He. Is. AWESOME! Super interesting and clear lectures, always open to any types of questions, talks at just the right pace. Tests are challenging but fair. He is extremely helpful if you go to his office hours, I couldn't reccomend using those enough. You can tell this guy knows what he is doing and is very passionate about CS. A+ prof

143X goes over tons of material in a short amount of time, and Brett does a great job of keeping the class on track. Great explanations. Read the book before lectures and ask questions during office hours to solidify your knowledge and make debugging easy. Generous curve so an easy 4.0 if you do well on the final.

One of the best lecturers I've ever had. Engaging, super patient with questions, and is very organized in course material. I barely cracked the textbook open because he explains everything so well!

All I can say is wow. Mr. Wortzman is one of the best teachers I have ever had. I came in with 0 coding experience and decided to take this class for fun. I'm so happy I did. He does an excellent job of breaking down the hardest java topics into easy-to-understand pieces, loves answering questions, and truly cares about his students. 10/10

Need to take CSE 142? Do yourself a favor by taking it with Brett! Not only is he knowledgeable, but he is by far one of the most affable professors you can possibly have at UW. His tests tend to be on the more challenging side, but he is super helpful with answering questions after lecture and during office hours.

Amazing professor! Made the accelerated intro class material super understandable, albeit the departmental grading system made the class as a whole much more difficult. Would recommend him highly.

Amazing lecturer!!! He genuinely cares about his students! He is always so passionate in class. Love him.

You will have an amazing time if you take CSE142 with Brett. The class is hard especially if you are new to computer programming like I was. Attend lectures and quiz sections and you will do just fine. Plenty of resources to get help from, and most of the TAs are very smart and caring. His lectures are fun and easy to follow.

Brett is a great professor. You would be lucky to take his class especially when you are new to programming like me. He teaches everything clearly and gives a lot of examples. He posts the programs he used in lectures online for you to review later. Also, he is humorous.

The CSE 142/143/143x series at UW is a well oiled machine and Wortzman is no exception. The lectures and homeworks were all pre-written by Reges and Stepp, so Wortzman mainly just regurgitates these materials which is fine since the materials are clear and cater to the individual with no prior programing experience.

I came into this class with no prior knowledge, and Brett did a great job of explaining everything so I could easily understand it. Assignments are time consuming but they are fun and we only have one assignment each week. Exams and really difficult, but Brett and TAs tell you exactly what to expect.

Really good!

Brett's awesome. He really knows his stuff and I can tell he really loves what he does. Would love to be able to take more classes with him, he makes it really fun!

Great great lecturer. Very interactive. Codes in his lectures so we can learn alongside. Knows his stuff. Gives great answers to student questions. Good experience overall.

Brett is easily the best lecturer I have ever listened to before. Each lecture is extremely clear and well-thought through. He knows the subject like the back of his hand and knows how to engage the class so that they pay attention.

Is able to take the basic concepts they teach in CSE 142 and make them somewhat interesting. Overall, I dislike CSE 142 --- I think grading is pretty subjective depending on your TA, they make a lot of errors in grading, there are a lot of curveballs on the tests, and it's just generally somewhat stressful. Brett--still great, but the class sucks

Brett's a nice guy. I come in blind and learned so much. Attendance isn't mandatory (large class) but I recommend going, as panopto takes time to upload. Be careful w/ hw assignments--check style guide and basically any resource available to you. Doing practiceit before exams rly helps, but start early. The system crashes when everyone's using it.

The hardest course I've taken in my first quarter of college. Big amount of workload. It's hard, but if you are willing to spend time on practicing you'll be fine. I actually enjoy the process of learning CSE but it's actually hard to get a high score. BTW I feel sooo sleepy in Kane Hall during his lectures. Every single time.

He is solid for 142, and many of his tests can be easy but require you to dump a lot of time into studying for them, and they are graded quite harsh and you won't really see your errors. Class overall is lecture heavy, and if you pay attention you should be fine. One thing that sucks however is the release of homework and the due dates are awkward.

Attend lectures and you will be fine,

Best lecturer ever! Brett explains things extremely well and is very open to everyone's questions even when he has a class of 720. Do yourself a favor and take his class!!

