She cannot help much with the projects. Tests are overly hard, made a day or so before giving them. No clear grading rubric. Homework is not checked, maybe waiting over a month for project grades, and you will go into tests not really knowing where you stand if you really grasp the concept. Professor covers way too much information between test

Its a pretty bad class. The project is in PintOS, which is hard but that is a given for any systems classes. Professor's tests are completely memorization, and can lose points for the smallest details. Cares more about if you are cheating than the material, and it is not rare to get falsely accused. If you are, you are better off taking the fall.

The worst class I've ever taken. She never started lecture on time and always went way over, making me have to run to my next class. The projects were a full time job and the exams were a ton of memorization, which I didn't have time for due to the projects. Everything was hard. Take a different prof if possible.

I don't understand the positive reviews left here. She's not good at teaching, and she emphasizes memorization over true understanding. Pintos is designed to save the instructors time. It's not designed to teach you how kernels and operating systems work from the ground up. I lost points for being "too close to slides" on an open note test.

Boring lecturer. She reads straight from the slides with little detail. Lecture slides help very little with PintOS. At one point, the exam conflicted with the program project and we were forced to focus on one or the other ( both important mind you). Bottom line, take Gheith. He is less linear and really works to expand your knowledge on subject.

If I could rate any lower, I would. The group projects are unnecessarily time-consuming and quite literally take a consistent daily effort of 4-5 hours. The tests always nitpick on the smallest detail mentioned on the slides. Dr. Norman is a nice person but that doesn't help the fact that her class is literally a full-time job. PintOS is just a no.

This class is the evilest class I've ever taken. She clearly has no idea how to teach or manage a course. You are not going to get a good grade in this class and she will offer little help. Good luck :)

One of the worst professors at UT, not because of her teaching, but because of her grading system. The grading system is designed to make you fail. Also, lectures are pretty much useless as all the learning is done in pre-lecture videos (can take 1-2 hours). Projects are difficult and very time consuming, expect about 30-40 hours per week.

Dr. Norman is a decent teacher, but what's horrible is the grading scheme. It is super demanding to get an A in this class (they want you to be perfect on everything), and this class is designed for you to get a low grade. Group projects are very time consuming, but they are certainly helpful and can even be fun. The TAs are also helpful.

Quizzes and exam questions are based on a lettering system that represents your "level of understanding" of the material. However, simple mistakes on questions or providing answers not on the answer key will oftentimes knock you down from "Exemplary" to "Developing" (100% to 60%) which makes NO SENSE. Horrible lecturing system as well.

The course is poorly designed and focuses on penalizing students for the small details they do not know, rather than rewarding them for the information they do know. Ex: each exam question is given the grade of the lowest sub-question. CS439 does not encourage learning nor excellence. Sadly, one mistake will ruin your grade in the entire class.

TERRIBLE GRADING SCALE, DONT TAKE THIS CLASS. This class has a very bad grading scale. Did I mention the grading scale is disgustingly unfair? TAs take about a month to give feedback on projects/assignments/quizzes. the TAs nor the Professor care about the students in the slightest. she successfully repels you from this subject

This class is a terrible class with a terrible grading system. Get ready to spend 3-4 hours a day working on the projects everyday.

Teaching system discourages learning. The teacher seems to actively want to lower your grade through unnecessarily specific grading criterias and arbitrary submission specifications (ex: hand written regrade submissions must not exceed to size of the space allocated on the exam or else the revision will be disqualified).

While the content of this class is great, the grading system truly ruins the learning experience. The class is essentially designed for you to get a C as you basically need everything right to get an A. Lectures are also not useful, learning is done in the pre-lecture videos. Projects are extremely time consuming, but they are certainly helpful.

Because of the word limit, I'll keep things short. Pre-lecture lecturing system. 20 - 35 hours of coding per week. Horrible grading system. Ambiguous exam/quiz questions, but very specific rubric (hard to know what to do, easy to lose points). Exam questions are written over minute details. I don't expect hand-holding, but this class is just bad.

The content of this course is hard, and the projects are hard. This is no fault of the professor, however, Professor Norman has made a hard course unnecessarily harder with the worst grading scale of all time. By having such a terrible grading scale, all it did was discourage learning and kill my passion for computer science. Avoid at all costs.

