Gharibyan, Hasmik  

I LOVE this lady. I thought she was real great. Her handouts explained everything well, and even though it sometimes felt tedious to just read over them during lecture, it really did clarify a lot of the confusing concepts for me. It is possible to get an A in her class despite the no curve thing, but I'm not really the Perfect Attendance kind of girl. Keep up with the work, get a good lab partner, and study for the quizzes because those points add up. Hint: Quizzes are easy if you read the handouts in detail. I can't wait to take Theory of Computing with her. Yea baby!

She is the best teacher I ever had in Calpoly! She knows her material extremely well. Her handouts are great(she passes em' out every lecture,) very helpful and informative (I almost never opened the sucky java book.) Her lectures are great, and she is very confident even in telling that she doesn't know English all that well. Her quizes are very fair very straight forward from her handouts. Labs and projects are ez and are always related to what we do in the class. Exceptionally helpful in lab and office hours, I went to her in her office hours everytime I had any problem she even typed the code for me, come on, what else do u need? Trust me you will learn a lot from her in an ez way~ I never really studied for the midterm and a few quized so I got a B! She really is the best~ Take her for every class she is offering! (So will I:)

I think Professor Paulson is an excellent teacher. She conveys the material very clearly and thoroughly despite the complexity of the material. During lab, she is always attentive to questions or concerns that students may have. There are quizzes every week and they are pretty difficult. Her question tend to be picky so it is important that you read her handouts carefully. She does not require you to read the textbook since she provides the class with her own handouts.

Damn this course was a bitch. The Final was a fucking killer, 17 wretched pages of pure code writing....oh my. Well the teacher wasnt bad, it was the midterms she gave out that were ridiculous. A 62% average on a 1st midterm and NO CURVE....wow. Well i wouldnt say watch out for this teacher, but there was this annoying ass kid in my class named DePacK or someshit, watch out for him, he's a real dooshbag; he asked questions about everything, like questions like what kind of marker the teacher was using on the board and just stupid shit. Yea so watch of for 3pac or depac or whatever the fuck his name is. Peace

This teacher seems good, since you will learn how to program well in this class. However, do not expect to LEARN material in this class. Her tests are very detailed and you must be very precise on your answers. Most people do very badly on her tests, and it makes up most of your grade. Labs and homework are cake but not worth very much. And worst of all, she doesn't curve the class. It is not too difficult to get a D in the class to pass, or even a C, but pulling off an A is nearly impossible unless you already know coding completely. I spent MANY MANY hours studying for tests in this class, hoping to get an A, and couldn't. There aren't many who can.

Excellent teacher, no doubt about it. But be aware, she doesn't give easy grades.

Great teacher. I never had to read the book. She gave out packets of notes that were easy to understand and were loaded with examples for us to use during lab. Study the packets and go to lab and you can get a B. I didn't study much so I got a C. Those packets are really useful if you ever need to remember some Java quick.

Ms. G is not a good teacher. The ones posted sounds accruate including ones referring to Ms. G writing on the internet. Although this is the case, Ms. G is very clear what she presents but does not want to help during office hours. there are times i want to cry so badly for not understanding the work but she doesn't give an ounce of effort. her assingments are good to understand but her tests are so hard. she doesn't even curve causing many students to not even touch an A. i don't recommend her at all and i wish she was much more helpful to students whenever they need it.

Gharibyan is an interesting teacher. People vary opinions about her but I did enjoy her teaching. She gave handouts that were impressively well done and straight to the point. The only down-side to her is that she doesn't curve which can screw everyone up. I got a C mostly from her tough tests. However, you are able to learn a lot from her. Not highly recommended but adequate teacher.

Her tests are really tough. I don't think she is fair in her grading. I don't agree with suggestions in the previous postings that her lectures are great. There is nothing great. If you already are not familiar with the material, you are NOT likely to learn a lot unless you are very smart. She doesn't understand student's difficulties. My roommate who was a grad student took her class CSC 445 a few years ago when she was quite new here. He said she failed almost the entire class. And the excuse she gave was that's how is done in Russia. Wel...this is not freaking Russia, you know!

Seriously, one of the greatest teachers in the world! I mean, she knows how to present the material correctly to all of us students these days. She understands us and you know what, she's always willing to help us at the office hours at the best of her abilities. She totally will go out of her way to get through to us to make sure we clearly understand. If I can have any teacher, it would totally be her for the rest of my computer science years at Cal Poly. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL STUDENTS!

Gharibyan is a great professor. I like her style of teaching. She explains things clearly and in detail. And she is very helpful too. I really learned a lot. Unfortunately my schedule didn't let me sign up for her 103, but I will definately take her again for other courses.

Gharibyan is the best professor I had so far.

This teacher is awesome. I am not a very good programmer, but I actually picked up the information very well from her. She gives you handouts on EVERYTHING that is covered in her lecture. Don't bother buying the book, because she never uses it. A student can miss a day in class and read the lecture handouts and be alright. But I suggest you go to class every day because she teaches the information very well. She has 2 midterms, and no quizes. She has five p rograms, and they are very easy, and she always has office hours before they are do s you can work out all the kinks with her before they are do if you have to. I ad mix fealing on the final, it wasn't hard, but it dropped my grade from a B to a C+, so it must have been trickier than I had thought. The final is 35% of your grade, so don't mess up on it.

I really really like Dr.G. She is great at explaining; very clear and very analitical. She is very understanding and approachable. I recommend Dr.G without slightest hesitation.

Very helpful professor! Lecture notes are from straight from the book as the person above has mentioned but class is worth going to for her explanations and the class exercises. She reinforces ideas so that concepts seem easy. True she has an english but its not that bad! actually its really cool to hear he talk. She's approachable and willing to help students in any way possible....

Very informative. The handouts were great, straight out from the book and straighforward. I haven't even touched the book for the whole quarter! The exercises were very helpful in class. Projects weren't that hard. She is very approachable, willing to help you during office hours.

You don't need the book at all for this course because she provides notes for the whole class. Quizzes every week help show everybody what they haven't been studying (especially our class!) though the definitions can be annoying after a while. I thought projects and tests were fair, though I was a little disgruntled with my final grade since I had the second highest in my section before the final. Oh well, that's life. I wouldn't mind taking her again if I had to, but I would check out the other instructors available for the course.

THis professors handouts were very helpful. especially as a supplement to the book. however Paulsons grading system was very strict(no curve) the class average on the first midterm was 60 percent. So beware of the exams. She is very thorough in her presentations but after a few weeks the lectures become extremely boring. Basically you dont know if youll pass the class until the final exam is in.

