Thomas Fernandez - Florida Atlantic University

Professor: Thomas Fernandez

Department: Computer Science

College: Florida Atlantic University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CAP4630
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Took foundations (cop3014), data structures (cop 3530), and intro to AI (cap 4630, fall 2015) with him (all As). Heard this was his last semester and honestly FAU lost a good prof. He forced you to learn on your own, a useful skill. Watching people squirm bc they expected to be spoonfed was usually the best part of his classes. Gonna miss you Tom.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Explains what he is doing as he's coding in front of you. Only a midterm and final. Midterm was pretty straight forward, but the final was tricky and difficult. He does curve them. Critical that you do the hw to understand what is happening in class and doing well on tests. Very helpful in office hours with fixing errors in code and explaining.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: Audit/No Grade
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

DO NOT TAKE FERNANDEZ. I promise you, ignoring this message will be the worst mistake of your semester. Ask any other student in the department about Thomas Fernandez. Then take it with someone else. You're welcome.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Is there a prereq to this class that I don't know about? I honestly don't think you know how little we were taught in Intro to C. Strangers have overheard me talking with others about you and have chimed in, "You're talking about Fernandez, right? Good luck." Stop dismissing the criticisms as sour grapes. They're also from people with straight As.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: A+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He is a brilliant programmer, however I felt as though I wasn't learning much in this class. Then people started asking me programming questions, and I couldn't believe what I knew. A lot of this course is self study, but if you do your homework on your on, go to office hours and know your code. You will pass this class. It's not a difficult class.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: B-
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He takes it easy, tell jokes, very friendly, midterm is fair. But right after withdrawal deadline, he slams you with heavy material, stuff barely covered in class and a very hard final. His codes are strange/confusing nonsense. Unless you plan to see him during his office hours and become one of his buddies , buy books from amazon/ teach yourself.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: COP4367
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

In my humble opinion he is by far the best professor in the FAU engineering department, his passion and willingness to share his passion for coding is unparalleled. Sure, do not expect him to give you every little single bit of code you need to accomplish your tasks. His doors are always open for anybody that wants some help thou.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: COP3530
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

I took COP3014 and as soon as I saw Tom was teaching COP3530 I jumped on it. I love that professor codes in class and you have recording. Assignments are tougher then tests this time around. Your programs will be stress tested. Midterm had coding but final was mostly conceptual. As always all or nothing grading criteria with do not grade option.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: COT4420
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

This class made me appreciate math a bit more than I usually do. The class is set up where there are two homework assignments and two tests. While this class could be a lot harder, Tom keeps it simple and direct. Tom also tells a lot of stories which makes the class interesting. I recommend taking Formal Languages with Tom.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CAP4028
• Grade Received: Not sure yet
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

He's learning the material as you are, then assigns assignments whenever he feels like it. He gave guidelines to the first assignment, and none for the second two. Grades for the first assignment were not posted till two months later. His sample code is garbage and doesn't work correctly. Really just a clueless guy pretending to be knowledgeable.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He cracks jokes a lot. I would say from one and half hour class he is like one hour in his jokes and story. Sometimes his assignment or exam does not reflect his teaching. In exam if you do not know any answer write I don''t know he will give you credit. Not a too practical teaching. Sometimes student might get confused. Assignments are lengthy.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

good programming professor. he teaches by mentoring instead of lecturing. he does very few assignments and one exam, which means you should put in time for each and make sure you understand the each line of code he write on the screen. otherwise you will not pass.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Tom is a great guy. You may really enjoy his lecture as he adds some humor while coding. He will code in front of you having his code posted later for review. Assignments are not too difficult; however, grading is stressful especially since two tests are worth 80% of your total grade. No partial credit on tests. Its all or nothing. Awesome curve.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: COP4367
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

What others have said is completely true. Get ready to teach yourself, because Fernandez has no interest in doing his job. He rambles slowly, writes broken code, fails to communicate any helpful concepts, doesn't answer e-mails, grades arbitrarily on things such as "coolness" -- I kid you not. Already a great programmer? Take him. If not, stay away

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

No idea how this guy teaches. He's a good programmer but has no idea how to teach C++ .I didn't know C++ before his class so I had to teach myself. He gives ridiculous assignments and expects you to know everything. tells the class about his life instead of teaching then gives you impossible exams. Only good thing about him is that he curves.

Rating # 16

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

Took AI with him and I thought he was great. We covered a broad area of topics without getting bogged down with a language like LISP. Projects were time consuming but I thought his teaching was very clear and his grading more than fair. I think he's perfect for theory and upper level classes.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Dr. Fernandez can be funny at times, but take Bullard instead. I was highly interested in coding until I took this class, to which I lost my drive for programming. Hes not a bad teacher, hes just very difficult to take seriously. He should be coding in the field instead of teaching, because his teaching method is 99% show and tell with 1% theory.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

I still do not understand how this guy works for this establishment. For him to teach classes that will impact someones life is a little scary for students. He gets off topic quickly and talks about his life. Luckily I knew how to program before since his assignments are crazy. Will never take again since I want to do well in my future!

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

He is very helpful, his way of teaching is different then most professors, He codes and you watch and ask questions.Homework assignments are not hard he helps you with most of the code, The test on the other hand are very difficult, You just have to memorize every line of code from the homework and use it during the test. Most students still pass

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: COP3014
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

If you want to learn C++ or anything useful, do not take this class. Instead of teaching, he rambles. When he's on topic, he reviews the same sample code he provides at the beginning of the semester. He basically expects you to learn by staring at his mediocre code and by laughing at his vapid jokes. A serious waste of time, but an easy A.