Paul Ammann - George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Professor: Paul Ammann

Department: Computer Science

College: George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: SWE637
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Respected! Although his voice is not that much clear sometimes but class discussion helps a lot. Weekly quiz are based on previous class. You have to understand materials to do good in quiz. Final exam questions was standard, based on class quiz, exercises. Try to make group for assignment to get extra credit.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CS332
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Attendance is mandatory. He is a really smart man, but some of the topics he goes over are very hard to grasp. His quizzes are difficult because of the way they're phrased. There is no solid concept to really grasp, it's difficult to understand. Watch his videos, they help a lot.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: SWE437
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Ammann is knowledgeable in software testing, and you will learn quite a bit from him. There are weekly quizzes, and homeworks. Required to read textbook. Some of material can be confusing - most learning done in class activities. Final exam was more challenging than weekly quizzes, however not insurmountable. Would recommend Dr. Amman Great guy

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: CS332
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Everything seems easy and strait forward but the final wasn't anything like the quizzes or in class exercises. TA was fair grader. I cant tell the same for prof Ammann.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CS332
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Bad: he is always mumbling half end of what he said. He uses phrases or idiomatic in question so in one way, it is easier understand for English native while make none native English speaking student very confused. The good: very helpful, promptly give feedback, not very hash grader.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: SWE619
• Grade Received: B-
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

I really liked the text books by Liskov and Bloch which were the course materials of this class. I was expecting this course both interesting and easy but the class was not like that to me.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: SWE619
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Although sometimes he may not be clear, his teaching is very good. He has weekly assignments and tests and also his assignments can tend to be a bit more complex/tough than other profs. But at the end of it, you really learn a lot and it's quiet satisfying actually. If given an option, I would recommend you take his class!

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: SWE437
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

If you look closely, you will notice that he has one very long hair sticking out of his right eyebrow. If you can pluck it, he will give you an automatic A in the class.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: SWE437
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Only test is the final, all other assessments were group work, and trivial at that because the GTA seems to just see if you wrote enough and gives you full points. Attendance is graded along with weekly quizzes. You learn a lot of his flavor of testing but he is intelligent in the subject and seems to like teaching. Seems to care, I recommend him.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: SWE437
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He's a nice professor who gaves in-class execises to prepare quizs. 12 quizzes drop 3 lowest. Hws are every week like quizzes. Fortunately, you can have 2 partners for hw. Easy class as long as you follow up with the in class exercise. The final is a little tough. I didn't copy down terms on cheat sheet. So I lost 660 on the final. Speak so low.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: SWE437
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Terribly banal, overcomplicates trivial topics, and forces you to attend his useless lectures. Attendance is mandatory and you will lose tons of points if you don't attend because of participation points and these god-awful weekly quizzes he gives even though this is a 400 level course.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: SWE622
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Pretty good lecturer. Lots of group work, so you better be into that. MidtermFinal were fair, not easy but not extremely difficult. Make sure you pay attention to the class warm-up discussions because they are on the exams. I didn't put much effort into this class and I got a decent grade, if you put the time in its not too hard to get an A.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: SWE637
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Takes teaching as seriously as research, careful to remember students names, very well-prepared and organized lectures. Always gives clear examples of problems we are expected to learn how to solve, and leads us step by step. Easy course, but very rich -- useful to Ph.D. students.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: SWE637
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Course material was a lot more interesting that expected. Weekly quizzes and assignments did take up some time, but most of them weren't difficult.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: SWE619
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Weekly quizzes took some getting used to, but really helped prep me for the final. Looking at slides does get pretty boring, but he does try and keep the class involved in the lecture.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: SWE637
• 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:

Although I got A-, I have some comments: At many occasions, I could NOT hear this teacher even when I was sitting a few feet from him. He starts his thoughts off strong, but as he gets to the end of his breath, he just ends up mumbling to himself and you're left wondering, "what did he say? I couldn't hear him!" That gets annoying.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: SWE332
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Rating {3/5 stars} Good: Let's you know what the quizzes will be about. Bad: Isn't very clear about what he wants much of the time in the assignments.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: SWE619
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

I originally signed up for SWE619 with Baldo, then switched to Ammann. Ammann was much a better professor than Baldo in my opinion.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: SWE332
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Professor isn't the best at relaying information to the students. He hands out weekly programming assignments that are often very cryptic. I wish he could just say exactly what he wants from us in the assignments but I guess he is too smart for his own good.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CS332
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He's a very helpful professor, but somehow lectures are not very clear. However, after reading the book his lectures make more sense.Bloch's book is amazingly good and most of Q's come from that book.HW is challenging but at the end you will feel you learned something. Weekly quizes also keep you on track.Not an easy course but very beneficial.