I don't understand why people are having a hard time understanding Dr. Paulson's accent, all you have to do is pay attention. At the beginning of the course we covered the last topic from CPE 101 so everyone had the same information going into the class. The grading policy is good, she is always happy to help if you come to her during office hours and welcomes questions during lecture. The only reason I didn't get an A is that I didn't go to a full week of classes and didn't make up the work (although she gave the option to make it up). Be prepared to do work outside of the assigned lab hours for lab projects! At the start of the class, labs could be done in lab, but as the class progressed, the labs got longer and longer and she lectured during lab session a little. That means lab work outside of lab plus homework projects (and your other classes). Anyway, despite all that, I highly recommend this instructor for CPE 102.

Paulson is an excellent teacher for 102. She's really nice and helpful during office hours. She does give weekly quizzes which end up counting more than your midterm. But these quizzes are pretty easy if you read and study the hand outs given to you everyday in class. These handouts are extremely helpful- better than the book! i only opened the book a couple times. Lectures are pretty boring but you do learn a lot and it is a good idea to go b/c it will help for quizzes/midterm/final. The programming assignments aren't terribly difficult and you get plenty of time to work on them. I'd take Paulson again anytime!

Professor Gharibyan changed her name from Professor Paulson which is why some people on here refer to her as Paulson. I had her for 102 and I thought she was a very good teacher. She gives hand outs on everything that is talked about in class so the book is really just for reference. Here tests are very fair and there is never anything on it that is not covered in class. There were 2 tests and about six projects. The projects are pretty easy and she lays most of it out for you so as long as you know how to program and have been paying attention in class they are pretty easy. The only negative parts of her class are that she doesnt give a lot of partial credit on tests but since everything on the test has been covered in class this shouldnt be much of a problem. The other negative thing about this class was that we did not go over GUI's as much as other classes so there were some hard parts on the common final but nothing that should stop you from getting a good grade if you've been keeping up. She is the best CSC professor I've had at Cal Poly and I highly recommend.

Just a horrible teacher. Take someone else if you can.

I'm currently enrolled in one of her classes and I must say, the people who have a negative opinion of here are most definitly in the right. At one point she actually lectured the class on not believing what PolyRatings says about her. Apparently there are only disgruntled students out to get her. I wonder if she ever stopped to think why? If not, I will clarify for her: 1) When someone asks here a question in class, she tries to answer, she really does... but she fails, generally, because she doesnt understand the question. 2) The turnin system... Compared to handin, it is quite flawed. No direct feed back of assignments recieved, no immidiate time staming, not multiple files in one line. 3) She thinks she has a sense of humor. She does not. (Or at least, not a good one) 4) She will make you do things by her technique even if you approach her with a way to double the effieciency of the code. 5) I will admit that she seems to know her way around code quite well, however, she does not know how to pass this on to others. 6) She insists on teamwork. Based on her communication abilities, I doubt she could fufil this. Honestly, one of the worst teachers I have witnessed in 13 years of education.

How can you talk for 1 hr, yet say nothing?

She's not _that_ bad. Her handouts are great--the only reason I scored her at all. Otherwise, she's useless. Don't bother asking questions--I think she actively tries to be vague. It's damn near impossible to get a clear answer out of her. I sure didn't. Just refer to your handouts or someone else that knows. However, her tests are exactly on the material she teaches (good thing). You don't have to do most labs, so enjoy a game of MSHearts in the meantime. Polylog1, the system you'll be using, sucks, though. Just use those handouts.

Gharibyan was awesome!! I was retaking 102 with her because I buddy recommended her after I failed 102 earlier. For a lot of her labs, and even the projects, you can just cut-and-paste code from her handouts into what you're working on, and it's done and it works. This really helped me because I can pick things up pretty quickly if I have an example in front of me, plus who doesn't like to have little quick-reference cards? You don't even need to buy the book for her class, but I already had it from the first time I took the course.

Gharibyan is a decent professor, no question about it. She tells you exactly what you need to know to code the various topics that the class covers. The textbook, while better than that dog-crap Big Java, is not really worth anything because Gharibyan gives you like 1000 pages of handouts that pretty much cover anything you need to know. She is approachable in her office hours as long as she is not busy. However, her tests are a nightmare! She has linked questions (a, b, c subparts) where if you miss one aspect of one of the questions, you lose credit for the entire problem, which is about 8% of the whole test grade. The class average on our first midterm was 67%, and NO CURVE. Wow. The labs and projects are worthless. Not only does she pretty much write the entire thing for you, (through the handouts and the actual assignment) but they are worth a very small percent of your grade. Reviews below are accurate: it is pretty much impossible to get an A in the class. I think there was one person in my section who got an A. I would advise you to take someone other than Gharibyan, for the sake of preserving your GPA. This is my first and only C, and I don't think the work I did for this class or my knowledge of programming deserves a C.

Well since whoever wrote polyratings is doesn't know how to keep the data after clicking back on a submitted form, I will make a shorter version of what I was saying. Gharibyan is a very difficult professor. Her tests are a joke, and her grader for the projects was a joke. That being said, she is an awesome professor. You do not need the book as long as you go to every lecture and get her handouts and pay attention to the lectures. There is no curve as the previous poster pointed out. If you think you did well on the test coming out, expect 10-20% less than what you though. Take Gharibyan if you want to learn everything thoroughly and don't mind taking a B for working hard.

She is one of the best. Did a great job. Excellent professor.

Ok first off this teacher needs to start giving students a tangible workload. The workload is absolutely ridiculous. How are we supposed to learn material when we are constantly swamped with new foriegn material. Revamp your course objectives Ms. G.... please. Dont take this course unless you want to feel stressed every day for the next quarter.

Great professor. And a good person. She is so helpful during office hours and labs. Her lectures are very clear. You will be surprised at how much you learn in the classroom.

This class was a fucking killer. Midterms and finals drop your grade so much that even 100% on labs and projects doesn't help much. She gives NO PARTIAL CREDIT, and tests are tough and long. Her grading is unreasonable.

Dr. Gharibyan is a wonderful teacher. She is good in lecturing, she is good labs, she is good in her office hours. And she is FAIR in her grading. She GIVES partial credit, so don't believe those who say she doesn't. She is an excellent professor and her being "tough" makes us study better. I'd take her any time without hesitation.

She is one of the best teachers I've had at Cal Poly. Did a great job. I enjoyed the class a lot.

she is a good teacher as far as teaching the material goes. her tests are bullshit though. for her tests you need to memorize everything she has gone over. don't expect to get an A in this class without putting in a ridiculous amount of time.

I like this professor. She explains things very well and she makes a hard subject easy to understand. I don't think her tests were that hard. I always finished them 10-15 minutes early and got a decent grade. I got A in 101 and A- in 102, but here I was able to make only a B which is completely my fault. This was not my best quarter and I had some personal issues, so I know if I studied better I could make an A.