LITERALLY WORST CLASS EVER. Detrimental to ur mental/physical health. Her and the TAs offer you as little help as possible so you can suffer through learning. The grading scale is designed to make you fail the class as much as possible. Highly unreasonable expectations and TAs are very substandard and are very weak in their mastery of the content.

Does not care if students learn or not! AND does not care if students do well in class!

Horrible grading scheme, doesn't care about students doing well. She said the class is "nor designed to encourage hard work". Idk how she is even allowed to teach here

Has an extremely difficult to understand grading criteria, then tells us to not try to calculate grades. Group projects are ridiculously difficult with little-to-no guidance on where to start. Exams are graded randomly by TAs who all have their own ideas on what is right or wrong. She got ratio'd by a student on Piazza.

This class is a complete joke. The professor doesn't care about the students and is actively praying on their downfall. For some reason she's changed the grading scheme so now you have to get an A in all categories to get an A in the class. The only reason I put I would take this class again is to see that satisfying piazza ratio one more time.

A student in our class had trouble figuring what he did wrong on an exam question for resubmission. No comments, markings, and multiple TA's couldn't figure out what was wrong. So they have no idea what to correct for the resubmit. After asking about their options, Alison says "learn the material so you can judge what is right or wrong." Seriously?

I've stopped doing everything that makes me happy in life so I can make time to finish the overwhelming and disrespectful amounts of work this class dumps on students. The teacher has set up the grading scale so we can fail the project and possibly the class even if we fail just 2 test cases. God help me now please.

I ain't even in this class but I hear its an L.

She's one of the worst professors I've ever had. Claims that our bad grade in the class is not because of her grading scheme but because we don't understand the material... yet lowest grade is what determines final grade, in addition to TAs being inconsistent graders.

This professor has the biggest misunderstanding of what education is and continually bombards students with unnecessary grading schemes, all while claiming that the grades, that de-incentivize students from trying after their from from bad grade, "check our learning." She wastes our time with pre-lecture videos instead of lecturing.

Dr. Norman is one of the most inconsiderate teachers that I've ever met. She needs to learn to connect with students.

This teacher is so unprofessional. She responds to comments on the class forum with mean replies for students who are asking genuine, normal questions. Instead of actually teaching, she just gives us videos of her lecturing during COVID times and wastes our in-class time. This professor needs a second opinion on how she is running this class.

On an EADB scale (Exemplary, Accomplished, Developing, Beginning) as seen in class: Grading Scale: B Lectures: A Approachability: B Exams: D Workload: B Professionalism: D Projects: B She takes the lowest grade received in all categories as your final grade, so in this case, I'd give her a B.. which translates to a D (on an ABCDF scale).

Grading guidelines are vague, long prelecture videos make in-person classes useless and both are mandatory to pass the class, group projects are full-time jobs. Class material is interesting but thats about it.

What a horrible class. The lectures are completely worthless, and even though the pre-lecture videos are decent, the grading system is absurd. They grade you on your worst answers and do not care at all if you do poorly. The grading scheme is truly the worst thing I've ever seen.

I like her, but her grading scheme is truly horrid. It leaves very little room for improvement and is graded by your worst grade as a measure of your understanding in class. For each project, I average out about 20 to 70 hours working on it (projects can be a week to 2 weeks long), but the exams take up more than 40% of your grade. Super stressful.

The fact that this class is four credit hours is laughable. Between lectures, pre class lectures, and the discussion section, it's already at 9 hours. Then, throw on studying for the discussion sector every week, working on the week's problem set, and ofc the awfully outlined projects. Then studying for the poorly graded exams. For 4 credits...

In all honesty, the course material is not hard. BUT, the revolutionary new grading system makes the class infinitely harder. Your effort will never be truly rewarded so just take advantage of the rubric and do the least amount of work you can to get a B. An A is not worth it I promise. The TAs are angels though, make sure you go to office hours.

Poorly managed class with the grades released at the last minute or never released. Students are left in the dark on their grades. The professor is rude and condescending. Students are punished for what they don't know, rather than rewarded for what they do know.

