John Bell - University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL

Professor: John Bell

Department: Computer Science

College: University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I was fine with the projects, I actually liked doing them. But the time crunch on the exams was unecessary. We were already taking them at 6:30PM, there were still a lot of people in the class at the end, meaning they needed more time and he wouldn't give it to us.. Also would say we would get more time, but we wouldn't.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CS440
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Took 442 with him as well. Contrary to what everyone says, if you are a "go with the flow" type and want an easy 400-level B, then this is one of the best choices because he just curves that hard. Dont fret over your grade in this class; as long as u attempted all assignments, you are guaranteed a B. The class is team based, so have friends.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

If you don't know Java you're kinda screwed, otherwise easy A/B. Term project is ridiculous at how redundant and time consuming it is. His lecture are boring but he actually does have some pretty decent slides that actually summarize the textbook material really well.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

I very much dislike the way his term project is set up. You spend so much time working on certain features, and then the next release, you're asked to scrap it and then implement it a different way. There is SO MUCH redundancy in some of the things he tells you to do. We waste time on pointless things like backwards compatibility for input files.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CS440
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Bell is actually the worst professor I've ever had. He regularly changes deadlines and requirements at the last minute. During exams, he'll interrupt our work no less than 4 times to clarify things that should have been written down in the first place and walks around the room to move people so they're more spread out while they're trying to focus.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: INC
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Bell is all over the place. He doesn't give enough time for exams. His projects are never defined well, so expect last minute changes only a few days before it's due. Since the projects are all cumulative, and grades take forever to get back (w/ no feedback) you don't know where you went wrong you can't fix it for the next project.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CS440
• 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:

Prof. Bell is very knowledgeable and he is a very nice person. Class is organized and everything is clear. In my opinion two group projects (spans over the whole semester) boosts teamwork skills if you have a good team and you are motivated to get most of it. Be prepared for the anecdotes about his previous life when he was a Chemical Engineer :)

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

No idea why his rating is so low. He was the easiest professor I had this semester. 50% of your grade is based on a trivial semester long project. The other 50% on exams which could be considered difficult if it wasn't for the huge curve.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CS342
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

I never showed up to his class and still got an A (granted because Java is relatively easy and the projects are okay). His good side is that he's very accessible outside class. The bad side is that his lectures are very boring.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CS361
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Super underrated. Doesn't fail students on principle - he will literally curve the class crazy hard to make sure everyone who tried passes. If you did his projects, you are pretty much guaranteed to pass exams. His exams are exactly the same format for every class he teaches. This class in particular he allowed cheat sheets which was awesome.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CS361
• Grade Received: F
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: No
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

"Im not a hardware guy" - CS 361 Fall 2017

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I had to take Bell because I had no other option, but if you can get a different professor, you should probably take them instead. His lectures were insanely boring (I ended up skipping for about two months) and not helpful. Some assignments were really difficult and I had to depend on the TAs to do them. Can be helpful outside class though.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CS440
• Grade Received: C
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I took CS 440 with professor Bell and certainly enjoyed his lectures. It would really help if we concentrated more on the software aspect rather than the business aspect of it, perhaps more on how to design software, software design pros and cons, comparisons of a bad software design with good software design.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

The lectures aren't really important unless he's explaining something that's on the homework that's tricky. Even then you can watch all the lectures online. You have to teach yourself a lot of it through the online homework. The tests are meant to be hard but if you understand the homework you'll do fine.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Went into CS109 not knowing anything about coding (srsly ZERO). Attendance isn't mandatory and posts lecture captures on BB. Learned from Zyante and occasionally looked at the lecture caps to see how to start some of the HW assignments, as he does briefly go over it during lecture. Don't fall behind and understand what you are doing and you're good

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Overall positive experience. Exams can be a bit tough but the curve helps. Make sure you do the homework and you'll be prepared. Very knowledgeable and approachable. Warning: super-dry sense of humor.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Quote of the semester from him: "I just know how to do hard exams." He is too smart to teach an intro class. He is mostly about theory of code and what the codes do, but he does not practice any code with us. You cant learn a language by just reading about it, you have to practice it. He does not practice it in class. The labs do not help either.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Bell is one of the worst professors I've ever had. TA grading is inconsistent and unpredictable (I got 40% lower on the second midterm than the first one), and exams are based on asinine trivia from lecture. The homework is pretty easy and all online, but the textbook isn't helpful for the tests at all (but does teach you to code if you try).

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CS109
• 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:

He made attendance optional by not using iClicker points towards your grade. The entire class is just doing 7 or 8 programming assignments (that arent too hard. The hardest one took me 6 hours to do, but he gives you 2 weeks) and 2 tests and a final. The tests arent too bad since he lets you have a cheat sheet (handwritten 2x sided) He curves a lot

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CS110
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

I took CS110 the matlab portion of CS 109. The class lasts 5 weeks for 1 credit and the workload is intense. I cant speak for the whole of CS109 but by week 3 Bell was 2 weeks behind the mandatory reading and on week 4 he dumped half the class material on us. Thankfully there is a lot of support for this class Bell and the TAs do a decent job there