Dr. Gharibyan is great at getting the information out to students. The lectures basically consisted of getting a handout then going over the handout, filling in the blanks, and adding examples. As seems to be the case with many things, the material is almost boringly easy during lecture, something which brings out the sketch and doodle artist in all of us. The tests, however, required that you know the material front and back side to side and backwards. So yeah, even if you think the test is going to be easy, study your ass off. That's where I got lost, though I'm not really complaining as a B in a class that doesn't provide a curve is quite a feat imho. So in summary, professor Gharibyan is a great teacher who really wants you to learn and understand the material. She is a bit blunt at times when she's helping you, but hey I don't think people with their doctorates in computational mathematics are known for stunning interpersonal skills, though she is better than most. Try to get on her good side. The class may seem easy, but the exams are challenging, so study. Oh, projects and labs are a breeze. Lastly, if you fail, it's definately your fault, not hers. Hallelujah I'm done with the CPE intro series!

Two things can be said about Gharibyan: One, she believes that all her students are as smart as her, and two, her midterms and final are all but impossible unless you have a photographic memory (with no curve). There's not much else to say other than that her screeching voice gets annoying by about the third class meeting, and her labs and projects are pretty cut-and-dry. She probably demolishes a small Amazonian rainforest every quarter with the amount of paper she hands out, and yes, people will say they are very convenient and helpful blah blah blah etc. She's really nothing special, but she *is* better than some of the other teachers offered. I'd consider her a last resort if you don't get your first choice for CPE103.

To be honest and fair, Dr. Gharibyan is a very good professor. As mentioned by many posters, her lectures are very clear and she makes hard material look really easy. And this creates a problem IMO ... you think you got it all, but when the test comes back you want to scream. When I got my test back my first reaction was to confront her. But when I tried to find points I could argue, I realized there was nothing to fight about ... all was fair, I made mistakes and I got marked off. I know it is hard to accept that you are not as good as you thought, but let's not blame someone else. Dr. Gharibyan does her job well and you learn a lot. And take my advice - don

Reading though her posts makes me laugh. If I was you, and you were a smart intelligent student, figure out which ones are actually written by her. HERE IS MY SUGGESTION:::::::: Ask people outside of this website about her. I can guarantee you that some of these posts are written by her just to keep this "high" GPA. She is a VERY difficult teacher and I had to work my butt off to get through this class. All I can say is this, yeah, it might seem easy but the tests will rape you. Oh, and I forgot, and if she is reading this...during office hours, you're SUPPOSED to help your students, not push them away not answering their questions. Some students at Cal Poly want to learn... and learn more and do it correct, not have somoene push them away from doing well in class.

Bad teacher overall. Difficult tests. Good lecture materials. Does not help during office hours. Difficult to talk to. Difficult person. No sympathy for students. Expects superb memorization. Okay labs and projects. Not recommended.

Like what everyone else said - pray VERY hard that you will not have her as a future teacher. Don't take my word, read the other reviews.

Her tests are unreasonable. She is not helpful during her office hours. Projects are easy, but doesn't help much with the overall grade. I didn't feel like her lectures are so great. She hands out a lot of course material. I doubt if it helped me much to get good grades on midterms and final exams. It's almost impossible to get A in this class unless you already know the material really well.

Gharibyan is actually a very good teacher. Her handouts are great. They basically give you all the information that is in the book but in a condensed, clarified form. Labs and projects aren't extremely difficult but start early anyways. I enjoyed her so much that I am taking her for 103 as well. Her midterms are all concept and no code, so be prepared. The final on the other hand is the exact opposite. Almost all code, know the algorithms very well. My favorite thing about her is that whenever some retard asks a dumb question (you know who you are, the people that ask like 100 questions every class about the stupidest things) she will just laugh at him, tell him it's not important and move on. More teachers need to be like that. Classes are so much longer when you have to listen to questions like this (teacher: 2+2=4 retard: Wait, so are you saying that 2 + 2 = 4?). Gharibyan makes sure this doesnt happen.

I think Hasmik is one of the best professors in the Computer Science department. She is very knowledgable and enthusiastic, but most of all she REALLY cares about her students.

Professor G, stop posting on this website. Only students should. We can attest of how much we struggled in your class and it took forever to be those 'B's and 'C's in your class. For those reading this, be my guest taking her.

Gharibyan is not a bad professor. Lecture isn't too bad if you aren't in the morning class so you have a chance to stay awake. Labs are very easy and can be completed in 1 class period if you work on them. She gives 2 per week, but we have 3 lab sessions so if you do your work you never have to go to lab on fridays. ALL the material is on the handouts which is helpful, but it is also a bad thing because she expects you to know everything on them for the midterms/final. overall, she is a very knowledgeable and appraochable professor

First off, Gharibyan (sounds like Caribbean) is a mathematician, not a programmer. This is pretty obvious in her coding style, which you are essentially forced to use. This woman hands out an *incredible* amount of paper. At the end of the quarter, I had two folders stuffed full of handouts. She says that the class is not about creating anything, but rather learning the already-determined _correct_ algorithms. As such, she gives you psuedocode for everything, and actual code for much. Her lectures seemed incredibly dull to me (when teaching sorts, you don't need to write out *every* step of a bubble-sort on a 10-element reverse-ordered string!), but I attended almost all of them to get the handouts. I found that when it came to the projects, thinking about them just caused pain; mindlessly copying her code produced much better results. If you're using her algorithms, she's very helpful, both in and out of class. There were only 5 (6?) projects during the quarter, leading to a little more relaxing class. The book was surprisingly well-written the time I looked at it, but she even recommends using her handouts rather than the book, because she teaches things differently than they do, and her way is the way you have to do it on the tests. Tests, btw, are a bit interesting. She believes that they should be easy, because you're only covering things that she's covered in class, but I was not prepared at all for the first one. Not only did I not remember the random running times of algorithms (why should I remember the worst case for an insertion sort? Wikipedia has an excellent summary of those things when I want to know), but I didn't remember how she implemented the algorithms. Most of them I understood the concept (thank you Wikipedia and your excellent computer science articles), but I couldn't remember her odd-mathematician-way of implementing them, so I lost quite a few points. The next one I did considerably better (about 20 points difference), though the overall statistics of the classes didn't change much, so I suppose it was just me. Oh, and, as I stated in my review of Clements, how well I do on a project is more reflective of how interesting a problem it is, rather than how difficult it is. Although the projects were intended to raise our grades, mine most definitely did not.

