Chau-Wen Tseng | PlanetTerp

Information	Review
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Anonymous 12/19/2014	I was TA for this course and I had very bitter experience with Prof. Tseng. He has been very mean to TAs, I found him instigating my advisor against me for some minor issue. Stay away from this course and this professor. Thanks to Prof. Tseng for inspiring me to not join academia after my PhD.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting an A- Anonymous 12/20/2013	Although lecture tends to be dry (like most CS courses), Tseng makes up for it by truly being a reliable and helpful professor. Exams and quizzes are incredibly fair and he even provides a large amount of practice problems and solutions. Furthermore he's almost always available through email and piazza (the class piazza had a 16 minute response time). I remember once I was up at 1:45am working on a project the same day it was due and he was still up answering questions for us. Although class can be boring (and optional if you want to skip and learn on your own via the slides he posts online), prof tseng overall provides a fair course that is truly a breath of fresh air in comparison to 216, 250 and 351 (especially 351...)
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting a C Anonymous 12/19/2013	Tseng is a great professor. I am getting a C, but I take full responsibility for it. If you ever needed help he was more than willing to help. Also, he is very fair with the projects and tests. By far the fairest assignments and projects I've seen in the CS department. While lectures can get a bit boring as he does have an unenthusiastic voice, he is very knowledgeable about the material and puts all of the lecture slides online. He speaks clearly and explains himself well. Definitely recommend him if you have the option.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting an A sbl03 11/27/2013	One of the best CS professors up to this point. He is a blazing fast grader - you will get your exam grades back in 1-2 days usually. There is so much material on the course page, and the exams and quizzes follow the exact format as previous semesters. There is no chance that you will feel underprepared for an exam or quiz if you do the practice material. The exams are graded fairly for the most part. He is also very nice and helpful - he checks Piazza very frequently and answers EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. that students post, or at least endorses a correct student answer. The projects are mostly fair. They are harder and take more time than 216 projects, but they are manageable if you start a good time in advance. A good portion of the projects are put in the secret tests, unfortunately. As for the lectures, they are not extremely useful since he posts all his slides online. I don't bother going to discussion unless taking a quiz.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting a B+ Anonymous 08/31/2012	Some people like good lecturers, but I liked the fact that I could appropriate class time to do more productive things, like sleep. All the tools to get an A are on the class page (slides, practice problems, past exams). Also, it benefits you to start the project early since a couple of times we had quizzes and exams before a project was due. A couple of times I regretted focusing on the quizzes/exams then the projects because I then realized I would've been pro at the material if I had just worked on the project first.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting an A+ OtG 03/21/2012	Tseng is a pretty good professor, but his lectures are nothing special. The amount of material he distributes on the class website is ridiculous. In addition to all the slides from class and discussion, he posts practice quizzes/exams, the previous 4 versions of the quiz/exam, and general practice questions for each subject before every quiz/exam. He's an accommodating guy; just make sure to take the quizzes and exams seriously, because they cover a lot and are a bit part of the grade.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Anonymous 02/12/2011	The class doesn't really require a teacher because it's mostly just about learning the programming languages. There are a few more advanced concepts that Tseng explained decently. The projects take up a lot of time, but you will learn a lot from them. And at the end of the semester the projects die down significantly, which is nice because it gives you a chance to put in more time for your other classes. Some of the projects can be extremely frustrating though, especially when he doesn't give you an easy way to test them. For example, to test your code for one of our projects would have required days of writing out test inputs and figuring out their correct outputs. But even if you fail one project, it's still possible to get an A. Anyway, I'd say Tseng was fine for this class.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Anonymous 10/12/2009	Chau-wen taught this class with Foster, who seemed to think that all of us were geniuses. Chau-Wen seemed to be the weaker prof of the two. Foster controlled the primary parts of the exams and projects. He turned simples project into massive, tedious projects. So far in the semester, at least half the students never even finish the projects. As a teacher, he is not the most amazing teacher ever. He simply reads off the slides, and I never go to class because of it anymore. I don't know why they decided to make the projects so hard for us this semester. This class definitely isnt as easy as it used to be. It's much harder mostly because of the projects. I'm taking this class simultaneously with 311 and it's a living hell. Whatever you do, do NOT take this class with another programming class. Take something like 351 or a decent 400 level class instead.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting an A fuzzyLogic 12/28/2008	Passable via the power points as I don't remember attending any lectures after the first week. Midterms didn't fit a nice difficulty/length ratio. Curve was appropriate however. Projects were easy. The final was easy if you studied previous/practice exams and the power points carefully.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting a B pluralfacade 12/08/2008	Chau-Wen's class was....an interesting experience. Like many CS teachers, he is an expert in his area of research and really knows what he's talking about, but he ocassionally struggles in conveying this information to students who know nothing about it to begin with. His tests were probably his greatest weakness. They had good coverage of the required material, but the combination of the tests being both too long and having extremely challenging problems made them pretty much impossible to finish. Towards the end of the semester, he started to deviate from his own syllabus, but this was both good and bad. Instead of giving us Java projects at the end as originally planned, he instead put more focus into new programming languages, which proved to be helpful since Java had already been covered to a great detail in previous classes. The grades for the class were pretty low throughout the semester and many people were worried, but Chau-Wen had a pretty nice curve at the end.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting a B Anonymous 07/01/2008	His lecture were long and probably the most boring I ever been in. His exams covered so much material and it was impossible for even the smart kids in the class to finish. He also did not stick to the syllabus.
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC330 Expecting an A allie 06/04/2008	He gives you very detailed powerpoint notes that he posts online. I didn't have to take notes. He gave us good review materials for all the exams. The projects were reasonable. Overall he was a pretty good professor although lectures weren't too exciting...but how many comp sci lectures are?
Chau-Wen Tseng CMSC132H Expecting a B ganelo 11/30/2007	He's a little idiosyncratic, but his class is fairly easy to understand, and he answers questions well (for the most part). Nelson is the main professor for CMSC132, so there isn't much Tseng can do with regards to exams, etc.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Anonymous
12/19/2014

