I found Brad to be very approachable. His course focused more on the programming versus the definition of computer science. Some of the content he made easy to understand, other stuff completely lost me. I do not have a "computing" or "technical" frame of mind considering I am an artist. I wish I read the opt. book and went to office hours.

Very helpful prof. Always entertaining lectures. Fair midterms/assignments/finals. Just make sure you do your own work and you will do good.

Other reviews rip him apart. If you are in CMPT 120, you should have some common sense about using computers. I found his course easy, his assignments were fair and I thought he explained things very well in class. Attend class, DONT CHEAT, don't be completely clueless about computers. Why the hell would you take a CMPT course with NO knowledge?

Brad is a humongous dork and enhances his lectures with his own sense of humour. Exams are fair, assignments are relevant to what's being learned. He is also friendly and helpful if you ask him questions during his office hours. Ask a stupid question and he'll gladly point it out to everyone.

Great prof. Students often equate "hard course" with "bad prof", but if you actually care about learning anything, Brad's a good prof.

Really funny guy. Just do your work and use your brain by not asking stupid questions, then he wont make your life miserable. If you see Brad in the halls and you have actually use his office hours he will remember your name. Easy course if you do the work and go to the lab.

very good at clearly explaining difficult concepts

I found this class a lot easier than CMPT 120 with John Edgar. Here i understood alot more about how computing science works, rather than how the Python Language specifically works, which is what John Edgar focuses more on. Attendance isn't necessary, but it definitely helps. Posts all of his in class demos. He's a(relatively)easy marker as well.

Great prof, but you really have to attend the lectures to do well in the course. His assignments required you to actually think rather than regurgitate facts from the textbook, which is, I think, why people tear him apart here. The midterms were easy and the final was tough but fair.

Most assignments (especially the later ones) are very time consuming to do and require you to think outside the box. The questions on the midterm and final were a lot easier than the assignments, so don't worry if you don't completely get the assignments. You just have to understand the concept. Other than that, Brad is a typical lecturer!

this course is quite challenging but is great for those who are interested in programming and have a bit of knowledge about computers. assignments are not as scary as previous comments suggest, but you should take the time to think about how to solve the questions a few days ahead of the due date. exams are hard but fair for the most part ...

Dry sense of humour, which you won't like unless you share in it. Expects competence and actual thought rather than regurgitation. Assignments were interesting and designed to lead you to a good solution. Actually has interesting things to say.

Knows his stuff and presents it with wit; those who get on his bad side will be humiliated with extreme prejudice. Don't worry - this only happens if you're ignorant. I personally am not doing to well at this class; this is less the fault of Brad, whom I believe is fair, but do not underestimate the class simply because it is a 101 class.

It's very hard to not pay attention in class, since he's very good at explaining concepts. He makes the lecture interesting, and his examples of programs are excellent. I wish he can teach most of my courses.

Brad Bart is a good professor. He will not cradle, or baby you and will have very reasonable expectations aimed to push you as a student. I feel these are qualities a university prof should have. When you take year 3-4 classes which assume you're a good programmer, you will think back and thank him for pushing you. Take his class.

Extremely difficult course for those without a strong math background. Midterms seem easy, but are actually extremely difficult to score well in, as they are out of 20. Final exam mark, if higher than midterm marks, will replace the midterm. Assignments, 10, worth 10%. Many answers are found in the solutions manual for the textbook.

Most people will give this prof a bad rating because it's hard to get high grades on assignments, and because he won't just tell you how to do something, he'll force you to figure it out after giving you some clues. I've had him for CMPT 120 as well and for both courses he gave very hard assignments, but the tests ended up being easy in comparison

Hard but useful

We were lucky that this semester brad had taught this course. Really enjoyed the course and learned a lot, I am glad that I took the course him

person below me probably is the bottom 10% of the class. averages are 55-58% for both midterms. scaled to a c+

Highly recommended to take MACM 101 with him. Discrete math is a foundation course that has concepts that will be used continually throughout mathematics. Despite being a very touch professor, Brad teaches it with high clarity, thoughtfulness and care. Encourages questions and participation in class. Exams and assignments are fair but tricky.

