3.1
Quality4.0
Difficulty49%
Would Retake105
Reviews49%
Would Retake
105
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
105 total ratings5
33
4
16
3
11
2
21
1
24
What Students Say
“Teaching is very good, and professor tried to explain as much as he can”
EE450 - 2.0 rating“If you simply want to Learn, Take his class because he is excellent”
EE450 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
11%
Textbook Required
27%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.96 avg changeRatings by Course
RFHARDWARE
5.0
(1)EESECT
5.0
(1)ECE442
4.0
(1)EE450
3.2
(85)EE464
2.8
(4)Difficulty by Course
EE555
5.0
EE544
5.0
ECE442
5.0
EE464
4.8
450
4.0
Reviews (102)
His offering to students is well-crafted, from clear presentation of concepts in lecture, to close coordination with the T/A, to careful construction of exams and projects. He has high expectations of his students and grading is tough but fair. He has a gruff manner that may put off younger students.
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Good lecturer - got some humor in lectures. Hard exams. Difficult to get a good grade in his class.
This guy is unbelievable, he flipps out every lecture, he gets angry at you, no wonder he got a heart attack, his tests are hard You suffer for a C, don't take him,
Amazing classes
OUTSTANDING PROFESSOR. If you are taking a class to learn the material, Zahid is the best. YOU WILL WORK HARD BUT YOU WILL LEARN!!
Tests are super hard and long period. You will learn the material, but will NOT get a good grade.
THE BEST PROFESSOR!
Excellent professor. Teaches really well.
Great Professor! Teaches his students with great vigor! Really puts in huge efforts in making his students understand the subject!
Cool professor! Very good teacher! Fun :)))
Excellent Professor. Clears Concepts. Very difficult papers (keeps provision for 20 marks extra credits though!!!). Have to work hard to get a good grade(he says it himself in the first lecture)!!
The best Professor!! Teases you makes fun of you but ensures that you learn from the course!!
He is a rare professor who actually cares if his students learn the material. His exams are difficult, but reasonable because 50% of the questions come straight from the homework or lectures. He expects you to work fast on the exams!
Crazy, doesn't want to help you. Seems like he gets annoyed by students. Ask the wrong question during office hours and he'll tell you straight in your face that you are stupid and shouldn't be in this class.
If you don't care about the grade, take his course, but if you need to get at least a grade as high as your effort for the course, just forget it. He is gonna torture you and you suffer a lot just for C, while with the same effort you can get at least A with a NORMAL professor.
Tries to screw up students at any cost
Ive never worked so hard in a class and not have it pay off. He has derailed all my plans for the classes I was going to take because I needed this class. Midterm is tricky but final is extremely hard. YOU WILL seriously regret it if you take him. He is extremely rude and unhelpful too. You've been warned
Dont go to his office hours unless you know the answer to the question you'll ask him and just want to look smart...And he wonders why no one goes to see him. Very unpleasant to be around or look at
Tries to insult student in every manner. Do not go to his office hour. Lecture are clear but just when you think you understand all he talks about, the test screw u up.
He is the worst professor I have come across. He teaches all the tough part before the exams and does not solve any sum and the exam will have max weightage on those sums. He never helps a student when you go to him. And as usual, he ruins grades. Dont take any course under him.
He is one of the most awesome prof. in USC. Yeah , I agree that he loose his temper shortly but the way he explains the concept of networking is very crystal clear. you don't have to read the book again after attending his lecture.If you have interest in networking don't enroll it now.
Avoid this class at all costs. I'm a straight A student and I had to drop it. We had a massive group of people drop it after he gave a curveball exam without a curve. You won't do well on the exams no matter how much you study. Full of grad students. Avoid as an undergrad.
Zahid teaches EE 450 to a few undergraduates and a bunch of graduate students, and he definitely tailors it to the grad students. His English is bad, and his exams are written in broken English (with very questionable solutions) and the grading is unfair. Expect to get a bad grade.
OMG! I'm here for four years and this is the worst class in the USC I've ever taken. He just ruins my interest in network and my grades at the same time. I have to take this class because it is a prerequisite. Tests are insane! Once you feel you understand the material, tests screw you up! Never gonna take his class again
Subject is good but the Professor is mean! Be ready to get proper scoldings if you go to his office hours. Explains simple topics in class and expects wonders in exam. They are tricky! So solve many problems. I would suggest you to clear placement exam if this course is a pre-requisite. Its not worth taking this course under this professor.
I loved his class. Explains everything very clearly and is extremely helpful if you go to his office. Exams are a bit tough but you really learn from this class.
