2.6
Quality3.7
Difficulty26%
Would Retake107
Reviews26%
Would Retake
107
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
107 total ratings5
13
4
27
3
18
2
18
1
31
What Students Say
“Prof Steele's lectures are boring and rarely even provide the important information that you need on homework assignments and tests”
CSCI243 - 1.0 rating“All of the other ComSci 1 students with other teachers had great grades, but in his class, 30% of his students were failing when I dropped the course”
COMPSCI1 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
70%
Textbook Required
52%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.76 avg changeRatings by Course
PLC450
5.0
(1)JAVA01
5.0
(1)243
4.0
(1)PLC70
4.0
(1)CS233
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
4003440
5.0
CS1LAB
5.0
CSASDASDF
5.0
CSCI344
5.0
CS141
4.7
Reviews (106)
He is one of the best CS teachers I have ever had in my life. He explains everything and has no problems answering questions. Highly recommended.
He make my life so miserable that I decided to change my major. This was 20041. Very strict on grading the lab, especially commenting. he cut you no break watsoever. I personally would avoid him.
Great teacher. He really knows what he's talking about and is very easy to approach.
He was an okay teacher, but nothing spectacular. He seemed fair in his grading, and the material he covered was adequate in comparison to what the department expects you to know by the end of the course.
He is a fool of a professor. He doesn't explain concepts well nor does he really effectivly go over coding. Avoid this teacher if you value your major and your grade are important to you. Half of my class failed the first test everyone else got C's and D's then a quarter didn't finish the second test and he didn't care...
He gives a lot of handouts which are really useful, but does not spend enough time explaining them, your on your own for a good amount time. You can go see him, it would help but not enough. His tests are hard, I recommend going to the TAs for help. Try not to get this guy.
He knows the class materials well, but don't care of anyone learn from his class. You better read and know the the materials before going to his class or else you will be totally lost. He doesn't explain anything in details so you need to learn that ur self. You will most likely fail his class, do avoid him if possible.
Not a bad professor, if you took CS in HS he is a good professor to take just to get through it again. No out of class assignments to speak of. Fairly easy grader. Easy to talk to.
Decently easy. Has a very monotone voice and you'll probably learn more from the textbook and labs than from him. He's nice and easy though. Random homework assignments throughout the quarter. Tests aren't too hard and neither is his grading style. Recommended.
By far the most aggravating professor I've ever had. Tests were more difficult than those of other professors teaching the same class. Asked questions about things he glazed over in lecture. Did a very poor job of explaining the material. Very strict grader, especially if you have him for lab. Avoid this professor at all costs.
Expects you to teach yourself, but he doesn't mention that.
He claims to have some industry experience, but it doesn't show. He has little knowledge of the material. When asked some straightforward questions in class, he did not know, but he'd have to try it to see what would happen. He has great trouble keeping the class quiet and respectful. Also, the textbook was useless. Nice guy, but I'll avoid him.
Pretty good professor. Explained things clearly and was there when you needed help. The course material itself was easy, so you should have no problems getting a B, if not an A.
Nothing really special about this professor. Was consistently nearly late for class and always rushed off after class. Handled questions asked by the class often incompletely. Not a very good professor.
He's an alright teacher, nothing special; although he does tend to trail off on very trivial questions during lecture. Homework is hard considering there is no actual solution that he says he wants. There probably are better CS teachers.
This professor is pretty helpful and an easy-grader. His tests are not that hard, if you study all the slides, you will get a high grade. Always gives an extra credit assignment, so that students can get some higher grades. I would definitely recommend this guy.
He's a nice guy, didn't always know answers to questions asked in class but was more then willing to find out the answers. Easy grader, I got a B with out having to try to hard and he's was always willing to work with people.
I had Steele for both CS4 lecture and lab. His lectures are OK if a bit boring, and his grading is fair. But it was in lab and one-on-one that he was very helpful; he was very knowledgeable about the tools we were using and willing to help.
Absolutely horrible professor. He gave me a -4 out of 10 on design and felt it was justified. He knows very little about the material and demonstrates that in his lectures. Avoid if possible, and if not possible, switch your major.