Brad is an excellent teacher and I really enjoyed his class.

BB is really a good guy. He can memorize almost everyone's name is his class. Really helpful. The course is hard though, actually harder than other CMPT307. But his course is worth taking

This guy give u a very clear scope on all the prospects in computer science. his test and assign are hard(2nd midterm and final). u must be well prepared and study all his notes for the tests. if u do so, u are getting a good grade

Lectures are boring. Some exam questions are made quite weird and hard to solve. He sometimes even tests the material that exceeds the test range!

Don't take the course with him if you don't want to work hard and learn useful things. His assignments are challenging but help you understand the topic a lot once you start thinking. If you don't study you'll fail or barely pass. But if you do study you'll learn so much more.

He is actually a pretty nice prof, and helpful/responsive if you ask him questions or go to his office hours. The lectures could get pretty dry, and the level of assignments and midterms were generally pretty difficult, but overall I learned a lot in the course

His exams are very fair, they test you on if you really know the material. A lot of people will say his classes are hard but you need to actually do the work, he is very theory and assignment based, his exams are loosely based off his assignments. Overall good prof.

I'd give Brad pretty decent marks as a Prof. His assignments are long, but that's how you'll learn the material. His exams are very hard if you don't have much experience. If you haven't taken MACM you're going to have problems. He's going to assume you already know the math and won't explain it. He's very helpful during his office hours.

Yeah this class was hard; assignments were long, material wasn't too easy to learn, but Brad was great. He's not the nicest person to talk to but you come out of this class being a way better programmer. Props to him. Hope he continues to teach 150.

"Bart" (thinking about Simpsons now :p) teaches well; clear and funny. Assignments are not easy. I heard he got complaint letters from the school that because his assignments were too hard, his students had crushed the server several times. But that's for senior level courses. Lol. But anyway, I enjoyed the course.

One of the best profs I've ever had. MACM is difficult, but he makes it as clear as possible with funny examples and jokes. He's helpful, has lots of office hours and will spend as much time as needed every single time you ask him a question. One of that profs who's into teaching and wants his students to succeed.

This class is all about THINKING! The lecture material and assignments are based on forcing you to workout and push your brain in all sorts of ways. The tests and midterms are simpler and clear-cut. Students really mess up because they focus on memorizing rather than fully comprehending the material. Advice: Selectively bring your A game.

He's a good prof, always asks students if they have any questions and has plenty of office hours

This course was the hardest I've ever had to endure. While Bart is an amazing prof and I couldn't imagine someone else doing a better job, the concepts are very hard to grasp. Second half of the course killed me. DO NOT CHEAT, HE WILL CATCH YOU, AND YOU WILL HACVE A MARK AGAINST YOU FOR ACADEMIC DISHONESTY. Form study groups, go to office hours.

I think although he gives very hard exams, his lectures and ways of thinking are pretty useful for future computing science study. Also he is kind and willing to help his students during office hours. I get a very good grade after all and I do recommend students who are seeking to learn more to take his classes.

He's a great lecturer and gives good notes. My biggest gripe about him is he doesn't care about your life outside his class. Asking him for any leeway on due dates will result in him speaking down to you. As long as your schedule is clear and you never have to ask anything of him, he's great.

Phenomenal professor. Some of the best notes and explanation I've ever had. The course concepts are extremely tricky but if you come to every class, participate, and go to his office hours, you will have no problem. He may seem intimidating in class but is very helpful and friendly outside. Practice lots and you will do great!

Phenomenal professor. Some of the best notes and explanation I've ever had. The course concepts are extremely tricky but if you come to every class, participate, and go to his office hours, you will have no problem. He may seem intimidating in class but is very helpful and friendly outside. Practice lots and you will do great! !

Even though the assignments are posted weekly, they are not that hard. If you feel ok to the assign, then you may feel ok to the exams.

If you decide to read the textbook and do those assignments carefully, you will learn a lot. Be prepared for 9 assignments and 3 quiz in the semester with him.

Great prof if you work hard and go to class. Concepts are obviously difficult, dont expect easiness.

