3.0
Quality3.4
Difficulty43%
Would Retake89
Reviews43%
Would Retake
89
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
30
4
13
3
8
2
10
1
28
What Students Say
“His class may not be easy, but he does a great job and goes out of his way to help students”
CSC207 - 5.0 rating“And he will make your life awfully”
CSC207 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
35%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.89 avg changeRatings by Course
350343
5.0
(1)309350343
5.0
(1)207209343347
5.0
(1)CSC207309409
5.0
(1)CSC108
4.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
320309
5.0
108
4.0
350343
4.0
207209347
4.0
309350343
4.0
Reviews (89)
Actually listens to students. Teaches practical content. Illustrates with real-world examples.
this prof is bad!! you cannot say you have had a bad prof until you get arnold! trust me! do NOT take 350 and 343 at UTM or you WILL get screwed big time! as hard as he tries, he just cannot teach! his assignments are the hardest (almost impossible)!
uses real-world (stolen form internet) examples, but you need to figure out how it works! listens to students, but he doesn't care abt you if you are not "intelligent" enough. only the 4.0 people can hope to do his super hard assgns! avoid th
Some unfair reviews here, sounds like sour grapes. Yes, the assignments are challenging. Quit whining, welcome to University. He teaches the courses differently, designed around a deeper level of understanding. If this scares you, stay away.
No Comments
SOMEONE GET MR. TERMINATOR FIRED, PLEASE! THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID IT!
A dose of complexity, a dash of love of teaching, a sprinkle of helpfulness, and a hint of favouritism. Good or bad, he's an influential prof.
very clear and helpful! Much better than Rackoff or Craig. Intersting courses.
Enthusiastic and approachable. Tests are straightforward but assignments are always involving and go beyond lecture material - though not in fact impossible.
No Comments
Arnold is probably the only caring professor at UTM, he cares for students , their level of understaning and their problem solving skills. His interactive teaching style is unique, he pushes you to your limits and make you think and you better think cause otherwise you wont be able to handle neither his assignments nor his exams. Best Prof at UTM.
Yes, Arnold cares, but only for his favourite students. If you are not one of his favourite, don't expect anything from him (but do expect low marks and a totally unhappy overall experience in his courses). Favouritism is a major issue with this prof. He needs to get a life. I don't think I need to say more.
Good if your on his good side. He understands the material well.
Very helpful
Hard assignments but you will appreciate it later
Generally speaking, lessons are unprepared and hard to follow. Professor is not afraid to call out students to answer questions in class against their will. Material is fairly difficult and a better planned lesson (with downloadable lecture notes) could help significantly to improve the understanding of theory and key concepts studied in class.
He's a decent prof and one of the better profs I've had. His course isn't too hard but it's not a walk in the park either. His idea of lectures takes a while to get used to because he just does examples until you understand without much in the way of notes or straightforward explaining. Definitely worth taking courses with him though.
Best professor ever. Unique style of teaching, and truly cares about the students (all of them!). I attend all the lectures just because I want to hear his interesting thoughts.
One of the best professors ever. Very helpful. His office hours are awesome.
Very very disorganized! So-so teaching.
he isn't a bad guy , he really shows he cares and he tries his best and i think thats fair . His teaching may be all over the place but he isn't bad at acut 'teaching' and i really like the examples he uses in class
Extremely caring, helpful, reasonable and intelligent. Enjoys teaching, gives practical/interesting examples for the course material and loves to interact with students. Disorganized, but if your goal is to really learn and understand, you will not regret taking any course with Arnold! My personal all time favorite professor!
he's honestly the most caring guy/prof i've ever encountered. Whether u have a 1.0 or a 4.0 in the course he's willing to go out of his way to help u. u just have to ask him, otherwise he doesnt know u need it. but to truly suceed in any of his courses, do ur own research and find ur own tutorials BEFORE attending class. trust me its the way to go!
Seems to come up with lectures on the spot, but since he is probably one of the most knowledgeable people I've met, he can pull it off. Talk to him if you're struggling he will ACTUALLY help you. Great professor overall.
LONG, HARD ASSIGNMENTS. otherwise good prof who is helpful and caring. A little disorganized during his lectures but that's just his style
Great Professor, knows what he is talking about and solves problems on the spot if he doesn't know the answer. Very engaging to speak with him.
