Professor
David Smallberg
1 of 1
Most Helpful Review
Fall 2019 - Smallberg seems to have plenty of reviews already that give a pretty good gist of him and the class. Here are some things I'll emphasize: 1) He does an excellent job of teaching the material, showcasing every detail, and making sure the class can follow along with him. 2) His lectures can get very dry, especially since they are almost two hours long. 3) He does not use slides. He just writes out different programs that illustrate what he wants to teach the class. This worked for me as it showed me the actual application of each lesson, but it requires you to take good notes. 4) Midterm 1 and 2 were combined this quarter and it was fairly easy with around a 90 average. 5) Final was more difficult than the midterm but still manageable. Average was around an 80. 6) Projects aren't too bad but there are a lot of them (7 in total) so just make sure to manage your time properly.
Fall 2019 - Smallberg seems to have plenty of reviews already that give a pretty good gist of him and the class. Here are some things I'll emphasize: 1) He does an excellent job of teaching the material, showcasing every detail, and making sure the class can follow along with him. 2) His lectures can get very dry, especially since they are almost two hours long. 3) He does not use slides. He just writes out different programs that illustrate what he wants to teach the class. This worked for me as it showed me the actual application of each lesson, but it requires you to take good notes. 4) Midterm 1 and 2 were combined this quarter and it was fairly easy with around a 90 average. 5) Final was more difficult than the midterm but still manageable. Average was around an 80. 6) Projects aren't too bad but there are a lot of them (7 in total) so just make sure to manage your time properly.
Most Helpful Review
Spring 2020 - A lot of people were ragging on him for being slow with grading this quarter (Spring 2020), but objectively that's a pretty minor consideration when you're evaluating the effectiveness of a professor. Smallberg teaches the class very well. As a lot of reviews have already said, he's not the most engaging lecturer due to how much he pores over the details, but if you pay attention, you'll find that he really does such a good job explaining concepts. I always came out of lecture understanding a new topic pretty well. There's obviously a lot of complaints about the workload, which does get pretty heavy after week 6. But it's NOT unmanageable. Yes, Project 3 is extremely tedious and does take 20-30 hours to complete, but we get two weeks to do it. If you plan properly, you'll be fine. Smallberg was actually lenient this quarter and gave a relatively easy Project 4, and yet people still love to complain. Honestly I don't get all the hate Smallberg gets. This dude works harder than any professor I've ever had. He designs unique projects each quarter for CS32, and that means he also has to come up with new test cases every time. Grading in this class is a more intense process than others, so it's obviously going to take longer than other classes to get grades back. Overall, I would definitely recommend this class with Smallberg. I never attended Nachenberg's lectures so I can't give a comparison, but I will say that this class with Smallberg taught me a lot, and is a very valuable class to have under your belt.
Spring 2020 - A lot of people were ragging on him for being slow with grading this quarter (Spring 2020), but objectively that's a pretty minor consideration when you're evaluating the effectiveness of a professor. Smallberg teaches the class very well. As a lot of reviews have already said, he's not the most engaging lecturer due to how much he pores over the details, but if you pay attention, you'll find that he really does such a good job explaining concepts. I always came out of lecture understanding a new topic pretty well. There's obviously a lot of complaints about the workload, which does get pretty heavy after week 6. But it's NOT unmanageable. Yes, Project 3 is extremely tedious and does take 20-30 hours to complete, but we get two weeks to do it. If you plan properly, you'll be fine. Smallberg was actually lenient this quarter and gave a relatively easy Project 4, and yet people still love to complain. Honestly I don't get all the hate Smallberg gets. This dude works harder than any professor I've ever had. He designs unique projects each quarter for CS32, and that means he also has to come up with new test cases every time. Grading in this class is a more intense process than others, so it's obviously going to take longer than other classes to get grades back. Overall, I would definitely recommend this class with Smallberg. I never attended Nachenberg's lectures so I can't give a comparison, but I will say that this class with Smallberg taught me a lot, and is a very valuable class to have under your belt.
AD
1 of 1
