David Mount

This professor has taught: CMSC216, CMSC335, CMSC388A, CMSC388B, CMSC388D, CMSC389G, CMSC420, CMSC425, CMSC427, CMSC451, CMSC754, CMSC798

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David Mount CMSC420 Anonymous 12/23/2023	The most glowing review I have for mount is that I took 420 with an entirely different teacher, and mounts 10 minutes videos were far better than any of the full lectures I attended.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 10/16/2023	David Mount is super passionate about data structures, and it makes him such a great professor. His exams are difficult, but they're all very fair and you get a cheatsheet for each one. Overall, a really well taught, organized class and great lectures/notes.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A+ juiceman 08/26/2023	1. Did you find the exams and major assignments fair? · Fair exams. Mount provides practice problems with answers and past midterms. · Midterms can be time-constrained. Pace yourself. The final exam is not time-constrained. · Homework due before each exam, no late submission. Review each homework in the class before the exam. 1-2 questions on the exam are very similar to the homework questions. · The exam averages range between 75 and 80, and overall, they are fair with usually one curveball question. The exam format typically consists of 30% short answer theoretical questions (multiple-choice/fill-in), 30% pseudo code, 10% drawing tree operations, and 20% theory longer questions. – 2. Did you feel the professor had reasonable expectations for the students in the course overall? · 4 written homework assignments, covering theory, tree operations, and pseudo code. Directly applied to the exams, 3-4 hours each. · 3 projects, 8 hours each. Straight forward with Mount’s detailed descriptions. · Exam prep, 8-10 hours. Very clear expectations, format. Do the practice problems, review the past exams and especially the homework, and go through emphasized points during lecture. – 3. Did you like the professor's teaching style? · Provided a brief history for each data structure, as he had direct knowledge of or connections with the creators. · I appreciated that the lectures focused on the essential content for exams. Occasionally, the lectures delved into theory, but Mount made it clear which theories we should and shouldn't prioritize for exams. · Very flexible format with all recorded lectures. · As other reviews have mentioned, there is a theoretical focus for homeworks and exams. I think some theory is necessary to think critically about using and creating data structures. If you’re not a theory person, you can still succeed by doing the practice problems and reviewing relevant theoretical portions of lectures. · The professor releases homework 1 week before the due date, but provides 2+ weeks for projects. – 4. Was the workload appropriate for the number of credits? · Yes, the workload was fair/on the lighter side. · See hourly breakdown per assignment category above. – 5. Was this course valuable or a waste of time? · Valuable to efficiently work with and manipulate trees. · Relevant for competitive interviews and working with trees in general. I’ve used the concepts from this course when doing leetcode. · Understanding how to guarantee logarithmic height in practice was the key theme in the class! We explored rotation, rebuild, split/merge/adoption, and random number generator to ensure balanced height. Other important concepts were B-trees, tries, and memory management. · Projects taught useful concepts such as locators for tree nodes, internal/external node structure, comparators, and traversals.The 1000+ line project was a valuable exercise. · Working directly with Mount was a pleasure because he genuinely cares about students' education and growth. – 6. How much support did you receive throughout the semester (office hours, extra resources, etc.)? · Mount provided the most support among all the professors I've ever had. · Provided fast-forwarded lectures, recorded in-person lectures, latex notes, and hand-written notes. Personally, I found the hand-written notes and in-person lectures sufficient for success. · He answered every single question on Piazza, providing thorough responses and marking every question as a "good question". If you were stuck for a while, he was willing to download your submission from Gradescope and help identify what went wrong. · He offered extensions when needed, had lenient grading policies, and allowed regrades indefinitely. He was the only professor who shared exact grade cutoffs, and regrade requests could be submitted even after the semester ended. · Mount was always available to answer questions during and after class, and he provided extra office hours before exams. He even conducted a final exam help session on the weekend the day before final. – TLDR: Mount is an excellent professor who provides fair assignments, a manageable workload, and ample resources for success. The course covers important concepts for a software engineering career. Mount's enthusiasm and experience as a lecturer make the early morning classes enjoyable. Even though lectures are recorded, make the effort to attend! I highly recommend taking any course with Mount!
