Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy

Information	Review
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting an A+ Anonymous 12/16/2024	Challenging class that is pretty heavy on analysis (most similar to Kruskal's 351). Exams were pretty hard (mainly because it felt like we did not have enough time on them), but homeworks and programming assignments were fair and pretty doable. Lectures can be a mixed bag because of disorganized some of the earlier lecture slides were, but he records almost every class so if you are ever confused you can always go and rewatch them. TAs didn't hold office hours until half-way through the semester, and even then they maybe had them once a week, however the Prof Swamy had them almost every weekday. Also, grade cutoffs were just announced and an A+ was an 88%.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/16/2024	Definitely a challenging class as compared to others. The homework and projects he gives are pretty tough and require a lot of time to do so I would suggest to start early. He is a boring lecturer but all of the lectures are still recorded and he posts them consistently. However, the class structure was very painful to deal with because he would often change deadlines and push out a lot of things late with expectations to be on time. He also was very vague about many things and would not announce them till last minute.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/12/2024	Like many have said this class is not easy, but I felt Narayanaswamy wanted to help the students whenever he could, and although the class seemed a bit disorganized since this is his first semester teaching at UMD and it is apparent he is still making adjustments to his teaching style and course structure I think it is understandable. Exams are not easy but if you read his notes and the text they are manageable. Projects are also pretty challenging with very strict time requirements which I found made them more interesting to do. He is also very willing to give extensions and partial credit when asked which I also appreciate.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting a B Anonymous 12/12/2024	His first semester teaching and honestly it was not a great time. His lectures were confusing and he had poor slides. He does record his lectures which is a plus. Homework were generally okay but sometimes the questions has poor wording. Projects are overall very doable (he drops the lowest one) but it does take some time and often don't feel very related to lecture content. I did poor on the midterm exam (which was mainly my own fault) but he doesn't give any practice problems nor study guides for his exams which I felt would've helped me greatly. He also extends deadlines for basically all the assignments which is nice but also sometimes required due to his poor logistics and communication. On the topic of communication, most of his clarification statements makes things more confusing and creates more questions. I have emailed him many times and it often takes a long time to get a clear and concise answer. Would've gave him one star but he is a nice person and does try to help (albeit not very well) so I'll give him two stars. This class definitely gave me more stress than it had to and I wish he wouldn't co-taught with Justin. Hopefully the class will be structured better in future semesters. TLDR: Nice person, poor lecturing, communications, and everything logistic related. Personally, wouldn't recommend but definitely a passable class as long as you complete assignments.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/10/2024	Definitely a challenging class, as it focuses very strongly on analytical content. 250/351 probably won't be sufficient preparation for the rigor of proofs he goes through in class, but the proofs we actually have to write (for homework, exams) are usually far more straightforward — or fairly copyable from the notes/textbook. The projects were a pain but doable as long as you started early. He records his lectures, posts his notes, and is helpful and friendly at office hours; however, his availability is lacking, and I think the TA only started doing office hours about halfway through the semester. The midterm was challenging and I think most people didn't finish in time, but partial credit was extremely generous. Don't take this class with him if you don't like math, or if you want an easy A. Otherwise, I think it was a rewarding experience.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 12/09/2024	People are coping. His lectures are not hard to undertand - he does have a slight accent, but overall his English is very well articulated and better than most professors in the department. His projects/hws/exams are challenging and demand a strong understanding of the course material, and if you are keeping up with the textbook and lectures, there is no reason you shouldn't succeed in this class. That said, he is very accomodating, and while you have to work for an A, he gives you everything you need to do so.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Anonymous 11/30/2024	Narayanaswamy should not be employed here. He is a very poor lecturer. He started off with handwritten notes that were extremely hard to follow and not even always fully correct. Eventually he just gave up and started presenting seemingly random slides he found on the internet. It was never easy to follow him, and he would start rambling off about unnecessary topics. He is a very poor communicator. Nobody knew what the structure of the course was going to look like till about 3 weeks in, AFTER the add/drop deadline. He gave very vague comments about how the homeworks/exams/projects would be set up and never made it clear what the grading guidelines were. For some godforsaken reason, he made most homeworks due at 12:30am, rather than 11:59pm, or any other conceivable time of day. This would cause a lot of confusion as an assignment due Nov 30 actually had to be done by the night of Nov 29. Now you think you would get used to this, except he often changed the deadlines for assignments. I was unable to submit one homework because for no real reason he decided that one will be due at 11:59. His project deadlines were even worse. They never released on time and the due date would keep getting pushed back because the description left us with too many questions about the project details. We were supposed to have 5 project but he was so late on them that we only had 4. And the projects weren't even relevant to the content we were covering, instead being about some stupid fictional world with lore and all sorts of unnecessary details. The one midterm we had (which he changed the weightage of without telling us by the way) had an average of 55%, as he gave no real study guide, or even general advice on what it would cover, how to best prepare, etc. The TAs are entirely useless and may as well not exist. They don't hold office hours and are of extremely little help. I've even seen them giving objectively wrong answers about programming projects on Piazza. Narayanaswamy himself gave up in person office hours and only holds them via Zoom, which you have to schedule via email. He is of very little help too, as once my friend went for help with some test cases for a programming project, and Narayanaswamy told him to literally "comment out blocks of his code to figure out what test cases were testing" because the instructors had improperly named the tests. Overall, this has been an extremely negative experience. I don't even think this a case where a professor can learn from a rocky first semester and improve, he is just an objectively bad teacher.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 11/28/2024	Poor lecturer. Often stumbles over his words and his accent makes it difficult to understand him. Projects are often confusing- so much so that every project in the class so far has had its deadline extended.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting an A- Anonymous 11/21/2024	His class reminds me of CMSC351 with Kruskal. A lot of the content is pretty analytical and some of the homeworks can be tough, but overall he grades very leniently and gives lot of partial credit. Projects are pretty fair and if people ask they will extend the deadlines a bit usually. Overall, I think its a pretty rewarding class.
Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy CMSC420 Expecting an A Anonymous 11/20/2024	Class is hard, but he is very accomodating. Records lectures and gives you all the resource you need to succeed. You have to work for an A.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting an A+
Anonymous
12/16/2024