Professor Zahid likes students who are respectful, and are willing to work. Exams are extremely difficult, I got a C- on the midterm after feeling like I had over prepared. If you put in the time during his office hours you shouldn't have a problem passing, but I would not recommend to undergrads. Very interesting topics, definitely learned a lot.
Teaches quite well in class but the exams are really difficult and are not curved so beware of that. The course itself is not very difficult, just large.
The lectures are amazing and very clear. and he's the most helpful professor I've ever had. I just loved him.
Lectures are good. Ill tempered professor. Vocabulary course. Definitely needs text book. Tough tests and strict grading. TA's are good.
Tests are super tough. Do all extra credit assignment to get better grades.
Brilliant prof! take a lot of effort to clear concepts! One of the best courses at USC
In general a good professor. He can be very sarcastic in class which I love personally but I can see how some people take it the wrong way. I will warn that the tests are tougher than the homework and you need to work really fast to finish. Make sure you do the extra credit and do well on the project. The grading is more than fair.
He's rude and gives the most annoying lecture. Everytime he asks "CLEAR CLEAR" and says "NO NO YOU LOST ME NOOOOOO", I just want to roll my eyes
Professor Zahid is the best professor I have met in USC.!! He gave us a really amazing lecture and he is really funny. The test is difficult but it is a good test to see if you really learn. Although he loses his temper very easily, I feel that he really concerns about his students. And he even has Saturday office hour before midterm and final.
Good in teaching, but sometimes very partial towards girls. EE 450 is better structured than EE 555. Professor Ali Zahid takes alot of effort to make his students understand the concepts. The exams are pretty weird and different from what he teaches in class
The course is heavy on midterms and finals taking up 80 percent of the grade. Homeworks are direct from text books which are often repeated semester after semester. The programming assignment is a good introduction to socket programming and the class must have more of this if the students are to learn from a good networking course.
Awesome Prof, truely treats all as his kids and takes extra pain to make sure we all understand the concept. One of the best prof ever met. So much extra care and love, and knowledge.. Amazing .
Great professor. Energetic and humorous in class. 450 is kind of introduction level and his class is especially easy to follow. Work load is not heavy at all and attendance is not strictly required.
Great prof. Hard and tricky exams!
Tricky course, makes you work very hard but in the end rewards you with the grade.
Teaching is very good, and professor tried to explain as much as he can. But exams are difficult and less relevant to course material and homeworks. Project is socket programming using C++, for students like me who only have basic level in C++ would feel it is very difficult. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN BUT DON'T CARE GPA, just take this course.
Good Professor. Teaches concepts very well. However does not give grades. If you expect grades in his class then I advise you not to take it. However, if you do not mind the B but want to learn a lot, go for it. He usually does not give below B, but getting an A in his class is very hard.
I love Zahid so much not only for the aweosome class, but alsofor his hard-working and optimistic attitude. He usually teaches 5 sessions in Tuesday and Thursday, and holds extra three office hours, once I saw him fell sleep on the chair, he must feel so exhausted after a day's teaching. Love him so much! I am a super fan of Ali Zahid!
Prof is very responsible for teaching and very knowledgable. But exams and assignment are quite tough. Exam questions are less relevant to homework. Assignment requires heavy workload in python programming. His assignments in both EE450 and EE555 are harder than some programming assignments in CS master courses in USC.
The final is a joke. I feel like it was design to make you fail.
Lectures are good but the exams are more hard and needs a lot of effort. Better cover up with extra credit assignments and labs.
Prof. Zahid is hilarious, strict, and dedicated. He promptly responds to all emails and sends out responses to useful questions to the entire class. He even responded past midnight and on Thanksgiving. He is passionate about the material + your learning. The tests were tough but fair. Project was relatively easy. Textbook was not required reading
Professor is good at teaching. Responsible?? Much of the answer of his homework is wrong. He knew it, but he is not willing to correct the answer. During the moment when (career fair), he likes to assign a lot of homework . Oh, he likes playing tricks on us. During final, he needs student to check answer on sample problem in his office. Long queue!
The professor is proficient at teaching na d has vast knowledge of the subject but his mid terms and finals are tough. Good grades are difficult to get, it can definitely affect your overall GPA.
If you simply want to Learn, Take his class because he is excellent. But if you want to score and GPA concerns you, highly recommend not to take his class! He is the toughest grader. His test is very confusing and he is mean in giving grades. Even though you'll understand everything, his test will confuse you a lot!