I love love love Dr G. She is one of the best professors at Cal Poly. She genuinely wants you to do well and does her best to help you to succeed. She is very good at explaining things and very helpful during labs and office hours. I recommend her without hesitation.

This is not really a programming class. It's more of an introduction to complexity theory data structures, and algorithms. It's not a hard class, but you might be bored. Getting a good grade still isn't too hard.

As most people have stated, professor Gharibyan literally hands you all you need to succeed in this class. You just need to be able to understand it and know what is going on with the algorithms. This class is boring, she lectures and you sit and look at your paper which has all the algorithms on it. But there is an upside, the labs and projects are relatively easy. The only thing that kept my grade down was that the fact that i didn't learn much as she basically gave us the answers. So when it came to the midterms i did not know the algorithms and i failed them. However after studying i was able to come out with a C. So don't be like me and slack off because she gives you the answers, learn it and then apply it.

The content is boring .... however, the way she conveys the material makes it way worst than it has to be. How is any one supposed to learn anything if she gives you the dam pseudo code which you must follow or else you are penalized? You learn by struggling through problems and issues, not by copying the solutions. She says the class is not about java nor it's syntax, however she grades your dam midterms down to the semi-colons. This is how class goes: you sit down and she gives you a handout, she makes a statements about the material and then spends twice as long trying to write down what she just said in unreadable slanted cursive. This was the most boring class I have ever taken, if Mammen is teaching it (even though he is tough), take it with him. At least you will learn something.

Gharibyan's 103 class is decent. You will do a lot of partner programming assignments in lab, and a few larger projects outside of class. Her lectures are essentially reading straight from handouts, which is annoying because her voice is similar to a Monty Python female character. Also, her exams are unforgiving, and require you to pay very special attention to the way she formats things during her lectures. Overall I would have preferred a different professor, but from what I've heard, there aren't many who are much better.

First off, I did fail this class, and I am bitter about it. That aside, I also do not recommend taking this class with 3 other heavy loaded technical classes (with labs in each, 4 labs a quarter, ouch?). The lecture is about the most boring time I've ever had, worse than a 2 hour block of COMS. She gives you the handout, reads word for word from it, underlines the already bolded and capitalized text, then goes through every step (literally) of every algorithm in the handout. Labs are free and easy points, no surprises or particularly tough ones (about 15-17 of them). Projects (about 5) - EXTREMELY difficult to comprehend. Mindlessly translatingin the 200 lines of pseudocode will get you much farther than trying to understand it.Then, another 200 lines of comments. All of this is docked HEAVILY, no matter how small a mistake. Your print method fails to print a tab for one test? -15%. Tests - These are the hardest tests I've ever taken in my life. You are expected to remember and regurgitate her algorithms character for character. Partial credit is nonexistant. Forgot to mod by the table length? Lose 2.5 points on a 3 point problem. You will literally be pouring over ~30 pages of code handouts to study for each test. The class as a whole seemed to do well on the tests, no curve, hence my F :< I'm below average at memorizing awkwardly syntaxed implementations of algorithms that I will only need to google should I need them in my professional career. Contrary to most of the above, she is very, very helpful in office hours. She is not a bad person, but her grading standards are pretty freakin' harsh. Coupled with an overloaded quarter and I was donezo. Mammen might be a better option, he's tough but at least you'll probably learn the material, otherwise just be weary and good luck!

Gharibyan is very good at explaining concepts and is very helpful in lab. If I wasn't taking 18 units, the class would have been a fairly easy A, but since I didn't have time to study for the midterms as much as I would have wanted (which are fairly difficult tests compared to CPE 102) I ended up with a B (I think). Overall, an above average teacher and I will probably take her again if she teaches other classes I need

Wow, kinda surprised by some of the angry comments on here. She was one of the nicest and most caring professors I've had and she presented the topics very clearly. In fact, although she has an accent, I understand her better than most professors at Cal Poly. As long as you pay attention and apply yourself, you will have a very reasonable workload from this course while also learning in the process.

I really enjoyed her, she is a good teacher and is willing to work with students, she also knows a ton about programming. If I ever had a problem she was always able to figure out the bug easily. Her accent is a bit thick and she doesn't always answer questions clearly the first time, but just keep asking and she'll get it eventually. Some people complain about how she just hands over pseudocode for projects, but I liked it because it made the class much easier. Plus, 103 isn't about programming, it's about data structures, so I don't want to spend time trying to figure out implementation when that's not even what we're dong. Exams aren't too hard, but you do need to study that pseudocode, in general take her if you can because she's consistent and very smart and nice. There may be some better profs but there are a lot worse ones too.

Horrible teacher, doesn't care about her students and isn't passionate about her work. She gives notes which help but other than that she is one of the worst professors at this school.

I did not expect to enjoy this class as much as I did. Dr. Gharibyan is an excellent professor for this class. She is very clear and detailed in her explanations and makes it easy for students to understand the material. She is extremely helpful in lab and during office hours. Make sure to go to lectures because she gives a lot of explanations that are very helpful when working on projects and preparing for tests. I definitely recommend her for this or any other class she teaches. She is really great.

Well, Prof.Gharibyan is good in terms of her lectures and her ability to present the material. She gives a lot of handouts which are really helpful for tests and to learn the material. Her labs are projects are easy. She gives most of the code for labs and projects, and she is very helpful during her office hours. She replies prompty to e-mails. But, her grading is super hard! We had 2 mid-terms and one final exam. Mid-terms were lengthy, and I couldn't finish them on time. I'm pretty good at Java and data structure concepts, but I found her tests very difficult. She gives virtually no partial credit, and she never curves, even if the class average is like 65%. Her grading for the tests and projects is very hard. Like someone else said, I believe I deserve a grade better than C, and this is my first C in a CSC or a CPE class. I recommend not to take CPE 103 with Prof.Gharibyan if you don't want to screw up your GPA.

