3.2
Quality4.0
Difficulty43%
Would Retake284
Reviews43%
Would Retake
284
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
80
4
73
3
41
2
19
1
71
What Students Say
“Curve in the end is the only saving grace”
COSC3380 - 1.0 rating“Never take any class with this professor yes hes knowledgeable but very rude and threatens students when asked for a regrade”
COSC3380 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
22%
Textbook Required
25%
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B+
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Reviews (284)
He's a nice guy, but if you can't teach yourself jsut forget about him. He won't teach you a thing. If it wasn't for the TA's, this class would be a total disaster. The homework is so unclear, the TA's get flooded with questions. The book he uses is totally useless. I would not take him again. He means well though, but that's not enough.
Hard to understand, does not teach fluently. Must know what your'e doing if you want to pass. More theory than code, and tough to keep up.
He's good though it's hard to understand his accent.Boring class. Assignment isn't hard but sometimes unclear (don't worry about this, the TA is there to help you). He's not giving curve but sometimes extend the assignment due date so that you have time to improve it and increase your grade. The test is ok if you understand the materials well.
Textbook choice: terrible; Lecture effectiveness: nil; Tests: difficult - no practice at all; Choice of assignments: excellent; Assignment descriptions: terrible; Grading: draconian; Policies: draconian; Demeanor: Nice guy; Overall rating: Avoid at all costs
1) Very nice professor. This guy is hilarious and laid back. 2)Class is rather hard.6 hw assignments graded tough 3) 20 year old book in a different language doesn't help concept is the same though. Someone told me there is another professor that teaches this and is much easier
He is a fun guy but the lectures were hard to understand and boring. The book we used had the same problem. Thankfully the majority of the grade was from 6 prog assignments at 10% each. If you can program you will do good. Always start you assignments as soon as possible!! 2 tests(midterm + final)go to class and he will give hints on what to study.
Lectures were informative and he clearly knew the material well.TAs were good. Homework is hard but I feel that I became much better and more confident programmer.Tests are hard.The book was cheap so that was a plus.He's also very fair at grading, I'd recommend him because you will come out of the course a better programmer.
The homeworks and tests were tough but fair. In the end, I was glad that I had him. I finished much more skilled than when I started. His knowledge and understanding are unshakeable. Give him a few iterations teaching undergrads and he could be one of the best professors.
Professor Ordonez is an excellent, responsible and considerable professor. He always trying to help us to understand everything clearly, and let us learn as much as he could, the homework he assigned are very valuable and make us get a solid background for later higher programming course. I think everyone could like this professor after taking his
As a grad student, it's a comparative easy course. But test grading is tough. The homework is not clear, textbook is totally useless. But he is a nice professor with humors. I'll take some of his course if possible.
This class is severely under-rated. Prof was very understanding. TAs were ok at best. HWs were hard, but progressed nicely. By the last HW, I was using mostly previously created code. The tests were tough, but only in the preparation (hard to predict the material, so you had to know it all) I learned A TON, and would def take this class/prof again.
Great Professor, jovial and helpful. Conceptually deep class. Work hard on the HWs. That'll take care of everything. Ask lot of questions in class or outside - he likes it. It is your responsibility to make sure you understand everything, right! There are also points for participation. The textbook was not that important.
Pretty fundamental class for any computer science student. Just transferred to University of Houston, and was blown away with how easy this class was. The homeworks were pretty easy and straight forward if you kept up with the material. Overall the class was great, though I wish he would have covered more material.
Wished that the professor had covered more material. 6 HWs are easy but the specifications have lots of typos and are inconsistent. For some who already have some experience in programming, this class is a piece of cake.
Dr. Ordenez presented the material in a logical and sometimes humorous fashion. The course by design is supposed to be challenging and requires work outside of class. This class is for those willing to learn and work for their grade; not for those wanting a grade handed to them. Internet sources proved to more useful than the book.
Prof. Ordonez taught this course down to the system level and divided up the class into teams. Each team was responsible for creating a running dbms (i.e mysql) from c++ code. Most other database ourses focuses solely on sql code and relational models. this was covered in the first 2 weeks. this class is not for the weak of heart.
Dr. Ordonez was well organized and very helpfull. He was quite liberal to the class also.
book is very important.
I like the professor Carlos. I like the way he summarizes materials so that you can easily to remember and review the idea. I like the way he inspires students in the class. His teaching philosophy is to help student understanding by giving programming projects. I enjoy the class. Summary, the class has 2 projects: sql queries and mini database.
Very good course work due to which i also felt at ease when i went for an interview.I actually cracked the interview and this credit totally goes to dr.Ordonez.I got a very low grade but that was i think because of my project team mate and anyway i am very happy that i took your course sir.Thank u so much.
terrible professor. fumbles around each lecture. smart guy, but the homework assignments are ambiguous at best, and the lack of clarification is passed on the the students as low grades. the class was easy for me, but what an unfortunate course. don't get get me started about the TAs...
COSC 2320, Data Structures and Alghorithms, was an interesting class. It was definitely challenging with each of the 6 programming assignments getting significantly harder than the previous. Dr. Ordonez was tough with his program grading and test grading but was lenient with deadline extensions if you had a legitimate reason for them. GREAT CLASS!
You cannot pass this course without getting familiar with the main concepts which is certainly good. Though, the assignments were sometimes focusing more on text parsing rather than data structures (at least in terms of time needed to complete an assignment). Last, the grades were too much result dependent and the specifications not adequate.
The assignments and exams are challenging. You get to learn a lot in the end.
Smart, intelligent and witty. Somewhat whimsical but overall cool and fair.
Don't go into his class expecting an easy grade. Better yet, expect a challenging class and expect to learn
As others have said, not an easy grade. Not hard, but expect to work. He knows his stuff, and you can tell he enjoys it. Overall, good class.
Focus more on programming than on the theory behind the programming but that just requires that you do the research on your own. A lot of additional studying is required to prepare for the exams but there are no surprise questions on the tests. Only topics covered in class show up on the exam but you will need to do additional research to prepare.
Good teacher, didnt know much about C++ going in. learned a lot, very challenging course, better if you have difficulty now then be completely lost in later classes.
A little intimidating on the first day, but if you stick around he is a great professor. Teaches the subject matter clearly and really works with you if you're struggling. The class is challenging but as long as you put forth a good effort you should do fine.
Good teacher, heavy emphasis on programming rather than testing. No busy work. Take him if you want to learn, or if you already know how to program, to make an A.
challenging, but very interesting class. i did not get a lot out of the lecture. i mainly studied the book.the take home final was the coolest thing in my opinion. it took a lot of pressure off. hopefully, he offers the take home final every semester. TAs were very helpful, but they seem to always late for TA hour.
eventhough he looks friendly, i don't recommend someone to take his course
His class was useful,I did find that it was a big jump from the courses that precede it.Not the professor's fault.Overall he was helpful and flexible in his deadlines.One thing I didnt like was his last minute decision to give a take home final due a weekend before his final was scheduled,it took a toll on my study time for my other final exams
This class was indeed a challenge, however, I did end up learning a thing or two. The programming (C++) and theory were about equally as challenging. You should know how to program well in C++ for the assignments, or you will be in for a rude awakening. The tests require a good grasp of the theory and some discrete mathematics. Good luck!
great professor. i'm not a CS major (math), but I did relatively well. the mid term was a bit tougher than expected due to time constraints. hw were easy, but a lot of students complained about the hw
If you can program well, passing is no problem, if you're good in theories and you can program, this class is for you. Do not expect teachings from the Professor, learn the stuff yourself. Participating in class will get you 1 or 2 points extra on the final grade. REMEMBER, going to CLASS IS USELESS
Very smart, insightful, and experienced computer science researcher and professor. Tough but stern. I was disappointed with random changes to some of the homework after I had already completed it. Most CS classes you follow the assignment 100% and you get a 100, but not this course. Follow the HW plus the TAs' posts on the class Google Group page.
