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Michael Murray
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Based on 17 Users
Lowkey class was a joke. The professor taught this course as if we were bill gates. His lectures were flat out useless and it did not help on the hw's. The only benefit this class had for me was being exposed to coding before actually taking cs31.
His homeworks were far too lengthy and his graders graded harshly with little explanation as to why points would be taken off. He would take days to respond to emails so communication lacked. The lectures simply did not help on the hw at all
He gave no preparation for the midterm, only three multiple choice questions bruh. His midterm and finals were extremely conceptual and worded in the most complicated way possible. If you do not know how to code, or you want to learn, do not take PIC bruh just do cs.
Overall, Professor Murray is a nice guy but the way he taught was an L
Toughest introductory class you will take if you have this professor. Seems like the average on every homework is around 70 or 75, and mind you homework is worth 50% of your overall grade. Midterm was horrible as well. Midway through the day before the midterm he FINALLY posted practice questions. Except there were only THREE.
Our homeworks are much lengthier and more difficult than the other PIC classes. My friend has typically two problems for week, meanwhile we usually have 3 and sometimes even 4. He is flexible in extending the homework, usually by a day, but it is still very stressful.
The class is extremely disorganized and all over the place. The syllabus is a joke, with barely anything on it so for many things you go in blind.
Class uses campuswire to communicate with TAs and Prof instead of email for the most part.
This I actually liked as it was much easier to get questions answered and also see the questions other classmates had asked.
In lecture, clarity is very hit or miss. Often I feel he gets ahead of himself and will use terms before explaining what they are. In addition, lecture notes, while helpfully very detailed, are disorganized and can be hard to read.
tldr; don't take this class if you have never coded before, prof is disorganized, grades harshly, assigns a lot, lacks clarity.
Prof. Murray said this was his last class at UCLA, which is unfortunate because I thought he was very good. I wish this school kept around more professors who genuinely care about teaching undergrads like Murray did.
PIC 10B is definitely a step up from 10A. Most of the class focuses on memory management, which can get pretty difficult. Algorithms and Data Structures can be pretty complex as well. Overall, these were important and useful things to learn, and the workload is considerably less than that of CS 32.
Good class! I didn't love 10A but I really enjoyed 10B. Professor could be a little opaque at times but you can just ask (in lecture or OH or his AMAZING campuswire set up) and he'd clarify. Lectures were pretty interesting and exams are not difficult at all because he doesn't require you to remember every little syntactical thing just what the structure should be since if you're coding in real-life, there's a good chance you'll have access to the internet to Google it!!
Overall, sharp professor so I recommend to take this course.
Although I took AP CSA in high school, that was my only prior coding experience and I did not know C++ before this class. There was still a learning curve just because the homework assignments were more challenging, but he was always open in office hours and the lowest one gets dropped (Make sure your code works on Visual Studio so you don't get a 0). TA Nikunj Sanghai was very helpful too. The grading did feel a bit mysterious on homework (50% of your grade) but that's probably on me for not making up enough test cases and basing my code off of the examples in the spec (not hard coded, don't hard code).
The professor clearly wants his students to succeed in overcoming the learning curve. Expect your BruinLearn page to be laden with lecture notes, code examples, and TA notes. I would recommend the textbook as well. Lecture attendance is not mandatory (this was an 8 AM), but you will miss out on the helpful diagrams tracing the code. I got a 79 on the midterm but a 94 on the final, so it is possible to improve. Especially if this is your first time coding, you may feel stuck on topics like pointers, but the teaching team and tutoring services understand and are always there to help you out.
I took this class spring quarter of 2022 and I think it was his first time teaching. Lecture isn't mandatory, he posts the Jupyter Notebooks on canvas but doesn't record. He live codes in lecture and I thought it was very helpful. Discussions are mandatory and the TAs take attendance, and you do worksheets and work on your group project in them. The discussion assignments were graded and were sometimes kind of hard but the TAs and LAs go around to help you and your group.
I really liked the group project, it was groups of 3 and you worked on a machine learning project together. I thought there was enough time given to do it and the project has been helpful as a template for other projects I'm doing in other classes.