He's a pretty nice guy but rather unorganized--very unorganized, actually. He's a tough marker.
His teaching style is unique. He seems to come up with the lecture on the spot, like an improptu. Very nice guy, he wants everyone to succeed. He may be hard on us sometimes, especially when the topic of plagiarism comes up, but it's only because he wants us to succeed in an honest way. Overall great prof, wouldn't mind taking his classes again.
He explains the course material very well.
Arnold is amazing! His class may not be easy, but he does a great job and goes out of his way to help students. He's one of the nicest professor I have had to date. His assignments were a great way to learn the material, there's no spoon feeding in this course, you have to have put in a lot of work. The midterm and assignments were both fair.
Arnold's lectures may not be the most useful, but he really cares for his students and if you ask him a question in class or at office hours he really helps you. Also in the courses he runs that I've had the experience of doing are well thought out and I was impressed. As a visual learner, I like how he lays things out.
- Loved it. Very fun and challenging class. You won't succeed without putting in hard work. - Arnold always offers very valuable help, make sure to talk to him often. - Due to the nature of the assignments, they are very difficult to mark, and you can usually get a point back if you point stuff out. - Read all the course notes before the exam.
Great prof, has different teaching style. Careful when you choose him - Doesn't use slides, doesn't teach point by point on paper - Rather mostly uses terminal, codes, shows how it is done - Comes prepared, explains well, not unorganizedbut hard to follow if you are not good at coding - Cares, wants you to succeed, thus will make you work hard
His teaching style isn't for all he lectures using terminal and no slides if you require them, use Larry's XD. Assignments are fair and contain mainly things you have covered at least a bit, majority of learning is through stackoverflow but he gives you enough to get googling. Manual marking but its always better than automarked and losing marks.
Pretty good prof. Explains things clearly although this course in general is quite boring. He does everything in class and does not depend on slides. Answers questions well and is understandable
Good prof and explains well. Only problem i had with him is the marking scheme. Most of the assignments are graded in a different manner and expects students to already know. It would be helpful if they could provide a marking scheme/rubric in order to include what we need for assignments.
He cares so much and is always available if you need help! Make sure to ask questions and he'll always try his best to help out even if it means he has to go out of his way to do so
Most frustrating experience at uni so far. Doesn't seem very eager to help when asking questions, interrupts you mid sentences. Unorganized, sometimes prepares for a lecture during the lecture. Delays releasing assignments. Explains stuff useful for the assignment after we're already done it. Labs are before lectures, but they require lect material
I believe he is one of the best professors on the campus. He always gives us very useful advice and clarity after we finished the assignment. In additions, he is so busy that he doesn't have time to respond students' emails. Nevertheless, he has time to send a lot.
Going thru lecture materials with the same speed as rocket. preparing lectures during lectures. Apply unachievable marking schemes on assignments, and he assumes that we all know his requirements. Does send thousands of emails, but never reply to any email. :( so disappointed at UTM.
Marks are just depend on one single non graduate ta. He will send emails at 2 am telling you your mark or something important. He teaches awful. And he will make your life awfully.
Arnold is a boomer. Java isn't hard but finding out what this guy wants from you is. No clear grading scheme at all, and you lose marks on what he forgets to tell you. He'll ignore everyone for weeks only to literally send 10 emails in a day. He clearly can't code at all. Idk if he cares about students but it doesnt make up for how bad he is.
I personally didn't mind Arnold's teaching style at all, but it's definitely not for everyone (he doesn't use lecture slides)! I agree that his marking scheme is very unclear. Also, don't expect assignment marks to come out anytime soon (we only got our A2 and A3 marks start of January). And like, man needs to chill with how much emails he sends...
He looks disorganized, but thats cuz he comes up with interesting ideas for assignments and course material, all the time. He cares about his students 24/7 even at 4 am. Try to mark 400 assignments and see how long that takes; takes forever :( Be patient, play fortnite2d meanwhile. He made me a better man. Knowing him changed my life <3 xoxo
Arnold went above and beyond to make this course work, and did his best to make sure we all understood the content. And he did it so well, that I'm willing to argue that for most people, this will not only be the most enjoyable course they'll take in CS, but the most useful in terms of applicable knowledge as well. Take it, no matter what
Amazing prof, definitely helps students who are passionate. Beware the hefty assignments, but they're conceptually actually really cool. 10/10 love Arnold as a prof.