Toughest grading policy in USC. If grades are your concern, trust me, do not take his course. Although EE 450 is only a 3 unit course, it feels like a 4/5 unit. Would have to put in way too much effort, with little or no rewards. Will learn a lot, but your GPA will not reflect that.
Do not take his course if you are looking for good grades or a good learning experience. One gets to learn stuff but for a high price. He does not entertain any doubts relevant to networks but out of syllabus. It really takes a lot to get done with the course.
good teacher
Taken EE450 under him. Best professor in USC i ever seen. Tough he gives low grades but they are reasonable. DO well in mid exams you will sure get A grade. Cares a lot about his students. If u attend USC don't miss taking his course. Grade doen't matters in the last. Knowledge matters which u can get tons in his course
I just cant believe that he has taught for many years. Tons of mistakes and typos in his slides, lab manuals and Hw solutions. When you asked him about this, he would blamed a sloppy author. Also countless ambiguities in lectures, Hw, TA's discussions and exams. The content is not the hardest, but the way he taught makes it the hardest.
Really dedicated and enthusiastic. Teaches really well. Really funny and hilarious. You will learn a lot. Need to put in some efforts to get a good grade.
He doesnt have hardware knowledge at all. He just reads what is present in the slides. Do not take this course.
I took EE450 which he taught excellent you'll get good knowledge but gives more work like HWs, Extra credit labs, socket programming project make you always busy in semester but finally exams will surprise you as will see some unexpected ones. Bottom line good professor but hard to score marks
Professor Zahid really cares about his students. And all he wants is to make you learn something useful. You can always come to his office hours to ask whatever you are confused and even chat with him.
Professor Zahid is one of the best professor I have ever meet! The course is well designed, and Professor Zahid gave us perfect lectures! The tests are difficult, but Professor tried his best to help students overcome the difficulties. The office hours are effective, and he told me to be confident about myself even when I did bad in midterm.
This professor, tried hard to give you a good lecture, but cannot. He can't realize his failure of giving lectures but even enjoying it. Also, bad exam designing. For example, you learn 1+12 at classes, but exam will test you the integration and Furiere series.
Good professor .
Professor Zahid was dedicated, and hoped students to perform well. Although he offered many office hours and useful feedbacks, Professor Zahid sometimes shouted at you if you asked something stupid, resulting in several students afraid of asking questions in the future. Also, tough midterm and final exams.
Ali Zahid has an "in your face" style of teaching. He provides plenty of examples and allows for plenty of student interaction. The tests strongly correlated with the lecture material and the assignments. He really tries to help you learn. If you do not shy away from his teaching style, he is a great professor to learn from.
He is stubborn and impolite.
Very knowledgeable about the topic and wants us to learn. But for me his teaching style did not help. Clearly tried to help students but always seemed VERY angry when answering questions that he deems obvious/trivial. Personally afraid to ask questions. Lots of discussion material in exams, but many TA's are unfortunately inexperienced lecturers.
Best class I've ever taken! !Love Professor Zahid!!!
I pick his class this semester, and I already read all other comments, I have to say, Ali's course is actually the best course among all USC lessons, if you keep learning his lectures, and study by group, you will find you can learn a lot from his course. His project is helpful and sightful, his labs are good. A joke is: The best CS course is EE450
rude and unhelpful
This lecturer is very stubborn and rude, and he will get angry at you when you ask him a question he doesn't know. At the same time, he is a tough grader. If you can, please please dont choose 450 he teaches.
Zahid is a good professor and EE450 is a really interesting topic. In class the concepts can seem very easy, but they aren't practiced much beyond lecture. This class is very heavy with tests. 75% of your grade is from the midterm and final. He gives extra credit. Do the practice problems he gives out and check with him in OH.
Professor Zahid focuses on students' learning.
Professor Zahid is a wonderful lecturer. He can make the difficult concepts of network easy to understand. He cares about students. When students seems to lose in the lecture, he will always stop and repeat the concepts he just explains to make sure everyone keep up with his pace. I think if you work hard, you can get good score in this course.
A lot of points of this course are ambiguous, which is a really severe problem for students to understand what this lecturer taught.
Providing almost the best lectures in the CS department, very clear and easy to understand.
Professor Zahid's lectures are the best I've ever take, every point was perfectly clear and really learned a lot from this course
Great professor. Took the class in 2005 and still remember his great way of teaching with 100% clarity and humor.
His lectures are easy to understand. But please do choose another lecturer if possible. Ali is very stubborn, he will be angry if you ask a question he doesn't know. Plus, he's very strict on grading.