Having never taken a CSE course before I was afraid of doing poorly, especially at UW. Wortzman taught high school for many years and really knows how to cater to beginners and experienced students. He was uplifting and stressed that your effort, not your past experience, was how you could get a good grade. Fantastic lectures and clear criteria.

Brett is so awesome. He is easy to approach, has a loud clear voice, and a great sense of humor. I've only had him for 391 - but if he ever teaches an upper div class I would definitely take it!

I had no idea what coding was about coming into this class but ended up doing pretty well. Solid lecturer and concepts were clearly explained, although I would say to learn Java with no background in CSE142 lots and lots and lots of practising and thinking are necessary outside of the classroom despite the fact that lectures are helpful.

Fantastic! Brett went through this material in a way that people new to CS can understand how everything works and excel. Lectures were engaging and fun.

Brett has been absolutely amazing so far, I couldn't have asked for a better lecturer. He explains things very intuitively and in a way that is very easy to process and understand. His lectures are very fun and full of enthusiasm, and you can see he genuinely wants you to do good and pass. Overall, I highly recommend his class.

He is very nice to you and fun to listen to. I can sit in his lectures for hours on end.

He's a good teacher. He knows what he's doing and he knows how to teach it. Lots of homework assignments in this class and you have to dedicate time to get a good grade.

I love him. Great guy and great lecturer. As a student who has never touched CSE before, I'd say he did a great job explaining Java and helping me understand the programming language.

Brett is an amazing lecturer, even though the class will have upwards of 500 people in it he will still be able to interact with students and explain concepts clearly. Highly recommend him.

Brett is a great lecturer and explains concepts very well. You can tell how much he loves the subject and hes always in a good mood. Really enjoyed this class. The worst part of the class is the test-taking situation in Kane 130 where you barely have enough room for a 9.5 by 11 size of paper to fit.

Although he talks relatively faster than other teachers, Brett Wortzman is great at effectively explaining key java concepts so that even someone without any prior coding experience like myself was able to grasp the concepts. He is kind, relatable and is able to connect well with his students. Go to office hours!

He is an amazing teacher. He is very funny in the lecture which helps you absorb new concepts quickly and easily. One of the most enjoyable things to do is taking his course and you do learn a lot.

Shoutout to Brett! Really amazing lecturer. Every topic was extremely clear and each lecture was entertaining and fast-paced (in a good way)!

He is a really nice teacher. I have never imagined I could get a 4.0 at the beginning of the quarter. You could get 0.33 extra credit on homework each time if you show up in the exploration one time. At the end of the quarter, there will be 2 extra credit on the creative husky program assignment. Do the previous exams, you will get a good grade.

Brett was very good at passing all of the elementary java information to everyone. I have yet to meet anyone who didn't find his lectures interesting or didn't like his teaching even though for many people CSE 142 is rather hard. Highly recommended even for those who already know java as he may give you some new perspectives. P.S. don't use jGrasp.

Always enjoyed Brett's lectures. His style and presence were captivating and it made the content all the more interesting. The homework load is pretty heavy; while there was only one assignment per week, they took 4-7 hours for me to complete. The book isn't necessary but pay attention in lecture and section. Practice timed tests before final!

Brett is a responsible, caring, brilliant professor. He's definitely one of the best professor I had ever had. His lectures are clear, and he has the super power to explain difficult things in a way that everyone can be easily understand. Even though I had to spend 6-7 hours per week working on the homework assignments, I really had learned a lot.

Great teacher, explains things well. CSE142 is impressively well-coordinated for such a large class (around 800 students for me). Haven't spoken with him in person, but he seems nice. 1 midterm (handwritten), kind of tricky but doable if you study and practice throughout the quarter. Beware that he does go rather fast, but lectures are recorded.

Lectures were interesting and Brett is a very knowledgeable professor. Get ready to learn! 1 homework assignment per week, 1 midterm, and 1 final. The assignments take around 7 hours to complete each week and I was able to do well by going to the IPL Help Center to ask homework questions. Also, sign up for the CSE 190 lab for 1 additional credit!

