Eric Bach - University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI

Professor: Eric Bach

Department: Computer Science

College: University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CS577
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He is not that scary... Some lectures are pretty confusing, which I left having no ideas what he was talking about. He is very good outside of the lecture tho. He gives tons of help in his OH. Overall you will learn a lot from him.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CS577
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Just teaches a bunch of different algorithms with a very loose structure. Be familiar with the algorithms but don't stress over them, class tests more on your deductive reasoning than your understanding of the course.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CS577
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

An ideal teacher for this course. He intuitively understands the material and has the ability to immediately grasp the perspective of the student asking a question. This stuff is abstract, Prof Bach makes it approachable. He is easily reachable, responsive and appears to truly care about both his students and the material.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CS577
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

HWs are random questions, and everything is too theoretical. The most useful proof in this class will be "Now it should be clear that...". It's not a good course if you really want to learn algorithm. Most students go to the other section because this guy just doesn't know how to teach. He sucks.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CS577
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Bach is a very smart man but isn't a easy grader. To want to pass you have to be interested in CS if you aren't the homework will feel like a chain on your leg. In my opinion hes a tough grader and isn't the best but if you want a boost know what your doing wrong and are very interested in CS he'd be the one for you.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: MATH240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He's the worst professor I've ever had. Never take a class with him. There were 4 exams: first average was a 26%, second was 35%, third was 36%, and the final average wasn't posted it was that bad. The exams were multiple choice... He doesn't know how to teach, and he doesn't know how to dumb it down at all. He couldn't have been worse..

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CS577
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Hard class but doable. If you can't get this class with deb take it with Eric.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: MATH240
• Grade Received: WD
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Absolutely worthless professor from my experience in Discrete Math. No, the material is not great, but it was extremely difficult to understand. When the first exam came around and an A was 20%, I dropped. When I went to ask for help, he offered the suggestion to "just write a program to solve it for you". Take 240 with Math Dept instead!

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Just terrible. Made everything so unnecessarily hard that we missed the key concepts of discrete math. I feel robbed of the knowledge that class should have offered.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: MATH240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

It's all been said. He's a very bad teacher. Thinking of taking his class? Don't.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CSMATH240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He wasn't clear. The book wasn't clear. The homework was incredibly difficult. The exams were too, and they were worth 90% of your grade total with each exam average under 50%.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Easily the worst class I've ever taken, and the worst professor I've ever had.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

The worst 240 professor I have ever seen. I know people that have taken this course with other professors and they do not understand what Bach is trying to teach. His methods are unclear, he is terrible at getting his point across and he blames the students for his inability to teach.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CSMATH240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Finally finished the worst class in history! Absolutely terrible time.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Probably the best teacher you can take 240 with especially if you're going to be a CS major. If I could take the class again, I definitely would.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Terrible teacher. Lecture is pointless as nothing you will be doing on the homework is related. Homework is difficult to the point of absurdity, and the exams are stupid hard. Whatever you do don't take any classes with this excuse for a teacher.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Extremely difficult. It definitely doesn't need to be this hard but his class definitely challenges you to learn everything very well. The problem is, his impossible homeworks and teaching style forces you to learn almost everything on your own

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Worst professor I've ever had. Completely impossible to understand. The homeworks given are hard to the point of impossible (I've put in an un-godly amount of time, and gotten nowhere.) The average on the first test was a 33% (after almost half the class dropped the course).

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

A nice guy, but his teaching style is not the most helpful, and his exam/HW questions are needlessly convoluted (i.e. he tries to be "creative") and thus much more difficult than the content of the class calls for.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CS240
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

There is no doubt that Eric is very smart, the only problem is that he is used to teaching higher level undergrad and grad courses. Not the right fit for a class that is trying to teach the basics of many different topics. Unfortunately it is required for CS, so we have to deal with it. I'll be happy to get out with a B and never look back!