If you are a good programmer alredy, you will do fine. Homeworks were hard for people with limited programming skills. 10 people I know, dropped the class.The TA's were not helpful. I think he is not a good undergraduate professor.I would not recommend him.. unless you are an experienced programmer already..
I highly recommend his classes. He teaches very well. Even if you have trouble with homeworks or exams he gives opportunuties to you to pass the class.
Lot of programming, you will learn the intricacy of the subject. Teaching in class is good. Midterm are very conceptual...Take the course if you wanna learn....
This is a very helpful class if you want to learn a lot about database. Assignments tend to take a lot of time to do, however, they are very practical and will give you a better understanding about the subject. Dr. Ordonez looks tough but he is very nice and reasonable.
The course was very helpful to me. I learnt a lot from the course especially because I didn't have any background of databases. The projects were designed in a way to make you understand how DBMS work internally. I think Dr. Ordonez removes the rust from your brains and makes you use it a little more. He's the best.
Ordonez Rocks.
80%- programming, 20%- exam. Excellent split up. Best in UH. For the 1st time in UH, I enjoyed writing the Mid-term examination. Wonderfully constructed paper.. Best course I enrolled till date. I thought assignments were fair and graded on a right scale. No complaints. Great teacher.
He is a great instructor. One of the best in the department. He knows the subject very well (both practical and theoretical aspects) and he wants to make sure students learn all fundamentals. The assignments are a bit hard but he helps a lot if you struggle.
Best part of the course is its organization, 80% programming for practical knowledge and 20% exam with conceptual questions. Teaching was good and more than enough to grasp concepts. Assignments were tough but TA was quite helpful and guided really well. I believe Professor is a very considerate person, sensible and practical in his decisions.
Dr. Ordonez has a strong knowledge of database system. His project helps a lot to understand the fundamental things of database. Although I did not do well in the course, I still think this course is helpful.
Every thing is good if u r ready for the challenge. But, getting a good partner in the team is very important. Pure luck though! there will be no angry comments if the professor designs the projects such that one gets graded based on his performance. EX:parsing for phase1 and file manipulation for phase2 etc. yes,team should 1st agree on design.
Lot to say,tooLittleRoom. Like professor & he cares, but thought semester project could be spelled out more. Give/get test cases early: you're screwed if not. Build complex parser: simple executor; maybe do Intermediate Language to succeed better. Be aware: things are ambigious and scope creep happens. Narrow him/TA down. Alot of work: 100+ hours!
Great project work! Complexity of project is suitable for graduate course. Dr. Ordonez explains the usage, advantages and disadvantages of basic algorithms with respect to Database systems very well. Understanding by programming and reading books rather than power point slides helped me learn a great deal.
The projects are challenging but both the team mates should work very hard. The course load is very high and not that related to the projects. Professor is little unorganized but explains the concepts from a programmers perspective which helps in better understanding and the grading is fair.
He may be good for higher level students, but for me (2nd year) his workload was way too much. the assignments asked us to do things with matrices I haven't even learned in my math classes. He will laugh at you if you get a bad grade. the only thing I learned is to never take a class with Carlos Ordonez in university of Houston.
This professor is difficult and you will learn a lot. First real look at professional type of coding. Bring your A game or you're in trouble.
Moves fast at times...
Straightforward class. You put forth the effort and your grade will reflect it. The professor provided (in my opinion) more than enough opportunities to raise your grade yet many students still complained... Midterm was fair. Ordonez does not want to fail you, but just wants you to know the material thoroughly.
Dr Ordonez really cares about students getting an education. If you've only taken easy freshman classes, you may learn that more is expected of you here. My advice: **Learn the information in the book before you take the midterm exam**!!! Learn and understand big O() to avoid losing an entire letter grade.
Very nice and helpful professor. Also he is funny.
Good professor. Wants you to learn how to implement and use the data structures and associated algorithms yourself. Over 50% of the grade was from the 5 HW (programming) assignments. Midterm and take-home final were challenging but fair. Plenty of opportunities to resubmit homework for a better grade.
The class is hard but if you do well on the prerequisites classes you will be okay. Professor and the TAs are very helpful. They want you to pass the class and understand the material. Do not underestimate the workload and difficulty level of this class, it is not a joke. Dr. Ordonez is funny sometimes.
This class is fair and informative but a lot of work. Homework assignments require quite a bit of time and a thorough understanding of C++. Also, the homework assignments don't really prepare one for the exams which are, in large part, based on theory. Dr. Ordonez presents the material well and the TA's are very helpful.
one week twenty page handwritten take home final on 9 data structures 4 topics for each data structure before finals week, and a class average of 52 on exam 1, 6 HW 60% of final grade, 2 chance to resubmit, avoid him if at all possible,
Homeworks were generally hard. As mentioned by the student below: take home final was ridiculously hard and tedious. Hard class overall.
The HWs were very challenging, the midterm was difficult and the class average was low. However, I feel that I have learned more about computer science with Dr Ordonez than I have with any other professor at UH. Take him if you actually want to learn, the class is tough, but you will leave with a very good understanding of the material.
Dr Ordonez might require lot of work, but you LEARN A LOT. It is hard and time consuming but you learn. He is very knowledgeable and has a good sense of humor. The programming assignments are challenging but thats how you really understand the concepts. The theory midterm really messes up the grade so make sure you study really hard for that. GL
Very challenging professor, but NOT MEAN (big difference). Also very easy to talk to. If u want to get the most out of it, get comfortable with C++ (very comfortable). Hws graded by a program is not that great but they'll manually regrade it if you have valid argmts. String manipulation is very very important. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE
Pros: I learned more in this class than any other class at U of H. Cons: I learned as much as I did because I spent 20/hrs a week on this class just to make a B. I couldn’t follow his lectures. All of the assignments were difficult and seemed to assume quite a bit of prior knowledge. The TAs were not helpful.
The course takes most of the bandwidth
It was a good graduate course but my partner screwed it.
Its a very demanding course,,,It keeps you busy all the time...The professor is not very clear when he gives the project specifications, which makes it confusing for students...But I like coding, so overall I liked the course....
can learn and practise programming a lot. Gets tough but you learn
Class projects were difficult, but rewarding with some time devoted. I would recommend COSC6340 to interested in databases, but without prior knowledge the class will require serious time to succeed. Start on projects early. Don't believe the professor when he says something will be easy; what he considers basic will likely not be so basic for you.