Kind of a boomer haha. Gave back A2 and A3 for 207 pretty late. Could be cleaner on what he expects for assignments, but software engineering is full with uncertainty anyways so I guess he prepares you to be accustomed to having a bad PM.
Very disorganized. I have to plan my other courses around him because I never know when assignment/lab will be released and when it's gonna be due. Online is easier with him cuz lec vids there to rewatch. All that said, he's my favorite prof. He makes the content interesting and you learn so much from his assignments and labs.347 is very rewarding
Worst prof I've ever had. VERY VERY unorganized, creates rubrics for assignments AFTER it has been handed in (and the grading criteria is subjective, stupid, and wrong). Takes 3 months to mark a simple lab. Sends 20 one-liner emails a day but never replies to a single one. He should be fired :)
The course material is pretty interesting, but how disorganized Arnold, his lectures, and his assessments ruin things for me. The course has two sections and he always tells his first section to watch the other section's recording (as he often goes too slow and doesn't finish). Also, expect to have your inbox spammed by him constantly...
Easily the worst & most disorganized prof I've had. He released assignments very late then had the nerve to send condescending emails to us about our time management. He also gave 0% for a section unless we worked on assignments daily. I don't think I've ever seen such frustrated course group chats. I'm never taking a course he coordinates again.
Spams you with random emails but is a great teacher
cannot understand his lecture, no ppt, very fast and don't answer student question
He just kind of lives in his own bubble and doesn't care about students. He is giving me "i want to do this, and no one can stop me" vibe.
The assignments were designed on his own ideas which does not make sense at all. Each assignment took me 15 hours straight and there were 4 of them.
Took STA246 and CSC209 with Arnold. Pros: 5/5 teacher. In lecture gives many examples, which can take a lot of thinking to digest, but once you do you'll get a complete understanding of the content. Tests are fair and assignments are interesting. Cons: Expect last-minute clarifications and slightly unclear instructions.
We still haven't got our final grades back including one of our assignments. Assignments are extremely hard and time consuming. They are also very vague so be prepared to lose a lot of marks because the criteria wasn't laid out properly. Assignment release dates are always postponed and due dates shifted around. Overall, very poorly taught course.
I'd avoid taking a course with this Prof. He is very disorganized and makes the assignments unnecessarily harder than they are supposed to be by giving very vague instructions, adding in missed details later...etc. I received my marks for this course after a whole week into the new semester.
He claims that his lack of proper instructions is to prepare us for the real world, however in the real world proper instructions are given. With Arnold your given pieces of a puzzle scattered in a dumpster and your task is not to solve the puzzle but to just find the pieces. We are expected to do our work but he himself does not do his.
This prof has no organization, an assignment in February should not be graded and sent back 2 weeks after the semester has finished. The professor is pretty bad with timing, his assignments are very vague and overall I would not recommend him for anyone. This has happened twice for me.
The best part is that the prof listens. Getting in touch with him is easier than getting a reply from your crush. His assignments are really what makes the experience so valuable. You will be stuck on majority of the assignments but this is what makes it fun. He really teaches you how to learn, not just study.
Great Prof! Teaches the content really well and is always ready to help out whenever you get stuck. You can walk in to his office whenever he's there and he'll be ready to help you out. His phone number is also available on his publicly available website and he picks up even at 11pm. So all in all, very easy to reach him!
disorganized, doesn't teach lectures properly, hands back assignments EXTREMELY late. didn't have assignment grades back during both midterm and final exam, despite the material being extremely relevant. Didn't get all my assignments graded for weeks after the final exam.
This guy is the real deal. If you pay attention, you'll realize he knows exactly what he's doing. You learn the course content in the assignments. The lecture will be him playing with some tools & telling stories about him bullying ISPs, and the assignment is setting up a network from scratch. And you'll actually learn it on a fundamental lvl, too.
- very disorganized - takes months to mark labs/assignments - ignores piazza for days - we're about to write an exam knowing 30% of our final grade (just first assignment + labs)
Very disorganized. When your professor is unorganized, instead of being able to focus on learning the material and completing assignments, you end up having to spend large amounts of time figuring out what exactly you should be learning and how to even approach the assignments. I would definitely avoid.