Pretty easy teacher. He uses student graders and they can sometimes be tough. But he is an easy grader for exams. Not the best professor but good enough for the subject material.
His lectures are extremely boring and put you to sleep rather than teach. When you ask a question, he gives an answer to something you weren't looking for. Grading is okay at times.
Definetly the worst professor I have ever had. When you ask him a question he goes on answering something you rly didn't care about and then leaves you with nothing. He grades really hard and is a prick about design. He won't tell you how he wants your design and then takes more points than something is worth away because you didn't do it his way.
Not bad at all. If you want a good grade, sit towards the front and be invovled: especially during Problem Solving. He really knows his material, although he's not too good with design patterns (most CS professors are not though). Nice guy. Speaks loud and clear. Quick grader.
Computer Science One in python is very easy, period. However, I got a B in the course. Why? Quite simply put, Steele's exams are notorious for asking things that were never taught. Not to mention the man is unable to properly answer questions and will only insult students or tell them to go through pseudo-code again. Nunes- Harwitt is better!
Although Steele did an okay job, he sometimes omitted some key component of the lesson. He was poor at answering questions, often proceeding after providing only a very brief attempt at clarification and without regard to whether or not an understanding had been established. He knows the material; the problem arises in his attempt to convey it.
He's an okay guy, the labs are fairly easy and so are the projects. Be warned though, the exams are notoriously difficult in how they are graded, usually tipping on something trivial.
HE is an ok teacher. The first few weeks of the class is easy but then when it gets more difficult he can not answer questions. He goes around your question. Not a very good teacher
Sometimes difficult to follow in lectures, but he's good if you can get him one-on-one.
Very boring and hard to follow in class. His labs are very confusing and its hard to understand what needs to be done at first. Goes around answers asked in class, or doesnt explain them clearly. Least favorite teacher this quarter, would recommend avoiding if possible.
Ben Steele is a terrible teacher. Although he may know a lot he is incapable of communicating it well. He never has time to help out students and his draconian grading policies and refusal to allow test retakes or postponements don't help either. If you're looking for a real understanding of the course material, don't choose Ben Steele.
I too would have to say avoid him.
Pretty good really. Friendly guy, nice to talk to. Could be more clear in lectures. Tests are fairly difficult but reasonable. Projects interesting but inconsistently documented.
You need to ask questions to do well in his class and be as clear as possible when you do. Get involved in the class and you'll be fine.
Excellent professor. Friendly and knowledgeable. Can seem strict and dry, but gets the point across and teaches well.
Had him for OS. Seems like knows his stuff, and in nice to talk to in person. But very hard to understand what he was talking about, and he just taught off slides. Grading was overly harsh and inconsistent. Projects sometimes didn't relate to the class, and other times were way too difficult for what we were learning. Avoid if possible.
People are polarized on Steele. Lots dropped. I think they just can't handle the labs, which are hard, but great, valuable mind exercises. The lectures are fine, helpful and usually pretty upbeat. However: His tests are ridiculously hard and test on things that were never discussed. Make up for that in the labs and their bonus problems.
Awful teacher. Very condescending, openly mocked some students. Not clear and not very helpful when it came to help. Highly recommend you seek out SI tutoring. He's a very "My way or the highway" type guy and doesn't have any leniency. At all.
Barely explains basics, and expects you to learn everything else yourself. Wastes lab time going over problem solving, no matter how you write your code you're wrong. Hw is ten times harder than lab. Dodges questions and is a stingy grader. If you don't pay attention in lecture you will be completely lost. Avoid him, I couldn't.
A generally good teacher. He's knowledgeable and interacts with the class, and helps you if you need it. The lectures are often dry and do not always prepare for the assignments, but you cover material. Overall a positive experience.
One of the "awesome" professors to have for the introductory CS courses. He is definitely a harder professor, but I think we all definitely learned more thanks to it. He clearly wants the students to learn, but he doesn't want to just give the students A's, you have to work for it, but its definitely manageable.