The course was very good one but because of the system of pairs formed by the professor using his very own combinatorics screwed the course for me. The partner doesnt work and its me alone doing doing it. As a result the complete course material I couldnt get familiar with
the project workload is huge. always have to ask for clarification on project specifications. lots of programming which i enjoy, except that the second project was very tedious. however, the nature of project two was a good working experience.
The project has to be individual. Working in pairs is failure. 90 percent of the teams only one person does all the work. It screws up other courses if that is the case. The lectures can be taught in a more systematic way. Although there are new things that you learn from lectures, sometimes it feels like he is just going through motions.
Good : Lectures are good blend of theory and discussions of their usage in practice, had a really good time in class. Bad: Project requirements are always abstract and 80% of time is spent on gathering requirements. Added to that, unsupportive TA and unhelpful project partner made the projects more stressful than fun to work.
Please provide the option of choosing the software the students are interested in using for the course. That will help the students to learn a lot and do a lot of stuff easily.
The course is awesome, prof is Good! But, lacks in giving appropriate specification of the project. project 2 was tedious, but helpful. The TA is useless for this course, the evaluation of the project is based on a pre-written script, which is the WORST part of the course, even a small mistake would screw up everything.
Everthing is good except the TA for this course, the projects are very good. It would be good if the professor asks the TA to go through the code and evaluate the projects manually.
I enjoyed the lectures and discussions. working in pairs is useless. It is likely to screw your final grade with a bad partner(80% of grade depends on projects). It would be better if it was individual projects with less workloads. This course needs a TA who has already passed the course and can help students in different aspects of the projects.
Dr.Ordonez is a person who has tremendous knowledge n data base. The course is tough but you get to learn a lot. He has a very good rapport with the students and always willing to clear doubts of students. Even though the course is tough , he gives extension for hw and project submissions.Uh Computer Science students shud never miss his class.
Very knowledgeable professor, you learn a lot not only about Databases but also automata and Operating systems. I wish it was possible to have another advanced course to cover everything related to transactions and more advanced topics there. Project 1 was ok but second one was too much work even for 2 students.
Great teaching skills, makes it a lot easier to understand the course. Examples given as real scenarios considering that Dr.Oronez has experience in the industry and research areas. From the classes taken with Dr.Oronez, we learned a lot.
Professor teaches the subject in an interesting way, put more emphasis on important stuff, highlight the non-trivial things and also give some point of views from his past experience in industry. I found this lecture is useful and informative.
Impressive teaching style . keep students active and concentrated.
The teaching style of the professor is not conventional.He delivers lectures in a very light mood.Before explaining anything, he builds a base with reference to industrial need and usage.After each class, one feels quite confident in the topic because one also knows the bigger picture in addition to minor details.The lectures are very interactive.
The teaching style is very good and easy to listen. Relating with real world scenario really helps to understand the concepts from the root.
Professor Ordoñez has some great teaching skills, always kept the class very interesting and easy to follow. He likes to ask questions and supports the students when they replied. Excellent knowledge in Databases.
This guy is a real piece of work. Incredibly arrogant, speaks so fast no one can understand, brings in the most USELESS TAs, uses COMPLETELY outdated technology and has NO idea how to teach data structures. Grades far too critically, enjoys saying his class is "difficult" and that he is a mean teacher. Wait for Hillford, this guy is a major hack
His lectures are okay. You're forced to learn a lot on your own because the TAs are super useless and he's too busy to take your questions. The midterm was brutal, but he did let us drop our lowest hw grade and gave extra credit for participation. Thankfully he gave a final project instead of another brutal test.
Professor Ordonez is legit, he does not care if you fail yourself due to your own incompetence. The real world only wants results and if you can produce working programs within the requirements you will be fine. The compiler is old, so no C++0x, but it is nice to learn about what is under the hood in a sense. Overall, I am glad I took this course.
Dr. Ordonez is very tough. Many people dropped and many people will probably end up with lower grades than the are used to getting but I don't think a single person that stayed in the class didn't leave a better programmer. He is a must have professor for at least one course through university. You will learn just as much as everyone is saying.
I would advice you to take him if you want to learn.You have to be WILLING to LEARN and WORK INDEPENDENTLY.His syllabus is heavily based on prog assignments.Extremly knowledgeable cracks a lot of jokes in class to keep the class lively.One thing I guarantee is that you will come out a better programmer after the class even if you get a D! trust me
Dr. Ordonez teaches the class to help you learn how computer science works in the real world. You have to work hard, and the homework takes more than a couple of days. But in the end, you will leave the class feeling confident in your ability to code programs that are very involved.
The professor clearly explained all topics, but he could slow down a little. The textbook is helpful in giving examples. The google news group was very helpful. The TAs sometimes were hard to get in touch with, but were very helpful once you met with them. It would be nice to have some more questions on the midterm exam, it was too short.
Part 1: Prof Ordonez is the kind of guy you either love or hate. He explains everything perfectly. His TAs are more than helpful. You gotta work hard for the course but thats how you learn. You cannot start with the assign. 2 days prior to deadline. He gives you a min 2 weeks. Continue reading part 2
Part 2: If you are lazy, come into class expecting an easy A, expect hello world as your assign. dont take this class. Prof Ordonez teaches you stuff that you would use in real life prog jobs. If you finish undergrad years without taking a class with prof Ordonez then your degree is incomplete
Very difficult class. This guy will demand a lot of work and effort, but computer science is that kind of field, you will leave this class learning so much but be prepared to do your own work, always start Assignments early and you should be fine. My main issue with this class is the Mid-Term but aside from that its pretty fair.
Ordonez is a great professor, but a tough professor. By taking this class, you are choosing a difficult professor to teach you a difficult course. The programming assignments are long and confusing. However, if you take COSC2320 with him, then you will become a much, MUCH better programmer than you were before.
Good professor. Take him if you want to learn thoroughly about data structure. His mid-test is crazy with only 10 multiple choice questions. Homework is hard and you are expected to spend a whole week or more to solve it. Try to do hw1, hw2, hw3 carefully, since it helps you save a lot of time when doing the later ones.
For learning the core principles of Data Structures I think Dr. Ordonez is a good profesor.However, his mid-terms can be rough, and homeworks are usually hard and you are expected to spend a whole week.
This is a VERY stressful class, but if you can make it through, it will be very beneficial for you. Each homework can easily take around 20 hours to complete. Ordonez is a knowledgeable professor, but you cannot rely only on his lectures to fully understand the concepts. You will need to work hard outside of class to really do well in this course.
Yes Dr. Ordonez is a difficult professor. The HW are not easy and are meant to challenge you. With all that said, you WILL come out of his class with a better understanding of the different Data Structures.
This class is difficult and you will spend a pretty good amount of time on each problem. While difficult at the beginning, I warmed up to the professor and his teachings. I recommend him.
Course is pretty heavy. You need to learn good programming skills before taking this course. I would recommend this course, whom wants to make their career into Database industry. Professor taught about Vertica, which is comparatively new to market. And you can mention this in your resume too.
The worker load for this course is average. There are 2 projects, 15 hours for the first one and maybe 20 hours for the second one. The grading is by running scripts. You can learn knowledge about DB if you do all the projects yourself.
Course load is high but will be of use.
PROS : Fair Grading , Average learning concepts.Assignments surely help in interviews.Wish if the syllabus is updated. Deadlines extension.Assignment Resubmissions. CONS : Pairs programming(WORST) ,Unplanned course structure , project requirements unstable, SUGGESTIONS- TA needs to be instructed properly.