It is a CS class so the curve is wack but he is funny and wants you to succeed. He definitely cares about his students. One of the best lecturers in the department.

Probably the best lecturer at UW. Highly recommend taking him for a higher level course if you can.

I had Brett for both 142 and 341, and he was great for both. You can tell he really cares about the material, his lectures are clear and his answers to student questions are clear. On the downside, he does tend to progress through the material a bit slowly, but I found I learned more from him than other profs because of his pacing.

Good professor and lectures are informative, explains very well, and he wants you to pass. The grading can be strict though, I got my program to work but a small indentation error caused my grade to go down

Brett is a super genuine person who cares for his students. On multiple occasions he has listened to feedback from students and adapted his teaching or the course work to best suit student needs. He ALWAYS makes time to answer questions and really goes above and beyond. He is a very fair person and I am looking forward to CSE 143!! Highkey a GOAT

He is the best CSE professor one could find at UW. His method of teaching is wonderful and he is damn hilarious. Also gives amazing examples.

Even in an online setting, Brett is the best :)

I had Brett for CSE142 online and the organization of the course was phenomenal. The lectures were recorded and it was easy to meet the staff through TA hours. His lectures are also easy to understand and fun. The course load is a little difficult but he offers great resources and always tries to clarify. I would definitely take his class again.

The best CSE professor - take him if you have the chance. He really takes the time to make sure that students understand the course content by giving thorough explanations.

I didn't really interact directly with the professor, since the class is so large. Textbook use is technically optional, but it goes into detail about stuff that isn't covered in lecture. He leaves time in lectures for people to ask questions, which is nice but detracts lecture time, and people keep asking questions already addressed elsewhere!

Brett was a very engaging lecturer and while I was bored at times, it's coding so can't really expect much. I thought the grading criteria was very clear and detailed feedback was given on assignments, and on top of that, we were allowed to resubmit big assignments. This class was very fair and flexible online, and Brett was a great professor.

This was my first CS class and Brett made it very enjoyable! Lecture recordings are usually available by the end of the day, so you don't necessarily need to be at the live zoom call. Brett always takes the time to answer questions and really works to help his students understand the material. Also very accommodating during the pandemic! 10/10

Very pog professor

Brett is an exceptional cs teacher. He explains everything clearly and is enthusiastic about teaching. There are weekly assignments and checkpoints, and two cumulative assessments. Grading for weekly hw could be harsh but there are resubmissions and a bunch of helpful resources to help you succeed.

He was a great professor and I agree with the other comments. However, he changed his grading system to ESNU scale which makes it impossible to know what your final grade will be until it's actually released. His grading was harsh and unforgiving because of this scale and MANY students felt their final grade was much lower than expected.

Great professor overall!

Brett is a great professor! He's very passionate about what he teaches and is always open to questions during lecture. Lecture itself isn't mandatory since it's recorded but you'll need to understand the concepts to do well on the assignments. Final grade is made up of weekly checkpoints and assessments, which usually take a few hours

Damn, this is one course that I actually enjoyed

Brett is the G.O.A.T of the CS department! A real gem of a person and a great teacher. His lectures were pretty clear and he cleared all my doubts within the lecture itself. Even though this class's material can be complicated, Brett makes it seem very fun and easy. Would highly recommend for both CSE 142 and CSE 143.

Both 142 and 143 dragged me through the mud because I'm not great at coding, but Brett and the rest of the staff are fantastic. They're all very professional but still fun, and I have 0 bad things to say about them. Such a huge fan. (i will say do not take this class without coding experience.. don't make my mistake)

Thanks to Brett for saving my interest in CSE. Real good professor with a efficient TA team. Lecture is concise and clear, with the weekly checkpoint you really have the feeling that you are learning something. Best class I've ever attend.

Take this class with Brett! Hes very chill and puts in effort to help students. One Weekly checkpoint and assessment throughout the quarter. Being able to resubmit every assessment made it much easier to end with a good grade. Go to the IPL if youre stuck, it helps a lot more than youd expect!

Brett really does make his lectures engaging and understandable. For CSE142, we used a standards-based grading scale with resubmissions, so you have opportunities to improve your grade throughout the quarter. Also for Autumn 2021, there was no official midterm or final exam, so that made this class less stressful. Overall not too hard of a class.

