Jacquelyn Meisel | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/08/2021	Professor Meisel is fairly new to teaching the class and because of that she made a few mistakes. She has very promising potential and accepted feedback on issues that students had with certain aspects of the class (i.e. the first midterm). That midterm tanked my grade but she gave lots of resources to help study for future exams and adjusted the difficulty of these exams. She is the most approachable professor I have ever had. She had office hours four times a week and made time for anyone who couldn't meet during those times. I found that reading the book was important in understanding the concepts in depth. There was a programing assignment every week (except midterm weeks) they could be done in most popular languages (Java, Ruby, rust, etc.) but python is preferred. Pseudocode for each assignment was either in the book or a modification of something in the book. Start the projects when they are assigned as they are due in a week and you may need help in OH. The exams were 60% MCQ/fill in the blank and 40% short answer (final was 50/50) the MCQ was straightforward especially if you did well on the quizzes. The short answer was problem solving based on the topics covered in class and was harder but lots of partial credit was awarded
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/26/2021	Some students are so bitter that they'll lie about midterm averages. That 40-50 score was out of 60, not 100. It is true that Meisel recycled lecture videos, but she was helpful on Piazza. Sometimes she was unresponsive, but she always provided quality responses. The multiple choice part of the exams were straightforward and easy. If you actually keep up with the content and don't leave it til the night before However, you'll be fine. However, some of the written response questions were tough. Similar to 351, you can't be 100% prepared for them. Still, she gives a generous amount of partial credit. Finally, she had a generous curve. Salt is everywhere, just stay diligent and you won't end up like them
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/26/2021	I had professor Meisel for 423 and thought the class was alright. It is true that most of the lecture videos were from a previous professor but that didn’t bother me as much as the other reviewers below. The weekly quizzes were free points from the lectures and the weekly programming assignments had most of the information from the textbook. The 2 midterms and final were pretty difficult, but the averages for them were 61/77/79 respectively, which is low but not as bad as one of the reviews states. In general, it would take her a while to respond on piazza but there were many times when she gave lots of detailed information on student questions which I thought was good. Finally, the grading at the end was super generous as she gave a 5% curve and did not give any minuses for letter grades. Overall, the course was far from perfect but all things considered, the class was one of the better 400 level cs courses that I have taken at umd and I would recommend to take it.
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/18/2021	Ok so I already gave a review, but the final questions did not line up very well with the amount each subject was taught. It was very disappointing. One question that was worth a big chunk of the grade wasn't even covered in class, and could only be solved likely by using the textbook explanation. Disheartening.
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/18/2021	She gave us lectures on maybe half of the material for the class and used a previous teacher's videos for the other half. The average response time on Piazza is a lot slower than other classes, exam averages were lower than expected (even though the average seems to be around a C+, maybe scraping a B-, she said previous to the final that there likely wouldn't be a curve, even though the exams are what's hurting our grades). She is accommodating with late work, but overall I felt a disconnect and the learning experience was strange. I don't know how to put it, exactly. She seems nice, and tries to put in effort for helping us understand the material, but it's in ways that aren't typical (for example, making detailed modules on ELMS instead of teaching it in lecture).
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Anonymous 05/16/2021	Why she shouldn't teach again: 1) She didn't teach one topic during the entire semester. All of her lectures were video links to Mihai Pop's old lecture videos. 2) She expects one programming assignment every week (13 in total), without covering the material in depth. 3) Midterms were hard for no reason and she wouldn't give any practice material. 4) She would give points on the midterm and then remove them later on ("in order to maintain standardization") ?????
Jacquelyn Meisel CMSC423 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/13/2021	Avoid her. The teaching material seem to be taken completely from Prof. Mihai Pop which is completely fine but the grading and assignments are harder. Few programming assignments remain the same but she has added many more which makes the work load a lot. The exams are really hard. The average midterm 1 and 2 was around 40-50/100. I took this course cause my friend said it's easy who took it with Mihai but that is not the case here. She made it unnecessarily hard.

