Michael Dillencourt - University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA

Professor: Michael Dillencourt

Department: Computer Science

College: University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Dillencourt isn't terrible, just mediocre. For lectures, he just reads his slides -- don't bother attending. His exams are based purely on the slides, something which he doesn't convey (leading to a 60% average on the first midterm and 90% average on the second once people got it). Curve is generous, albeit unusually complex in computation.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Memorize his slides because that is what the exams test you on, not understanding. The curve is generous so just do your best to memorize his slides for the test and you'll pass. Textbook does little to help you since the tests are slide memorization tests, despite his strong recommendation to do practice problems and read.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Reads off slides. Un-engaging lectures. Dillencourt has poor topic coverage, wasting the 2-3 weeks on review material and squeezing in DP at the end and skipping key topics. Doesn't focus very well on the algorithm "Design" aspect of the class. Exams mainly focus on algorithm mechanics. Final a bit harder than the midterms and was heavy on DP.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

CS161 is a hard course, in general. Dillencourts lectures are boring but hes a smart guy. His midterms are fair, but I felt like the final was very difficult and didnt have a fair distribution of questions (essentially 80% of the course was not on there)

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Midterms are okay (short answer questions), his slides are poor, so get ready to read the textbook and watch YouTube video to teach yourself. Final (20 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions) much harder than midterms.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Reads off slides, which are usually decent. Dry lectures, but if you actually pay attention, he's decent at explaining things. Not amazing, but def not bad either. Also, he seems like he cares a bit, which is more than most profs. Tests are based off hws/lec slides, and are fair. No surprises in this class: everything is "okay" about it.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

The material isn't too hard. As long as you understand the slides/textbook, then you'll pass. My problem is that his lecture is very dry and was useless to me. Also, his homework grading system is annoying. My biggest complaint, the homework is unnecessarily "hard" in a way where it's complicated and unhelpful for exams and actually learning...

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: No
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Strangest homework grading system ever. Don't take

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: ICS6D
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Doesnt like to give partial credit. Makes material harder than Irani. Wears what looks like the same exact shirt every day (concerning?). Isnt amazing at explaining concepts (doesnt know how to explain something from a different angle), more like rambles off whats on the slides. Hardly does any real examples. Definitely not top quality professor.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: 6D
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Late. Every. Single. Day. Seriously, I started a spreadsheet just to count the hours, near the end of the quarter it was a total of almost an entire class period. Wears a blue polo shirt every single day. Homework is optional, "tests" as he likes to call his quizzes happen every week, and a final at the end. At least he speaks clearly? Easy enough.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

I'm giving this professor this rating not because the "class is hard". It's supposed to be. But let's be honest here, his lectures were just plain boring. It wasn't fine. Every sentence gets quieter and dies off near the end. He rushes through huge concepts that needs to be reapplied on variation for tests. Good difficulty for class, terrible lecs.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Prof. Dillencourt gets harsher ratings than he deserves, likely from students who are in the camp of "I thought CS would be just learning how to write code and then I'd graduate with a six figure salary ezpz" Curves are generous and the final replaces a midterm grade if you do better. His lectures can be dry but he explains everything very well.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

The tests are pretty easy (especially the Finals). Class has been highly enjoyable. I do wish that there were pop quizzes related to the tests were given though. It would have helped me kinda now which topics to focus on more instead of making sure I understand every single concept. Regardless, still an easy A if you put some time into it.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Lets be fair here, tests are really easy. Everything he tested are demonstrated in detail on this slides. If you actually studied, you are guaranteed at least a B after curve. As comments mentioned, this is compsci, this is upper div, this is 161. What do you expect? An easy A like ICS31?

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Teacher lectures fine... The curve is great, and the questions on the tests are very easy. Reading the slides and attending class helped me do very well on the tests. The reviews below fail to mention how well-distributed the curve is. Computer Science is supposed to be hard -- this is upper division ladies and gentlemen. I'll probably have an A.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Pros: * Tests are easy (low # of questions, simple concept questions) * Slides are good * Teacher introduced me to kewl things Cons: * Homework is a lot harder than the tests (but this helps reinforce your knowledge). The average is quite low, but in my humble opinion I don't exactly think that's the course's/teacher's fault.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Easiest class I ever had in UCI. Tests are 90% of the grade, which is a good thing because the tests are all easy As. What I really hope is that, instead having the 10% of hw, maybe he should give us pop quizzes in lecture.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He's a very smart guy but his lectures are quite boring, and his tests are like "surprise! didn't expect that did you?". No practice exams, and the final is 45% of your grade. GL

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CS161
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Extremely unorganized. Can't seem to get his head straight. Skips through details and jumps to result, but expects you to know everything in tests. HW are just random challenges that don't help at all. Really shouldn't be teaching upper-division classes. Wait for a quarter, he probably won't teach this class consecutively. Otherwise, God bless you.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: ICS6D
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

He's not the best lecturer, but he's okay. 4 tests (1 drop) if you do the HW it should be very straight forward. If you do better in the final compared to the test (he uses median and standard deviation to compare), he will use the better one among those two. I had a B+ before the final, I did pretty well on the final and ended up with an A.