Professor
Sandra Batista
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Most Helpful Review
Summer 2024 - NOTE: This is a review for CS 180 Introduction to Algorithms and Complexity, NOT CS 181 Theory of Computing. For some reason, Bruinwalk didn't have the class listed so I'm leaving the review here for now. Class overview: 7X Homework assignments Midterm Final 3X Extra Credit assignments Recorded and annotated lectures Avoid this professor if you want to understand the material to any degree (however, it is not hard to get a decent grade as long as you put in work). She is a nice person with generous policies on homework/extra credit but her extremely vague lectures and very poor communication to her students do not make up for it in the slightest. The material for this class is challenging enough as it is (although it is quite interesting) but her poor explanatory skills make it 100X worse. Stick to the textbook or request the department for Recorded Lectures from a different, more competent professor. Tests are exceedingly long (given 4 hours but you often need more) and rubrics for points are often vague (expect stuff like "1 more points" and "3 logic" to be the type of comments you get back on your exams to justify you getting or losing X amount of points on Gradescope). Additionally, the questions have a tendency to cascade (i.e. you miss one part of the question, you're likely to also miss the following points as they are based off of the previous question) and she appears to be extremely stingy in giving back points in regrade requests (she does seem to acknowledge the difficulty of the exams and grades somewhat generously however). Homework is virtually impossible without outside help after like the third one but they are graded on completion. She does not reply to emails (like ever, it's not just me either but I've heard the same thing from a bunch of other students) and her KEYS or homework assignments and exams often need multiple additional piazza posts to explain problems to solutions because of how incomplete they are. Overall- Pros: lenient homework policy with auto-extension of two days and completion grading annotated slides extra credit opportunities generous grading (although this may be due to how shit her exams are) Cons: terrible communication and teaching skill (whether through piazza, email, or explaining concepts in class) *granted, this may be a bit subjective but according to me and roughly another dozen or so students, this is the consensus* 4 hour (plus) exams for midterm and final and cascading questions (also takes a while to get grades back) Incomplete keys
Summer 2024 - NOTE: This is a review for CS 180 Introduction to Algorithms and Complexity, NOT CS 181 Theory of Computing. For some reason, Bruinwalk didn't have the class listed so I'm leaving the review here for now. Class overview: 7X Homework assignments Midterm Final 3X Extra Credit assignments Recorded and annotated lectures Avoid this professor if you want to understand the material to any degree (however, it is not hard to get a decent grade as long as you put in work). She is a nice person with generous policies on homework/extra credit but her extremely vague lectures and very poor communication to her students do not make up for it in the slightest. The material for this class is challenging enough as it is (although it is quite interesting) but her poor explanatory skills make it 100X worse. Stick to the textbook or request the department for Recorded Lectures from a different, more competent professor. Tests are exceedingly long (given 4 hours but you often need more) and rubrics for points are often vague (expect stuff like "1 more points" and "3 logic" to be the type of comments you get back on your exams to justify you getting or losing X amount of points on Gradescope). Additionally, the questions have a tendency to cascade (i.e. you miss one part of the question, you're likely to also miss the following points as they are based off of the previous question) and she appears to be extremely stingy in giving back points in regrade requests (she does seem to acknowledge the difficulty of the exams and grades somewhat generously however). Homework is virtually impossible without outside help after like the third one but they are graded on completion. She does not reply to emails (like ever, it's not just me either but I've heard the same thing from a bunch of other students) and her KEYS or homework assignments and exams often need multiple additional piazza posts to explain problems to solutions because of how incomplete they are. Overall- Pros: lenient homework policy with auto-extension of two days and completion grading annotated slides extra credit opportunities generous grading (although this may be due to how shit her exams are) Cons: terrible communication and teaching skill (whether through piazza, email, or explaining concepts in class) *granted, this may be a bit subjective but according to me and roughly another dozen or so students, this is the consensus* 4 hour (plus) exams for midterm and final and cascading questions (also takes a while to get grades back) Incomplete keys
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