One of the best professors ever. He can explain things very well. I think his lectures are more understandable than the text book. The average grade of this course may not high, but this is definitely not the problem of the professor but the course itself. Algorithms may be the most difficult but important subject of computing science.

There's usually at least one midterm with lots of challenging questions (Those ones that can fail over a 100 students ) and fear of failing will constantly stress you out during the course but you can learn A LOT through the lectures. His explanations are crystal clear like you've never been learning that much for a long time.

Awesome Prof! best

Very helpful assignments with 7/10 difficulty, though he doesn't give very specific instructions to them. You have to explore the concepts on your own. Lectures are very important and useful. You actually learn a lot more than taking with other professors teaching the same course. If you don't like that then don't take it him.

Very good, clear lecturer. Pace is great. Exams are fair, and I didn't need to study too much. Assignments rather long for the mark weight, but are quite interesting. He does seem very uptight about procedure, and can be snide about latecomers, etc., but I suppose he has his reasons. Would recommend if you want to learn the material well.

Brad is great at giving lectures, even though I hardly understood anything (material is insane). His assignments are well thought out, but very difficult. I felt at times I didn't have enough information from the lectures to solve the assignments. You have to fight to win in this class. Learned a TON about computer systems though!

The overall course material is moderately difficult and not covered extensively in many resources. Due to this, you will be relying on the textbook, his office hours, your notes, the TA's, his website, colleagues, Intel 86-64 manuals, and the little information online for help. If you use all of these resources, you will be successful.

Brad is an excellent prof and is very clear in explaining things during lecture. He is a little picky with his no electronics policy but overall a great guy. This course is difficult and the assignments due every Friday are a bit long for what they're worth (2%). Midterms and final were quite difficult but extremely fair if you study a good amount.

Really felt like I learnt a lot in this course. It's a difficult course with a high work load, but all the work is well designed to help learn the material.

This course is difficult, but you can learn more than you can even expect. Brads lectures are incredible, but assignments may be hard if you start them late.

The course is fairly tough with a LOT of assignments which can be time consuming. The labs were pretty tricky as well and challenging to finish under the time constraints and overall forces you to stay on top of things. However I learned a ton and I would do it over again if I had to.

Brad is a wonderful lecturer. However, he does not like anyone coming up his behind. If you try to go behind him during class, he will roast you in front of the whole class. Amazing lectures; after taking his class, he will make you think that assembly language is a high level language. SFU is lucky to have such a hidden gem.

Brad is one of the best professors at SFU. His lectures are very well planned, interesting, and funny. He has a very gruff bedside manner, is quite strict, and does not tolerate rudeness. Tests are hard but fair, expect to spend 6+ hours per assignment. Follow the rules, be respectful and put in the required effort, and you will learn a lot.

great professor, though assignments can be challenging.

Very efficient lectures and well organized. Great personality. Bart's assignments take too long to complete because we aren't explicitly given the method to do certain calculations - so lots of gaps in my understanding. His midterms test you something you may know but twists it; his exams are doable regardless. Material is not dull with him :)!

TOO HARD PROFESSOR. Final is worth 200 marks that tests everything. You should have clear understanding of every word that is written in his notes. Not even a single word can be taken for granted. Assignments-EVERY WEEK. If you are a nerd and think you are good in chess you will do well, for average students AVOID!!!!!

It is not easy to get a good grade with this professor in this course. Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the computing lab. If you start falling behind, you will find it hard to catch up. However, his lectures are easily digestible and some of the best. Brad Bart is most likely one of the best professors you could take this course with.

He is a really nice person who is really knowledgable about his field. Yes, he gives you a lot of assignments and wants attendance, but he is a reasonable grader and is the kind of prof who makes sure the students gain knowledge in his class, whether they want to or not. He is really good if you actually want to learn in his class.

Very good prof. He lets you see the midterm answer key any reasonable time outside class: after class, or in his office hours. Anyone who has actually been to his office hours knows and can agree that he's good at one-on-one help. Bart does not give free marks, so some people may get angry about that. He tells jokes in class also.

