She knows a lot but does not know how to teach,at all. Expects too much from students who has never had any programming experience. Not helpful with homework at all. Does not curve on tests. Exams are very difficult. Does not follow her review. Do not take her if you are new to programming.

Bad at explaining things, as a newbie at programming, i couldn't understand at all. Also, the way that she programs is just to complicated.

Please do NOT take her if you're a beginner. If you've done some programming before, it will not be so difficult. She expects you to understand all the logic quickly and gives intermediate level homework. Doesn't give enough homework to build logic and her exams are worse. Even her lectures are confusing especially for beginners.

Instructor teaches course as if you already know what you are doing. Also, all homework is pass or fail without any real clarity. She said that it is not uncommon to have to take this course more than once even though it is a beginner level programming course.

Lectures were bad. Seemed like she didn't now what she was teaching (two smart dudes always seem to catch her mistakes)and unless you went in knowing about programming this would be pretty hard for an intro class. A lot of stress.

Be ready to hope on google and teach the course to yourself! This "professor" constantly questions herself and basically the entire lecture is filled with people asking "Why did you do that?". Her homeworks are more like projects, and the instructions for them are biographies. Do yourself a favor and take the other professor.

She does not know how to teach. She not well prepared, and does not understand the topics. She does not know to teach to the beginner student. It would be better if she is full time advisor, and student don't have to wait in line. I do not recommend to take her class. Take one extra semester, but don't take class with her.

Stefan's class is a real Nightmare. Nervous, inexperienced and disorganized! Gives super-hard hws w/ unclear instructions & updates them till the date of submission. No exam reviews, No partial grades for hws even if you spent 9 sleepless nights on if it doesn't run. INCONSIDERATE and heartless while grading. You'll only regret.

Ms. Stefan is a good academic advisor, but, in my opinion, not a java programming instructor. I learned almost nothing in her disorganized class. Luckily, I have a couple of friends who taught me every thing Ms. Stefan couldn't do. I made a mistake when I chose her class without looking her up in rate my professors.

This is a challenging class if you don't already know how to program. I couldn't understand her confusing way of teaching. Eventually, I found free java materials online that were very helpful. She might know other programming languages, but not the one she "taught" us in class. Doesn't give reviews, before each test she talks about a new topic.

Unclear homework, changes after assigning it. Lecture is jumbled and hard to follow. Avoid.

Her exam questions essentially equate to Youre in a car going 65 mph and you throw a triangle out of the window. Whats the circumference of the sun? If youre thinking that that doesnt sense, youd be spot on to how I felt on every single exam. Also, her homework assignments are a jumbled mess that she continuously changes until the due date.

Didn't understand a bit what she taught in class. Had to google everything. YouTube videos were far better than her teaching.

Turns out her whole class can be taught easily by reading the text book! But she said "all materials are on class website. Don't need textbook." Never used textbook in class either so assumed not need it, we were suppose to read it the whole time! Attila the hun never had to deal with this nonsense.

Could not do well on anything because could not practice it because material is muddy. Textbook provides all knowledge but NEVER used it?! Living proof that life is unfair. Don't know how to explain to family that I have to drop course.

In her class I always wonder as to how she got here. She seems to be as, if not more oblivious to the subject than her students. Homework is messy and not explained clearly., she expects students to know what she wants without expressing it clearly

Very strict and tough to get a score

The class itself is not bad, given prior experience to the subject(which you should have) the class can be passable. However the professor is not the best at speaking/describing the subject, so it's harder to understand her lectures. Take her if you just want the credit, don't take if you plan on understanding the whole class.

Algorithms is a hard class overall, however Stefan makes it extremely difficult with test grading policies that force you to follow her method of solving problems rather than one found elsewhere. If you don't used her method in the test, you will not get credit on the exams. She also post quizzes with less than 24 hour notice.

Strict homework guidelines and lectures and notes could be better explained with something found online. Failing tests means failing the class, and failing homework means losing any possible source of passing. My most stressful semester thus far.

She gives homeworks which are very difficult for beginners to solve. There are about 10 homeworks in the semester. After 3-4 homeworks, just one task is given in each homework and it contains 100 points. Each homework is 2% of the final grade. So, if you can't solve 3 tasks, you lose 6 marks of final. Her accent is difficult to understand.