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/25/2023	David is amazing, and that is putting it lightly. He truly loves the work he does, both as an instructor and a researcher. You can see his passion for data structures the first minute you enter the lecture hall, and you can also tell how much he wants his students to succeed. The course itself has pretty interesting content, but it can be boring at times. The truth is, I only went to lecture on the first day, and the days of the exams. I learned the rest of the content through his fast-forward lecture videos, which are truly amazing. They relay so much information in such a short amount of time. Not only that, but they are not boring at all. The programming assignments are very long in terms of the documentation, but they aren't very difficult in terms of coding. He offers extra credit for all homeworks and projects, which can help you bump up your grade at the end of the semester. All in all, this was a great class and I am glad I took it. I highly recommend taking Mount for anything you can
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/24/2023	Take this class with Mount. His class is one of the few upper level compsci classes at UMD where you will not only learn a lot but if you at least try a little bit, you will pass. If you try a lot, you'll get a great grade. I kid you not, a 50% in the class was a C- when exam and project averages were in the 70's and 80's.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/20/2023	Going with everyone else here: Mount is a great professor, and he makes his class relevant both interesting and makes the content manageable and his lectures digestible. It's clear that he cares a lot for students as he records lectures, keeps good notes on all of his lectures, and answers all the questions on Piazza with his own takes and explanations. Overall, his exams, homework, and projects are not all that bad. My grade only suffered this semester because I procrastinated on a rather difficult project, so it's in your best interest to start projects early.
David Mount CMSC420 Anonymous 05/20/2023	Professor Mount has been my favorite Professor that I've ever had. This class, his LaTex notes, slides, and recorded lectures provided everything you need to succeed and I felt challenged in a way I never have been before. He is a great Professor with a lot of knowledge and I would suggest taking any class he teaches.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 05/19/2023	Probably the best professor I've had at UMD and definitely the best in the CS department. Mount seems to really enjoy teaching (every lecture he is in high spirits) and really knows his stuff in the field of Data Structures. He really cares about everyone's education and is very lenient with partial credit and grading. The workload of the course is not bad. 3 major coding projects and 4 HWs (similar to 250/351 HW).
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/18/2023	Excellent lecturer with very entertaining stories about data structures and their history. Only 4 homeworks (we were even allowed to drop 1) and 3 projects, all of which were pretty doable. He did have a habit of extending assignments and doing a lot of stuff last minute because he is a researcher primarily. Incredibly responsive on Piazza.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/16/2023	Probably the best CS professor I've had at UMD no doubt. This guy is the absolute package. His homeworks and projects aren't too hard, and if you're stuck you can ask him questions on Piazza or during office hours he's very responsive and will even give you big enough hints to solve the problem on your own. Exams are not that easy so you just need to study and brush up on many of the proof techniques such as induction and just overall pseudocoding questions. As long as you practice then you should be fine assuming you do well on everything else.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/12/2023	Professor Mount is a very reasonable person. He gives you every resource under the sun to help you succeed. He uploads lecture notes, lecture recordings, detailed notes, and "sped-up" recordings with only the most important info included. He promptly answers all piazza questions and will often extend deadlines based on how students feel and if he feels there isn't enough time. That being said, his lectures can be disorganized at times and you tend to learn less than Justin's sections (in this particular class). Also, the exams were quite challenging, but Mount gives generous partial credit points, so it is hard to outright fail (although its nearly impossible to get an A on them). The projects/HWs were difficult but sparse, and we had plenty of time to do them (although I always procrastinated until the last day). Overall, I'd highly recommend David Mount for this class as you likely will be able to pass.
David Mount CMSC420 Anonymous 03/13/2023	I took this class back in the late 80's, David Mount is one of the most likeable and caring person I've come across in all my years. Everything I read here is spot on. He really wants you to succeed, is a great lecturer and inspires confidence in his students. Great person inside and outside the classroom. Looks like he continues to be a consistently great teacher. So glad I took his course.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B Anonymous 01/22/2023	I didn't find the material all that engaging, but Prof. Mount is a very nice guy, gives pretty good lectures, and has excellent hand drawn and Latex notes available on the class website. The programming assignments and homework problems were also reasonable.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 01/02/2023	Mount is a great professor, he has both Latex and hand-drawn notes for every topic, and these are very clear in understanding the different data structures/concepts. He is a great lecturer, and is understanding of student concerns (adjusting difficulty of exams), and has a great grasp of the material that he teaches. Overall, a very knowledgable professor and an interesting class. My only issue would be that that the homework problems are often changed days after release, and that the project code he provides does sometimes have bugs. However, once notified, he usually fixes these ASAP and is very active on Piazza. As for the difficulty, the projects were not too bad, and the HWs/exams were difficult but always very fair with plenty of practice material.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/13/2022	Mount is simply amazing with the amount of effort he puts into the class and does everything in his power to help you succeed. He provides more than enough resources with extremely in-depth project descriptions, lecture notes, and practice exams. If that wasn't good enough, he's a genuinely cheery and nice guy who goes off on interesting tangents about the history of the material he's teaching as well, oftentimes joking that he's old enough to know the people who invented the ideas he's teaching us. Given this, he obviously knows the material really well and it's common for him to provide multiple clear examples during lectures that make his explanations really clear. His Piazza responses are absolutely legendary - clear, and provide additional and interesting insights that are always worth a read. He sometimes even goes as far as drawing figures to answer a student's response just to give a visualization. The class itself was also quite interesting on its own. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is rather theory-heavy, but Mount also does a good job at sprinkling general best-practice information as well. Projects are generally pretty easy as the project handouts are pretty good at giving you the right idea. Homework and Exams are difficult but overall very fair given the amount of practice he gives you and how well the problems relate to what is actually taught in class and given in the practice. Overall, if you listen during lectures, do a quick reading of the lecture notes, do some of the practice he gives, and then prepare your "cheat sheet" with general ideas and relevant code snippets, you'll be able to do well. No regrets about taking Mount. It was nice having his positivity brighten up my mornings.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/21/2022	Personally, the lecture style wasn't for me as it was a lot of reading off notes, with a few examples here and there. My biggest gripe is that by using pre-written notes, he was able to cover so much material, to the point where it was overwhelming. He does provide a lot of forms of the material which is nice. For each lecture, he had latex notes, handwritten notes (he presented these in class), in-person lecture video, and a prerecorded video where he creates and explains the handwritten notes. As others mention, he is a bit more theory-heavy than some other profs. The course was overall easy (except for exams... which required a lot of prep but were mostly fair), but I will be honest in that I don't feel like I learned much. This is because the projects were simple enough where they didn't really require too much understanding and the homework was infrequent enough that you could get away with just trying to match the lecture notes procedures, rather than truly understand them. Some of this is my fault for sure, but the limited amount of assignments meant I wasn't practicing concepts. Anyway, I would say the course is fairly easy except for exams. Mount is a very nice guy though and he'll tell you if you're on the right track with homework and other assignments. Last thing, you are allowed one two-sided cheat sheet for each exam, and you can bring previous cheat sheets to subsequent exams (one sheet for first exam, two for second exam, three for final). The cheat sheet policy is nice but means that there can be more difficult exam questions. Prepare your cheat sheets carefully because they can really help with certain questions. He always provided ample practice material for exams, so that was nice.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/19/2022	as said by the other reviews, just an amazing professor. highly recommend!
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 05/05/2022	Can't go wrong with Mount, his exams are on the difficult side but it follows very closely to the homeworks. If you understand and can do the homeworks you should be fine on the exam. This class is also curved at the end of the semester so as long as you do average on exams you will pass. He also answers piazza questions thoroughly and in a timely manner.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 04/28/2022	One of the best professors in the CS department. His notes and short lectures are incredible, and he has the class fully figured out and knows exactly how to teach it. He's really into proofs though, and if you're challenged in that area then homework and exams might be a pain. But Mount really wants you to succeed and he provided as many resources as he possibly could.
David Mount CMSC420 Anonymous 03/07/2022	He teaches way better compared to other CS profs. But he likes proofs. If you are not into proofs like me, then you will be disappointed doing his homework. Other than that, he is nice. If you don't mind being asked to prove something, consider this a 5-star rating. He is good in all other aspects.
David Mount CMSC420 Anonymous 03/05/2022	The best professor I ever had His slide and explanation is rational and clear A question on piazza will be answered within 2 hours
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/23/2021	Probably the best professor in the CS department by far. You can tell he really cares about the students. I had him Spring 2021 (online semester) but he has handwritten "slides", printed notes, ad lecture videos for you to learn from. He was engaging and really receptive to student concerns. You could tell he prepared and knew exactly what he was talking about. The exams weren't the easiest, but if you study the content and the homeworks you should be able to get by. I'm pretty sure he said he hasn't had a student get below a C in a long time, so study hard and you'll be good!
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a C+ Anonymous 06/03/2021	Great professor and an even better person. The other reviews aren't lying at all. He really does want you to succeed and tries his best to teach you. This class is not easy, though. I found the exams to be tremendously challenging (admittedly I didn't put too much effort into studying, as I had a very loaded semester with other classes as well), with pretty intense critical thinking in time constraints. This class isn't an easy A by any means, but you will come out understanding a lot about the data structures he covers in class, and their different variants. His notes are fantastic -- i loved his lecture videos and how organized everything was, even amidst the online environment. Projects are pretty easy, all things considered. I procrastinated and did them the day before and didn't have a problem getting everything submitted, although I might say that for some projects it was kinda stressful because I did this. He also does side-lectures to help you with the projects, which are super important. Overall, I'd recommend the class -- not necessarily because it's easy (it's definitely not easy lol), but because Mount is so great.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 05/25/2021	Easily one of the best CS lecturers I've ever had. Both his written slides and LaTeX notes are extremely helpful. he does normal lectures during class, and has fast-forward lectures that take around 15-25 minutes to complete. Explains material really well, very open to questions, and is always open to feedback. If you put in a lot of effort in his class, he wont fail you. Definitely take him for any class if you have the option to.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B Anonymous 05/18/2021	Really caring and helpful professor. Absolutely take him if you can. However, be warned that this is not necessarily an easy class. Although the projects are fine, the homework and exams require critical thinking on certain questions that only a few people may get. Nevertheless, Mount provides recordings, drawn notes, slides, shortened videos, review sessions, and more to help you succeed, which is really amazing that he goes to this level to help us succeed. One of the best professors in CS.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B- Anonymous 05/18/2021	Definitely one of my favorite professors that I've ever taken at UMD! He does a great job at breaking down the material in order to understand it better. He provides lecture videos, hand written slides, LaTeX notes, and small bite sized videos for every single topic that he covers. He's also super accommodating and he's very responsive on Piazza and email. I felt that his tests and homework were fair, and the projects were well written and applicable to what we were learning in class. The only complaint that I could really think of is that grading might be a bit slow at times. However, It turns out that he graded ~190 midterms by himself. Highly recommend him as a professor!
