous 05/16/2022	Marsh taught the iOS version of this class when I took it and I also took 420 with him the previous semester. Class is structured like Marsh's other classes: - Projects are the majority of your grade in this class - There are exams but they are online on gradescope, open note, open internet - Class is flipped model, so lectures are prerecorded and you are expected to watch them before class. During actual lecture time, he goes over examples which may or may not be helpful. The projects outside of the first one are graded by hand by TAs and they are pretty lenient with grading. Be fully prepared to teach yourself for this class and pray you get good TAs the semester you take it. There will be a group project to design an app, which is very open ended. My biggest complaint is with the final project. It felt very cobbled together and it was released far too late into the semester, while we had other projects to do as well. Overall, Marsh is one of the nicest, most accommodating professors in the department, but takes a while to get used to. His lectures can be very boring and 436 itself seemed to fall apart organizationally towards the end of the semester.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 05/05/2022	I have a love-hate relationship with this course. I have come to the conclusion, after much flip-flopping, that although Marsh has a bit of a strange protocol for running a course, he is my favorite CS instructor. At first it is a little tricky to get into his headspace, but once I had my head around the groove of the course I found it very enjoyable. I thought that the projects were fun, and that Marsh really wants his students to succeed in the course. He is always responsive and willing to help out and give feedback. Marsh himself is your most valuable resource in this course, I think. I highly recommend 414 in particular, but I would recommend Marsh as an instructor for any other course as well. I would absolutely take a class with him again.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 01/28/2022	You SHOULD take Marsh for CMSC420. I took the course in Fall 2021. Professor Marsh is an amazing teacher. He had a flip flop style class, where his lectures were posted online and there was a quiz that was due before class time. The online lectures were really clear. The quizzes were unlimited time and you had unlimited attempts, so do you what you want with that information. In class, he went over examples problems that explain the algorithm and they were really really helpful. He recorded those in class lectures too, so you didn't even have to go to class. There were 4 exams that were online and the averages were always in the 80s and 90s. He gave us enough time with the projects (2-4 weeks) and they were all very doable and really helpful in understanding the algorithms better. The projects were all in Java, while there was another teacher who made the projects in C, so this is another benefit of taking Marsh. The final was harder than the other exams since it was more abstract, but it was only worth 10% of your grade and he gave a lot of partial credit, so it was fine.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/27/2021	I took this course Spring 2021. CMSC417 is definitely not trivial and the projects take time, but I also enjoyed it and learned a huge amount. Marsh uses flipped classroom but the lecture videos he posts are broken into short sections and are very clear. The projects and homeworks help you learn the material well and the tests were open-note on Gradescope.
Michael Marsh CMSC436 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/27/2021	I took this course in Spring 2021. Marsh uses a flipped classroom but generally he makes everything very explicit and his lecture videos teach the material well. I would say that learning to program iOS apps with Swift is one of the most satisfying and valuable skills I gained in college.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/27/2021	Professor Marsh puts a lot of effort in and makes everything very clear and explicit. The assignments generally help you learn the material well and prepare for the test.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/23/2021	I took this course in Fall 2021. Pros: + Very effective lecturer, asynchronous lecture videos had all the content you need but were concise enough to be not too long. + Projects are explained clearly and are very doable in the time allotted + Listens to student feedback and is very adaptable (especially pertaining to COVID) + Is always happy to answer questions Cons: - Marsh uses a flipped-classroom model, where you view lecture content at home, and actual lecture class time is used for discussion/answering questions. I was personally not a fan of this, as it just led to there being unnecessary 420 HW and having almost nothing to do during class time. Barely anyone even showed up to class. - Partial credit is very harsh, you typically lose points for selecting the wrong answer AND not selecting the right answer, so you essentially lose double points - Compared to midterms, the final felt almost "abstract" in its questions, was definitely much harder than the midterms