I came from from almost zero programming knowledge. I learnt more from youtube and from my friends than her. If youre taking her class, I would suggest that you try your best and if youre still having difficulty, drop it before its too late and take it again next semester with a better teacher. Good luck!

She's understanding when it comes to hw deadlines, but her coding assignments are confusing because the directions aren't always clear and she makes multiple changes to them. If your code does not run, you get a zero for the coding part (no partial credit) so that really sucks. I liked her as a person but her teaching style was not for me.

Do yourself a favor and avoid her even if you have to take Bob Weems to do it. Her lectures are not helpful and she intentionally tests over non-homework material with questions written to confuse you as if she had given any clear explanations in class or otherwise. She should be let go and replaced with a perfunctorily curated YouTube playlist.

I feel like I worked hard for almost no reason. In the other two sections of CSE2320, an A started at 82.5 and 75. In my section, an A started at 87. I made an 85 and I wouldve made an A if I had chosen any other section. Stefan is very confusing and confuses herself. Her grading criteria is confusing and questions are phrased badly. Good luck ��.

While she is a good lecturer, the things that she covers in class are just the tip of the iceberg to the difficult homework and tests that you will receive no help on. If you're struggling, she'll tell you go to her office hours- where she'll then tell you that she really can't help. If you aren't a great coder, expect to struggle double.

Created her own website for the class rather than use canvas like every other course. Changed HW assignments nearly daily, even up to the due date. Slides are a mess, code she writes is a mess, lectures are unorganized and borderline useless. I feel like this is a topic I should have enjoyed learning, but it was just made unnecessarily hard.

is accessible outside of class. a decent professor but gave TOO many assignments at the end of semester. tried to squeeze everything in at the end for some reason.

Super nice professor, however he lectures and notes are all over the place. Whatever you do, don't take her for this class. Just one HW assignment has already made me wanna die, and her lectures/slides don't help at all. If you do take this class, be prepared to do 20 hrs worth of reading and another 20 of video watchingjust for one HW assignment.

She's nice and friendly, and tries to help the students as much as she can. However the content she provides in lectures and within the powerpoint are hardly of any help when it comes to the homework and exam quizzes. It's an overwhelming amount of work, and she's quite specific with how she wants the code to look like. Homework is quite difficult

Not the best experience. The software's she uses to teach are horrible and the way she goes about her homework's is awfully confusing and not at all formatted.

Extremely disorganized; class material is spattered all over the place. Something so simple as downloading lectures slides from 1 place and knowing you have them all, and in the right order, should be so simple. It sounds impossible to mess up: the fact she does, though, sets the pace for the entire class. You will have a bad time.

She is more concerned with coming up with and enforcing arbitrary grading schemes than she is in actually teaching us anything. She treats our grade like a game. The grade will not reflect how well you know any of the material from the class. Instead, it will show how well you were able to play the game she turns this class into.

Taking this professor was the worst mistake of my life. Horrible rushed lectures. She has her own website which is so confusing. Homework are too lengthy. She came in today, taught a topic on the exam that she was confused about and her excuse: 'I didn't review the lecture'. Please do not take her for your own sanity.

genuinely one of the worst classes i've ever taken at UTA. Her lectures were very difficult to keep with because her notes are so messy! Avoid at all cost, for the sake of your sanity.

She's a really nice person but she's the worst professor I've ever taken. She makes the exams really difficult and doesn't provide much review material compared to other 1320 sections. Her lectures are hard to understand and all over the place. Handwriting is terrible. The averages on the exams were always below a 60. Don't take this professor.

Took 1320 with her, and she was awful but still i managed to get an A by doing some self study. I then decided to take her for CSE 3318, and this is where i made a terrible mistake. DONT TAKE HER EVER FOR ANYTHING.

For future students, do not take her. I took her because she seemed better than the others, but she is not worth it. apparently for fall 2024, exams were 40%. Then spring 2025, exams were 50%. And now, for fall 2025, exams are 60%?????? WHAT??? Why is she increasing the percentage grade every semester bruh. Plus notes are terribly scattered.

She finally started using a mic towards the end of the class, due to how hard it was to hear her. But now she clears her throat into it every 3 minutes.

Be ready to teach yourself

I was going through difficult personal matters while taking her class and I reached out to her to request for an incomplete grade. She agreed until the very very last minute during finals week. Seemed extremely unfair since she deemed the situation to be appropriate for an incomplete. Also she has the worst notes I've ever seen from an instructor.