This class was pretty good -- definitely learned a lot, and Prof. Reinman was pretty good at explaining concepts. I appreciated how he told us the types of questions that would be on the exams (and what type would not be) -- it made things a lot less stressful. Most of your grade comes from exams, but the curve can help makeup for that. Also, if you show improvement on the final, it can (partially?) replace your midterm score. For doing well in the class, I would recommend:
- Watch the pre-recorded lectures, but don't feel a need to understand every single detail on those, and don't take notes (because it'll distract you from the important stuff that he'll actually test you on). Instead, just use it to help get context for lecture.
- Take good notes on his in-person lectures, especially any sort of sample problems he works through, because variations of those problems tend to show up on the exam.
- Also make sure you work through and understand all the questions on discussion section slides because those tend to be from past exams, which tend to be similar to the questions he asks from year to year.

good class

The whole experience felt somewhat similar to Reinman's CS 33 class, at least as far as the lecture style (flipped classroom) and exam problem style. There aren't any labs like in CS 33, so the homework was quite a bit less time-consuming. As far as the course material goes, I thought it was interesting and quite coherent, since pretty much everything was built up around the same architecture. The tricky part is remembering how the many various complex aspects of the architecture (virtual memory, caches, pipelining, MIPS, execution, etc.) fit in with each other in different ways. I never went to the actual lectures because they were at 8am, and I felt I was able to get by with just the prerecorded videos for the HW. Although I recommend you at least watch the recordings when it comes time to prepare for exams, since he mostly covers specific problems that will probably end up on the exam. Also if you choose to skip lecture, it helps to go to discussion a lot to make up for it. Shoutout to my TA (Victor Rios) who did a super good job of covering practice problems and reviewing us in general, would recommend in the future. Midterm and final are pretty challenging, and you can get tripped up if you don't really know your stuff. Also, the grades were barely curved this quarter, if at all. So fair warning, if you do really badly on a test, your grade might be screwed since the midterm is 40% of your grade, and the final 50%.

This class is entirely conceptual, i.e., no coding, but the concepts themselves are not easy. We have 7 homework (graded on completeness), one midterm and one final. With 90% of grade is based on exams, if you screw up an exam you basically screw up the class. The midterm is relatively easy. The final involves a lot of multiple choice questions about designs and concepts which are easy to make mistakes. While I really dislike hardware, I don't think there is a better choice to have M151B other than Reinman.

I liked this class! Flipped classroom didn't bother me because I kind of stopped watching the videos... the prof introduces and goes over everything in lecture, so I don't think it's necessary to watch the prerecorded videos... he will only test you on what he's gone over in class, anyway. He draws everything out and walks you through everything you need to know. As long as you spend time going over whatever is fuzzy and don't fall behind, his lectures should be easy to keep up with and understand. The discussions are also very helpful because the TAs review everything he lectured that week, so whatever you didn't understand you can always go over again with the TAs. His handwriting and drawings are messy but the TAs have nice slides that sum it all up. Homeworks are also not time consuming. He tells you exactly what he will test you on the midterm, and the final wasn't surprising, every problem was something he had covered in lecture. As long as you stay on top of everything this class is very manageable and I would definitely take it again with Reinmann!

Anyone can tell you Reinman is a nice professor. But his style of teaching has a few gripes. For one, all of his classes are 'flipped classroom'. This means you have to waste twice the amount of time you normally would watching mind-numbing lectures. If you think you can get by just reading the actual text, you're wrong; Reinman always talks about things in lecture that will be on the test. So you have to try and attend lectures.

And if you go to his lectures live, don't blink; his handwriting and drawing skills are horrendous and incomprehensible. You have to follow along carefully to not get lost.

His homeworks are super light and could be done the night before. But this also means they aren't comprehensive or instructive in any meaningful manner.

His tests are okay. The midterms are usually easier than the final. He prefers to give hard tests and curve, rather than give accommodating tests and let their grades stand. Because of his flipped classroom style, he can just hand you all the lecture content at the start of the quarter and put the onus on you to watch it; like this he's technically never "behind schedule", compared to teachers who lecture live. I didn't see this as a plus.

He's nice, a great guy, fun lecturer. But his rating is deceptive because of it. Reinman is the best choice for this class, undoubtedly; but don't take it easy, and don't be confused into believing he is without flaw.

Glenn is a great guy. He's funny and really interested in what he teaches. I would say he's one of, if not my favorite professor at UCLA. The topic of this class are things like CPUs, registers, ALUs, etc. Really, really interesting stuff. The workload is surprisingly not that bad e.g. it features homeworks that are graded moreso on completion than correctness. The midterm is not too bad actually, and lots of people got 90% or above on it. The final is harder.

The format of this class is pretty special, as it's a "flipped classroom". You don't actually have to attend class since everything's recorded. Glenn uses in-person lectures as just a review session and for questions. Just make sure that you actually WATCH the recordings and don't procrastinate, and you'll do fine. I think part of the reason as to why the grade distro is so spread out, is because of this freedom — lots of people are responsible and keep up with lectures either in-person or via watching the videos, and lots of people don't.

Just be responsible and keep up with the topics, regardless of whether you actually attend class or just watch the videos, and I promise you'll do fine.

Reinman is an amazing professor and I'd definitely recommend taking this class with him. The flipped classroom style does require a bit more work on the students' end (have to watch pre-lecture videos), but I feel it really does work to learn the material better. In addition, having the basic material taught through the videos allowed Reinman to answer more questions and cover more examples during lecture.

The final for this quarter was made optional due to COVID-19, so I did not take it. Most people did very well on the midterm (average around 95), and I heard the final was substantially more difficult. In addition, the material covered in the latter half of the quarter is more challenging, so definitely make sure you don't fall behind after the midterm. In addition, both exams are open-note and open-book, and you're allowed to use a calculator.

The amount of time required from the homework varies week to week, but I didn't think the assigned homework was ever excessive. We had a total of 7 assignments (due Friday weeks 2-9). The homework is also graded based on participation, so as long as you put in a reasonable amount of effort you should be fine. I thought the homework was useful for the exam.

Overall, a great class that I highly recommend you take with Reinman.

Didn’t take final cuz I aced midterm. Midterm was really easy. He’s funny but his lecturers are fast paced. It’s an A if u put in work

Fantastic Professor. You learn a lot in his class and he makes difficult concepts very clear. He also bruincast his lectures which allows you to learn in your own time although you need to have the self discipline to catch up with his lectures. Got lucky that he made the final optional this quarter but even if I have a B- in his class, I would've rated him the same.