Pros:
- Only had 3 homework assignments, so there wasn't much outside work needed
- Relatively easy to get an A
- TA discussion section slides were helpful
- We had slightly over 24 hours to finish both our midterm and final exams
- The midterm exam was pretty easy (though tedious), and the final exam was very easy
- Professor seems like a genuinely nice guy

Cons:
- Professor did a poor job at explaining concepts -- TA's did a better job in discussion section
- Lecture recordings were posted extremely late
- Professor often took too long at explaining an unrelated concept, and then would rush through more important material
- The midterm was intended to take 2 hours, but took substantially longer
- Not sure how prepared I am for future CS classes that may build on this material

---Lectures: Overall the lectures were not the best. They were often disorganized and difficult to follow. Explanations on important material were often done quickly and confusingly.

---Professor: Ramezani is very passionate about the information, but this can at times be a bad thing. He ends up spending full lectures on tangent information that is not in the curriculum. This becomes a problem when it cuts time away from important material. He seems quite unprepared for each lecture, so you can never distinguish between important material and his tangents. He constantly assures us that each topic is "very simple" when they're often not, which discourages questions. He came into this class expecting we knew the basics of circuits even though this is a lower div course. The worst part is that he gives a textbook but doesn't follow it and his terminology differs from stuff online so it's hard to learn the material outside of lecture.

---Homework: The whole quarter we had three easy assignments. I did not have to do any work for the latter half of the quarter.

---Exams: We had a midterm and final each worth 40%. Both were pretty easy. I came into the final barely knowing anything from the latter half of lectures but still got nearly perfect.

---Tips: For topics that you find difficult to understand try to look it up on youtube

Disclaimer: this review was written during COVID so the format was online.

I think a good amount of the course material is quite interesting, and there were certainly a lot of topics to cover. I enjoyed the professor's enthusiasm in trying to get his students engaged, and trying to make the best of the online learning situation. The professor ended up being pretty accommodating, and the class was pretty easy in general.

However, the problem I had with this professor was his general lack of organization and communication. I felt like the course really had no structure, and it was often hard to tell if we were learning something that was part of the course material, or something cool the professor found interesting, but was ultimately not in the scope of the class. There was no syllabus and no information about the midterm or final until many weeks after the class started, so we had little idea of what really to expect out of the class. After the midterm, there were no more homework assignments, which did not help me master the second half of the material.

Additionally, I felt the professor was trying too hard to force student involvement, at the expense of making class go really slowly. This was especially concerning to hear since I have heard that the other professor (Korf) who taught this course this quarter covered much more material than we ended up covering and explained things a lot more clearly, and I am afraid I haven't mastered the material or learned enough for other EE upper division classes. Many times the TA's had to pick up the slack, and usually they were the ones that clarified what exactly we should know and how to practice the material we learned in class. Shoutout to TA Zengwen Yuan, he was a lifesaver.

Now I do understand it is the professor's first time teaching, especially in an online environment, and he is probably trying his best given the circumstances. That being said, there is a lot he needs to improve on and he needs to have a way better arranged plan for this course. The overall experience was not very enjoyable, and I felt like even though I got an A, I didn't really learn much about the material in this class.

I'm not sure why the reviews for this professor are negative, he taught us all the material except for FSMs and that is because we ran out of time. I took this class in the Spring of 2020 with another professor (Mani Srivastava) and I can say with complete confidence that I learned the same material (if not more) in Ramezani's class with much less of a pain.

Ramezani understands that you don't need to struggle to understand a courses material, however, with that being said, the homeworks and the tests were a bit weird.

The first half of the class (until the midterm) was amazing. We got clear homework that highlighted important concepts in class and we got information that was relevant to the course and we seemed to be on track with what Korf's class was learning.

The midterm was weird (completely doable and not difficult) because it was very long. It was supposed to be a 2 hour exam, it took me easily 6-ish hours, however, since we got 24 hours, it was very doable. (I actually had 2 other midterms on this day but I still was able to finish this with time for the other ones).

After the midterm, this class becomes a little bit weird. I think we fell behind Korf's class but also we started to cover different material and we literally got no required (we did get optional questions in lecture that were relevant for the final exam) homework whatsoever. It was weird because we didn't know what kinds of questions were required for the final exam and we also didn't do any legit practice for concepts after the midterm.

But in essence, this course was enjoyable, the professor was incredibly understanding and adjusted different things for students based on feedback.

Here's the grade breakdown for those interested:

Homework: 20%
Midterm: 40%
Final: 40%

For any other information, read the next review. It's spot on.

Ramezani is SO passionate about the material and our learning that it's really endearing, almost? However, lectures are quite disorganized - he frequently switches to a new topic or idea midsentence. He also had no office hours, and gets into minutiae during lecture better suited for homework. The homework is very easy once you get the hang of things. As others have said, GO TO DISCUSSION! I never do but this class was the one discussion I attended religiously. Zengwen Yuan is the best <3 You understand things a lot better after discussions (also, lecture recordings are always uploaded late, so you might go to discussion without any previous knowledge). Midterm/final were pretty easy, but this is varied among people. Definitely an easy A, but I'm not sure how much I learned about digital systems / if I learned enough. Also, this was Ramezani's first time teaching this class and he really appreciated feedback, so things will probably get better. In summary, the best way to describe him is a professor that is much better at research than teaching!

Terrible at teaching. He is confusing even on the most straightforward concepts. He asked us questions in class about concepts that he have not taught yet, and told us to use extra time to do research on topics that he could not explain clear enough. I wonder if we are coming to university to do self-study, what is the point of his job then? But to be fair, the workload actually assigned is quite light and the exams are quite easy.

This was the first quarter that the professor taught the class, or any lower division class for that matter. He struggled to explain some concepts clearly and concisely, which often led to students being confused with the material. The pacing was really weird too -- he digressed from the course material too much and spent too much time trying to get students to participate, which meant that less time was spent on more important topics. Despite that, I think I was able to learn a lot, especially with help from the TA's. Also, the professor is extremely kind, understanding, and concerned with student learning, so that is a plus.