Octavio Betancourt - City College of New York

Professor: Octavio Betancourt

Department: TBD

College: City College of New York

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: CSC10400
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Class split into 2,2 days w/ him, then with a TA. He focuses more on the concept/ theoretical side and tries to get you to understand WHY something is answered one way,so you know how to do other problems! I really liked that. His tests are easy if you just practice problems in the book. No partial C. Unfortunately hes retiring after this semester.

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He is not a good teacher, and has tough test. But he curve a a lot. The average tests are 30-40. If you are above average, I think you could get B or A. Even you are below the average, you still have a chance to pass his class. Unless you got 0 on the test.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

good professor

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: 104
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Do the homework and study on your own. The exams are not too hard. He curves.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

Curves a lot. If you know basic logic (i.e. p->q, p is true, therefore q is true) and combinations & permut. from High School you should ace the first exam. Textbook is grimaldi, discrete and comb.., 5th ed, which is used a lot. Slight accent, frequently tells jokes, answers ur questions in class. Goes over lots of examples (from txtbk) in class.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: CS301
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

basically the whole class is you and your group working on your own, dont expect much help from him at all(email or office hrs), book doesnt help at all, try and find someone who took the class for the projects

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: CSCCSC
• 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:

cheap professor,failed me inspite of doing projects,never take him he doesnt teach anything and he justknows matlab nothing more than that very irritating doesnt know anything but appears to be over confident never take his class guys

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• 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:

He is an alright professor. Test #1 was on chaps 1- 2. Test #2 was on Ch 3 - 4. Avg. 56 and 42 for the two tests. He focuses on how to prove/disprove. Final was on relations, functions, graph theory, and trees. Test questions are sometimes directly from the textbook. The best part is the curve. Such a huge curve. 60 or higher is an A.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Prof has gruff bravado typical of mathematicians, but frets privately abt whether students learn material. Do all problems in book & you'll have little difficulty on exams. Combinatorics (Ch. 1) is hardest topic covered; problems are unnecessarily difficult; invest time and attention & you'll be fine. Steep curve applied, weeds out the lazy early.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: CSC217
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Going to this guy's lectures and going to the central park is the same. You will learn nothing. He focus almost exclusively in trying to explain proofs and doesn't explain any exercises. Pros: His exams are from exercises in the chapter and he curves. The final is only from last chap. Do all the exer. in the chap, get above avg = A.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Well, Like previous have said, betancourt isn't well organized with his teaching methods. He is somewhat unpredictable. The reason I withdrew from that class because some friends of mine told me that minoring in CS is a waste of time for an EE major like myself. However, I enjoyed studying the concepts and understood it very well.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• 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:

Avoid this professor if possible....if you can't start studyng in your own. He is hard to understand. He is not availble during his office hours. He is very unorginized and gives no sylibus.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: CS301
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

He's an ok Prof, if you know what you're doing. The class is fairly hard. His projects are repeats, but you DO NEED TO KNOW what you're copying as he will question everybody about their report. He typically curves the grade, so don't worry if you screw up the 1st project as long as you make it up for later proj

Rating # 14

Overview:

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

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

Comment:

I took professor Betancurt last semester. Seriously, his class was really hard. I had to study a lot. I was going to drop his class because i was not aware of his curving style. However, i decided to stay and ended up getting an A. The class is hard but if you do above class average in the exams you'll pass.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

did not deserve an A, curved helped alot. Attend class to know topics covered,take good notes and read them repeatedly. tests focus on class material. buy solutions manual online-helpful. practice combinatorics alot, hard and no partial credit for them I hear, although I got them right. Witty and interactive lecture style, keeps you awake.

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

the responses that have been posted before me, has probably been written by the professor himself!!! he is the hardest, the most horrible professor in the world!!! his exams are ultra hard...his lectures lacks clarity...his tests average were somewhere in the low 40s...and on top of that, the final he made was insane!!! he does curve though, that's

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

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

Comment:

Betancourt is a great professor. Explains everything clearly and really help his students. Be advised that this is not an easy class and you'll have to do more work than just understanding what he explains in lectures. Exams are difficult, but he is a good grader.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

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

Comment:

Doesn't assign problems or give sample tests, so you have little idea what he's going to ask. Only gives two midterms and a final, so you don't know how well you're doing for weeks. He curves ridiculously, class average was 30-40 but we'll presumably get a regular spread, so ultimately not "hard". Could be worse, I suppose.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

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

Comment:

He is a good professor. Teaches good. But one thing is that if u slove a wuestion and u have done it correctly like half way thorugh it and ur answer is wrong then u will get Zero (0), No partial Credit for work which you have done correctly. But he is nice and gives better understanding of course. Just need to bit do work. Have a great time.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: CSC104
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

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

Comment:

Prof Betancourt is an excellent teacher -- at times not entirely clear, but he really cares and wants everyone to fully understand the material before moving to the next topic. He obviously possesses a brilliant mathematical mind, but he sometimes presents topics too theoretically at first, when a simple, practical example would suffice.