I was TA for this course and I had very bitter experience with Prof. Tseng. He has been very mean to TAs, I found him instigating my advisor against me for some minor issue. Stay away from this course and this professor. Thanks to Prof. Tseng for inspiring me to not join academia after my PhD.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting an A-
Anonymous
12/20/2013

Although lecture tends to be dry (like most CS courses), Tseng makes up for it by truly being a reliable and helpful professor. Exams and quizzes are incredibly fair and he even provides a large amount of practice problems and solutions. Furthermore he's almost always available through email and piazza (the class piazza had a 16 minute response time). I remember once I was up at 1:45am working on a project the same day it was due and he was still up answering questions for us. Although class can be boring (and optional if you want to skip and learn on your own via the slides he posts online), prof tseng overall provides a fair course that is truly a breath of fresh air in comparison to 216, 250 and 351 (especially 351...)

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting a C
Anonymous
12/19/2013

Tseng is a great professor. I am getting a C, but I take full responsibility for it. If you ever needed help he was more than willing to help. Also, he is very fair with the projects and tests. By far the fairest assignments and projects I've seen in the CS department. While lectures can get a bit boring as he does have an unenthusiastic voice, he is very knowledgeable about the material and puts all of the lecture slides online. He speaks clearly and explains himself well. Definitely recommend him if you have the option.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting an A
sbl03
11/27/2013

One of the best CS professors up to this point. He is a blazing fast grader - you will get your exam grades back in 1-2 days usually. There is so much material on the course page, and the exams and quizzes follow the exact format as previous semesters. There is no chance that you will feel underprepared for an exam or quiz if you do the practice material. The exams are graded fairly for the most part. He is also very nice and helpful - he checks Piazza very frequently and answers EVERY. SINGLE. QUESTION. that students post, or at least endorses a correct student answer. The projects are mostly fair. They are harder and take more time than 216 projects, but they are manageable if you start a good time in advance. A good portion of the projects are put in the secret tests, unfortunately. As for the lectures, they are not extremely useful since he posts all his slides online. I don't bother going to discussion unless taking a quiz.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting a B+
Anonymous
08/31/2012

