Overall, I feel like I learned enough in this class, but I definitely could've learned much more with a better professor. Howard speaks very softly and is not very engaging, so it is difficult to stay focused in lecture. I appreciate how responsive he is to emails and admire his patience. I wouldn't try to avoid Stahl since he is likely the only option for CS31 when he is teaching it, but I wouldn't say he's one of the best professors I've had.

Professor Stahl is not the type of prof I enjoy. He talks way too slowly and might spend 30 minutes circling the same concept, making me more and more confused. Also, I don't like how Stahl doesn't really teach you how to WRITE a program. He just teaches you concepts and shows you a completed code as an example of the concept he taught. He doesn't really WRITE code with the students, so students can't really try writing codes in class.
I find the discussion sessions better than the actual lectures and I really like the TAs and LAs of this course. I honestly think Stahl made me think CS is boring. I'm glad the TAs and LAs are all cool people; they were the ones that made me enjoy CS more.
The projects itself were pretty interesting, but Stahl often misses information in his spec and adds them later on. So if you don't look closely at the class discussion board on CCLE, you might lose a point or more. Always check your file names and variable names! I lost 20 points because I named one of my files wrong on project 1, which is a project everyone got 100. But it's my own dumb mistake, he warned us over and over again in class; this mistake was really painful tho, had to make it up by getting good a midterm score.

Stahl is such a good professor to have. This class is really nice to take to get a good understanding of basic C++ coding. The part of this class I will always remember is how understanding Stahl is. He would give all points back on projects that were from stupid mistakes and he made his final optional very early on in the whole coronavirus situation. I would highly recommend him for anyone.

If you have any prior programming experience in any language, this class will be a breeze. The projects are pretty cool though, JUST DON'T MISSPELL ANY VARIABLES

Now, look here child. It doesn't matter if you've coded for years; it doesn't matter what languages you've used, any OOP data structures, any prior knowledge, shortcuts, hell even imported code or custom git repositories, nothing matters. You will be docked 80% of your grade because you forgot a single character in your return lines, and when you talk to him about it, he'll generously donate you 30% more, but nothing more.

He has cool nicknames for characters tho.
5/7 masochists would take again.

Stahl's projects and exams are easy compared to other CS classes. But I would NEVER take his classes, at all expenses. Stahl himself thinks he is very funny but he really isn't. His project spec's are extremely unclear. And you have to pay a LOT of attention to the discussion board because the specs are changing in there every second. Just imagine how annoying it would be when every time I thought I finished the projects and go to the dis board with my heart pounding and find out the proj requirements changed and I have to modify my code. AGAIN AND AGAIN. His lecture are not helpful and can be even confusing. I listened carefully and took a lot of notes. But I just simply cannot understand what he is talking about and his analogies can be really confusing. However, the bad lectures improved my searching ability significantly. Google saved my life.

And another problem with him is his slides and sample codes in class. There are really a few mistakes in his slides, some of them really confuses students. I also remember one of his sample code does not even build in class.

If you really have to take his class though, it is doable because although his lectures are bad and project spec's unclear, it is not too difficult. But websites like StakOverFlow, C++ Reference, Github would probably be more useful than his lectures.

A lot of the reviews about Stahl are overly critical. For a first time coder, CS at UCLA can be intimidating but Stahl's classroom environment is very relaxed. His lectures are not the most engaging, but he does care about his students and replied extremely quickly to my emails, which is impressive given the size of the class. The content is relatively easy, but don't fall behind. I personally found it helpful to read the textbook to make sure I understood everything but not everyone feels the same. Projects we're good: not overly time consuming but should be started early. His tests were fair if you knew the material. I had absolutely no trouble in CS 32 after taking 31 with Stahl. If you're just starting out in CS, he is a good professor to have.

I thought that this class was fairly easy but I got more out of CS 97 than this class. However, I did learn a good amount in this class. My biggest issue was honestly how it was really hard to hear Stahl in the huge lecture hall. He doesn't pin the mic to his shirt but instead holds it really low and away from his mouth. His voice is soft and can easily put me to sleep. Luckily it's pretty easy to watch a c++ crashcourse and learn anything you missed. The tests are pretty easy, just a little long. It's just your basic intro programming questions (what does this function print, what happens when you run this code, write a simple function that does this). A really good thing about Stahl is that he is very generous about grading. If something is truly graded unfairly, an email will persuade him to give it another look. He's not the most engaging lecturer but he tells some funny anecdotes every now and then. The projects are very easy. However, every now and then the spec will be very vague and result in a lot of confusion. There isn't really any point to trying to avoid him since the class he teaches isn't particularly challenging. Take him if you have to.

I found Stahl is really better than what the score has shown. He is probably not the best lecturer you would expect. He made mistakes in class and in specs and speaks at an extremly slow pace. However, I found what he taught in lecture very useful. As long as you pay attention in lecture and understand what he said, you should be at least okay in his exams. There is only one project taking a lot of time, but others are really not so hard to tackle. In addition, I think he is pretty lenient in projects and exams, so I think it's a pretty good class where you can learn a lot and not suffer to much.

I don't think Stahl understands the concept of "lectures." He just rambles on about useless stuff, makes his lectures as boring as possible (probably on purpose), and talks in the most monotone voice I have ever heard. I personally didn't find the lectures engaging or even remotely organized, and learned everything through YouTube or the textbook. I went to the first four lectures and did not attend any after because I felt like I was wasting my time sitting there. The projects are hard but manageable, and the tests are definitely possible.