Mathieu Blanchette - McGill University

Professor: Mathieu Blanchette

Department: TBD

College: McGill University

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: COMP204
• 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:

He is so good at dumbing down the basics of programming for complete beginners. The class was also very well structured. The best thing about him is how much he cares to make his class as good as possible, which was especially noticeable during the transition to online classes. Great guy, and great prof, at least at the beginner level

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: COMP204
• 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:

Great lecturer who made introductory compsci super interesting and easy to understand. Assignments were fun and really helped gain familiarity with the material. Prof. Blanchette was accessible outside class for clarifications and help. Would recommend taking this course with him if you can.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

One of the best professors I have ever had in McGill!!

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: COMP561
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

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

Comment:

Mathieu is a great professor, butI can't say the same for comp561. It's kind of disorganized, not very much "computational" orientated, except for some simple dp algorithms and hmm models. I would say comp561 is below the expectation of a grad level course, and Jerome's comp598 is better suited. Maybe they should consider joining comp561 and 598.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: COMP462
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Very charismatic and a great lecturer. Gives topical and easy-to-digest explanations. Great CS/bio professor. One issue I had is that many assignments had ambiguities in the questions, so be careful and make sure to confirm with the TAs first.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great Prof, good organized lectures, one bad thing is that assignments take a while to be marked.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He is really clear and good at explaining things! A really good comp prof, and everything is recorded. He does things methodically, so it's very easy to follow his line of reasoning and the concepts he tries to get across.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Makes the material seem so simple and accessible! made it worth it to go up the hill in the winter at 8:30 because when you get out of class you feel like you just got everything. The midterm was very fair as well. And a huge plus is that his classes are recorded!

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: COMP561
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Looking back on this class, I learned almost absolutely nothing from his class. I know the area is vast and an intro class is not designed to be specific, but instead of smothering people with complex dynamic programming or really basic and unuseful stats, he should try to do give the idea of what the area's goals. Nice guy, subpar teacher.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: B+
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

COMP 250 with him was pretty easy, he explains most things well. He sometimes makes spelling/grammar mistakes in his assignments that makes things not so clear, but overall there's nothing particularly bad about this course.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: A-
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

This prof is a very good Comp-Sci prof. COMP 250 is really not too bad... There's relatively few things to remember, tests are open-book. The trick in this class is to PRACTICE, because you won't have time during tests... Go to class when Blanchette teaches, it will make things easier for assignments.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Out of the three profs we had for this class, he was definitely the best. Was helpful after class and during his office hours and his final was very fair. Practice lots and know your data structures and you'll be fine in this class!

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• 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:

The professor is extremely helpful. He is easy to understand and genuinely cares about his students. His assignments can be fairly long and difficult but he often reuses material from the past. The midterms were difficult due to time constraints but the final was very fair. All tests are open-note, which is nice.

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• 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:

Long assignments but he's a good teacher.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Great prof. Hard but not unfair, and made the material interesting and funny

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Excellent professor, seems to be overly interested in Bioinformatics though, would have liked to have seen some AI applications of the material. Great overall.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• 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:

Amazing professor. Loved the way he taught the course.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He isn't very clear with the material he covers. I've seen other professors who explain the exact same material in a much more clear manner. I'm not sure how his (or TAs') marking scheme goes, but the assignments and exams are pretty hard to do well on.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

He's fine. Assignments are pretty hard. TAs take forever to mark. He's often disorganized (ie. we got our assignments a week after he said he would give it to us). In general, it's pretty good.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: COMP250
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Yes, he is a helpful guy and his assignments and midterms, (probably the finals too) all come back entirely. But, I should add that he can get really messy sometime and often takes long time to answer requests.