Not the most exciting lecturer I've ever seen, but he's definitely a lot better than his reviews here suggest. I felt that he explained concepts pretty well, and he was pretty helpful when difficult concepts arose.

I think both Rafi and Mehka, (180 professors with really bad initial reviews) have gotten a lot better. I've only heard from friends talking about Mehka, but my experience with Rafi has been fairly positive

Course Breakdown was 15% HW, 40% Midterm, 45% Final. At tenth week, he opted to allow for the midterm to be dropped and the final to be weighted 85% depending on which benefited you more.

I enjoyed Ostrovskys lectures, but I'm aware I'm in the minority. I also know he can sometimes drone on for a long time on tangents. To me, however, he has a clear passion for the material and a silly nerdy sense of humor about it that is entertaining enough to get you through the worst of it. He'll also go fairly slow on concepts, so you can afford to space out in certain discussions.

In terms of difficulty, it's a bit nerve wracking to have two tests determine your grade. However, he does a good job not killing you with what he has on the exams. The algorithm design questions are similar in level to medium level leetcode questions and his proofs check for an overall understanding of the material rather than regurgitation. Studied a lot for the midterm and not as much for the final and did well on both. He will definitely curve you up if you need it.

At the end of the day, I think Ostrovsky is a good professor. Sometimes he can be dry as a lecturer, but follow the book and the TA's and you should be okay. My TA was Arman K who I would recommend since he cleared up a lot of little issues I had when learning. I would definitely take this course again.

At the first class, the professor look funny and he care about all students. He has no problem at all with regard to giving out PTEs. It turns out that you never need a PTE in that everybody drop the class or study by their own.

However, after a week, I was so so so disappointed. He is smart and intelligent and good in research. That's for sure. As a PhD student, I believe working with him to collaborate in a research must be a fantastic experience. But... the lecture (CS180), I'll probably say NO ... (soon).

It seems that he just use the slides from the publisher (how can you give a talk without preparing your own slide?). Somehow I disguise such a teaching style (reusing other's slides, especially when you use ALL of them and refuse to give it to students). YES! Everything you can find in TEXTBOOK. So why should I pay thousands of dollars to be here just for asking you to read TEXTBOOK out loudly?

I believe every instructor should put himself in student's shoes. I'm not here for listening your talk in a conference (if this is the case, he's okay despite of some accents). I "was" an instructor in a community college for several years before getting my PhD degree in UCLA, and I'm pretty confidence that his teaching style is very ineffective and irresponsible, at least, as a instructor in a "undergraduate" level class. Though, undoubtedly he is a great researcher and a wise, intelligent man. But in my opinion, no student would like such a teaching style.

I took CS 180 with Ostrovsky. In the beginning I thought he's a good professor; turned out later that he's not that good. He can explain topics pretty well, if you ask him; problem is that he doesn't seem to care enough to do so. In the beginning of the class this doesn't make much of a difference, but as the subject matter becomes more advanced and harder to comprehend, many students end up falling behind. In my class at least, he usually rushes through 50-70 slides from the book (which he refuses to share with students) in about 60-70 minutes, then lets everyone go as nobody "has any questions" for him. I was LUCKY to have a good TA to fill in the gaps to us during discussions. My advice: if you take that class with him, make sure to read the book material on your own, do _all_ homework assignments, and then look at homework solutions to ensure you got it right.

Don't let lack of evaluation fools you. This professor is very bad. Don't do what I did. I took this guy for CS 180 in lack of information of his teaching. Turn out the first evaluation is right. He is VERY BAD.

Class & Professor:

The class is difficult, because of all the proofing. The professor offer no help whatsoever. He use slides from book resource to teach, and actually read off the slide during lecture. He think he is funny by making joke while his lecture offers no real knowledge.

He has no teaching ethnicity at all. Come to his OH and tell me to wait for 20 minutes, because he has a phone call.

Bottom line, if you took him, you are screwed.