By far the worst professor at UT. Impossible to earn a raw grade above a B. You'll spend 40 hours a week doing projects along with pre-lectures, problem sets, lectures, and tests. Partial credit is not a thing. Need to memorize basically everything. You'll be treated like a kid and waste 30min talking about how you are doing today every lecture.

The main issue I had with the course was the lack of transparency. It was not clear what role ISPs played in the class until the first midterm, no feedback at all for exams (only a grade was provided), and grades on the final were never released. We were instructed not to compute grades as we would most likely calculate wrong.

Alison Norman's class was the worst experience during my time at UT. The way her class is structured, only led to a great amount of stress, but worst of all, her respect and attitude towards her students is utterly disrespectful. There is no teacher in this University that has degraded me in the way Alison Norman has.

Worst class i've ever taken.

SO unnecessarily difficult, Norman is incredibly stubborn and defensive about her warped teaching philosophies. In no world does it make sense to assign 40+ hours of work a week and then post unhelpful responses on Piazza when students are clearly struggling. Only good thing about this class are the lecture videos, concepts are p well explained.

This class is already an L. Never seen a more convoluted grading system. The focus is on arbitrary specifications, slide memorization and typical, textbook answers rather than thinking, learning, and problem solving. She has her own ideas of what is a right answer, and any out of the box thinking is not rewarded.

Hardest class I've ever taken at UT. Grading system makes tests super stressful as one small mistake deducts your grade a lot. You basically have to be perfect on everything on tests for a good grade. Projects are 15-20 hours a week and super time consuming. Hardest class I've ever taken at UT and super stressful.

One of the worst professors I have had at UT. Absolute nightmare of a class. She claims she prepares you for interviewed but because of all the time I've spent in her class I've been getting rejected even more.

This. Is. The. Worst. Class. I've. Ever. Taken. In. My. Life. If you are CS student, say goodbye to your time outside of this class, you are forced to essentially work a full time job + overtime for no pay + a bad grade. This prof makes the grading incredibly hard for supposed “learning,” but don't be fooled. This class is meant to make you suffer.

I have officially experienced the WORST class in the entire history of UT. If you think you've suffered, oh no, my friend, you know nothing. Imagine a grading scheme so absurd, it feels like the professor spun a wheel labeled “A,” “B,” “C,” and “Sorry, better luck next time.” Everything that could possibly go wrong DID go wrong.

This class's whole purpose is to make your life miserable. Bad professor, bad grades, lots and lots of hours reading about topics that most people aren't even interested in. You'd only like this class if you are a masochist. I'd suggest to reevaluate your choices on majoring CS and switch to another major as this is only for the toughest of minds.

Try your best to avoid this professor at all costs. Words are not enough to describe how bad my experience was. Norman ended up taking away discussion exams for credit causing As to be nearly unattainable. Do your best to avoid this at all costs, and if you are stuck here, all I can say is good luck.

On top of insanely difficult projects that take 20-30 hours a week, attendance for lectures is mandatory, so that's 4 hours a week just in class plus another 2 hours in discussion section and another 2 for pre lecture videos. So this class takes at least 30 hours a week. Does Norman care? No, she'll just laugh at you and tell you to work harder.

Get out your name tents. Put your screens flat. Put your phones away. Let's do all of the things we do to get ready to lean about operating systems. The phrase said at the start of every class and that's pretty much the only new information for the next 2 hours, with maybe a mind map thrown in half way. Rest is jsut a repeat of the Panopto videos

Yo, let me tell you ‘bout Alison Norman, Worst OS professor, man, it ain't warmin'. Every class she's got us yawning, no finesse, Messin' up the system, straight OS distress. Got us waitin' on those threads like they're stuck in a loop, Semaphore? Nah, it's a lock on our brains, Every lecture's like a crash, can't maintain.

I can say for sure that this will be the worst professor you will have during your time at UT. The lectures are basically the videos and plan to spend double the time on the class since the videos are as long as the lecture. Try to get out of her as hard as you can cause you don't want to deal with her for the whole semester.

Worst professor ever. OS is already known to be extremely hard, and Norman seems to enjoy making the class harder. Telling the TA's not to let students take pictures of discussion section slides, taking away section problems for credit, and the grading is so arbitrary. TA's grade insanely hard with little to no feedback on exams/section problems.