Steele was a very good professor for CS1 and had very fair tests and grading. His lectures may have been a tad boring at times but he taught everything very well and encouraged people to ask questions when needed. He also knew most of the names of people in his classes and commonly called on people by name which was a nice touch for a college class
He seems like he knows his topic reasonably well but uses confusing examples. His lectures aren't very straightforward and I always felt pretty confused. Learned most of the class on my own by working on assignments. Nice guy but makes odd jokes.
I don't really know what to say. I had an overall very positive experience. The only issues I had are with how the course is run from an administrative standpoint. The labs can be tough, and can be graded badly, but this is not Steele's fault. His tests are also VERY fair.
Wasn't super clear on a lot of material, but I attest this more to the Computer Science curriculum. Awesome guy and decent teacher, would take again.
Great for visual learners (plenty of diagrams and explanations are concise). One on one sessions are extremely helpful. Tough but you will learn.
Prof. Steele is confusing in lectures because he uses lots of general statements, pronouns, and "aha!"s that make it hard to follow what he is talking about or what he is referring to. The transition from Python to Java was rough because of the above, as well as his use of very technical vocabulary that he must expect students to know. helpful@lab
This class was very interesting yet also difficult. The projects were bad, at least for me. I just found them uninteresting and impractical, not to mention difficult. Steele's tests were also a mixed bag. He gets the point across, but his lectures do drag on and can be boring. Take Steely if you're ready to put in the work and seek out help!
He is a very good teacher. Other than the two-hour lectures, which start to get boring entering the second hour, he is good at making the new topic engaging. He was very clear with his explanations and wanted us to learn. His tests are a little tough, but he has clear grading criteria. He made my introduction to computer science great.
Ben was an alright teacher. His lectures were long and often didn't make sense. It was almost as if he didn't have a plan for his lecture, they were erratic and all over the place. The tests are alright, and he often mocks students in class. But, one on one he can be helpful. Make sure you attend recitation, I learned more there than in lecture.
If you don't ask questions, you won't get more from him, but he is happy to explain in further detail. Assignments can be tough, but he's not the only one making them.
Long, long lectures. Very monotonous speaker, and cracks really bad jokes, which is always followed by an awkward silence. Lectures are kind of unorganized, and he can put you to sleep if you sit in the back. I've never passed out in a class more than I have in Steele's CS2
Steele is a great professor. He knows that material, and doesn't just read off the powerpoint like other professors do. His lectures are pretty dry, but he is glad to help you during his office hours. One of the better CS professors.
A very nice professor, although the lectures are a bore
Nice dude. He admits that his tests are some of the most difficult of the CS1 professors, but it's CS1 so they're still not terrible. He's usually willing to answer your questions and makes his lectures somewhat engaging. He knows his stuff and makes an effort to be friendly with his students.
Steele is a great professor. He knows his stuff and is always willing to answer questions. However, Mechanics of Programming with him was quite difficult. Two things you need to do if you want an A: Read the book outside of class, it'll help you understand everything better for exams. Finally, start your assignments early, especially projects!
Lectures are rather monotonous and two hours is a challenge (try staying awake). However, he knows exactly what he is teaching. Very approachable outside class. Challenging tests.
One of the worst professors I have ever had. He teaches the class but gives out homework that he expects you to do without even teaching what was in the homework. He expects you to understand basic coding when he does a poor job of even teaching it. Will not be taking another class with him.
One of the best professors in the CS department. Easy tests. Easy assignments (although time consuming). Overall, if you put in the work, this class is an easy A.
I fall asleep almost every lecture and he sees it. Still super helpful and patient with me in office hours and I get an easy A on the homeworks and projects. Pay attention in every class or religiously peruse the code he posts ( or both ) and you will have no problem with his tests. Textbook is helpful but not necessary.
Excellent experience taking Mechanics with Prof Steele. Exams are tougher than other professors, but you learn a lot more in his section. Very friendly, go and talk to him if you need help. He will help you out!
Prof Steele's lectures are boring and rarely even provide the important information that you need on homework assignments and tests. He shows his code examples with little explanation and often tests impractical things that no one needs to know. His lectures are very unorganized, and most of the information he provides is unspecific and not helpful
All of the other ComSci 1 students with other teachers had great grades, but in his class, 30% of his students were failing when I dropped the course.
