Rohr is not as bad as people make him out to be, at all.

I took him Winter 2012, and had no experience in programming beforehand. His lecture slides are gold, and everything that you will need on projects, midterms, and finals, will be on there.

The issue that the others may have had is within practice. People are frustrated at the way that the exams and projects work, but this is how a CS class is.

In fact, I would even say that Rohr's exams and projects are made to be even easier than those of a normal CS class. He does a lot of emphasis on test cases, but those are all honestly "gimme" points that anyone should be able to get.

Again, I would like to go back to practice. In any CS class (I have taken 31, 32, and currently taking 33 and M51A), you will need to practice. In order to learn how to program, you must program! That is precisely the point that Rohr and any other CS professor including Nachenberg and Smallberg will make.

Most of the people who have complained are likely those who expect to be able to get through this class by doing homework and projects alone, but that is just not the case. You have to understand and work with the material to be able to understand it in and out, that's just how CS is. If you take this class with any other professor, it will work out the same way. You're given concepts, and you're expected to apply them!

Rohr provides you with the information, but he will not baby you to wait until you master it. Also, his quizzes in the beginning of every lecture are very helpful and provides useful examples to study.

On a couple of side notes to respond to some of the negative reviews on here: I did not talk to Rohr or go to his office hours too much, but I did not sense any sorts of bias or antagonism towards any students when I did. Also, I would like to reemphasize that I did not know how to code before this, and had benefited greatly from taking this class. The book is also an awesome resource for practice problems after you go through Rohr's lecture slides (other books that are used for the other CS courses doesn't seem to be of the same quality).

It may seem that my debunking of other people's claims may be a bit much, but to be straightforward and summative, Rohr's class is definitely of a good standard. Those who have complained about Rohr, I feel, would have complained the same way if they had taken this class under any other professor.

Also, Costas is an awesome TA, go to his discussions if you can (he'll probably curse me for sending so many students to him after this post).

Well, I'll try to be fair, but including every element that's important for a student before taking this class, CS 31, with this teacher (and the others in some way).
1-Rohr just go to read slides, so you don't need to attend his class. However, he'll get mad at you if he notice it. The problem is not that he'll get mad at you, the problem is that he will take retaliation against you, messing with you in all of the possible ways he can and beyond.
2-Rohr reads his slides in class, but he wanted us to attend, so he invented quizzes whose questions were never included in his exams. He just want you to attend.
3-Projects.
His first two projects are very easy, however he will find an excuse for not giving 100% of the points. His other projects are more difficult, so your chances decrease to get 100% as a grade. Also, you must know how to code, if you don't know, if you want to learn in this class, your efforts will be useless. You won't learn anything by listening how Rohr reads his slides. He is funny to be listened at the beginning of the quarter, but annoying at the end. If he likes you, he will give you a lot of help in his one-to-one office hours, if you don't, sorry for you.
3-Midterms.
It seemed to me an evaluation of my reading skills rather than my coding skills. He gave us two big projects written by him, and asked us to find the mistakes !!!!
We had to write ten tests of those codes and write down the results in detail. I learned than this way to give exams gave him some room to be flexible with his people(they did not explain very well as he required it) and very strict with those students that did not like him.
4-Final.
The final was 60% about classes and structures, however he talked about it at most five minutes in the last class of the quarter. Nobody expected he was going to include so much about something that he did not talk too much in class. His justification was a big project about structure and classes completely finished in which we just had to add small codes to complete it.
You didn't need to understand the code to finish the project. However, he required to everyone, understand the whole for the final exam. Yeap, he required it, but he did not explain it.
You could take that project to the final because a similar code (about structure and classes) was included, and again he requested:
a-To complete some missing code
b-To test the code and print the results
c-To explain some parts
It was about 60% of the final and those guy coding even since hey were in diapers did very well. But, how about us? the normal students that take this class because its name is introduction to C++? Don't be fooled, it is not an intro class, it is a course for people who knows how to code very well (it is in general for CS31, not just for this teacher).
5- Conestion between class-project-midterms.
There is not connection between any of them. The class is one thing, the projects are a different thing (starting from project # 3), and the midterms are also disconnected to the class and projects. Attending to Rohr class is not helpful, except to gather information to understand the confusing specifications for every project. Projects and classes rae helpful to succeed in the midterm. I told you, he gave us two big projects that we had read and understand. I am not a fast reader, so I really was harm for this strategy, which was the teacher objective, aiming international students or student whose English is the second language. The last project, was 60% of the final, it is truth, but he talked as I said almost nothing about it.
Well, I think there is something to say about his personality, but I won't do it because you have to find out that by yourself if you dare to take CS31 with Rohr. Besides, who knows, maybe he already improve his attitude toward the students.
I hope, this information was helpful for new generations of students, good luck guys.