Good: Can convey information and is willing to clarify things and spend extra time with you if you need it. Material isn't too hard to understand and the labs fit the time allotted perfectly. She gives handouts for EVERYTHING which help a lot and basically replace the book. Bad: Ohh man. Her grading scheme could use a lot of work. I understand all the ADTs and algorithms presented well enough to where I could implement them flawlessly given the time, but time is scarce during these 2 midterms and the final. Study, but make sure you're in a good test taking mood or you'll fail the test, seriously. I don't know what it is but her test are killer. Here's the scoop: Each midterm is worth 60 points total (20% of your final grade). A -lot- of questions on the midterm are all or nothing (even though they are multiple parts) She is very picky about sticking to ADTs (understandable) and will give you 1/2 credit on some questions if you make 1 mistake (even though it's apparent it was a "oops" mistake) She DOES NOT CURVE. The average for the second midterm was 67% and no curve. You do however get to use a little "cheat sheet" a quarter size of a paper. On top of her crazy grading, she accuses you of being ignorant and trying to cheat the system every so often. For example, on one lab our method was returning the value we expected for the graph she gave us. We brought her over and started getting it graded, then she changed the graph a bit and our method was still returning the same number. I don't remember what she said exactly, but it was something like "Maybe if you made it return more than just the answer i'm expecting". Aside from that she's nice and understanding when it comes to mishaps and scheduling, and if you have a problem ask her nicely and she'll definately help you. Homework: 5~ Programs that take a while to do and any labs you didn't finish. These are 15% and 10% of your grade respectively. Recommendation: If you want to learn things you'll actually be using in the work force, go for it. But even if you learn everything and get it down solid, if you're not a good test taker (ie you friz up, get nervous, and just make stupid mistakes you normally wouldn't make) don't expect a good grade. She doesn't make you do silly things like proofs of algorithms that you learned in CSC141 (some profs do).

Professor Gharibyan started the course off with a warning as to how difficult the course would be. I think a lot of people didn't take that seriously, perhaps because 102 was so easy, or because most teachers say their course is difficult. 103 is a bit difficult, however. The work load is very manageable, and the projects really shouldn't take more than a few hours. All of the labs were easily done during lab time (though you can finish them at home if you don't finish in lab). The tests are the hard part of this course, and, unlike some classes, study time is needed to get a decent grade. Because the tests are out of 60, simple mistakes can cost you quite a bit. The tests are short enough for the time alotted and I did not find myself having to rush to finish. Professor Gharibyan is also very helpful if you ever encounter any problems in a lab or project. The class is much more worthwhile than it is difficult, so put in the study time and it should be a good experience. If you find the work load for this course difficult, you're going to have one heck of a time in a higher level programming course such as 305.

This class was very fair and Prof. Gharibyan did an excellent job presenting the material. Although she doesn't curve it isn't really necessary, the averages for the midterms were in the low 70's., NOT 67 as an earlier polyrater stated. She also gives partial credit on the midterms, and an A is within reach provided you put some studying in and attend all lectures. The programming assignments are easy points, she gives you most of the code for them. Labs are the only other programming you have to do, and are easily completed during the alloted time. Overall, Prof. Gharibyan is an excellent teacher.

Dr.Gha... is a tough instructor. Like many other mentioned, I don't think she is so great. She is just an average professor, but too tough for her ability to convey the material. Exams are tough - less time, no partial credit and sometimes confusing. She emphasises theoretical stuff than practical. Labs and projects are easy. I'd recommend you to take somebody else.

She is a good professor, but she is brutally tough in her exams. I doubt anyone got an "A" in this class!

If you want an A DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Her tests are very hard, and she does not curve which inevitably makes this class tough. There are two midterms and one final each of which you have 1/4 a sheet of paper, front and back, to take notes on, which seemed not nearly enough. That aside though, she does seem to know her stuff and although she may not be the best at conveying it to her students she is a decent teacher and if your a hardcore student you will probably get a B+, good for you.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember that some of these could have been written by Professor Gharibyan. She is VERY difficult and VERY tough. Not to mention she does not curve in any way shape or form. I believe all students, no matter how hard it is, to be able to have "tangible" assignments. In my opinion, her assignments seem easy but her tests will bring your grades--like my friends--down dramatically to C's and D's. Take her as a last resort, that's my opinion.

Professr Gharibyan is just a bad teacher. I'm not saying this as the way I don't like her, I'm talking about how she conveys her work, her tests, and her teaching. Seriously, (like the previous message) she might have wrote some of those "bad reviews" down there but with "HIGH SCORES." You have to take real advice from students who had ALREADY taken her. DO NOT TAKE HER.

Gharibyan is the only teacher in my entire education who has denied me the proper tools to pass a class. My friends and I attended her office hours and asked for some more example problems to prepare for one of her overly difficult and unfair exams. She would not give us any. We were told that the one problem she provided us in class ws enough (the problem we had already done). I have never heard of a teacher who has denied students extra work or practice. It was the begining of her office hour and no one was waiting behind us. Gharibyan believes that we are only a random group of people and states this frequently. This is how she treats us. She is never wrong. If the class is doing poorly it must be their fault right? Or could it be the teacher's?

Course material is not presented well. Definitely sign up for another teacher. If you must take her, don't bother going to class, she teaches directly out of the book. She has trouble speaking and understanding the English language. She never goes over problems in class, and has difficulty understanding students questions.

I think the professor is adding way too many "good" rating for herself. She is not that good.

Hard tests, long exams, few or no partial credit, no curve - you figure it out. Lectures are alright.

Overall a great professor. While she may be a bit hard on exam grading, she is very reasonable when you talk to her. If you test your programs carefully you will get 100% on all of them, if you mess up in even one place though expect to get docked a lot. If you show up and do the work you will also get 100% on the lab portion of the lass. She gives you all of the class notes as handouts and the tests are questions directly off those handouts.

Oh, really? Great professor? Easy to talk to? Come on... BTW, is there a chance that the comment below is posted by Prof.G?

in my opinion, she is a good professor when it comes to lectures and lab, one problem is that its extremely hard to stay awake in her lectures and actually understand what the heck is she saying, but everything, EVERYTHING is given on the handouts. my main problem with her is the fact that she claims that i cheated by obtaining some screenshot of a project program that does not compile under her compiler and computers but which does on mine. what pissed me off the most is that SHE NEVER GAVE ME A CHANCE TO SHOW HER THAT IT WORKED ON MY COMPUTER AND THAT THE PRINT OUT WAS FROM MY OWN F'IN PROGRAM NOT FROM ANOTHER

Contrary to most of the reviews here, she was a very good professor. All of her programs and labs were straight forward and if you needed help, she was always there to answer your questions. You should be able to get 100% on all of her labs and all of her programming projects. So the only thing to worry about is the midterm and final. But those are all based off of her notes that she gives you. There is no reason to fail this class.

This is one of the easiest classes I have taken. She gives you a ton of hand outs and goes over them in class. While she is going over them she will basically tell you what is going to be on the test. The labs and projects are pretty easy. If you have trouble she is more than willing to help you out. If you listen to what she says and take her advice, you shouldn't get anything lower than a B in the class. Make sure you have the code for the different algorithms fairly well memorized though, as that is the only difficult part of the tests.