Challenging class that is pretty heavy on analysis (most similar to Kruskal's 351). Exams were pretty hard (mainly because it felt like we did not have enough time on them), but homeworks and programming assignments were fair and pretty doable. Lectures can be a mixed bag because of disorganized some of the earlier lecture slides were, but he records almost every class so if you are ever confused you can always go and rewatch them. TAs didn't hold office hours until half-way through the semester, and even then they maybe had them once a week, however the Prof Swamy had them almost every weekday. Also, grade cutoffs were just announced and an A+ was an 88%.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/16/2024

Definitely a challenging class as compared to others. The homework and projects he gives are pretty tough and require a lot of time to do so I would suggest to start early. He is a boring lecturer but all of the lectures are still recorded and he posts them consistently. However, the class structure was very painful to deal with because he would often change deadlines and push out a lot of things late with expectations to be on time. He also was very vague about many things and would not announce them till last minute.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/12/2024

Like many have said this class is not easy, but I felt Narayanaswamy wanted to help the students whenever he could, and although the class seemed a bit disorganized since this is his first semester teaching at UMD and it is apparent he is still making adjustments to his teaching style and course structure I think it is understandable. Exams are not easy but if you read his notes and the text they are manageable. Projects are also pretty challenging with very strict time requirements which I found made them more interesting to do. He is also very willing to give extensions and partial credit when asked which I also appreciate.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting a B
Anonymous
12/12/2024

His first semester teaching and honestly it was not a great time. His lectures were confusing and he had poor slides. He does record his lectures which is a plus. Homework were generally okay but sometimes the questions has poor wording. Projects are overall very doable (he drops the lowest one) but it does take some time and often don't feel very related to lecture content. I did poor on the midterm exam (which was mainly my own fault) but he doesn't give any practice problems nor study guides for his exams which I felt would've helped me greatly. He also extends deadlines for basically all the assignments which is nice but also sometimes required due to his poor logistics and communication. On the topic of communication, most of his clarification statements makes things more confusing and creates more questions. I have emailed him many times and it often takes a long time to get a clear and concise answer. Would've gave him one star but he is a nice person and does try to help (albeit not very well) so I'll give him two stars. This class definitely gave me more stress than it had to and I wish he wouldn't co-taught with Justin. Hopefully the class will be structured better in future semesters. TLDR: Nice person, poor lecturing, communications, and everything logistic related. Personally, wouldn't recommend but definitely a passable class as long as you complete assignments.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/10/2024