If you can get around Brad's special character he is a very good teacher.

Best prof I've had so far. Yes, he's tough and expects you to know A LOT, but he's amazing at teaching. It's been 2 years and this is the class where I've retained most knowledge. Posts semi empty notes, don't take pics in lecture or he'll get mad. Funny/interesting lecturer. Engages students. Lots of homework.

Strange guy, great teacher Very knowledgeable and well spoken Lectures are easy to follow and very informative Genuinely wants you to attend and engage in lectures Assignments require heavy use of pre req knowledge Does not tolerate distracting/distracted people Overall a great prof/teacher if you are serious about learning the material.

Brad is a great instructor that genuinely cares about his students learning the material he teaches in clasd. He always encourages questions during lectures. Extension on some assignments would have been an asset, particularly the one during the week of his midterm, but if you understand concepts, his exams are OK

Well... I do think a portion of us are being picky to give unreasonable evaluations to Brad. Fairly say, Brad's exam and assignment are not THAT hard as long as you spend enough time. Data structure is so important and many students do not realize that. Make effort, discover and be chary in exams. You will be good and appreciate Brad in future.

The lecture is well designed. A lot of work are needed, but the grading scheme is fair.

One of the most easy cmpt prof sfu. He post all the codes in the class so we do not need to copy the code from the class. He tells everything what will be on the exam so you just need to study what he asked to study. Midterm average was 90% and Final average was 83% which got curved up. Take him for GPA booster!! The class average is B+.

The best prof in SFU!! His assignments and quizzes are free mark. Final is super easy

Excellent lectures that are paced well and easy to pay attention to. Weekly assignments worth 2% are a time commitment and are difficult for their grade weight, but helpful with learning the content. Marking was done ridiculously fast, with marks returning the day of, or the day after. Brad is a bit intimidating, but with him you can learn a lot.

Extremely organized, his lecture notes are great, but expect to read up on the material after the class. The textbook was super helpful. Prepare to give up your nights before assignment deadlines if you put it off until last minute. Exams are fair.

He is the only Prof who can explain everything clearly and in detail, amazing! I never expect I will find a prof like him. And you don't need to find online courses from other universities to help you. There are so many profs in SFU test something never appear on anywhere of their PPT, but Bart's exam is fair, you learn, then you will get A.

Brad is one of the best lecturer in SFU CS, explains key concepts clearly and does not drown you with information. Kudos to him for postings the lectures online too. The con is he tries to assert dominance through enforcing a strict order in class, which I find unnecessary. Exam questions are based on assignments, so definitely study them.

Is it tough? Yeah, but you might actually learn something. Brad seems like he actually cares about what he is teaching which is more than I can say for most of the profs I've had at sfu. Weekly assignments and multiple quizzes is a lot but it helps keep you on top the course material and spreads out the marks which is nice. Also took 295 with him.

I took his 295 class years ago and was honestly dreading this course given the experience back then. But his class and lectures were actually very nice and clearly prepared with care!! He really cares about the material and our learning. He seems easy-going and I can proudly say I attend lectures without shaking in my boots this time around!

I really liked his way of teaching, as well as his notes. Homework's a bit hard though.

He doesn't provide notes but he is a great lecturer. You get assignments pretty much every week but they are usually not very long and are good to test your knowledge. Quizzes are generally pretty easy if you know your materials well.

An incredibly difficult but fun class. Almost felt like the Dark Souls CMPT course of SFU, to be honest. With the way he's teaching currently, it's easy to tell that he cares about his teaching and his students. His assignments challenge you and his reflective exercises are an opportunity for you to give him feedback.

Challenging assignments and exams but the lectures were really well put together. Would recommend taking courses with Brad if you really want to learn.

Excellent lecturer, simply explains the big ideas and intuition behind concepts and helps you build your own intuition around a concept and actually learn instead of just reading off the slides. I still remember a lot of the concepts since he helps you build your intuition instead of getting you to memorize. Highly recommended.