Some people like good lecturers, but I liked the fact that I could appropriate class time to do more productive things, like sleep. All the tools to get an A are on the class page (slides, practice problems, past exams). Also, it benefits you to start the project early since a couple of times we had quizzes and exams before a project was due. A couple of times I regretted focusing on the quizzes/exams then the projects because I then realized I would've been pro at the material if I had just worked on the project first.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting an A+
OtG
03/21/2012

Tseng is a pretty good professor, but his lectures are nothing special. The amount of material he distributes on the class website is ridiculous. In addition to all the slides from class and discussion, he posts practice quizzes/exams, the previous 4 versions of the quiz/exam, and general practice questions for each subject before every quiz/exam. He's an accommodating guy; just make sure to take the quizzes and exams seriously, because they cover a lot and are a bit part of the grade.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Anonymous
02/12/2011

The class doesn't really require a teacher because it's mostly just about learning the programming languages. There are a few more advanced concepts that Tseng explained decently. The projects take up a lot of time, but you will learn a lot from them. And at the end of the semester the projects die down significantly, which is nice because it gives you a chance to put in more time for your other classes. Some of the projects can be extremely frustrating though, especially when he doesn't give you an easy way to test them. For example, to test your code for one of our projects would have required days of writing out test inputs and figuring out their correct outputs. But even if you fail one project, it's still possible to get an A. Anyway, I'd say Tseng was fine for this class.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Anonymous
10/12/2009

Chau-wen taught this class with Foster, who seemed to think that all of us were geniuses. Chau-Wen seemed to be the weaker prof of the two. Foster controlled the primary parts of the exams and projects. He turned simples project into massive, tedious projects. So far in the semester, at least half the students never even finish the projects. As a teacher, he is not the most amazing teacher ever. He simply reads off the slides, and I never go to class because of it anymore. I don't know why they decided to make the projects so hard for us this semester. This class definitely isnt as easy as it used to be. It's much harder mostly because of the projects. I'm taking this class simultaneously with 311 and it's a living hell. Whatever you do, do NOT take this class with another programming class. Take something like 351 or a decent 400 level class instead.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting an A
fuzzyLogic
12/28/2008

Passable via the power points as I don't remember attending any lectures after the first week. Midterms didn't fit a nice difficulty/length ratio. Curve was appropriate however. Projects were easy. The final was easy if you studied previous/practice exams and the power points carefully.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting a B
pluralfacade
12/08/2008

Chau-Wen's class was....an interesting experience. Like many CS teachers, he is an expert in his area of research and really knows what he's talking about, but he ocassionally struggles in conveying this information to students who know nothing about it to begin with. His tests were probably his greatest weakness. They had good coverage of the required material, but the combination of the tests being both too long and having extremely challenging problems made them pretty much impossible to finish. Towards the end of the semester, he started to deviate from his own syllabus, but this was both good and bad. Instead of giving us Java projects at the end as originally planned, he instead put more focus into new programming languages, which proved to be helpful since Java had already been covered to a great detail in previous classes. The grades for the class were pretty low throughout the semester and many people were worried, but Chau-Wen had a pretty nice curve at the end.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting a B
Anonymous
07/01/2008

His lecture were long and probably the most boring I ever been in. His exams covered so much material and it was impossible for even the smart kids in the class to finish. He also did not stick to the syllabus.

Chau-Wen Tseng
CMSC330

Expecting an A
allie
06/04/2008

He gives you very detailed powerpoint notes that he posts online. I didn't have to take notes. He gave us good review materials for all the exams. The projects were reasonable. Overall he was a pretty good professor although lectures weren't too exciting...but how many comp sci lectures are?