He explains every concept really well in lecture and clearly cares and wants everyone to understand everything. In addition he's just a cool, chill guy. I asked to interview him for another class and he was nice and accommodating to schedule it. Also the grading and resubmission policy made this class pretty forgiving and enjoyable to learn from.

I love Brett!! CSE 142 is not hard! You can get a very good score if you treat this course seriously!

Really nice guy. Can't ask for a better intro series professor.

Brett was always super enthusiastic about lectures and made learning enjoyable. He explained concepts very clearly and the mass amount of TAs + the discussion board made help easily accessible. Only bad thing I can say about him is that he sometimes took 1-2 days to upload recordings of lectures, but not a big deal if you're attending in person.

Brett's lectures are super engaging (but sometimes a but too much energy for me). I personally am not the best the cs material but I'd say if you have the proper interest in the topic he's an amazing professor. Weekly workload includes a weekly 'assessment' due Tuesdays and checkpoints on Saturdays. The resubmission cycles are super lenient too.

A very nice teacher that was always willing to help.

Brett was an amazing lecturer and has to be one of my favorite professors. He made the content easy to understand and engaging. He also gave plenty of opportunities to fix old assignments and turn in work past its due date. He legitimately cares about if you understand the content and made an awesome teaching combo with the other professor Kasey.

142 is extremely beginner friendly. 4.0 is a joke.

best prof to have in an intro to cs class. miss you king x

CSE 142 was probably the best class I've taken so far and it's largely because of the way the course is structured. Highly recommend this course and professor. Kasey and Brett are absolutely amazing lecturers and I actually felt like I was learning in every class.

One of the best professors I've had at UW. He taught my CSE 142 lecture alongside Kasey who was also excellent. The course is very beginner friendly, but I think it prepared me quite well for my future CS classes.

Really liked him, he's funny and kind and makes boring coding lectures actually entertaining and interesting. The class overall is pretty easy, I didn't do much and I got an A. And if you have Brett as a prof, it makes everything so much easier and more fun because he is a funny dude with lots of energy. Definitely would recommend!

Brett himself is a great guy and instructor, but the class has like 500 students, so don't expect him to know you by name. He's not accessible outside of class, but again, that's not really his fault. I ended up dropping the class for other reasons, but I would definitely recommend Brett if you don't mind 500-person lectures.

I like this easy going and straight forward professor!

Brett is a clear and straightforward lecturer, making the concepts easy to understand and is helpful outside of class as well.

Brett really cares about every student's success. He teaches the material in a way that makes sense, and although the class is sometimes difficult, the instructors and TAs do everything in their power to help you succeed.

As a non-major, the class was very forgiving. Compared to my chem and bio classes, CSE 121 always made adjustments so everyone can do well in the class. They were fair with deadlines (even changed a few due dates so students had MORE time), had a lot of opportunities to retake quizzes and resubmit projects, and had a lot of practice material.

He is such an amazing professor!!!

I think Professor Brett did an amazing job introducing me to CS. I appreciate the clear format and schedule the course had. Grading can be a bit weird with multiple TA's giving feedback but the course is very manageable and forgiving if you put in the effort to learn. Overall, Brett is a really good instructor for CSE.

very enthusiastic!

Compared to Elba who co-taught in the fall of '22, Brett was a saint. He was enthusiastic about the material and really did try to put the student's best interest forward. He took responsibility for mishaps in the course structure unlike his counterpart, and the TA's overall were pretty nice. I would gladly take another class with him.

Great Intro series professor.

I had Brett the first time that 121 was taught at UW. Overall, very good! Code quality was graded very harshly, but it generally felt like the course staff wanted you to succeed.

Brett gives great lectures! He tries to keep things fun and interesting and it feels like he has students' best interest at heart.

Good lectures; makes sure students grasp content and cares about our success, also teaches clearly (same cannot be said about his co-teacher Kohlbrenner). Generally a pretty relatable guy. Sometimes comes off as condescending but only to students that actually didn't read directions, etc. Grading is very very nitpicky for "code style"

Best CS Professor I've ever had. I'm envious of how much energy he has and his passion for his field.