First off, she has a cool accent. It isn't super thick so you can still understand her, but she phrases some things kinda funny. As for the class, like people below have said, she gives you a massive amount of handouts which contain the correct (i.e. best and most efficient) way to implement the given algorithms. If you follow those on the labs and projects, you shouldn’t have a problem. Seems like most people that have a problem with her, have a problem with this concept. These algorithms have been around for years and have pretty much become as efficient as they are going to be, there is no need for you to try to reinvent the wheel. It isn’t what this course is about. For the tests, she usually tells you during class “This would be a good test question” or something like that. It is really boring and irritating when she goes through the sorting algorithms on the board and draws out every step. But pay attention to this, because you will probably have to reproduce it on a test. Also, make sure you can reproduce the code given on the handouts. Overall, some of the lectures can get really boring, the class isn’t too hard if you turn those handouts she gives you into your bible for the quarter.

Great professor. Enjoyed her style, enjoyed the class, learned a lot. Will take any other class she teaches.

Professor Gharibyan is a good professor. She presents the material as clearly as can be, giving handouts on the lecture every day and providing any and all pseudocode needed. Granted, she and the other 103 teacher this quarter apparently taught the class nearly the same, seeing as they assigned all the same projects... I will say that the "one turn in only" grading policy isn't my favorite, but it's hard not to find things a little disappointing after surviving a Staley class last quarter. On the definite upside, I slept through the lecture almost invariably every Wednesday, and she was ready for me in the lab immediately after with a lecture handout for me and a smile (which either meant she's in a constantly good mood or she's resisting killing me... I like to think it's the former)

I came in late and ate breakfast in class a lot, and she still was super nice to me always!

She isn\'t the worst professor, but she isn\'t the best either. She was somewhat helpful with office hours, but I visited her a lot, and this seemed to kind of irritate her. Then again, she was always extremely busy, so I can understand. I basically studied off her lecture notes and ended up with a B. They are a tremendous life saver. In studying for the midterms, she says to study and know everything, but for writing code, she seemed to test us on the easiest methods (ie: the insert method for a BST, or the insert method for a hash table...incredibly easy to understand and memorize). The book, although not as useful, did manage to clarify things too, so I recommend it as a reference. Again, in summary, she isn\'t satan, so this class wasn\'t really bad at all.

Honestly, the only problem I had with her was that she was not hard enough and held our hands through everything. All of our labs and projects were translations of the psuedocode she gave us in class into Java. The Pseudocode was just too detailed, providing a line-for-line description of what we needed to do. I\'m one of those people who needs to struggle a little in order to learn; this didn\'t happen here and I am probably worse at algorithms for it.

If you are taking 103 with Hasmik, prepare to be BORED. Her lectures basically recall what you\'ve already learned in Discrete (remember 141 ^^). So, she brings up a topic, you go, \"Oh, yeah, I remember that,\" and you\'ve recapped it in about ten minutes... at which point Hasmik feels the need to spend the next 40 minutes giving LENGTHY example that repeat over and over and over and over and... I think you get my point. Regardless of if you can handle not nodding off in lecture, her assignments will simply bore you further. She hands you pseudocode which is pretty much a cross-breed of Java and English. Your job for the assignments is to take the wealth of handouts from her lectures, find the pseudocode, and type it into a file you call your own. The only real \"work\" you do on a project is having to comment it. Oh, and did I mention she HEAVILY grades you down on exams if you don\'t spit back her code and algorithms verbatim. That being said, if you can stand all of that, she does give great help in lab! :/

I don't understand why there are so many bad reviews are on here. Her class is pretty interesting and she is super nice. A suggestion, don't just recreate her pseudocode in Java, understand what it is doing. You'll do much better in the class that way.

Worst professor in the CSC department. I am less knowledgeable after taking this course with her

Professor Gharibyan was pretty boring, but ok, in lecture. She hands way too many handouts although they end up being nice for studying, however she is a very tough grader. She states to everyone that her comments on tests or when assisting in lab may come out rude but she doesn't mean it...she's just rude. She grades so hard on the test and gives no partial credit; make one mistake and you're pretty much screwed cause even if the rest of your code was right that mistake would have made it not compile or something and you get all the points off. Her labs were fairly easy and were pretty much free points which boosted grades, and the way she weighs her grades will save you in the end if you don't do well on the midterms. That being said, she doesn't "help" in lab very much, if you ask her a question she will tell you exactly what is wrong with your code and correct it for you, but make you feel really stupid in the process. Her opinion of you drastically changes if you go to office hours, she will begin to like you a lot more!

This professor is awesome. She gives you handouts and if you pay attention and take notes on the handouts you should have no problem getting a great grade. She is very willing to help if you go to her office hours. Take Gharibyan she is the best.

Gharibyan is great! She is very helpful if you ask a question during lab or through email. She is a good lecturer but she talks pretty fast so make sure to pay attention! She gives you a lot of printed out notes which really help when doing projects or studying for tests. This class is not easy, but if you put enough time into it, you will do fine. Take her! She is extremely knowledgeable and overall a great professor.

Gharibyan is a very passionate teacher. She speaks in a high pitched tone for lecture, which at times can be irritating. She hands out lecture notes for every section she covers, which means you can find yourself not paying attention since it's in front of you, BUT PAY ATTENTION. She grades HARSHLY on syntax errors and isn't nice on partial credit overall. Tough class to get an A in but you learn a lot from your mistakes. My midterms were full of red marks and I won't forget that.

Professor Gharibyan is a great teacher! She is very organized and thoughtful during the lecture and lab. She provides typed handouts for every lecture, so it's easy to follow. Projects were super easy as she gives the algorithm and the pseudocode that you need... you just have to implement it in Java. She has a heavy accent, so it's hard to understand her sometimes, but you will get used to it over time. Would recommend taking class with her.

So bad

Note: When I registered for Gharibyan, she had a Polyrating's score of over 3.5. Idk why, but it's clear someone tried to unfairly force her score down. Gharibyan is an incredibly good professor. She presents the material through simple, easy to understand examples, and spends as much time as necessary working through these examples. She provides handouts that match the lecture notes which are very helpful when studying for the exams, which are very easy. There are about 5 projects throughout the quarter, which she provides the pseudocode for so they are very easy to implement. Absolutely take 349 with her if you can.

Whoever wrote the demeaning reviews about Professor Gharibyan should really get a life! After comparing the teaching styles of other 349 professors from friends, I honestly have to say that Gharibyan's class is one of the best in terms of having a fair workload and clear expectations. The labs are not hard at all, are in Java, can be done with a partner and have very detailed lab specs. They generally include large amounts of pseudo code so it's almost hard not to do well on them. The lecture notes are also extremely detailed and are a little overwhelming at first, but they are so well structured and easy to study from. There's also a fairly large amount of optional homework, which includes problems that are slightly more difficult/time-consuming than the test questions (solutions are included). Tests are generally fair and even seem a bit easy (the questions were a lot more conceptual, there weren't many free response questions), though Professor Gharibyan's grading is not as lax as other professors (though not terribly strict either). Overall, Prof. Gharibyan's 349 seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but after the first midterm the expectations for the tests were super clear (there were no surprises on the second midterm or final).