This class is rough. The grading scheme feels impossible, and it's like talking to a brick wall trying to get clarity. I feel like I'm ranting on RMP just to stay sane. When Meek Mill prayed for "times like this," he misspoke on the track because clearly I'm praying to get out of the class. It's genuinely concerning how trash this course is taught.

This class is hard but you'll survive. Worst part of this class is Norman, she's genuinely an insufferable human being

One of the worst professors I have had the displeasure of taking. The grading system is complete trash and nothing you learn will help you in your career. If you want a chance of having a +, or - then get prepared to waste at least 2 hours a week in office hours and even then it still might not happen

This class made me realize I will never be going into systems in my career if my co workers were people like Norman. Absolute useless lectures and you basically have to multiply it by 2 since the Panopto videos are as long as the lectures and the lectures have zero new content

Dr. Norman's grading system is her ego on full display. Instead of admitting it's a failure, she blames students, taking zero responsibility while making the class a nightmare. She built a system that barely works, then punishes students for not thriving in it. Maybe it's time she faced the truth: her ‘masterpiece' is just a mess.

Worst teacher at UT Austin. Her grading system is horrible and she admits that herself by going back on her own word on multiple occasions changing the syllabus on a day to day basis. All I have to say is good luck getting through this class cause there's not much that can be done otherwise.

This class is the worst course that a professor could ever conceive. This class follows Murphy's law to a T, and anything that might go wrong does go wrong. If you mess up one section out of 4-5 on one question topic out of 7-8 questions on 1 out of 3 total exams, you will get a 2 out of 5 on the question and end up failing the entire course.

One of the absolute worst professors I have come across at UT. The grading system is one of the worst and if you screw up one little things it's an automatic letter down grade. Apparently she does give + and - but that's “up to her discretion”

The professor made the course frustrating with excessively long pre-lecture videos that ruined my weekend. Lectures were disorganized, focusing on minor details that became entire exam questions. Grading was overly strict, and concept map activities were unhelpful. AVOID THIS CLASS SHE IS UNBEARABLE. Every MW that I see her, my day is ruined.

20-40 hours/week on projects + floor-based grading system. The stakes feel extremely high for every assignment, as one slip up can permanently drop your final grade by multiple letters. The stress/sleep deprivation from this class alone meant I was sick for half of the semester. The content itself is interesting and you'll learn a lot though.

The worst teacher ever it's like she enjoys seeing students suffer. Projects are hard, ISP's are hard, exams are hard and she does not care. They will happily mark one section of one exam problem wrong or just put a question mark and a random underline and give you a 2 and waste another hour of your life doing the retake. Take anyone else.

Very confusing grading rubric. Very very glad this semester is over.

I am convinced these positive reviews are troll posts. I genuinely believe she enjoys watching students suffer. Her lectures are an absolute waste of 2 hours, as the pre-lecture videos mostly cover everything. With her fragile ego, she gets annoyed very easily when students question or challenge her methodologies, even when it's her fault.

Be ready for one of the most intense classes with the worst grading system to ever exist. The entire semester, it was not made very clear where I stood with my grade and what I was on pace for. Be ready for anxiety surrounding that, especially if you are feeling like you are on the edge of passing/failing.

OS was the hardest class. I spend at least 30 hours a week on the projects. 50-60 hours during hard projects. The instructions are very vague and sometimes downright wrong which costs hours on the projects. The TAs try to help but can be vague. I don't remember a day since I started the projects for this class that I have had a day off.

One of the worst teachers I have ever taken in the UTCS department I don't even know how she became department head, Mandatory Lectures are pointless and useless, all content covered in 1 hr pre-lecture videos which are required. Tests aren't too bad if you look at the slides and watch prelectures, projects and the grading scheme is nightmare fuel

spent more time doing mind maps than sleeping

The worst class I've ever taken and ever will take at UT. Weird, esoteric grading scheme that makes it difficult to get anything higher than a C. Projects take an insane amount of time to complete and it always feels like your time is never respected. Drop this class and take Mootaz instead. At least Norman is a nice person, all things considered.