David Sekora | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
David Sekora CMSC250 Anonymous 05/09/2024	Brought us cinnamon rolls at the end of the semester. Goat
David Sekora CMSC250 Expecting an A Anonymous 09/16/2020	I'll offer a differing opinion, as these reviews seem to skew negative. Course work was difficult but manageable. As the course was asynchronous, homework was often used as a way of developing understanding & building intuition. Quizzes were straight-forward (just checking that you understood/paid attention to the lecture). Exams were difficult but David gave ample time for each (24 hours for the first, 48 for the second, 72 (I think) for the final). David wrote interesting problems and explained concepts well. He was a bit overly reliant on slides, which, in my opinion, aren't conducive to a productive learning environment. Having said that, most piazza posts were answered quickly or at least by the next morning. Occasionally, answers were curt/dismissive (fairly, in my opinion), but, mostly, answers were in-depth and helpful. Additionally, David gave a ton of partial credit and dropped enough quizzes and homeworks to potentially curve substantially. If you are not good at self-learning, you may struggle. Be warned, however, that self-learning will only be further emphasized as you continue through college. Given all of this, I think David is a fine teacher and will only become better as he gains more experience. He clearly wants his students to do well. It may be difficult, but don't confused difficulty with malevolence.
David Sekora CMSC250 Expecting an A Anonymous 07/11/2020	You would think Sekora may be understanding as he is relatively young. But the class was very unorganized. With his method of updating slides for classes, there is absolutely no way to being able to keep track of the order. David also makes quizzes and exams much harder than what he goes over in class, and doesn't even bother to touch on problems that my give students an idea of how to apply them to other situations. He explains concepts, and sends us off expecting you to be able to handle any situation. He is terrible at writing problems as well, where he writes them in a way they could be interpreted several ways, where he would like a very specific answer which usually doesn't relate to any problems he does. Overall, trash teacher and do not sign up.
David Sekora CMSC250 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/29/2019	The class was very disorganized. There was a lack of slides and it was clear that TAs and professors did not communicate (TAs often did not know what we were learning in lecture), nor did the professors seem to communicate with each other. Some of the homework problems were ridiculously hard but for the most part TAs were fair in grading both homeworks and exams. The midterms were pretty fair and similar to the homeworks except for the occasional challenge question, but the final was much longer and harder than the midterms despite having the same amount of time to finish as the midterms, making it an unfair exam (average was less than 60%). It took a long time to get grades in and the class did not have much structure to it, although I know that this was Sekora's first time teaching 250. Sekora was an engaging lecturer despite my complaints with the way the class was run.
David Sekora CMSC250 Expecting an A Anonymous 05/11/2019	Terrible terrible teacher. Posts slides online but it is completely useless, any problems in the slides are marked "do in class". Teaches on the fly without clear formatting whatsoever. Waste of our time.

David Sekora
CMSC250

Anonymous
05/09/2024

Brought us cinnamon rolls at the end of the semester. Goat

David Sekora
CMSC250

Expecting an A
Anonymous
09/16/2020

I'll offer a differing opinion, as these reviews seem to skew negative. Course work was difficult but manageable. As the course was asynchronous, homework was often used as a way of developing understanding & building intuition. Quizzes were straight-forward (just checking that you understood/paid attention to the lecture). Exams were difficult but David gave ample time for each (24 hours for the first, 48 for the second, 72 (I think) for the final). David wrote interesting problems and explained concepts well. He was a bit overly reliant on slides, which, in my opinion, aren't conducive to a productive learning environment. Having said that, most piazza posts were answered quickly or at least by the next morning. Occasionally, answers were curt/dismissive (fairly, in my opinion), but, mostly, answers were in-depth and helpful. Additionally, David gave a ton of partial credit and dropped enough quizzes and homeworks to potentially curve substantially. If you are not good at self-learning, you may struggle. Be warned, however, that self-learning will only be further emphasized as you continue through college. Given all of this, I think David is a fine teacher and will only become better as he gains more experience. He clearly wants his students to do well. It may be difficult, but don't confused difficulty with malevolence.

David Sekora
CMSC250

Expecting an A
Anonymous
07/11/2020

You would think Sekora may be understanding as he is relatively young. But the class was very unorganized. With his method of updating slides for classes, there is absolutely no way to being able to keep track of the order. David also makes quizzes and exams much harder than what he goes over in class, and doesn't even bother to touch on problems that my give students an idea of how to apply them to other situations. He explains concepts, and sends us off expecting you to be able to handle any situation. He is terrible at writing problems as well, where he writes them in a way they could be interpreted several ways, where he would like a very specific answer which usually doesn't relate to any problems he does. Overall, trash teacher and do not sign up.

David Sekora
CMSC250

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/29/2019

The class was very disorganized. There was a lack of slides and it was clear that TAs and professors did not communicate (TAs often did not know what we were learning in lecture), nor did the professors seem to communicate with each other. Some of the homework problems were ridiculously hard but for the most part TAs were fair in grading both homeworks and exams. The midterms were pretty fair and similar to the homeworks except for the occasional challenge question, but the final was much longer and harder than the midterms despite having the same amount of time to finish as the midterms, making it an unfair exam (average was less than 60%). It took a long time to get grades in and the class did not have much structure to it, although I know that this was Sekora's first time teaching 250. Sekora was an engaging lecturer despite my complaints with the way the class was run.

David Sekora
CMSC250

Expecting an A
Anonymous
05/11/2019

Terrible terrible teacher. Posts slides online but it is completely useless, any problems in the slides are marked "do in class". Teaches on the fly without clear formatting whatsoever. Waste of our time.