Definitely a challenging class, as it focuses very strongly on analytical content. 250/351 probably won't be sufficient preparation for the rigor of proofs he goes through in class, but the proofs we actually have to write (for homework, exams) are usually far more straightforward — or fairly copyable from the notes/textbook. The projects were a pain but doable as long as you started early. He records his lectures, posts his notes, and is helpful and friendly at office hours; however, his availability is lacking, and I think the TA only started doing office hours about halfway through the semester. The midterm was challenging and I think most people didn't finish in time, but partial credit was extremely generous. Don't take this class with him if you don't like math, or if you want an easy A. Otherwise, I think it was a rewarding experience.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting an A
Anonymous
12/09/2024

People are coping. His lectures are not hard to undertand - he does have a slight accent, but overall his English is very well articulated and better than most professors in the department. His projects/hws/exams are challenging and demand a strong understanding of the course material, and if you are keeping up with the textbook and lectures, there is no reason you shouldn't succeed in this class. That said, he is very accomodating, and while you have to work for an A, he gives you everything you need to do so.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Anonymous
11/30/2024

Narayanaswamy should not be employed here. He is a very poor lecturer. He started off with handwritten notes that were extremely hard to follow and not even always fully correct. Eventually he just gave up and started presenting seemingly random slides he found on the internet. It was never easy to follow him, and he would start rambling off about unnecessary topics. He is a very poor communicator. Nobody knew what the structure of the course was going to look like till about 3 weeks in, AFTER the add/drop deadline. He gave very vague comments about how the homeworks/exams/projects would be set up and never made it clear what the grading guidelines were. For some godforsaken reason, he made most homeworks due at 12:30am, rather than 11:59pm, or any other conceivable time of day. This would cause a lot of confusion as an assignment due Nov 30 actually had to be done by the night of Nov 29. Now you think you would get used to this, except he often changed the deadlines for assignments. I was unable to submit one homework because for no real reason he decided that one will be due at 11:59. His project deadlines were even worse. They never released on time and the due date would keep getting pushed back because the description left us with too many questions about the project details. We were supposed to have 5 project but he was so late on them that we only had 4. And the projects weren't even relevant to the content we were covering, instead being about some stupid fictional world with lore and all sorts of unnecessary details. The one midterm we had (which he changed the weightage of without telling us by the way) had an average of 55%, as he gave no real study guide, or even general advice on what it would cover, how to best prepare, etc. The TAs are entirely useless and may as well not exist. They don't hold office hours and are of extremely little help. I've even seen them giving objectively wrong answers about programming projects on Piazza. Narayanaswamy himself gave up in person office hours and only holds them via Zoom, which you have to schedule via email. He is of very little help too, as once my friend went for help with some test cases for a programming project, and Narayanaswamy told him to literally "comment out blocks of his code to figure out what test cases were testing" because the instructors had improperly named the tests. Overall, this has been an extremely negative experience. I don't even think this a case where a professor can learn from a rocky first semester and improve, he is just an objectively bad teacher.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
11/28/2024

Poor lecturer. Often stumbles over his words and his accent makes it difficult to understand him. Projects are often confusing- so much so that every project in the class so far has had its deadline extended.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
11/21/2024

His class reminds me of CMSC351 with Kruskal. A lot of the content is pretty analytical and some of the homeworks can be tough, but overall he grades very leniently and gives lot of partial credit. Projects are pretty fair and if people ask they will extend the deadlines a bit usually. Overall, I think its a pretty rewarding class.

Narayanaswamy Narayanaswamy
CMSC420

Expecting an A
Anonymous
11/20/2024

Class is hard, but he is very accomodating. Records lectures and gives you all the resource you need to succeed. You have to work for an A.