The course itself was good,the professor used a very amazing DBMS for the course. However the projects and homeworks are very disorganized, requirements often change. Grading is extremely slow. What I dislike most is another homework suddenly popped up after all the lectures are over.
This professor knows what hes good at and it shows in his projects and exams. Seriously, this is not for the people who cannot handle pressures. Grading is fair and projects were totally new (vertica) which was the best part. If you try hard, you are bound to get good grades and rest assure, you are going to learn a lot from this course
Good quality course. A must take if you have a proclivity towards databases. It is noteworthy that you actually learn the internals of a DB system instead of SQL. Programming projects were relevant,useful and moderately tough. A little problem was faced with unstable requirements, manageable though. Grading is fair. I liked the course.
The best part about the course according to me, is Dr. Ordonez gives a comprehensive idea about the DB systems in the lectures - how core computer science concepts- Algorithms and Operating systems in particular are seen in DB systems - Projects and homeworks were not easy - but lot of learning. Thanks to Dr. Ordonez for being a great instructor.
Very good in explaining the concepts. Project requirements should be made clear in the document, the document was updated many times. Grading is very slow.
Nice course. Had a chance know how a DBMS really works. Projects were very difficult at the first sight but enjoyed doing them. The more you work, the more you learn. The only thing I felt was the grading was uneven (people got good grades even if their code contained bad techniques but their output was right). Overall nice learning experience.
Very good learning experience from projects and homework's. Would have learned more about database systems if the projects are more towards database optimizations and dealing with larger databases rather than being programmatic. Anyways got good experience with java and c++ programming.
The course has 2 projects which mostly covers the topics in the class but the course work is heavy and the course structure is unstable.TA was really helpful in answering the questions posted in newsgroup.
Course Structure was not constant and project requirements change frequently before submission time. TA was helpful in clarifying the doubts regarding project.
This is a must course if you want to learn how databases work internally. Dr. Ordonez covers computer architecture concepts and importance of data structures and algorithms for database efficiency. The assignments are good and will help you increase your programming skills.
Course quality is good. Projects were really helpful to learn the concepts in the course. Projects with vertica was very helpful to learn the database. Recursive queries project was an implementation of the research topic, which helped us learn the new concept.
Course was helpful and good. The whole load was only on one person as in most of groups only one person was doing the work. Instead the students should be allowed to choose their pair themselves. TA was not helpful at all. He took a lot of time to clarify doubts. .The projects were new and we learned a lot.
TA was really helpful notifying the unstable requirements of the project and clarifying the doubts. The course is really helpful and working in pair did not help but pairs are random, so can't complain. Course work is heavy and interesting.
Improve Programming and SQL skills, (Unfair Teams/Grading)May end up with a lower grade than my partner despite doing the projects by myself as my partner may have performed better in individual assmnts/exam. Disorganized but tolerable as TA and prof. are easily approachable Last theoretical assignment should have been given earlier in the course.
The projects will scare you but be prepared to spend most of your time in this course alone. Professor is very understanding. Might have been better with faster TA responses. You will end up being a better programmer and you will understand many concepts through projects. Plan up your course load well when you take this course. good one
Course is interesting, surely developed db concepts while working on projects and got a chance to work on vertica dbms. Working in pairs is not idea at all. People who do not work in team will also earn equal grades. Projects specification was continuously changing which was very annoying. Grading was very slow.
Course was good and projects were interesting to work on. Overall satisfactory
One of the best classes I took at UH. The grades largely depend on how good ur team is. Even if you worked hard, your grades may get screwed up. But in terms of learning, I think it is the best. I got an average grade but the things that I learnt will be helpful in the long run. I feel there should be more clear explanation abt home works and better way to assess who did better. Students get disappointed when they get a bad grade inspite of them doing all the hardwork since it is a team grade.
Good professor. The course work can get demanding, depending on how diligently you study/practice. But if you attend the classes and study the appropriate materials, you should do well.
70% was 7 programming assignments, 30% was 1 test; I truly enjoyed this class and felt I got a lot out of it. Each homework takes several days to complete but are pretty straight forward. Class is a little disorganized as last minute changes were common throughout the semester, which was annoying. I felt he was fair and would take him again.
One of best courses I have taken in my graduate courses can learn vertica and postgresql by working on projs Prof Idea is that software must be resistable to changes so be prepared to handle changing requirements throughout proj Classes r very Interactive gud sense of humour speaks well with students need to manage course load
Prof. Is very helpful learnt multithreading transaction processing database internals He really makes u work Team members arent of much help since teams r made random lectures are very good U can find difference in ur coding skills after this course projects are real time projs takes time but not that tough clses are fun and makes u think
He's knowledgeable in what he was teaching. Knowing a lot of new tools in big data world. Tough class with 2 big group-of-2 projects , and a take-home final which required a lot of reading (research papers). Overall, it was an enjoyable and laid back class.
Great learning experience. Crystal clear in explaining concepts. Teams for projects are decided by the Prof. Team projects require a lot of time and effort to do. Expect last minute changes in project specs. Take the course only if you're sure you can spend lot of time towards it. He is a tough grader too. Take if you're open to learning new stuff.
70% of grade will be 4 hws (2 parts for hws 2,3,4). Take him IF you already are a decent programmer. If so, the hw are not too difficult. 30% of your grade is ONE midterm. He doesn't review and it is challenging. He knows what he is talking about and his lectures are interesting. He gets nicer after students start dropping. I would take again.
Dr. Ordonez is in interesting professor. Many people dropped and many people will probably end up with lower grades than the are used to getting but I don't think a single person that stayed in the class didn't leave a better programmer. He is a must have professor for at least one course through university. Lectures were informative great. A+ !
70% of the grade is decided by homework, but if you start when it is announced and pay attention to the details it is possible to get 100s on them. The only other grade is the midterm which is difficult but passable. Overall this class is very good preparation for job interviews and real world programming. It is rigorous but worthwhile.
Great professor they really knows how stuff. Homework will decide most of your grade. As long as you don't wait until the last day to do it, you can get 100s. Lectures were interesting and he's quite comical. I found myself also reading the book to clarify some aspects of the course, specially the theory. Though course but you'll learn a lot
Dr. Ordonez is that one dude who seems hard but lowkey cares. He likes it when students show participation/approach him after class. You can't slack off in his class, but it will definitely prepare you for the road ahead. If you keep up with everything and take advantage of the lab sessions, you will definitely get a good grade. I love his humor.
The homeworks took a long time to solve, but the professor and the TAs made the homeworks unique, so you could not find them online. It meant that people could not cheat, because nobody really knew the answers. I liked this class because it was heavy on the programming, and you were allowed to find your own solution as long as it worked.
part 2... if you put everything, but if youre like me and get things done early it will be like doing extra work for the same credit, becuz when he chances the hw almost every time i had to edit my program, it wasnt difficult but it does take time. anyways my advice is take him its a great class to practice programming, and the professor is fair.
