COURSE TAKEN: LS 1

Fall 2015 Grading Scheme:
*Midterm 1 - 200 points
*Midterm 2 - 200 points
*Final - 200 points
Demonstrations - 180 points
Participation - 120 points
Total - 900 points
*The better grade, either Midterm 1 or the section on the final, or Midterm 2 or the section on the final, will be the score that is counted

Professor Lloyd-Smith:
Lloyd-Smith is an amazing professor! He really knows how to concisely, yet effectively, explain content. His powerpoints were always well organized, and he almost always completed every slide in lecture, unlike Alfaro. He has a bit of dry humor, but he has bouts of hilarity in class. His voice can be dry also, but it isn't too difficult to pay attention in class.

TA Jeffrey Lee:
He's pretty nice and a bit awkward, but a cool TA. Demos were kind of pointless, but he made them not totally horrible. In regards to his effectiveness in helping teach class concepts, I'm not sure, but he made demo concepts clear enough.

Midterm 1 Grade: 159/200 | 29/35
The first midterm took everybody by surprise. It is comprised of 50 multiple choice questions. He put very tricky questions on the midterm and I felt like he didn't prepare us well enough to do well on it. He included questions on readings in the book, so read those assigned sections. However, I did a little better on his portion of the final, which was 35 multiple choice questions, so that replaced my midterm score. I was a little pissed to find that he used a lot of the same questions he gave on the midterm. So I recommend going to your TA after midterm grades are up to go over the answer key.

Midterm 2 Grade: 192/192 | 0/33
I was really confident going into the second midterm, I was very sure of almost all of my answers and left knowing I did nearly perfect. Lloyd-Smith is a really great professor and he prepared us well to take his midterm. He didn't really include any content on readings, but there were a couple random ones on demo content. He is also really fair with grading as he took out some questions some students said were confusingly worded. I didn't bother looking at his section on the final, 35 multiple choice again, since I got a 100% on the midterm. But I heard from a friend that the questions were harder. I recommend just paying good attention in lecture and writing good notes. In studying, I found that I understood the concepts well enough through lecture that I didn't need to go over them too much later on.

Final Grade: 42/50
Yeh is very soft-spoken, so I recommend sitting closer to the front, though she tries her best to keep the microphone loud enough. The final was 50 multiple choice questions, but there was no way to replace this score, so you only got one shot. Yeh's lectures were a bit boring, as she's a bit monotone and goes quite slow, but the content was easier to grasp I feel. The questions on the final were fair I think.

Demonstrations Grade: 193/200
In demo you'd have in-class assignments to be turned in at the end of the class, and then take-home assignments, which include worksheets, short papers, etcetera. They were all a little bs, but they're easy to do. You may get knocked off a few points for small things, but overall, they're fine.

Participation Grade: 42/43
There were five participations each section, so fifteen total, and you were allowed to miss two of them. Alfaro had all in-class ones, Lloyd-Smith and Yeh both had a mix. The latter two were better with keeping in-class participations shorter. But their outside participations were longer than the in-class ones, especially Lloyd-Smith's, which was a bit annoying. But they're not graded intensely, so as long as you do them basically, you'll get credit. There was also a participation grade for demos, but I barely participated, if at all, and I only got one less point.

Overall Grade: A-
Overall I think this is a decent crop of professors to take LS 1 with, if only for Lloyd-Smith. The course material isn't too difficult, and the exams were kind of stupid but doable. I was expecting an A, but I guess I'll be content with an A-.

LS1:

Lloyd Smith taught the last section of LS1 for my class, along with alfaro and yeh. He was very enthusiastic about his material, and I found his section the most interesting. However, the exam he wrote(i.e., the final) was kind of difficult. I got an 84 which ended up being within the top 16% of the class. The first two exams thankfully were incredibly easy, though. If you're taking LS1 I'd definitely recommend him, Alfaro, and Yeh. Yeh's midterm was by far the easiest of the three.