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/29/2020	Best professor I have had in the CS Department, I definitely recommend taking a class with him. You will learn a lot!
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/13/2020	Fantastic instructor. He knows his stuff and teaches it well, is very kind and understanding, and makes the class interesting. If you see that Dave is teaching a class, TAKE THE CLASS!! He made online school a little more bearable.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting a B- Anonymous 12/18/2019	Dave's a great instructor He knows the content like the back of his hand and lectures are never stuffy. He takes questions seriously and is happy to deviate from his plan if some interesting question got his attention. Even with the large class, lecture often felt more like a discussion. My class was a little disorganized because he was rewriting the syllabus as we went, but he was always upfront about the changes he was making and what delays to expect. He took time to develop useful assignments rather than just relying on the materials past instructors used. His future 420 classes will probably have more assignments; the difficulty will probably depend on whether you like using homeworks for practice or if the extra work is too much for you. Either way I highly recommend Mount.
David Mount CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2019	Best professor at UMD. Lenient grading on exams and homeworks. Engaging, enjoyable lecturers. Fair project difficulty. Also answers every piazza question personally within 24 hours, often quicker.
David Mount CMSC427 Expecting an A zaqu413 12/17/2013	Really enjoyed his lectures. He knows this stuff really well and can explain ANYTHING. Projects: We had 3 projects, the first and last were pretty hard. You should definitely start early on these graphics projects because most of the time the language you use (OpenGL with C++) won't tell you what mistake you made, it will just produce a blank image. I had a lot of fun working on these projects. HW: We were supposed to have 2 homeworks, but it was reduced to one because of project difficulty. The homework was like mini-projects and some linear algebra stuff. While I am on that topic I would like to say that you really should have a basic understanding of linear algebra to understand how things work in this course. It won't matter much for projects, but it will matter for exams and just being able to understand how OpenGL works. Exams: 1 Midterm, 1 Final. He gives about 10 practice problems in preparation for the exams and if you can get through those you'll be in pretty good shape. The final had some trickier problems than the midterm (the final really tests your in depth knowledge of graphics combined with linear algebra). Lecture Notes: He posts awesome lecture notes online. You can pretty much just read these, but there are places in the lecture notes where he puts things like "Can you think of why this is true?" or "What would happen if we used a cone instead of a sphere?". We always discuss these questions in class and they seem to have a habit of showing up on homework or exams.
David Mount CMSC427 Expecting an A- random 12/24/2010	Dave Mount is a really good professor simply because of two things: he knows graphics well, and he is exceptional at teaching. While there are many professors in CS dept who know their stuff, most suck at teaching. Mount, on the other hand, takes a lot of pain to make sure people understand the concepts. And the best part was that he did entire class on white-board. Graphics can be a hard class to teach on the board because it involves so many 3D drawings and stuff, but Mount stuck to doing everything on the board, and that just made his lectures very effective. There are legends about his lecture notes -- other professors like Meesh use his notes for their classes. We had great lecture notes for this class that included everything he went over in class. Yet, it was still useful to come to class because his teaching style meant that you needed to do very little preparation for the tests. There were four projects, which did a good job covering most of the important topics we discussed in class. The project difficulty level was about medium. His final was harder than the midterm, but neither was long. This class is great fun in general, and it was quite an experience with Dr. Mount. Strongly recommended!
David Mount CMSC451 Expecting an A fuzzyLogic 12/28/2008	Great lectures and lecture notes. Comprehensive, lucid, and insightful best described the class. Homework was challenging but quite interesting. Exams were likewise challenging but definitely not impossible if you understood the material. There's a lot of non-linear thinking involved which is not too uncommon for proof-based mathematics courses but may surprise those coming from a traditional CS background.