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2021	Pros: - All exams were timed, open note, and open internet. They were not structured to be extra difficult because of this caveat. The final was supposed to be in person, but got moved online. - The goals for assignments (home works and projects) were fairly clear. It takes some time to adapt to Marsh's "unique" approach to projects in the class, but office hours and campuswire were always open and the instructors actually answered questions (Most of my previous class piazzas had questions ignored on piazza) - Marsh genuinely cares about the course. Cons: - Lectures are asynchronous. You watch the lectures in your own time, and the lecture itself was a "discussion". I attended almost every in person lecture, and it was a waste of time. - All of his projects are graded with bash and python scripts, and you submit through a gitlab commit. You will always have that feeling in the back of your head that the project might not run the same on his system. - This class has A TON of overhead knowledge. C, docker, git, bash, python, linux, etc. You aren't expected to be an expert, but you will spend a lot of time learning content independent of the class just so you can do the projects. Overall I recommend 414 with Marsh. This is the CS class I had the best experience in. It doesn't hold your hand, but help is there if you need it. It is structured in a way where you ACTUALLY LEARN stuff on your own. With that in mind, you have to put in work to do well in this class. Do not expect this class to be a free A unless you already have security knowledge.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting a C- Anonymous 12/17/2021	Marsh was very organized and taught very well. Exams and homeworks were very fair and we knew what to expect for them. Projects were very difficult and tested heavily on edge cases, so make sure to start those well in advance of the deadline.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 12/09/2021	I took this class in conjunction with CMSC414, and the difference is quite astounding. Comparatively speaking, this class is much better put-together, it is easier to follow, and definitely doesn't suffer the same issues as CMSC414. The course material is relatively easy, and the slides are quite useful. Marsh himself is an alright professor, but his course materials are probably a bit more useful than his actual lecturing. The logistics of the class-- Campuswire, GitLab, etc. -- are not ideal, but they are manageable. The projects are quite tough, but they are in Java! If you are ready for a decent workload, I would recommend this class. Marsh seems to have a pretty good grasp on how to teach data structures.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an F Anonymous 12/09/2021	Michael Marsh is a decent professor, but his classes can be quite difficult. I would NOT recommend taking CMSC414 as your first upper-level class. Definitely take something else first to get used to how they operate. This class is very dense, the material is tough without a lot of background experience, and the projects can be overwhelming. The logistics of this class can also be very annoying. The slides, homework, and exercises are supposed to be helpful, but without some prerequisite knowledge, they can be incredibly difficult to use. Due to the structure of the class I would only recommend taking this if you are ready for a very large workload. I'd imagine someone much more prepared than I was might be able to succeed quite well in this class, but I also imagine my position is a pretty common one. Be careful going into this class, it will challenge you.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/18/2021	Awful, awful professor. Lectures are incredibly high level with absolutely no application involved. Grading scripts make countless errors, which he promises to resolve, but WILL NOT ALWAYS if you are unlucky. Incredibly disorganized course webpage.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/11/2021	He is very mean. Don't take courses with him
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/04/2021	Since the switch to online, Marsh has been an incredible teacher. I had him for cmsc436 and cmsc420 and for both courses he did a "flipped" course, where he posts very clear and concise online modules where you have to watch usually 3-5 broken up (roughly 5-10ish minutes each) lectures twice a week and do a quiz. This is nice becuase it makes class optional becuase its just a session where he goes over examples and lets people ask questions (no clickers or no material taught, so you can skip if you know the material). Quizzes are super easy if you watch the lectures and you get multiple attempts. Exams are extremely fair and heavily resemble homeworks assigned (due about once every 2-3 weeks for 420) or slides from lecture videos. He also made the 420 exams online and open note even though we are back in person, which is very nice. His exams come at the end of every module (also about 2-3 weeks) and are mini exams that are NOT cumulative. The final is the only cumulative test. the exams overall also only account for <30% of the grade, which is good if you somehow bomb an exam. The projects are where he puts heavy emphasis on and theres usually 5 projects (one per module) worth 10% each so 50% total. He has a strict "turn in late and get a zero" policy but don't let that worry you. His projects are very reasonable, Office hours and his campuswire (online forum like piazza) are very helpful and the projects are usually given 3 weeks to finish, I find myself only needing a week or less in most cases though (and Im no genius). He stays away from heavy edge case testing and tests are a mix of public and release (you can only see name of test), but no secret tests. Overall he is my second favorite CS teacher behind Nelson and I highly recommend him for 420 and 436, but I've heard not so great things about 414 with him.