It's clear that Brett is passionate about education. The 12X series is hard, but you have plenty of resources and support to succeed. Brett is flexible and receptive to feedback, and constantly changes the courses based on what works and what doesn't. He and his TAs go above and beyond to accommodate students. Super awesome series! I will miss it.

He seems pretty intimidating but is actually very organized and nice. I came in with a lot of previous knowledge, so it might have been a bit easier for me than for others. I absolutely loved the projects, they were all super fun!

Great teacher for the CSE 12X series, lectures are recorded if you ever miss class.

Took CSE 121 in Autumn 2022. Wortzman was a great lecturer and clearly cared a lot about the students in the class. Clearly cares a lot about the subject that he teaches as well. Lectures are recorded (like all of the CSE 12X series) if you ever miss class.

really engaging and funny

Brett is pretty cool! He definitely knew his stuff and you can tell he has a background in education the way he treats his students with so much respect and is always happy to answer questions! He loves fostering discussions in classes, but most of the time the classes were pretty boring and most things can be learned through pre-lecture / section.

CSE123 was not easy but the professor was nice

Good lecturer, very inspirational during lectures. I also heard that he is the designer of the 12X series. These courses are enjoyable and meaningful.

Brett is a good professor, making course content easy to understand while also keeping it entertaining.

He's a great lecturer in terms of how he explains concepts and you can tell he cares about the material, but I personally didn't like his teaching style. The class itself is set up so that you can succeed with things like resubs on assignments, but it's very hard to determine what your GPA will be throughout the quarter bc of the grading scale.

The class was challenging but the professor was helpful. Attend lectures, do lots of practice, and check out tools like Unstuck study - it really helped me prepare. Overall, a tough but worthwhile course.

This guy will maintain your attention span the entirety of lecture. Go to office hours, you can talk to him about anything you want, he will spew out a lot of great stuff. Talk about UW, UW CSE, or Academia & Industry, he will talk! Greatest UW CSE professor, designed the Intro to CS: CSE 12X sequence for greatest accessibility and learnability.

CSE intro series in general has vague grading criteria. Homework and quizzes are much more difficult than class content. But he's a decent lecturer - engaging + good explanations.

Quite clear (and loud, maybe due to the microphone in the room) during lectures. Is really enthusiastic about the subject being taught and is willing to answer any and all questions from the lecture room clearly to the best of his ability.

Amazing Professor, CSE 123 is a challenging course, but every time I went to lecture I feel like I learned something new and interesting. Wortzman is very likable, and explains concepts well, and if you pay attention in class and attend quiz section, you are gonna do well.

Professor Wortzman had everything you'd want out of a CS professor; his lectures were engaging and well-planned, he was available outside of class, and assignments and tests were for the most part at an appropriate difficulty level. Quiz difficulty did vary quite a bit though, and the grading structure was very unclear.

Very good lecturers and excellent at explaining CS concepts. He was co-lecturing with Matt Wang and I felt like his explanation was a bit more understandable (Matt was also a great prof though).

Brett explained concepts well. He gave us many opportunities to ask questions and used thoughtful analogies to explain things. But, important grading criteria was unclear, so TAs graded assignments very inconsistently. This does not reflect well on Brett, regardless of who implemented this policy, because of the stress on us. Overall, he's ok.

Great professor and well-organized class but just difficult in general. The grading scale is makes it hard to determine your GPA during the quarter which is frustrating. They don't give Es generously so make sure to take lots of time on weekly assignments to build a cushion for the 3 quizzes. The final was much harder than the practice material.

I took his ethics class which is diff from 12X most students take with him. He's a great prof and he engages his students during discussion very well. You might get the sense the he's totally against AI but he encourages you to form your own opinion. The reading isn't a big deal, have a sense of what the chapter is about and you'll be fine.

His lectures were engaging, and the quizzes he gave were mostly easy. The programming assignments increased in difficulty and time required by quite a bit, but because you could redo many of them using resubmission forms, it was easy to achieve the maximum score. Issue: The final was longer and harder than a basic coding final should have been.