I thought Nachenberg was the best Professor I've had so far at UCLA with Smallberg coming in close 2nd. The thing that differentiated Nachenberg from Smallberg is the environment. Carey creates a very easy learning environment and does his best to keep you awake. He cares about his students (Carey cares) and is willing to run you through practice problems in office hours. He's an effective CS32 Professor but he's not a human compiler like Smallberg.

If I were to go back and retake CS32, I'd probably take it with Nachenberg again, but go to both Nachenberg and Smallberg's office hours. Smallberg knows more about the programming language and memory operations in general so more technical questions are best directed to him. You're fine with either professor though.

On CS32:
It's a weeder class. Project 3 is designed to give you a taste of hell but it's really not that bad if you start early and do a rough-draft design first (map each object out on paper and its characteristics.) Project 4 was harder because it was due two days before the final.

Advice for the CS32 final:
Don't overlook the "easy" things. Big-O is important but don't forget how recursive functions work. Know the intricacies of stacks and queues. Also, the exams are open book open note. If you're enrolled in Smallberg's section or think Carey's is just too early, go in and get the slides he prints out and then leave (if you must...but I'd stay!) It will save you paper and help you out on exams for reference.

I've never written a review before, but this one had to be done. Best teacher I've ever had, high school and college combined. It's amazing how much he genuinely cares about students learning the material. One of the few classes that I've actually enjoyed sitting through.

Carey manages to keep things interesting and will explain things as many times as you need him to. The fact that he teaches out of his own goodwill makes it that much more amazing.

I had Smallberg for CS 31, and didn't like the class to be frank. I find Smallberg's lectures amazingly dry. I was pretty scared coming in to CS 32, and without knowing my final grade yet, I can say that I've become a much better programmer thanks to Carey. Take him if you can, you will not regret it.

Nachenberg lived up to his incredible reputation. I remember walking into his class on the first day of lecture and getting his powerpoint handouts. I thought there was no way that he would prepare and print out handouts for every single lecture throughout the quarter, but he did just that. Think about it. 200+ handouts for every single lecture. Pretty incredible. I now have a large collection of Nachenberg's slides and I will definitely use them to prepare for interviews in the near future.

Whether he's cracking jokes, telling great anecdotes, or showing funny gifs in his powerpoints, his lectures were not only extremely effective, but also very engaging. I thoroughly looked forward to the two hour lectures. I can't say that about most of my classes.

Another thing. Some professors hate when you point out minor errors in their presentations. On the rare occasion that somebody found a minor error in one of his powerpoints, he would thank the student and make the change immediately. That's just the kind of professor he is. He seeks perfection in everything that he does.

He may very well be the best professor I have here at UCLA. And I'm okay with that because he was pretty darn great.

Professor Nachenberg (he goes by Carey) is without a doubt the best professor I've ever had at UCLA, and I don't say that lightly.

His lecture presentations are so well organized that you could learn all the material without ever going to class, and yet his lectures are so entertaining and informative that you enjoy going anyway. He goes through code examples line by line so there's no confusion, and he gives out prize tickets or candy (or sometimes PopTarts, yum!) to people who ask good questions or who answer his little (voluntary) programming challenges.

Not only is he a great lecturer, but he's also a really nice guy. He offered to meet people for lunch one day so they could ask him questions about the class in general, that week's project, or just about his career as a Vice-President at Symantec (that's the company behind Norton Anti-Virus).

I'm not even a CS Major and Carey is definitely the best professor I've had. I took Smallberg for CS-31, and while I have nothing but good things to say about Smallberg, Carey is still infinitely better. Take him if you have the opportunity. If you don't have the opportunity, take him anyway; like I said, I'm not even a CS major.

Oh, and by the way, he doesn't get paid to teach. He does this because he loves teaching CS. I'm serious.

You can't get any better than Nachenberg. He makes computer science really exciting. He is a great speaker and really cares about students learning the topics. For instance, aside from his amazing office hours, he would stop in class to thoroughly answer any relevant questions. He is very very helpful.

If you just came out of high school, you would find that Carey (as he likes to be called) speaks like a high school teacher only better. His words are not dry. He adds a lot of goofy things in his slides that spices up the topics. He goes through code line-by-line through the PowerPoint which is very very helpful. He gives you slide handouts for you to take to the open note exams. Plus, those slides have cheat sheet notes.

Overall, although this class is supposed to be harder than CS31, I felt it was much easier. You're dealing with broad programming concepts rather than some small grammar thing that you will never need to know again (like in CS31). Indeed, like they say, this is a very time consuming class. So start the projects early! The latest I stayed up doing a project was until 1 AM. Project 3 took me 2 days of programming (~8 hours a day dedicated to programming).

The projects are alright but after you finish them, you will feel very rewarded.

Definitely definitely definitely take CS32 with Carey. Period.

Carey is not responsible for midterms and final.

You will have a hard time finding a better south campus professor. Nachenberg seems to just sweat over his slide presentations so they can be the most informative, entertaining powerpoints possible. Whatever you can do to take him for CS32, do it. If for whatever reason you cannot, search online for his CS32 slides. If you can't find them, e-mail him and I bet he'll send them to you. He's a terrific guy who really cares about you understanding all the coding concepts. Definitely go to all his office hours. He gives extra ponts to students who come AND it's like getting a private class as he does all kinds of relevant problems on his white board for the small group gathered.
Answer questions in his class and you'll get slips of paper that pay off at his the last "lecture" which is really more of an auction of fun prizes he brings in.
He's great.

One of the best teachers I've had. Keeps class entertaining and is really concerned about making sure the class understands. You really have to appreciate the amount of time he puts into his powerpoints and I think they do a really good job of explaining the way code is executed. I think people hype him up too much and it kinda annoyed me how my class almost worshipped him, but hey, he is pretty damn cool. I like Smallberg too, but Nachenberg will keep you awake. Oh, and he shuts down know-it-alls which is great.

Whatever u do take smallberg, all my friends that took smalberg got A's and I was stuck with a C. Also smallberg graduated from caltech, he knows c++ so much better.

I liked this professor but I recommend smallberg for anyone taking CS32 because his projects for this class are easier than nachenberg's, true he is a more entertaining professor yet who wouldn't what a better grade.