I personally think the professor is too easy. There are 4 hws, 3 hws have 2 parts so its like 7 hw, all build on top of one another so its not too hard. the worse thing about the course is he sets a dead line and clear requirement then, near the deadline he makes the programs easier and pushes back the deadline. which is great.... go to next review
At the beginning of class he may seem evil because he makes it clear the class will not be easy, but as the class goes on you'll realize he's an angel. He makes plenty of adjustments to his requirements/due-dates throughout the whole semester (can be good/bad). More than half the class dropped even with the adjustments! Great learning experience!
The start of the semester can be a bit rough, but if you can stick with the class he becomes much more amenable about the homework and due dates and much more friendly. The homework, while it may be difficult at times, is something which definitely helps in understanding course material and the topics covered in the class.
Great, great, great professor. Horrible, horrible, horrible TAs this semester (Fall 2016). Professor Ordonez is an awesome educator, and I genuinely became a better programmer because of this class. THIS IS NOT A PROGRAMMING CLASS, you should be a decent programmer coming in. This is more a theory/algorithms class. Did I mention the TAs sucked?
The class consisted of 4 programming hws and 1 midterm. hw 1 was 10% and the others were 20%. you learn A LOT in this class! He such a great professor, and the course is a high quality course. The TAs kinda sucked this semester but he was very cooperative. He is intimidating at first, but stick in the class!! and start the homeworks a week early!!
Awesome professor who knows his stuff. He genuinely cares for his class and students. It might seem too hard at first, but if you stick with it and will do well. TAs were bad this semester, but you can always substitute then with the book. Just sucked when they couldn't answer a question about the he in persom cause of the language barrier.
Dr Ordonez's class has 1 exam, and 4 Hw assignments. The Hw's are fairly difficult but if you're like me and do them early there's enough time to finish. However the specifications for the Hw's are always changing and a lot of confusion occurs, this alone causes many of our grades to drop. This course would be much better If instructions were clear
Great teacher. Team projects determine your grades. You're not given the choice to pick a partner. There was one test with multiple choice questions. Assignments are tough and have to spend considerable amount of time studying for the course. But, you'll learn a lot for sure. Expects active participation in class. Hard to find outside of class.
The guy is the epitome of the word "reasonable". He understand that life is complicated and things can be made harder than they need to be occasionally, so he's willing to give a little leeway, but if you try to take advantage of the system, he'll crack down. Prepare for a group project, and application of everyone you've learned in other courses.
The class is interesting but contains a lot of material that needs to be well understood. It is really important to both attend and participate in class. The projects are of medium difficulty but they are very time consuming. However they really help understand the material taught. The professor is reasonable and has a nice sense of humor.
In DBMS course you write c++ and do operating systems, rather then sql etc. The assignments are demanding but not something that can't be done if you are consistent. Unfortunately many people that dont like this class take it so it is ruined by excessive nagging. The professor is good lecturer,funny, but lacks student management skills.
I found the class very difficult, but i learned alot.
Dont take this subject if you plan to take any other course work which is loaded.
Good professor on the whole but has changed from group project to individual project in the last few weeks of the semester end.
His lectures are amazing. Everything goes hand in hand with the project assigned. You might get bored with some data structure or computer architecture stuffs if you dont like them. Has a nice sense of humour. You will end up learning taking up this course. Beware, projects are assigned in groups. And groups are not of your choices.
This professor is highly disorganized. He will give homework and change it only a couple days before it is due. He has become a great source of anxiety through this semester, although I am doing fine in his class. His TA's were not that helpful. I feel like this course could have been better had the professor cared enough to plan ahead.
This professor is absolutely terrible, I can't believe he has a high rating. I dropped the class shortly after an exam where our seating was ordered based on our GRADES. Yes, he had us all stand up and put the highest scoring people in the first rows and called everyone else out by their grades. Talk about demoralizing not to mention before a test
This was the most difficult class I've taken, but it was my favorite class. It can get tough, but its not impossible & you will learn A LOT. TAKE THIS PROF IF YOU GENUINELY LOVE CS The lowest grade I got on a hw was 90. Those who complain get annoying, but this is a weed out class and its only fair you realize early if this major isnt for you 10/10
He tried too make the data structure theory less boring but if there are animations to explain will be better! Ta are very helpful if you find them in office hours
The HW's are easy but itmight take up to a week to finish. The midterm is stupid. The purpose of exams is to gauge the students' knowledge of theories. We had stupid questions like where we had to write complete c++ codes of whole algorithms such as quicksort & selectionsort. He curves big though. You can pass with a 20 on midterm and 60 on all HW
Start of the term is rough, especially coming from first year computer science courses. If you manage to stick through till the midterm you're good. Do the HW assignments well in advance. Midterm wise anything covered is fair game (including writing the code for some algorithms). You really do learn from the lectures.
Ordonez's class is not to be fooled around with. If you are going to take him and pass you need to start assignments early and be good at making massive overhauls to the way a program preforms at the last minute. Biggest issue was lack of clarity in assignment instructions. The midterm is murder if you don't have theory memorized.
This class was tough but I enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. You need to start homeworks on time and it will help a lot to attend lectures and ask questions if you have any. He gives out participation points at the end of the semester if you answer any questions he asked so take advantage of that.
This is a difficult subject and requires a great amount of effort regardless of the teacher. Ordonez does a great job of challenging students while trying to be as reasonable as possible. I put in a lot of hours for this class, and I feel like I've gotten a lot out of it largely because of Ordonez's teaching style.
This is the course for you to learn R +SQL. The course contains two projects. Both are quite interesting. They can help you learn a lot in database concepts as well as coding. The project is team pair project. If your teammate does not work, talk with the professor early. Save you from a lot of frustrations.
This course consists of 2 projects and one mid-term. Mid-term was quite easy but the level of projects was good and they were group projects. Professor used to choose the team-mate. Both projects were the good way to learn concepts of Database and Java. Professor is really very good with very vast knowledge of his subject.
If you take this class make sure the other classes you have that semester are easy
H.W. instructions unclear. Watch out for last day grading criteria changes.
This professor is really disorganized and can become demoralizing, be careful...
To be honest the physics course itself is very tough but Professor Ordonez makes it easy by giving extra credit points. You need to do a lot of self-study at home but the tests are always easier than you expect them to be.
Disorganized professor. He doesn't do a good job at communicating with students and doesn't do a good job updating things in a timely manner. He's a good lecturer and he's good other than bad communication and lack of organization.
Incredibly self-congratulatory to himself and demoralizing to students. Lectures follow no organization. At least one homework example was wrong every single time. Changing things at the last moment. He seems to have no interest in his classes.
The professor gives good lectures. He seeems to add his own style to his lectures.
This professor is impatient with undergrads. He is a great example of the prototypical UH CS prof: highly intelligent but not passionate about teaching/communicating. During online lectures, he's easily annoyed by questions in chat, which is something I have yet to see from any other prof. 4 doable HWs worth 60% of grade, 1 exam worth 40%.
He is not a good professor. TBH literally nobody uses psql anymore. Its an ancient language. He uses posgres which no companies use. Take someone else, someone who can teach u real database such as oracle or something. take someone else if u have the option, because he will make you life a living hell. His assignment make no sense whatsoever.
This class makes you a better overall developer, by far hes the only professor which actually wants his students to learn not just "graduate", hw use all sorts of modern tech (react, node, etc..) , He consistently outside of class held office hours & helped with anything CS related. Best CS prof at UH, anyone who had issues took the class lightly.