He seems stubborn about the homework grading criteria, even if the homework is just the format issue, (the grader cannot see some of my homework because of using .doc format and the euqation inside the file doesn't show properly), the professor won't regrade it after submitting a pdf file transfered from .doc, he makes me feel disgusting.
Professor explains everything in detail and you will get a good grip on Networking concepts, but his exams are poor, he twists the question with weird clauses and antonymns, and nitpicky in grading. Very rude and harsh on students for asking doubts. Make up with extra credit questions and in projects as there is no curve or relative grading.
He is a good teacher but have no patience for your questions, and few students would prefer to ask him question any more. The lecture is clear and easy to understand, however, it's totally different with the mid and final exams. The exams worth total 75% of the grade, but he is a really tough grader. The average score for exam is 67%.
rudest professor ever. he mentioned several times in class that he doesn't care about his students at all. always yell at ppl and has no patience at all. no wonder he's been at usc for 40 yrs and still a lecturer.
Professor Zahid is a good teacher, but he has absolutely no patience when dealing with his students. There have been instances where his rude behavior has made students hesitate to ask questions, making it quite difficult to reason with him. One positive aspect, however, is that he offers some extra credit labs.
ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME OR NOT! Yesssssss or Noooo! He says this crap over 1 million times. None stop no kidding! Nothing is more annoying than the way how he says it.
A lot of people are probably put off by his attitude. He comes off as combative sometimes, especially if he thinks your question is stupid. If you don't take it personally, he's a good teacher. He gives extra credit problems after the midterm that you have to check in office hours. Do these immediately. I failed the midterm but ended with an A.
Very stubborn person, if you ask him a question he doesn't know, he will get very angry
What he taught in lecture has nothing to do with questions in exam. It's totally two difficulty level. Btw, what he said in the lecture he will test in the exam is totally fraud. He won't test any point he said during lecture. In a word, a very stiff lecturer and it's worth nothing to take his lecture.
Terrible lecturer, terrible exam materials. Testing you on trick questions than important knowledge questions. NEVER TAKE HIS CLASS if you want to learn computer networking, he will grind off your interests. You will end up wasting time remembering the unimportant stuff that you can search up in a few clicks in real working environment.
He is a very good lecturer, easy to understand the concept. Exams is less relevent to the course materials and hard, but you can bring a cheat sheet. Final project on socket programming using c/c++, would be tough if you don't have experience on c.
Awful exams, nothing related to lecture and takes 80% of total grade, being mean to students, no curve.
Awful exams, not related to lectures and takes 80% of total grade, no curve and being mean to students.
Belittles students and discourages them from pursuing their interest in STEM because it's too hard. Has anger issues and can't stand it when you don't know how a new concept works. Has been exposed to the content for 50+ years and expects you to know it as well as he does. Yells at you if you don't. He insists that he cares about you.
Professor Zahid can come off as blunt, but he genuinely wants his students to understand and do well. He offers lots of opportunities for extra credit. The exams are difficult, but the course is graded on a more forgiving scale. The homeworks, project, and optional extra credit assignments are rather time consuming, but you will learn a lot.
His lectures are thorough and clearly presented. Exams are a huge portion of your grade (~75%) and extremely difficult in an uncurved class, but there is adequate extra credit through labs and practice problems to offset that if you put in the work. Socket programming project is rewarding, but time consuming.
The exams are tough, but doable with unstuck AI and the free textbook. Professor can be blunt, but engaging with the course materials helps. Worth the effort for the valuable networking knowledge.
He is very blunt. The course is fine but he is very irritable. The good part is he does give extra credits but you need to be around him constantly to get it, it is not straightforward and clear.
LOVE HIM. If you're a good student you'll love him too
Pointless difficult exams.
This man is your boon in the sea of terrible professors in ECE. It is very tough love, but at the end of the day, he does genuinely care for the students who put in the effort. Attending his classes is mandatory since his lectures are pretty much off the dome.
If you don't do well on the midterm and go to his office hours for extra-credit questions, he can seem a bit impatient, and if you struggle with the problems, he may repeatedly ask why it took you so long. The project and exams were challenging. His lectures are clear and you can learn a lot, but I might not take another class with him.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
11%
Textbook Required
27%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.96 avg changeRatings by Course
RFHARDWARE
5.0
(1)EESECT
5.0
(1)ECE442
4.0
(1)EE450
3.2
(85)EE464
2.8
(4)Difficulty by Course
EE555
5.0
EE544
5.0
ECE442
5.0
EE464
4.8
450
4.0