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/08/2021

Professor Meisel is fairly new to teaching the class and because of that she made a few mistakes. She has very promising potential and accepted feedback on issues that students had with certain aspects of the class (i.e. the first midterm). That midterm tanked my grade but she gave lots of resources to help study for future exams and adjusted the difficulty of these exams. She is the most approachable professor I have ever had. She had office hours four times a week and made time for anyone who couldn't meet during those times. I found that reading the book was important in understanding the concepts in depth. There was a programing assignment every week (except midterm weeks) they could be done in most popular languages (Java, Ruby, rust, etc.) but python is preferred. Pseudocode for each assignment was either in the book or a modification of something in the book. Start the projects when they are assigned as they are due in a week and you may need help in OH. The exams were 60% MCQ/fill in the blank and 40% short answer (final was 50/50) the MCQ was straightforward especially if you did well on the quizzes. The short answer was problem solving based on the topics covered in class and was harder but lots of partial credit was awarded

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/26/2021

Some students are so bitter that they'll lie about midterm averages. That 40-50 score was out of 60, not 100. It is true that Meisel recycled lecture videos, but she was helpful on Piazza. Sometimes she was unresponsive, but she always provided quality responses. The multiple choice part of the exams were straightforward and easy. If you actually keep up with the content and don't leave it til the night before However, you'll be fine. However, some of the written response questions were tough. Similar to 351, you can't be 100% prepared for them. Still, she gives a generous amount of partial credit. Finally, she had a generous curve. Salt is everywhere, just stay diligent and you won't end up like them

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
05/26/2021

I had professor Meisel for 423 and thought the class was alright. It is true that most of the lecture videos were from a previous professor but that didn’t bother me as much as the other reviewers below. The weekly quizzes were free points from the lectures and the weekly programming assignments had most of the information from the textbook. The 2 midterms and final were pretty difficult, but the averages for them were 61/77/79 respectively, which is low but not as bad as one of the reviews states. In general, it would take her a while to respond on piazza but there were many times when she gave lots of detailed information on student questions which I thought was good. Finally, the grading at the end was super generous as she gave a 5% curve and did not give any minuses for letter grades. Overall, the course was far from perfect but all things considered, the class was one of the better 400 level cs courses that I have taken at umd and I would recommend to take it.

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Expecting a B
Anonymous
05/18/2021

Ok so I already gave a review, but the final questions did not line up very well with the amount each subject was taught. It was very disappointing. One question that was worth a big chunk of the grade wasn't even covered in class, and could only be solved likely by using the textbook explanation. Disheartening.

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/18/2021

She gave us lectures on maybe half of the material for the class and used a previous teacher's videos for the other half. The average response time on Piazza is a lot slower than other classes, exam averages were lower than expected (even though the average seems to be around a C+, maybe scraping a B-, she said previous to the final that there likely wouldn't be a curve, even though the exams are what's hurting our grades). She is accommodating with late work, but overall I felt a disconnect and the learning experience was strange. I don't know how to put it, exactly. She seems nice, and tries to put in effort for helping us understand the material, but it's in ways that aren't typical (for example, making detailed modules on ELMS instead of teaching it in lecture).

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Anonymous
05/16/2021

Why she shouldn't teach again: 1) She didn't teach one topic during the entire semester. All of her lectures were video links to Mihai Pop's old lecture videos. 2) She expects one programming assignment every week (13 in total), without covering the material in depth. 3) Midterms were hard for no reason and she wouldn't give any practice material. 4) She would give points on the midterm and then remove them later on ("in order to maintain standardization") ?????

Jacquelyn Meisel
CMSC423

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
05/13/2021

Avoid her. The teaching material seem to be taken completely from Prof. Mihai Pop which is completely fine but the grading and assignments are harder. Few programming assignments remain the same but she has added many more which makes the work load a lot. The exams are really hard. The average midterm 1 and 2 was around 40-50/100. I took this course cause my friend said it's easy who took it with Mihai but that is not the case here. She made it unnecessarily hard.