I will say the professor does give assignments that teach you alot about real world uses of DB. Aside from that, everything else about the class was HORRIBLE. TA interactions led to a ton of miscommunication. Professor got angry very easily and used it to affect people's grades (when asking for justified regrades). I learned alot but suffered more.
Professor Ordonez has nothing but the students' best interest at mind. My biggest complaint is that the structure was very disorganized. He does everything possible to give you an opportunity to make good grades. I finished the class with a new resume project and a good understanding of databases, which is more than I can say about any other class.
Professor Ordonez genuinely cares for his students, but he will stress you out lots. The assignments were doable BUT all self taught. His lectures involve the theory, while the assignments will give you practical knowledge. The theory in the lectures seems pointless because will NOT teach you how to do the homework. You are on your own for that.
This class is the most disorganized class I've ever had the displeasure of taking. Assignments are self-taught and the lecture is pointless. The Instructions for each assignment were confusing and poorly written. Major changes were made to assignments at the last minute. Professor gets mad at students for raising legitimate concerns/questions.
Honestly RUN!!!! Never take any class with this professor yes hes knowledgeable but very rude and threatens students when asked for a regrade. He misgradeded alll of his hws and even the test lol that some people were mistakingly deducted 20+ points. Honestly such a ridiculous class. Its not even difficult its just that a complete chaos
professor does curve at the end ! a huge curve. he's the greatest professor in UH CS department !
The TAs and ProfOrdonez made this class unnecessarily disorganized. The material isn't hard at all, but its the unfairness in grading HW & Tests, unprofessional attitude from both TAs & Prof and threatening students when they point out issues in HWs, Tests, any problem, is what makes taking this class extremely stressful and unpleasant.
The MOST disorganized mess of a class I've taken at UH, even for UH CS. The professor/ TAs have been very inconsistent the entire semester with very unfair grading policies & deadlines. Ordonez will say something one day and the next day he'll go back on it and make up another rule to penalize students. Curve in the end is the only saving grace
Prof. Ordonez is an absolutely unprofessional teacher. He was consistently rude to everyone, and even threatened students when they pointed out the very obvious errors in the HWs. He spends 75% of the class time just talking about what he's going to teach and berating students. The TAs are equally irresponsible. An absolutely terrible person!
What kids arent mentioning: 1. Changed midterm from 40% to 20%, cause most kids failed & complained. 2. Extended every hw by a few days minimum, cause most kids started a few days before it was due 3. Nearly every week held office hours for a few hours just helping students. 4. Every hw and midterm was challenging and made you better developer.
Some of the 5 star reviews are definitely written by the Prof, TA themselves. Prof. Ordonez was very disorganized and extremely unprofessional teacher. He hated when students pointed out issues on his HW & Exams and would threaten to worsen your grade. He changed the original midterm % from 20 to 40 for NO REASON in the middle of the semester. bad!
His accent is hard to understand. He was rude several times but I think he cares and devoted to help students. He doesnt mind the long Overtime office hours. But he is very disorganized. I could have done much better with less stress if I was told about python and JavaScript at the beginning of the class. Ta was decent.
Great Professor if you want a practical class. He is tough. But he really push you to learn. He tries to teach every critical part about databases. He is willing to spend fully 90 minutes each lecture, and 1+ hours each office hour to explain assignment or lecture content if necessary. If you want to learn, pick him. And do not start your hw late!
The professor is very caring and you are guaranteed to leave this class with good knowledge of database. He explains the theory behind so that was helpful. You also get to build a web app which for sure will look good on your portfolio!
The professor raised the midterm to 40% from 20%, then lowered to 20% again, whilst threatening that if you complain about your grades your midterm would be 30% instead. Misgraded the midterm completely and some students got worse course grades due to this. Homework instructions were changed countless times and blamed students for "starting late".
I wish I never took this class with this professor. He put us through horrible stress, if he cant put up a functional grading program, I dont know how he expects us to do the homework. No joke, every single assignment (and test) you do WILL GET MISGRADED BAD and dare to talk to him, he will just deduct points from you.
This is his first time teaching this so it was unorganize because he tried to balance between him, TAs, and students. The professor pushed back deadline, regraded, and curved at the end. The last homework was very hard and stressing but they graded lenient. Only 1 test which is the midterm with 10 questions(hard, tricky). Participation will help.
This professor has a terrible condescending attitude towards students. He also pushes students extremely hard but I do not think his teaching method is particularly effective. He provides very unclear descriptions for projects, revising them multiple times without a clear reason on how this affects his teaching objectives. Avoid if possible...
This was the professor's first time teaching the course and while there may be a solid structure for learning alot in this class, there needs to be some polish. From what I've seen he was always trying to adjust things during the semester to make them better, so most likely if you take this class in the future issues with the course will be fixed.
Just avoid him if possible. You will thank me later...
Dont ever take this course if you are not able to study on your own.
great
Professor Ordonez is a great professor. He grades you based on 2 homeworks and 1 midterm exam so you can focus on that and the class ends right before finals week. He is very lenient and gives you 2 or 3 days to resubmit hw with a small penalty (<5%,<10%,<20%) depending on the fix. His lectures are very informative. He also wants everyone to pass.
Only 2 homeworks and 1 midterm. If you want to learn something with a little sweat, start doing everything early and ask questions! Professor Carlos is willing to answer and explain as long as you ask. Also, participation not only helps your understanding, it also helps your grade as well! Recommended for learner!
Only 2 homeworks and 1 midterm. If you want to learn something with a little sweat, start doing everything early and ask questions! Professor Carlos is willing to answer and explain as long as you ask. Also, participation not only helps your understanding, but it also helps your grade as well! Recommended for learners!
Remarkable style of teaching with in class live coding demos, only teacher to do this. Homeworks are guaranteed to make you better programmer. He has good knowledge and shares it freely to just help students. Always works with the students, extends deadlines, extra office hours, etc.. Overall his classes by far prepare you the most for reality!
Will be able to learn new things in different programming languages and can get different kind of exposure. Recommend to take the course.
functional programming and recursion are well taught in the course. Recommend to take it !!!
You can also learn amazing stuff along with coursework !!
Great professor
professor gives the chance to resubmit the assignments with minimal penalty and assignments are really helpful.
Learnt my fair share of JS &C++ and with the inspiration from this class I am continuing my node JS and react development.
Learnt a lot like C++ , JavaScript. Assignments are challenging but useful
Will get to know different concepts and insights about different programming languages. will recommend to take the course.
Great start if you want to learn the basics of Functional programming, will feel confident after the course for sure.
Would recommend to take his course.
Unclear grading criteria Horrible condescending attitude Very bad teaching style Poor organization skills Avoid his classes...
One of the worst professors I have met in my life. Tough grader grading system is automatic meaning that even small error can get you zero grade. Also, doesn't do any practices in class all he does is just go over slides. Never responds to text messages. I hope that he suffers in his life just like some of his students suffered from grading system.
Really, really, really bad communication. He gives assignment, writes questions, and doesn't even fix all their problems until a day before its due. Students have to point out all the issues. Questions are vague as hell and don't even specify what should be the answer. What is the point of even giving us a week or more to do it?