The midterm was really hard lol he gave us a study guide but it was super tricky and i think a lot of people didn't do well on it. His final was way easier though!
Homeworks were pretty hard for me too, but he was always super helpful and nice during office hours.
I would recommend this class, even though it was hard for me I felt like I learned so much and it has really helped me for future Python/data science classes
10B is notoriously more difficult than 10A, but I found that the class isn't too hard if you put in the effort. We touched on data structures at the end, which is probably the most difficult part of the course, but aren't expected to know too much about them in the context of this class.
Professor Murray's style of coding live in-lecture was really helpful for learning, and the exams and homework sets were all rather fair and in-line with everything covered in lecture. Office hours are also really worthwhile. He's really friendly and addresses any questions you might have -- I also sometimes just worked on the homework so I could immediately ask if any issues came up. Overall, I really enjoyed both his 10A and 10B courses and feel like I learned a lot!
Prof Murray teaches this class at what I feel is at a very advanced level (or maybe I just found the class on the harder side of all the PIC classes I've taken), but he definitely did go into more detail and depth than what was necessary. He holds lots of office hours and is very kind and understanding in them and will try his best to help you which you can feel. He gives you a good amount of time to complete the assignments, but I found the assignments on the hard side and it would take me a long time to figure them out (and my friends who had taken CS32 had a lot of difficulty in helping as well). You are allowed 1 handwritten double sided sheet of paper for the midterm and final. Completing this class feels rewarding, but definitely stay on top of the lecture materials since Prof Murray covers a good amount of content. Take this class seriously if you will take it!
Tests are very fair and Prof. Murray did an excellent job of making course content available outside of class hours which is great for taking one's own time to review. He really wants his students to succeed which is really nice! Wish office hour times were voted on by class, but other than that I'm grateful to have him as a professor -- he really has taught me a lot!
Going into this class with no prior experience in programming definitely required a steep learning curve. However, after many office hours and youtube videos outside of class, I can definitely say that I have a good grasp on c++ material. Professor Murray's lectures were very helpful, but you definitely need supplementary material if you haven't worked with programming before. The homework is worth 50% of your grade which is really nice as the tests were very difficult.
Lowkey class was a joke. The professor taught this course as if we were bill gates. His lectures were flat out useless and it did not help on the hw's. The only benefit this class had for me was being exposed to coding before actually taking cs31.
His homeworks were far too lengthy and his graders graded harshly with little explanation as to why points would be taken off. He would take days to respond to emails so communication lacked. The lectures simply did not help on the hw at all
He gave no preparation for the midterm, only three multiple choice questions bruh. His midterm and finals were extremely conceptual and worded in the most complicated way possible. If you do not know how to code, or you want to learn, do not take PIC bruh just do cs.
Overall, Professor Murray is a nice guy but the way he taught was an L
Toughest introductory class you will take if you have this professor. Seems like the average on every homework is around 70 or 75, and mind you homework is worth 50% of your overall grade. Midterm was horrible as well. Midway through the day before the midterm he FINALLY posted practice questions. Except there were only THREE.
Our homeworks are much lengthier and more difficult than the other PIC classes. My friend has typically two problems for week, meanwhile we usually have 3 and sometimes even 4. He is flexible in extending the homework, usually by a day, but it is still very stressful.
The class is extremely disorganized and all over the place. The syllabus is a joke, with barely anything on it so for many things you go in blind.
Class uses campuswire to communicate with TAs and Prof instead of email for the most part.
This I actually liked as it was much easier to get questions answered and also see the questions other classmates had asked.
In lecture, clarity is very hit or miss. Often I feel he gets ahead of himself and will use terms before explaining what they are. In addition, lecture notes, while helpfully very detailed, are disorganized and can be hard to read.
tldr; don't take this class if you have never coded before, prof is disorganized, grades harshly, assigns a lot, lacks clarity.
Prof. Murray said this was his last class at UCLA, which is unfortunate because I thought he was very good. I wish this school kept around more professors who genuinely care about teaching undergrads like Murray did.
PIC 10B is definitely a step up from 10A. Most of the class focuses on memory management, which can get pretty difficult. Algorithms and Data Structures can be pretty complex as well. Overall, these were important and useful things to learn, and the workload is considerably less than that of CS 32.