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/02/2021	Micheal doesn't teach you and expects you to learn all of the material outside of the class.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Anonymous 05/24/2021	I don't know why there are some reviews commending Marsh for how he handled this course. I took this course with three friends and all of our experiences were pretty terrible. I would keep in mind that we took this during an online/Covid semester so in person may be different. The work load for this course is MUCH greater than 3 credits. I spent more time for this course than for most of the core 4 credit CS classes. A typical week would include about an hour of pre-recorded lectures, 2 quizzes on that content, 2 normal lecture hours, then either a MASSIVE project due over the weekend or several homework assignments. There were also 5 exams throughout the semester. Marsh said at the beginning that this courses bad wrap is due to it being "one of the hardest the department offers". I don't think the difficulty is the content, its entirely with how the course is organized. The lectures do not coincide with the projects, so for more than half the projects you'll be looking at text books learning the material to execute the projects. Marsh will release public test scripts to test your projects but they typically don't work, causing everyone stress by having to submit their project blindly. His testing scripts would also typically screw up on the projects causing many students to request regrades, which they wouldn't receive back for months later. In 2 instances, information in the project description was either wrong or misleading, which caused due dates to get pushed back. This would be fine except Marsh did not compensate the rest of the schedule. This caused the biggest project of the semester to be given a week less to complete. On the last day of classes, we had an exam, a homework and the big project due. The only reason I did not give this 1 star is that I believe some of the projects are pretty cool once theyre in a complete state. I would not recommend this course unless you genuinely think putting on your resume that you took a formal networking course will help you. If you're just interested in networks, you're better off just looking at networking textbooks and resources online in your freetime.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 02/10/2021	Insists on using campuswire for some reason when literally everyone else uses Piazza. Also insists on using Gitlab when everyone else uses the submit server. In 414 he gave us previous exams but would straight up refuse to answer or ignore us if we asked what the answer was. Rushes thru slides and expects us to know every single small detail about a topic, but at the same time will assign homeworks and projects that barely have anything to do with what he tests you on. Also in 420 he made exams super long for no reason, you wouldn't have finished unless you used other resources or asked your friends for help or saw the exam beforehand. Avoid him, you and your GPA will thank me later.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/26/2021	His recorded lectures are easy to understand and go over. His exams aren't too bad. Projects can be tricky given how much he tests on edge cases. Overall a pretty good professor and really understanding.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/12/2021	I had Professor Marsh for CMSC420. Previously, I had him for CMSC414 and did not have a great experience. This time I thought that he did a much better job in how he taught the material and the assignments that were given in class. The projects and exams were very reasonable and it was one of the better upper level computer science classes that I have taken so far.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 01/05/2021	Although Dr. Marsh was nice and a lenient regrader, I found his lectures and in-class exercises to be very boring and unintuitive. All content lectures were pre-recorded, and during our actual class time, we would ask him questions and watch him do exercises. He explains concepts in high level terms that make it difficult to understand as a student who is learning about cybersecurity for the first time. I would ask him questions about certain topics so that I could better understand them, but it became a chore as the semester went on. He is very smart and knows a lot about the concepts that he teaches, however I was able to better understand these concepts by watching youtube videos that covered them. Homeworks and exercises, while intellectually challenging, taught me more about how to navigate unix systems and find bugs than about computer and net security.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/29/2020	Dr. Marsh was a pretty solid professor. He was really accommodating during the pandemic and tried to make things as easy for us to understand given the circumstances. While I had some complaints about the tests and the format of the material, he was helpful in clarifying any confusion and was really open to hearing suggestions for how to teach the course virtually in the future. The projects for 414 were really fun and interesting, but also challenging and really made you think about the code rather than just mindlessly typing. He also was flexible with regrade requests on projects and exams, which probably saved my grade when I realized later on that something was wrong.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 12/24/2020	Does not help you prepare for exams whatsoever. What's the point of showing us previous exams with no answers? Likes to ask random trivia questions that you'll never find even if you search the whole internet. Tough projects that are worth too much of your overall grade, no late deadlines either. Genuinely regret taking this class with him, honestly a miracle I passed