Poor lecturer - does not present material in a clear or engaging way.
Everything including assignment instructions are so vague and poorly structured. Would not recommend.
He's an absolute legend—the most inspirational and caring prof at UTM. A literal genius, so he can be challenging to follow at times, but he always goes out of his way to help, so just ask questions. His passion truly shows. Being his student inspires you to become not only a great computer scientist but also a better person.
I LOVE HIMMMM
He is amazing!!
I had a fairly good time taking this course. The assignments were challenging but doable. The tests are also pretty straight forward. The only down point is that his lectures are a bit sleep inducing. But other than that he's a pretty chill guy.
Pros: In-lab exam was interesting and only 20%. Cons: The 1st assignment was awful, felt like csc148 + mat102 stress all over again. 3rd AWS assignment got hit with a huge bill (really tried to avoid it) but unavoidable unless you want to hit all the assignment criteria. Piazza posts and emails rarely answered or would take days.
VERY disorganized, slow responses if responding at all, answers vaguely even in person. Releases assignment rubrics AFTER deadlines, then won't waive the points for stuff not in req.s, saying it should've been "intuitive"? Not for people still learning! Even TAs say they don't know what's going on. Only scored high because of classmates. Avoid!!
The 207 Experience: You got a 0 on a task with no instructions, despite following standard conventions. You requested a regrade for this, along with multiple other grading errors. After a long delay, the grader finally responded: They believed your implementation was simpler than theirs (which can be shown to be false in less than 10 seconds).
Arnold is the best. He's caring, wants you to do well and doesn't screw you over on the finals. What more could you want.
Arnold Rosenbloom is an outstanding professor who combines clear, engaging lectures with practical real-world examples that make even complex topics accessible.
He is highly approachable and genuinely invested in his students' success, always encouraging questions and offering support outside of class.
His passion for teaching and dedication to excellence create a learning experience that is both inspiring and invaluable.
If you work hard enough, you will gain a great set of skills from him in this course.
207 is meant to be an easy course but the way he teaches it is so awful. No course notes or textbook. Seems to have alzheimer's during lecture and gives terrible feedback. (doesn't give back assignment 2 and 3 until the term is over). No PCRS/worksheet practice like 108/148, no practice Just a lazy guy who belongs in retirement home and not here
Prof. Arnold is someone who clearly is passionate about what he teaches, and understands what he's talking about. Moreover, he is easy going and overall a great guy. However, being a good person and a good professor are two different things. I find that the way the course is organized is lazy and quite terrible.
Poor organization. Avoid if possible.
Speechless
He is very passionate and knows what he is talking about. He would want you to develop your brain and equip it for the professional world. However, he is a bit unorganized as a course coordinator, but he is always willing to help you.
Holy poor organization, Piazza could be a mess at times in terms of who knew what they were saying, one TA said something that was the complete opposite of what the prof said (idk if its cause they assumed or genuinely was giving inaccurate info). Its the end of the course and I still don't know where I stand cause I am missing soo many marks.
DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. HE DOES NOT TEACH WELL, THE RESOURCES HE PROVIDES ARE STRAIGHT UP BS. Despite his tests being fair, the resources you have to learn are so BS. The readings he provides are straight from java docs. Hope they replace him with a more competant professor.
His tests and assignments are fair but there's no slides, no notes, and no proper readings. His posted readings are straight from Oracle and Java APIs. He's passionate about the course but I think that's were the positives end. And also nothing gets marked on time. So you wont know your actual till you basically start next semester.
wrote the final exam with absolutely zero clue abt ur grade in the course. the only grades we had before the exam were the midterm and one assignment. didnt grade the labs and other 2 assignments until weeks AFTER the exam. final mark is planned to release 3 weeks after the exam (that too they said was the "earliest"). mid lectures, not helpful
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
35%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.89 avg changeRatings by Course
350343
5.0
(1)309350343
5.0
(1)207209343347
5.0
(1)CSC207309409
5.0
(1)CSC108
4.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
320309
5.0
108
4.0
350343
4.0
207209347
4.0
309350343
4.0