She's extremely dedicated to her students. There are 2 midterms and a cumulative final in the class. Labs are just a bunch of pair programming projects, which I love because I've never done anything like it and the structure and the choice of lab partner worked out for me! I loved her comments on our midterm, she commented and corrected on every single student's paper. That must have been a lot of work and time, but I'm grateful she did it. She gives out these dense handouts during lecture, which is super because I didn't have to take any notes. Please take her, she cares a lot for her students and it shows (she even gave us an extra 5% on one of our midterms!) she puts in the time to grade work, and she organizes a ton of extra office hours. Her projects aren't tough, especially when there's pair programming involved (as long as you have an at least ok partner)

Awful for 349. You just end up memorizing code and not learning any theory.

Following her pseudocode style is awful, and I have no idea why she enforces it so much and takes off so many points

Ok at teaching, but I hated the grading in this class. She gives very little to no partial credit and it's difficult to get her to explain things in ways that are different from the way she teaches. Also doesnt help you for interviews at all since you just memorize code.

Terrible

Notes need to be more conscise and less math. You don't need 3 paragraphs to desrcibe dynamic programming

Don't take algorithms with her you wont learn anything. Just memorizing things in her handouts and never actually designing any algorithms yourself.

Don't take algorithms with this lady!!! Miglwr is way better

Don't take 349 with this lady. You'll just get spammed with handouts.

She's nice but that's about it

Don't take this lady for algos!!!!!! The pseudocode style is awful. I have nothing good to say about her

DONT TAKE THIS WITH HER!!! the tests are extremely hard.

Really bad

not great

you don't learn anything. you've been warned

Awful. hopefully you dont ever have to deal with this lady

nice lady but terrible grading

Gross

Avoid like the plague

lol bad

Bad

I feel like you don't really get anything out of this class, it's pretty much just memorizing her handouts and pseudocode. I would try to take this class with Migler if you can.

The Polyrating reviews on here are so beyond unrepresentative (probably just one angry student). Professor Gharibyan was by far one of the best CS professors that I have taken so far. She is so knowledgeable on everything she teaches and is very willing to reexplain topics during office hours. Her lectures are to the point and concise. She also provides detailed notes that you can read over later to understand the material better and to help prepare for exams. I ended up loving this class. Also, projects are very applicable to concepts the way that she teaches in class. Overall, Professor Gharibyan would get an A+ rating (she is wonderful).

I had this class before with another professor and this is my second time around. This time is ABOUT A MILLION TIMES BETTER. If you want to take someone who give VERY reasonable amount of homework *that she grades and gives full credit on AS LONG AS YOU TRIED, THATS RIGHT THEY DONT EVEN NEED TO BE RIGHT!*, VERY reasonable amount of reading *which isnt really necessary because of the AWESOMELY detailed handouts and lectures* this is the woman for you. Plus there are these online quizes that are entirely up to you to take. They come with the answers and the same questions *well not all of um but ya know* appear on the midterms. The homework assignments come back with a handout that has all the right answers on it too with detailed procedures about how to find those answers. The midterms are right from what you learned too, no out of no where questions. Average was an 80% about on our first midterm, now that says something about the overall ability to understand what shes teaching! Plus she is extremely helpful in office hours. Compared to the time I took this class before, there's no doubt that for 430, shes damn good. Plus she's nice to stare at during class *rawr* hehe

Course material is not presented well. Definitely sign up for another teacher. If you must take her, don't bother going to class, she teaches directly out of the book. She has trouble speaking and understanding the English language. She never goes over problems in class, and has difficulty understanding students questions.

The information and concepts presented in this class are simple and straight forward, and can be learned from the text. Unforunately, Paulson usually confuses the concepts. I found myself aggravated by her lectures. She even yells at the class! And when I visited her in office hours to ask for help, she just kept saying the same thing. I'm not deaf, I just don't understand your example! Definitely take someone else!

This is a difficult class for Computer Science majors; that much is certain. Dr Paulson does the best that anybody can expect. She even went as far as spending time reviewing CSC141 (as the class was very weak on the material). In the end, I found the class to be interesting and reasonably challenging as well. Her lectures do cover the book reasonably well. But then, she is a lot easier to understand than the book, since the book assumes more math than CSC normally requires. In fact, I rarely even had to consult the book (except for homework). Her grading seems harsh at times, but with a number of easy, high weighted projects, the grades seem to even out well. It is unfortunate that many people seem unable to get past a strange accent. Once that is overcome, she is a fine addition to the department.

Paulson is a bit hard to understand at the beginning, but she is really a great teacher. Her office hours are very helpful and even in class she tries to explain everything as straightforward as possible in a class that is backwards to begin with. Very friendly and clearly shows and understanding of the material. She grades hard, but pay attention in lectures and that wont be a probelm.

I liked Paulson a lot. I think that she does a good job giving examples in class so that the homework is doeable. There is quite a bit of homework but it is reasonable. If you do it you will do fine on her midterms. Her quizes are pretty tough but they force you to really know the material. I suggest that you take this class with Paulson. She is also really good in office hours.

She's easier than Brady, but harder than Wheatley. There are a lot of old test/quizzes/projects floating around, they make the class much more bearable. Other than that, the material is damn boring so drink some coffee, snort some coke, read, and keep up with the material; you'll pass. She's a fair teacher.

Dr. Paulson teaches this class with determinism, and I don't mean making sure that all paths are covered. I mean that she wants her students to know this stuff by the end of the quarter. She'll teach the process, talk about the theory, and MAN, you better know the theory. There are weekly quizzes, 2 midterms, and homework twice a week. DO THE HOMEWORK! Midterm stuff is off of that. Quizes only cover the theory stuff. The final consists of both, and it is imperative that you learn as you go, because if you try to cram for her tests, you'll find yourself weeping very soon. Don't get me wrong, it's not hard, but you do have to be determined. She is a very understanding and caring person, and will help you imensely if you ask for it.