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting a B Anonymous 09/15/2020	Really good professor, but he uses Jason's projects and he hasn't read the src code so you won't ever know how your code gets tested. He'll review your code from a theory pov, however his mini-exams every week and his lecture videos are perfect.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 08/10/2020	Really responsive and well prepared for online lecture
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 07/22/2020	One of the best CS professors I've ever had. Marsh is a very kind and interesting person as well as a very attentive and well-organized professor. All lectures were well presented and all projects were fair. He was very generous with project extensions when they were warranted. Tests and homework assignments were extremely easy. It would take great effort or supreme procrastination for one to do poorly in Marsh's CMSC420 section. Highly reccomend.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2020	Explains things well and provides exercises for students to practice
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/15/2020	I was scared to take him based on past reviews, but I'm happy to say he was great. Great lecturer with interesting material and anecdotes. He was truly nice and understanding. Responded quickly and helpfully to questions. I also had read that he used to live and die by his automatic grading system. That is no longer the case and is more than willing to go in manually and re-grade something, even if it was your fault for misformatting some output.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A- nshropsh 05/12/2020	Marsh has so far been my favorite computer science professor. All content he covers through lecture is clear and complete, so it leaves out ambiguity. His tests have been very fair (despite making the switch to online exams). He has been extremely responsive to students this semester and he has been very active online even before quarantine. Take him for 420 if you get the chance.
Michael Marsh CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 03/31/2020	I think his previous reviews were when he was a very new professor. He has definitely improved a lot since then. He is one of the best CS professors I have had at Maryland.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/18/2019	Marsh was fine (clearly knowledgeable, willing to take feedback, friendly in office hours), but he insisted on spending the entire class reading from his slides from behind the podium, almost totally still. The room tended to be dim, and his voice was steady and soothing. . . The final was unexpectedly all multiple choice, not ideal for me, but the curve was strong. Overall, I'm not going out of my way to take Marsh again, but he's not a dealbreaker.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Expecting an A- Anonymous 06/03/2019	Based on past reviews, I was extremely weary to take Marsh for this class, but after going through it I’m glad I did. He has improved a ton and takes constructive criticism in stride to actually improve the class (the only cs prof I’ve seen do this). Many complain his test scripts are still broken, but these were due to tests that are more in depth than other courses, which I believe is a great thing. You can also tell he loves the subject. His lectures can be a little tough to follow at times as his examples aren’t always the clearest, but he is willing to reexplain anything that may have been ambiguous. Overall, the most useful class I’ve taken at UMD and no regrets on Marsh.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/16/2019	Overall Professor Marsh was a much better professor than I think most of these reviews suggest. He has made changes based on what I hear on here. He no longer does take home exams which seemed to have been a major issue in past semesters based on past reviews and reddit threads. He is well prepared for lectures, and genuinely seems to care about students' success. He offers a survey active all semester for students to voice their opinions of the course, and he even sent individual messages to the students who did really well on each exam congratulating them on their success which was a nice way to show he actually cares about students doing well, which is really rare among professors here in my opinion. His grading scripts can be frustrating and his lack of public tests is something that I think could be improved, but overall he is not a bad professor. Class is pretty hard, but you learn a lot about how the internet works which is pretty cool.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Expecting an A Anonymous 03/16/2019	Marsh for 417 was great. He took a systems approach to the whole class which I really liked. If you didn't like 216 then you'll have a rough time, but projects are easy as long as you can read manpages and use Wireshark. It's impossible to fail his class if you submit even a half-assed attempt on all the projects. All exams including the final were take-home. If you don't get an A in the class it's on you