I had him for 141. He's pretty solid but the class is pretty hard. Definitely make sure to study a lot, it's a hard class and the tests are a challenge. Overall a lot of fun, but the class material is rough.
just don't do it
His lectures will take the full 2 hours, often for no reason. You will often be interrupted by him if you try to answer his questions. I had previous coding experience and this class was just fine because I didn't pay attention in lectures and instead did the homework, and he didn't care. Recommend if you have prior experience.
41% Dropout rate last semester. How he goes home and thinks he's a good professor, i'll never know. Good luck.
Very good CS professor. Explores topics in depth so you really understand the fundamentals. If you aren't getting it, his office hours are easily accessible on his site.
Possibly one of the the worst professors in the computer science department. Criteria is vague and he often rambles during class. Definitely avoid him, if you can take Prof. Purtee.
Steele's lectures are long and boring. His is not helpful in explaining project, and his exams are unreasonable and based on useless information he may have mentioned passingly during a long lecture. If you can avoid, avoid him!
super weird exams that contain questions on the most irrelevant information (although for the final and the second mid term of this class (copads) he allowed computer use, so they were easy). very tough grading on project, takes many points off if you have one line wrong which causes the program to fail some invisible tests. boring lectures
Awful professor, he has no idea how to explain or do 90% or what the course covers and it shows in his grading. Often made mistakes in grading which brought down the entire class average. Avoid at all costs!
Very boring lectures. Makes random but subtle jokes during his lessons and tends two chuckle to himself while at most two students give somewhat of a laugh. I often find myself falling asleep every class. He's also not great at explaining things. When doing his "live coding," he often just types code without giving an explanation.
I went into this course scared based off of all the other reviews here, but Steele was not that bad. He live codes a lot, which helps if you pay attention. For the majority of class he reads off of the lecture notes in the Comp Sci website. Exams are tricky. I had 100's in homework and labs but the tests I struggled with. Know how to code before CS
Not a great teacher and very difficult tests. His lectures are boring and he doesn't give the best explanations.
Was willing to help outside of class, but wouldn't let you talk and would talk over you.
Not a good teacher, his lectures consist of reading slides and live coding. His slides are not that helpful. Not very helpful outside of class; I met with him in person, he either talked over me or made me repeat myself. Also emails, his only response "refer to the notes/website" and that's if I get a response.
is not very helpful in office hours and has long boring lectures. would not recommend.
I've had Professor Steele before in my first CSCI class, and I found myself having the same feelings as that class; it was very hard to pay attention. I found myself stuck, full of questions, and super stressed out to the point where I dropped the class entirely, and I'm hoping that next semester goes better with a different professor.
Stopped learning how to code 30 years ago and it shows. Very tough grader. Took 6% off a project grade because I had one line of Java code longer than 100 characters. Exams cover useless material ("what is the Dutch word for semaphore?"). Not terrible, but avoid.
Basically unhelpful in course discussions and inconsistent/tough grader.
Professor Steele is probably the worst professor I have had and will ever have. Ignoring the most boring lectures and class content on the planet, for a notoriously difficult class Steele's "help" on homeworks out of class , which he readily gives, consists of him condescendingly not answering student's questions or telling them to read the notes.
This man, lemme tell ya, besides his boring lectures, he's constantly being super helpful in course discussion posts. This man answers homework questions like the riddler, you will ask a question because you're confused, and then you will walk away with 2, what was I trying to figure out, and what did Steele just say to me?
His lectures are really boring and his tests are very hard then other professors. When you ask him a question he always replies with a question when asked a question instead of just giving you a straight answer.
He wasn't as bad as some people here are saying, but his lectures can be a bit tough to sit through. I think the main thing is that he doesn't really answer questions clearly, and you sometimes have to ask/clarify a few times before getting a half reasonable response. In saying that, if you know your stuff and study, you'll be fine.
Loves to live code, depends if you like that or not. I didn't, but it really does improve one's understanding of it. Exams are unreasonably hard compared to the rest of the department (read them carefully), but the final was a total breeze since the others were so difficult.