Extremely poor organization and communication and unclear grading criteria. Two-thirds of the homework is figuring out what you're supposed to do and how to turn it in. You must follow a trail of breadcrumbs left in various random messages and rumors from other students and their private communication with TAs to learn what you're supposed to do.
Not a good Professor, HW is very confusing very hard to do a good job on the HW because TA keep changing the HW mid way.
Homework requirements change all the time, even days before they are due. Grading criteria are often unclear at times. Homework constantly has major mistakes that must be brought up to the professor's/TA's attention to get them fixed. Despises questions and will sometimes refuse to answer clearly. Lectures do not help prepare for the midterm.
If you are taking database class you should already know javascript, node, HTML, CSS, express, or react. He just assumes that so although none of previous classes teaches these languages. All the hws are very practical but they are time-consuming and he will change requirements few days/hours before due so you will keep working on it until due.
Trust me, avoid this professor. Take databases next semester. Study as hard as you like, you will get points deducted for not following a guideline change professor made a day before the assignment is due. Do you learn from this course? Yes, topics are presented and you go home and watch Yt video to understand them. Same as in all other classes.
The worst experience for a class I've ever had. Extremely disorganized. Multiple homeworks had requirements changed with less than 48 hours till it was due. Over 30 people complained to the department about him, which caused him to retaliate by increasing the midterm weighting. Several of these 5-star reviews are written just like Ordonez writes.
You should know HTML, CSS, JAVASCRIPT, NODE, EXPRESS, REACT. So if you're taking his class be ready to learn all these on your own to pass. He will keep changing hw requirements.
Don't take him. Avoid his class. He is very arrogant, picks on students who complain or ask questions.
Likes to change homework requirements up until the due date. Cannot keep a stable class server running. Very condescending at times. Extremely ambiguous with homework requirements. Need to know good web app development for this class (JS, HTML, CSS, React). Gets easily frustrated. He seems smart and can be funny, but class management is terrible.
Pros: 1 midterm, 3 hw Cons: Hw instructions and his answers to questions regarding hw are vague. You will definitely need help from other students to understand the hw. Unorganized class. Too many changes in hw at last moment. When this happens he blames student. He confirmed that he used to give EC to those who wrote good review. So beware.
The worst class I've taken so far. POOR organization, unclear and changing instructions (not even the professor/TAs know what's going on). The combination of unclear instructions and tough grading as well as his inability to handle criticism is miserable. And if you complain, he will threaten you and your grade will suffer (seriously). Pure regret
Worst Professor I've taken. Lectures can go off-topic and be useless. Poorly organized. Homework instructions are unclear and contradictory. Will change requirements for homework last minute, so not much use to start til the last week. Expected to know JS, HTML, CSS, and ReactJS framework, alongside learning SQL.
disorganized class, unclear hw assignments, poor way of communication.
This class was mostly self study, requires web development along with SQL. Total 3 hw assignment and 1 test(midterm). He put more weight on theory and conceptual question although he said half queries and half theory and in class he mostly talk about his experience working at different places, requires lots of self study.
Dr. Ordonez will push you in this class. It will be hard but you will learn a lot. The assigned projects are difficult but useful for preparing you for a serious software engineering career. Being able to list skills such as 'Relational Database Normalization' as well as the completed projects on your resume makes this class worth the effort.
Homeworks instructions worth most your grade are ambiguous and entirely up to interpretation, midterms are nearly impossible to get a passing grade, and the professor is horribly spiteful and hateful to his students especially towards any possible criticism often deflecting on TAs or other students. Terrible representation of UH.
Professor Ordonez is very disorganized. He doesn't lecture well and will make you read the book to understand the concepts. He only gives 3 homework assignments with extremely unclear instructions and will refuse to clarify because there are "too many questions." Overall he gave me an unenjoyable semester and I would recommend you to avoid him.
It got bad. You open 50-60 slides and 15 papers and we don't know what is on the exam. Homework has random changes for grading. Not as accessible (TAs are great though). Told on whether or not we should drop after the deadline, and only one grade was in. Prof teaches okay? If things were clearer, we'd all do well. But nobody understood anything.
Would never recommend to take this professor
Students in his classes are complaining so extensively it makes one wonder how is it possible that he mainly had positive reviews until recently if things are so bad...
Explains concepts very well in a lecture by relating to real-world scenarios. Professor has good knowledge of Database & Bigdata. Homeworks are a bit tricky but if you do it yourself will help you to understand the concepts in more depth. Would recommend taking his class.
I had to take his course as part of the data analytics track. Excellent lectures, get ready to learn a lot from his studies. He has a great understanding of the Industry and teaches in that way.
i wouldn't trust the recent influx of +ve reviews. the prof is well aware of his reviews and posts some himself. class is bad. midterm is hard. lectures are boring. homework reqs change last minute. hw3 said do one model, and on teams he posted he wants two models. miss a msg and you'll get a bad grade.
You need to read his IEEE papers in order to solve the assignments or one and only exam. You will exposure to real life scenarios when solving the assignments..like how things work in an IT team. Assignments are a little tough but can be managed. Great value for the concepts and teaching. Work along with him and you can score a decent grade.
The Prof. will discuss topics related to ML & DBMS, instead of Big Data topics, HWs are really confusing & difficult. Nothing related to HW was discussed in class. Take this course only if, you have in-depth knowledge of ML and Data structure. The grading system of this course was really awful.
The professor should care more about fixing his class than the reviews he gets on this website...
cosc6339 is the reason my gpa is no longer a 4.0. students were always confused abt the hws, the ta's are virtually inaccessible outside of the class, they seem confused half the time, which makes hws difficult. lectures are extremely unhelpful, don't help with the exam. prof writes his own reviews and shares rmp links on teams for everyone to rate
The problem with this professor is not the grades. It is how he treats his students and how erratic his behavior becomes as he obsesses over how his classes are perceived, instead of guiding students and organizing the taught material properly. Be prepared for patronizing behaviors against any of your criticism, even if it is correct.
Even though u pass all the testcase when u write the homework, u still got 7 out of 10 fails in the grade, because they change all the testcase. They allow a resubmission with 20 points penalty and giving some new testcase to fix the program. Again, u still got more than 5 fails in the grade, because they change the testcase totally again.surprise.
horrendous professor
This was the professor's first time teaching Algorithms so I believe he was very lenient in terms of his grading compared to other classes. He teaches by both textbook and powerpoints. He always goes over what is on the test and gives reviews in class. Not as bad as what everyone says about him in my opinion. Overall, a cool professor.
With chatgtp these classes will soon become useless...
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE HAVE ANOTHER PROFESSOR TO TEACH THIS CLASS.
The class is hard, but he makes it harder. He's very vague on requirements and exam questions. There are 2 group projects, 3 midterms, 20% each. Choose your team wisely. Don't procrastinate, participate, be prepared to teach the class to yourself (and maybe to others). TAs aren't much help. The class is so boring, he says so himself.
Professor Ordonez was a reasonable professor and listened to requests from students. I know you might see some negative reviews, but it is not that hard to succeed in his class. I recommend just attend his lectures, ask questions. Imp tip: Ask him for a practice exam and specific sections to read in the textbook that are relevant to the exam.