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 11/20/2018	Project grades are always off by at least 20% because he trusts his "scripts". Exams are tough, hard to study for. And everything else is as other reviews described. Terrible professor.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Anonymous 10/14/2018	Such a terrible teacher for 417. Exams and projects are so vaguely worded. You need to make several assumptions on exam questions, but if your implementation doesn't match his you get a 0. When we asked for clarifications, he would sometimes give us misleading answers. He never gave us sample input/output even though we asked before every project and exam. Half way through the semester he just gave up on doing slides. Grading felt like it was arbitrary, but he told us not to worry about it because he promised a substantial curve. He ended up setting 39 as the cutoff for a C-, but an 85 was still a B, so he might as well have not curved. He also gives out minuses but not pluses.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an F Anonymous 08/30/2018	I agree with everyone else
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting a B Anonymous 06/11/2018	Worst computer science professor I've ever had at UMD. He puts this university to shame, and the worst part is - he's a pretty nice guy (it's so frustrating). - lectures are downright impossible to follow - he gives high-level explanations and then tests on low-level code implementation - his take home exams require the use of libraries/tools that have bad documentation - his take home exams are heavily biased towards students who have already taken cmsc417/cmsc456 - warning: if he gives take homes, prepare to devote 20-30 hours of work to it and watch the average be a 40-60% - his grading scripts are terrible and you always need regrades - he uses elms discussion boards instead of piazza - he's stubborn, unhelpful, and oblivious in general My advice? Avoid this class at all costs, and don't take any class with this professor. Not worth your time.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/21/2018	Nice guy. Worst professor I've ever had. I could go into all the reasons, but frankly it would just be exhausting, so I'll just say this: >He is bad at communicating >His project descriptions are borderline unfollowable >He only holds one office hour a week that is shared between 417 and 414 >His test grades are almost always wrong and you have to ask him for points back every time >His grading is completely opaque unless you bug him for his inputs >He forces you to use elms discussion boards and does not respond to any student questions posted to elms >His lectures do not cover exam topics, they just give general, high level explanations of things >He does not understand the math behind cryptography but tries to teach it anyway >If you take him, you will learn everything on your own DURING the test >He gives assignments that take much longer to complete than he says they will (his catch phrase is "30 minutes of coding per problem") The list goes on... If you take him, prepare to be paying for nothing I wasn't gonna list everything, but I did anyway. Woops. There you go. Avoid at all costs.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 05/21/2018	Wish i could give a zero rating for his Excellenc in organizing lectures and his remarkable project readmes
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 04/17/2018	worst class ever. Don't even know what I should get
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Anonymous 04/12/2018	Honestly, one of the most unorganized classes I've ever taken. Avoid this professor at all costs. The first project took nearly 2 months to get back to us, and over half of the students got zeroes due to shoddy testing code. Every assignment we've had so far has had to be regraded. This morning, the day AFTER the drop deadline, he announces the next midterm and final exam will be in class rather than take-home. Completely unprofessional.
Michael Marsh CMSC414 Anonymous 04/04/2018	He is the worst professor. Just reads off the slides and gives like 4 15 minutes excercises in class. Doesn’t give answers to these exercises. He forced everyone to use elms discussion instead of piazza. Exams are extremely hard avergae was 52 for our first midterm. He doesn’t have time for his students. 1 hour of office hours per week and that too for 414 and 417 combined.i am not sure what grade i have in this class. Extremely unorganized professor. Biggest mistake of my life to take 414 with him.
Michael Marsh CMSC417 Expecting a W cnaka 03/30/2018	His lectures are mediocre, but the real problem is how he tests code. He puts our arbitrary project specs without public/release tests and then tests them in a very specific way, causing many students to get zeros for things such as putting a space in the wrong place in the output. He said he would fix this, but I still have no idea what grade I have in this class.