I wouldn't recommend Steele to anyone who doesn't have prior experience. His lectures consist of live coding in light mode while he talks in his grandpa voice. I mainly learned concepts from prior knowledge, SI, or recitation/lab. He takes pride in having the hardest tests in the CS department, so be wary of that. Really, he's just "meh".
Overall I did fine in the class, but I didn't love his lectures, because it was a lot of live coding and he didn't always explain stuff well. His style of teaching requires prior knowledge before hand, especially for CS 141.
I liked his lectures, lots of live coding during class. Tests are really hard though and you have to know things to didn't spend much time talking about in class.
Doesn't accept anything late. Doesn't listen to students. Doesn't answer questions. Bad professor.
Exams are not reflective of the content, made difficult to be difficult (not allowed to ask clarifying questions on exams at all). Doesn't answer questions in class and is condescending when he answers. Would not recommend taking unless you want to learn mostly on your own or already know a bunch of C.
He was a terrible professor, the class is boring and quiet. The assignments are graded harshly and is biased. The tests are tested on specific things and the class average for tests are around 60.
He's notorious for having the hardest tests in the department, but I think you can truly do well if you try hard enough and spend time in the tutoring center to grasp the topics
A b****
To be honest he is not a good explainer. No one understood what he was talking about ever. The only way you will pass with Prof. Steele is if you have prior cs knowledge, if you are a newbie to cs as I was, do not take his cs141 or 242 class, there is a high chance you will fail, but not because of you, but the fact he cannot teach you.
He's just a bad professor. No explanation is really needed.
He's just a bad professor. Fails to explain things clearly and shows attitude towards students. Also acts very entitled.
He's a really bad professor. Don't take him if you have the chance, but I sincerely wish you luck if you do have him.
Probably the worst CS professor I have had so far. His tests are infamously difficult and he does not grade easy. Will curve, but even with a curve the class averages are laughable. Only perk was that he grades his exams fairly quickly, so you don't have to wait too long for your impending doom.
I was originally not excited to have this class after seeing Steeles reviews on this app, but I like him more after getting to know him better in class. Its true that his lectures are very long and boring, and I had to rely on plenty of outside resources to figure out the material. But during labs and office hours Steele is very helpful and kind.
Writes lecture notes on the white board in a very unorganized fashion. His tests are significantly more difficult than other professors teaching this course. Is a very tough grader. Made a final project that required students to code material that was never covered in the course. If it wasn't for this professor my gpa would not be crushed.
Professor Steele is a very notorious in the department. His tests are definitely the hardest out of all the other CS1 professors, but it's pretty doable to get a decent grade in this course if you put in the effort. He does expect people to come into the course with some coding knowledge, but I managed without any prior coding knowledge.
A pretty standard professor - expect lots of live coding during lectures (might be a pro or con depending on your learning style). Typically very accessible outside of class during his office hours but be sure to show up with at least some pseudocode. The class wasn't easy but your grade will directly reflect your effort.
MOPs is notoriously hard and Steele's exams are tough (C class average on all three). I thought his lectures were actually pretty interesting, but they can feel a little disconnected from some of the assignments. Ask for help on tricky concepts, go to SI, and put in the time on assignments and you'll be alright. Learned a lot form this class.
Would not recommend.
He's very montoned so I did tend to dooze off a lot. Here's where everyone is wrong. He specifically said in the beginning of the semester that if u go the SSE (Society of Software Engineers) on the first floor, THERE ARE COPIES OF PREVIOUS YEAR'S TEST. Just go in and ask to look at it, Steele's exams are VERY VERY similar to previous years exams.
Made it through MOPS... Hardest class I've taken so far, and Steele's teaching style did not make it any easier. I couldn't pay attention through any full class. Notes are very hard to find on the website if you miss. Tests are challenging. Homeworks/projects are unforgiving. It's to be expected. For what it's meant to be, it's a great class.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
70%
Textbook Required
52%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.76 avg changeRatings by Course
PLC450
5.0
(1)JAVA01
5.0
(1)243
4.0
(1)PLC70
4.0
(1)CS233
4.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
4003440
5.0
CS1LAB
5.0
CSASDASDF
5.0
CSCI344
5.0
CS141
4.7