CS31 was just one of those classes I put in all the effort I could, but couldn't succeed in.
The only reason I could find for this is that I never programmed before, so I definitely should've listened to my friends' advice to just wait another time to take CS. Some of my classmates already knew programming, so they had a substantial headstart on understanding this stuff.

That said, do try to find professors like Smallberg or Nachenberg, because I hear a lot of good things about them.

I took rohr fall quarter, so smallberg wrote all the projects as well as the tests (so i can't comment on that)...but although his powerpoints were useful (they are basically outlines of the book), if you have the option, go to smallberg's lectures instead. if you ever have a specific question to ask him, rohr's actually very good at explaining stuff one-to-one, so take advantage of his office hours!

Rohr wasn't as bad as he seemed after reading all these reviews. His 2-hour lectures were a bit long and boring, but not too difficult. He tended to spend the first hour of each lecture reviewing/expanding on the previous lecture, then spent the second hour teaching new material. He gave a lot of examples that were sometimes hard to understand at first. I had a bit of programming experience (in C++) before I took his class, but I thought it was pretty easy. He's a really nice guy, too.

I've been programming for years (not C++, but various other languages) so I wasn't too worried about getting an A. However, Rohr's assignments and midterms seemed intentionally confusing and vague. He demands precision yet he leaves out many important details in his project specs.

His slides are very good, making lecture unimportant. During lectures he simply reads the slides, he doesn't do any actual coding. Don't bother going.

I wouldn't take Rohr if you've never programmed before. You might get an A (probably not), but you will not like him, the class, or C++ afterward.

All the people who complain about Rohr simply didn't pay enough attention to the projects. I came into this class knowing absolutely NOTHING about C++ and still pulled off an A because I didn't BS or copy code for the project. The first thing the guy says is that success in the course depends on your understanding of the projects and, sure enough, both the midterm and the final were based largely on the project material. I've heard good things about Smallberg, but don't hesitate to take Rohr if you don't have the option. Just go to lecture and put a lot of work into the projects and you'll be fine.

1. His midterm exam was a total nonsense. It was not difficult but the performance on it doesn't reflect how you understand the material because it was just a bunch of multiple choices and short answers that deal with trivial stuff. However, his final exam included lots of writing codes and essential concepts so I think the results of the final reflected what the students know fairly well.
2. His lectures are neither extremely helpful nor entertaining but if you attend them constantly, you will be able to make something out of it. However, you need to go to discussion section also in order to do so.
3. Projects are kinda easy in the beginning but they get harder towards the end.
4. As for the TAs, you just need to pray you won't be stuck with someone like Roozbeh. He teaches OK but he grades projects and homeworks so much harshier than others. On a few projects, I got very low grade on report although my program worked perfectly because of some trivial reasons. I know he is harsh because I had some friends in other discussions and compared my projects with theirs. Also, he is not very willing to allow his time for the students and often ignores the emails from the students. Lastly, I want to emphasize I am purely listing things that I have experienced throughout the course without any personal feelings against him.

Thus, my conclusion is that you should avoid him if you can but even if you can't, it is not the end of the world

Absolutely horrible!! I had his class for 31 and I came out with a C! he does not teach, and he is a terrible lecturer. The only people that succeed in his class were the kids that knew everything already so there was no curve! I ended up going to smallberg's lectures and i actually learned something! This guy is terrible dont him at all!!

oh. my. god. one of the worst professors ever. absolutely nice guy, but he sucks at teaching.
voice has a sleepy, boring drawl that will serenade you to sleep.
he has this annoying habit of closing his eyes when he lectures/talks/explains (mainly explains) as if hes too good for you but hes doing it anyways because its his job.
Do not recommend. at all.
if you absolutely have to take this boring dude, go to smallbergs lectures, theyre way better. like you wont even believe.
as for tests, theres a common midterm and final for all CS31/32/3x classes so you cant really blame that on the professor, but you can blame it on all the professors. midterm and final are super hard if you dont understand the material entirely. haha, isnt that a cliche? lol. peace. im out.