Professor Bart is an awesome professor. He shows a real passion for the subjects he teaches which makes absorbing the naturally challenging concepts much easier. Highly inclusive and always encourages engagement, which makes lectures very enjoyable. You gotta put in the work like with any discrete math class, but it's a piece of cake if you do!

Fantastic lecturer, explains concepts in great simple terms and he is tough but really knows how to make his class learn. He is a little judgemental if you answer wrong or ask a question he considers stupid, but overall he makes an effort to make everyone learn. If can take a class with him do it, but get ready to work for you grade.

Good job teaching overall, his lectures are well prepared, though it's kind of annoying spending money to print skeleton lecture notes, since he doesn't provide filled ones and I don't have a tablet. Can be condescending which makes asking questions harder, and doesn't provide much exam prep material. Though, he's not a bad guy, but pretty strict.

He makes lectures engaging and understandable. Never felt like I wasted time at a lecture, each lecture was invaluable. He actually cares about the subject and gives time for questions. He's a bit difficult to approach though, and his grading metric is very rigid. Exams are challenging, but fair. Be prepared to put in a lot of time and effort.

I don't know what the negative reviews are about, Computing Science is MEANT to be hard and challenging. Brad Genuinely gives some of the best lectures and the clearest assignments I have ever seen. His exams don't focus on memorizing but applying concepts, and he aways made special effort to be kind and respectful in class. Brad is a gem at SFU.

I was in the other section of CMPT 225; the content was collaborative so I felt I should review Brad. His marked materials are representative of the content you're expected to know. His notes I've seen are a little sparse. He is a tough grader, but a good lecturer. He can be tough on his students, but it gets results. Work hard and you can do well.

I thought that Brad was a decent lecturer for MACM 101. His lectures are good for a quick summary of the material, but trying the assignments on your own/reading the textbook gives you a much better understanding. Brad is witty and can come off as intimidating to some. But if you can handle a little sarcastic humor, Brad's actually not that bad.

A good CS prof that cares about everyone understanding the concept at hand before moving on to the next one. Always available after class and does not mind spending time in class answering questions to make sure everyone understands what is going on. Also can get the class engaged in the lecture by asking questions.

Very tough class, found the assignments helpful in terms of learning various algorithms that I know will be relevant to the field and lecture during most of the year were good and interactive. Wish lectures were provided filled in, but overall learned a lot.

CMPT 225 is a tough class that covers a lot of algorithms that can be difficult to fully master and understand. By not providing full notes Brad's class was always packed with people asking questions and learning from the animated in class slides. Tough assignments but I learned a lot, great prof.

He is an awesome professor. Lectures were clear & well-organized. Make sure to attend every lecture as filled lecture notes are not provided to you. Midterms and final were of same level in difficulty & were mostly based on the assignments. Overall, I am satisfied by taking this course and looking forward to have another class with him in future.

Brad was a great prof. He is very serious about the material and acts that way. I loved his leadership style, serious but also personable and funny when the time was appropriate.

Amazing professor, explains everything really clearly and course is super organized on his website. Lectures are concise and very interactive; asks students a lot of questions. Honestly I really enjoy the interactive lectures but some students don't seem to like that as in the other comments. Midterms, finals are all fair.

Love this dude's teaching style for some reason and is able to explain some pretty tough concepts quite well. Super chill dude, would smash a beer with. Midterms are what is covered in class and questions are actually easier than some assignment questions in my opinion. Fun class.

Brad's lectures were very organized and his teaching style worked very well for me. MACM101 is hard but he explains concepts pretty clearly and does lots of examples in class. He will ask for class input but when they don't give him the answer he wants, he'll hold up class waiting for an acceptable answer. Exams and assignments are very fair.

Brad is a great lecturer, but his assignments and exams can be challenging. Assignments are somewhat flexible; he gives you a pool of questions from which you pick a few to complete each week. Exams test your conceptual understanding. Make sure to check assignment solutions and try to really understand them, rather than just memorizing.

MACM as a course is hard but Brad made it easier. He spends lectures going over strategies and ways to do the questions/understand the steps. His lectures are engaging as he likes class participation but he doesn't call people to answer questions. He's not rude, and genuinely wants us to understand how we get to our answers which is what MACM is.