This class is utterly boring, but it's really not anyone's fault- except maybe a certain fellow named Turing. Dr. Paulson does a pretty swell job of explaining the theory of this class- which is really all there is to it. There's a lot of theorems and stuff you have to memorize, and much of it is extremely tedious- if also not that difficult. The problem is, if you want a high grade, you've really got to work at it. Paulson does not grade on a curve, and her quizzes are extremely difficult. The exams are pretty easy compared to them, since you'll be tested on actually implementing things rather than answering nit-picky true/false and detailed trivia questions. I did pretty horribly on the quizzes- in fact, that was quite normal from what I could tell- but the exams were a better story. Homework is collected and graded. Be advised that the more lengthy homeworks are often NOT collected- much to the greater horror of those who actually spend time doing them. Apparently, the grader is paid on an hourly basis, and correcting things like proofs would eat the money too quickly. It is advised you do the homework, though- or at least before the exams- because the stuff you do on the tests will be (sometimes exactly) similar to the problems you are assigned. In lecture, Dr. Paulson is surprisingly animated for someone talking about such boring stuff- I honestly think I'd be nodding off myself if I was lecturing on such things. She gives handouts that are quite useful, especially for review. Be sure to keep them all and ask for those you miss. You can tell that the examples she does on the board are sometimes impromptu, which could be bad. Sometimes the class caught her making pretty serious mistakes. In general, though, she has a very clear and personal style of lecturing that is most welcome. For those who complain about her accent, drop into Todorov's (math dept) class sometime. It really is not an impediment to the presentation of the subject material. Oh, and if you've decided not to take this class but suffer from insomnia, get the textbook. It'll solve all your problems.

I enjoyed taking this class. Paulson is an extremely fair, reasonable, approachable person, and she really wants you to know the material. As long as you go to class and do the homework, there is no reason you should not do well in this class. Previously, she had quizzes every week, and it was apparently really hard. Now, instead of quizzes in class, she posts them on her web site for you to practice instead. She had office hours the day before the homework was due and was always extremely helpful. I'm not sure there's much of a choice for professors teaching 445, but it's okay because Paulson is great!

just go to class every day and do the online quizzes before the midterms and GO OVER YOUR WORK on the tests and theres no reason you shouldnt do well in the class.

Paulson's one of those teachers who hands out something at the start of class and then spends the lecture simply reading it. It seems to happen often in CSC classes. The material is garbage (think Discrete Structures on steroids), and Dr. Paulson's presentation makes for a dreary 8:00 class. She also started class, on average, four minutes late, and on her worst day, seven minutes late. She also twice brought in "guest speakers" who didn't say a word. Anyway, weekly homeworks, occasional projects, and three (yes, three) midterms make up the course.

I thought Paulson was a great teacher. One has to have real talent to keep students interested when the material is so dry. She did a wonderful job. She is clear, fair and very helpful. She is very motivated, knows students' weeknesses and tries to help as much as she can.

Great professor, great lecture... I mean it... very great lecture and very easy to understand. I did not get a good grade in this class because I skipped class a lot, and that's completely my fault. But I really appreciate her giving me such knowledge about the subject. About homework, it's reasonable. Tests won't be so hard if you know what you are doing...

Paulson is an excellent teacher. She knows the subject very well and explains it so that you get it. She doesn't try to torture you, she wants you to learn and will do everything to help you. Believe me this lady knows what she is doing.

She is one of the best.

Prof. Gharibyan is awesome. If you think Turing machines and Finite State Automata are boring as hell, you're right. But somehow, just about everyone in the class actually gets into the material; she knows what she's talking about, she enjoys talking about it, and it translates into incredibley effective lectures. If you have to take 445, you have to take it with Gharibyan, hands down.

I dunno about the other 445 teachers, but Hasmik is great. I had her at 8am and it wasn't too bad. The material can be pretty booring, but she really knows it well and communicates it well. She is very easy to deal with and is quite helpful. She really wants people to understand the material and so will always accept and answer anybodys questions. The class also wasn't too difficult.

Prof. Gharibyan did a great job presenting the material. Wonderful pacing and presentation. The only difficulty is her tests; they don't have huge point totals with means missing a single question drops your grade quickly. Make sure to study the quiz questions since there is a good chance what they covered will show up on the test.

This is one of the best professors i have had at poly... no joke. First of all, the book is horrible and you wont use it... except for some hw problems and occasional review. She hands out notes everyday and if you are in class you will have everything you need to know for the tests. The tests are pretty basic... memorize some definitions and understand some concepts. She goes through many examples and shows you how to do everything and if you need help she WILL help you. Hw is credit/no credit so just do it... its usually easy anyways. 4 projects that were also really basic. Great teacher all around.

I completely agree with the person who said "Hard tests, long exams, few or no partial credit, no curve - you figure it out. Lectures are alright." It is quite true with CSC 445 too. Her English is not that good, and it's often pretty annoying. But I understand that as her first language is not English. She lectures fast and sometimes confusing - the material itself is a little confusing. Her tests are pretty tough. I think she never curves, and to get a A grade (and to have a good understanding about theory of computing) is next to impossible. The only thing I liked about was her handouts - they were pretty helpful to understand concepts. But I doubt if it helped to prepare for tests. I wasn't slacking, and I ended up with a 'C' despite my efforts. It's not completely my fault.

Awesome class...my favorite for this quarter. Gharibyan is a really good teacher, and taking this class with anyone else is not advised (or possible, I think). Taking Algorithms with Phillips was not a pleasant experience, but this course wasn't bad at all. Good lectures and outstanding handouts, tests that had no surprises (but there are always a few gotchas, so be sure to read the questions really closely). I had no problem understanding the concepts, and I'm not really a "theory" guy. All that, plus an optional final. What more could you ask for?

Hasmik is one of my favorite professors in the computer science department. I have been in her 103 before and I loved it. 445 was even better. She is an excellent lecturer. She made the dull subject fun and interesting. And to know that English is her third language ... very impressive. There are 3 midterms and an optional final which I thought was a great format for this class. Overall a great class and a great professor.

Going to be honest, she's an ok professor but I don't like her- particularly because her grading scheme is quite draconian (and she doesn't curve despite our class average being in the 60's). You gotta do things her way otherwise you get all your points marked off.

Really awful at giving partial credit. Do not recommend

What can I say, the material is hard as fuck. She does a good job of explaining it the best she can and you can definitely see her effort. Always available in office hours. She's good but just expect to spend a good amount of time trying to learn this crap, cuz its pretty abstract.

Great class--if you enjoyed (or even just tolerated) CSC 445 this is a good class to take for grad students or even for students looking for one of those Area 1B tech electives. Gharibyan doesn't really "teach" 540, it's a seminar class where everyone has to give three presentations: a lecture on an area of theory not covered by 445, a biography on a notable figure in computer theory, and a summary of a research paper. If there are too many people in the class, the research paper is excluded. Your grade is largely determined on your presentations and your attendance at other peoples' presentations, plus a very small portion on a few quizzes. No midterm or final, and the class ended in week 9. Highly recommended class--you'll learn a few things, and it's easy on your GPA, I assure you.