Good class! I didn't love 10A but I really enjoyed 10B. Professor could be a little opaque at times but you can just ask (in lecture or OH or his AMAZING campuswire set up) and he'd clarify. Lectures were pretty interesting and exams are not difficult at all because he doesn't require you to remember every little syntactical thing just what the structure should be since if you're coding in real-life, there's a good chance you'll have access to the internet to Google it!!
Overall, sharp professor so I recommend to take this course.
Although I took AP CSA in high school, that was my only prior coding experience and I did not know C++ before this class. There was still a learning curve just because the homework assignments were more challenging, but he was always open in office hours and the lowest one gets dropped (Make sure your code works on Visual Studio so you don't get a 0). TA Nikunj Sanghai was very helpful too. The grading did feel a bit mysterious on homework (50% of your grade) but that's probably on me for not making up enough test cases and basing my code off of the examples in the spec (not hard coded, don't hard code).
The professor clearly wants his students to succeed in overcoming the learning curve. Expect your BruinLearn page to be laden with lecture notes, code examples, and TA notes. I would recommend the textbook as well. Lecture attendance is not mandatory (this was an 8 AM), but you will miss out on the helpful diagrams tracing the code. I got a 79 on the midterm but a 94 on the final, so it is possible to improve. Especially if this is your first time coding, you may feel stuck on topics like pointers, but the teaching team and tutoring services understand and are always there to help you out.
I took this class spring quarter of 2022 and I think it was his first time teaching. Lecture isn't mandatory, he posts the Jupyter Notebooks on canvas but doesn't record. He live codes in lecture and I thought it was very helpful. Discussions are mandatory and the TAs take attendance, and you do worksheets and work on your group project in them. The discussion assignments were graded and were sometimes kind of hard but the TAs and LAs go around to help you and your group.
I really liked the group project, it was groups of 3 and you worked on a machine learning project together. I thought there was enough time given to do it and the project has been helpful as a template for other projects I'm doing in other classes.
The midterm was really hard lol he gave us a study guide but it was super tricky and i think a lot of people didn't do well on it. His final was way easier though!
Homeworks were pretty hard for me too, but he was always super helpful and nice during office hours.
I would recommend this class, even though it was hard for me I felt like I learned so much and it has really helped me for future Python/data science classes
10B is notoriously more difficult than 10A, but I found that the class isn't too hard if you put in the effort. We touched on data structures at the end, which is probably the most difficult part of the course, but aren't expected to know too much about them in the context of this class.
Professor Murray's style of coding live in-lecture was really helpful for learning, and the exams and homework sets were all rather fair and in-line with everything covered in lecture. Office hours are also really worthwhile. He's really friendly and addresses any questions you might have -- I also sometimes just worked on the homework so I could immediately ask if any issues came up. Overall, I really enjoyed both his 10A and 10B courses and feel like I learned a lot!
Prof Murray teaches this class at what I feel is at a very advanced level (or maybe I just found the class on the harder side of all the PIC classes I've taken), but he definitely did go into more detail and depth than what was necessary. He holds lots of office hours and is very kind and understanding in them and will try his best to help you which you can feel. He gives you a good amount of time to complete the assignments, but I found the assignments on the hard side and it would take me a long time to figure them out (and my friends who had taken CS32 had a lot of difficulty in helping as well). You are allowed 1 handwritten double sided sheet of paper for the midterm and final. Completing this class feels rewarding, but definitely stay on top of the lecture materials since Prof Murray covers a good amount of content. Take this class seriously if you will take it!
Tests are very fair and Prof. Murray did an excellent job of making course content available outside of class hours which is great for taking one's own time to review. He really wants his students to succeed which is really nice! Wish office hour times were voted on by class, but other than that I'm grateful to have him as a professor -- he really has taught me a lot!
Going into this class with no prior experience in programming definitely required a steep learning curve. However, after many office hours and youtube videos outside of class, I can definitely say that I have a good grasp on c++ material. Professor Murray's lectures were very helpful, but you definitely need supplementary material if you haven't worked with programming before. The homework is worth 50% of your grade which is really nice as the tests were very difficult.