Brad was an amazing lecturer for MACM 101 who engaged students and encouraged participation. However, not providing solutions to sample exams made it difficult to prepare and caused me to barely pass the course. But overall Brad taught the material very well and made some pretty tough concepts in the course make sense for a lot of students.

Ignore all the reviews that he is a bad prof. MACM is new subject for a majority of students taking the course and it requires lots of time to properly digest, which Brad and the TAs are there to help you with. ABSOLUTELY participate in class and actually think about stuff instead of just memorizing notes. Midterms very fair, final is harder

I love his lectures. and personality too.

I don't know what's up with the other reviews.He's absolutely fantastic at teaching topics. But exams are hard. By hard, I mean it. He really has that charm of engaging people who are genuinely interested in the material. The only issue is he never provides solutions to the sample midterms which I find to a be a bit strange? Why?

Brad was an awesome lecturer. I really enjoyed his class and showed up to every class. He is just really intimidating and sarcastic but he means well. I think the assignments and exams were really fair in difficulty. I would really suggest to show up to every lecture.

Outstanding teacher with thought out lectures and assignments. Do all Qs without cheating and you'll be fine since exams are slightly easier than assignments. This is not an easy subject, and many seemingly put in way too little effort (would explain but char limit). The stuff about him being rude is nonsense; he just has a deadpan style.

His method of grading allows you to redeem yourself. I had a failing midterm average but he will make the final worth more if you do well on it. Midterm was very hard- almost no partial mark given. Going over definitions really helps to solidify your understanding when doing problems. He made majority of the subject easy to understand

Brad posted every lecture recording online which is great considering MACM is a three days a week class. The questions in his exams are nothing too different from what he teaches in class but what makes the exam hard is the unrealistic marking scheme.

He's good

Macm 101, is a hard course especially having no pre requisites, so there is a learning curve and if you do all of his assignments you get a solid foundation of the concepts. Attend lectures, and office hours. He is a great prof and really is passionate about the subject, his office hours help a lot.

Weekly hw, two mts, and a final. DO NOT fall behind. You WILL learn a lot if u treat this course like a FT job. Final was VERY tricky w/ little part marks. He will adjust the 50% pass final rule slightly. Final exam avg was failing & grade avg was a C. 1/3 of class failed. Pray daily. I lost at least 10 years off my life span from this course.

Brad Bart is a good lecturer and all the lectures are recorded. However, only a lot of leetcode saved me in some of the assignments which were many and difficult. You end up learning a lot about algorithms and dynamic programming, but the grading is very strict and the exam and overall grade average was low.

Brad Bart honest review: - Very good lecturer - Extremely hard and time consuming assignments (with poor sample solutions) - Exams felt fair, but averages were extremely low (my grade included) - Kind of a dick (sometimes he's nice) Only take this prof if you want to learn and not just pass, he will fail you if he can.

Extremely hard professor, will give you mad imposter syndrome, nervous breakdowns and will make you want to switch your major; but if you survive you'll have mad skills in the subject. I say take his course but be prepared for a nightmarishly hard time.

Chill guy, good at bridge. Tough course but he gives you the resources to succeed.

Final is 60% of the grade, but his assignments and exams are very fair. Overall one of the best professors at SFU, you will not regret taking a course with Brad Bart.

60% final, but if you're cracked then the GOAT Brad Bart will give you a good grade. Don't listen to the people who failed, they're just mad cause bad.

The midterm was very much easier than the final. (Midterm average was 60%, final evrage was 46%). Do not use GPT to do the homeworks or you will suffer in the final. He's a good prof, but a tough grader. He uploads the lecture online for a limited time, although he did threaten to remove them if the class attendance was low, so make sure to show up

Brad was pretty good considering the stigma around him. He has good lectures, fast marking, a fair midterm, good assignments, and records his lectures (but deletes them after 2 weeks). The only downside was that I found the final to be a bit unfair, as questions were in forms we had not seen before. Other than that, he also makes jokes. xd

Brad I was wrongly imprisoned 30 years ago for a crime YOU committed. I will have my revenge.