Instruction for assignments is very vague and mostly left to your own devices. Lectures are pretty enjoyable in my opinion but not helpful for the exam whatsoever. This class took up all my time and was pretty directionless. Do not take if you like passing your classes.
70%+ total grade is based on 2 2-man coding HW's with a midterm for the remaining grade. No final. Professor is pretty good at lecturing and asks thought-provoking questions. Flexible with HW requirements but still challenging especially 2nd. Take if you are interested in lesser taught aspects of CS like compiler design and functional programming.
Prof Ordonez has a good sense of humor. Passionate about languages and raises thought-provoking questions. If you are interested in programming language design and philosophy, this is an excellent class I highly recommend! Will note, the homeworks are difficult but Prof Ordonez is willing to compromise and negotiate on HW difficulty/grades.
The class is challenging, but the lectures are worth attending to understand the concepts. The assignments are tricky, but using resources like unstuckstudy AI alongside the textbook can help manage the workload. Overall, a valuable course if you're willing to put in the effort.
Never take him. extremely unprofessional. Schedules mandatory meetings with a 12 hour warning. Gives an extremely long project with no help or explanation. Changes requirements two days before the due date of a 2 months long project. Says test is over 50 topics. Makes 7/10 questions about one topic. Topic wasnt on the practice test. Never take.
Class was unorganized in all aspects. Exams are work 40% in total grade, each exam has at least 300-400 pages to read from the book ( make sure to study on your own). All the projects are hard with little information. Changes many deadlines and updates all the projects last minute. This class stressed me out this semester.
Carlos Ordonez is a knowledgeable and humorous instructor. He values participation, noting when students ask or TRY to answer questions. insanely boring textbook. Reading is mandatory for exams. Try getting through one chapter without falling asleep. Though he asks engaging questions during lectures, no one seems to respond correctly.
Two Exams - 40% Two Theory HW's - 40% Two Programming HW's - 20% Very difficult course, we were given no time to learn the programming language he wanted us to code in (Pascal) and his lectures was him projecting the textbook (it's free at least), which was not very helpful at all if you were looking for clarification or guidance. No HW extensions.
Lectures are terribly put together, you are coding in pascal, has you working in groups so if you aren't on the same page it can be really hard. first few weeks nobody knew where in the textbook or what we were supposed to be reading. i would not recommend this professor. coding assignment are horribly put together and TA aren't much help.
This professor is very unorganized, he expects us to do things that weren't even specified in the homework instructions. It could be the last day before homework is due and the TA would announce changes. Lectures are messy and seem like he doesn't have a plan. He basically tells you to read the whole textbook in preparation for his exams, no curve.
He expects you to read 300-400 pages out of a textbook in preparation for his exams. Course was done in Pascal, which he gives you no time to get familiar with, and has little to no resources online besides AI in my experience. The instructions for homework are unclear causing multiple students asking for clarification several times every day.
Terribly put together course, Prof is very unorganized has no clear lectures and doesn't communicate well to students what he expects, how to do the hw's or coding projs. Coding is done in pascal which most students are unfamiliar with and wants is uploaded to a linux server instead of keeping this simple in canvas, TA's are useless in this course
This course is poorly managed. Lecture slides are unhelpful and hard to follow. Students must come to campus on a non-class day for HW questioning or lose half their grade, with no accommodations. Exam topics are unclear, making it a guessing game. Studying is difficult since there's no clear focus, leaving students unsure of what to expect.
If you're looking to learn about optimizing algorithms and improve your coding skills, this is not the class for you! Ordonez spends lectures projecting textbook pages or other schools' slides while providing no useful insight. If you value your tuition money and time, I strongly recommend avoiding this professor. Also, insists on no curve to work.
Professor Ordonez is disorganized & communicates poorly. He requires students to come to campus outside class days for oral presentations on HW. HWs are broad, and you're left to rely heavily on outside resources. He had us learn the Pascal coding language with no time to get familiar with it. This class is very overwhelming, and I don't recommend.
Ordonez is a nice man, but needs to never teach 3320 again. All the hw and tests were so vague, the poor TAs had to be on call 24/7 for student clarification. Hw is done in groups, have 2 submissions each with an oral exam. We were told to study half the textbook only a week before exam 1. Forced to use pascal and given no time to learn it.
Ordonez has a weird obsession with students using AI, I talked asked him a simple question about the homework w/ my team, he went on a rant abt how everyone uses AI & that we should use it. Makes his homework harder to combat AI usage but it just ends up hurting students. Good luck getting a straight answer out of him, even the TA's couldnt do it.
Please take someone else if you care about your grades
Much of the harsh criticism of Professor Ordonez seems misplaced and more reflective of difficulty adapting to ambiguity than actual teaching quality. He's a solid instructor—neither great nor bad. While his lectures can be disorganized, they often provide valuable insights for students who stay engaged.
Class is disorganized. 4 HWs, group, instructions are often vague, ~50% of grade. TA makes last minute changes. AI is allowed, but hw is made harder. Lecture feels on the fly, not much direction. 80% textbook based. Exams not too difficult, but includes topics TA said wouldn't be included. Prof is kind/respectful. Great guy, not the best teacher.
Took Algorithms in the Fall. It's a very hard class, but if you want to truly learn how algorithms work and prep for coding interviews, this is the right choice.We used Pascal simple to follow and good for learning.Exams were tough, but Prof. Ordonez is passionate, fair, and offers second chances and extra credit. Be ready to study and work hard!
Ordonez cares and listens to feedback-he added a review for Exam 2 and encourages AI like ChatGPT. TAs were helpful on Discord. Biggest problem: Class was DISORGANIZED (off-schedule lectures, unclear HW, grades not on Canvas). Test 1 covered 20+ topics (narrow the scope). Tough class overall, but he's improving and he does care.
I haven't seen a more unorganized course than this. Only communication is through discord channel through #announcements which are done by TA and you get lost by the amount of announcements happening. I am not even going to talk about the professor he doesn't even have office hours and lectures are so boring. Good luck catching him after the class.
If you're not religious, pick a religion and pray. Ordonez is disorganized, rude, and unhelpful. He uses AI and random online slides, tells you to ask AI or read the textbook, which is messy and unclear, if you ask a question. Homework requires AI, tests are unclear, instructions are full of errors, and everything changes last minute. Avoid him.
The most stressful class ever. He did follow a syllabus; but, halfway through the semester, he changed the grading scale from 60/40 to 50/50 and back to 60/40. Did not give any examples for what the hw or tests were, only for the final after students were begging. EVERY HW HAD WRONG INFO and needed clarification. Would change hw hours before due.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Ordonez encourages students to use AI because it is the only way they will survive this class. Lectures are unorganized and mostly consist of him rambling on unrelated topics, instructions for homework are confusing and change often, and tests are nearly impossible to study for because the topic list is so long.
Honestly, this was not my first option, but it challenged me. To pass this class I was forced outside my comfort zone and studied like a madman in order to pass. By the end of it, I felt as if I had a new found understanding of DSA. The main thing I would say is utilize TAs and professor office hours regardless of how you find the professor or TAs.
Toxicity does not mean educational quality...
-Interviewed us about our HW code outside class (major grade) -Tests on paper, closed note -Test reviews came out ONE DAY before exam and it was just a list of vague topics.many irrelevant, wasted study time - changing hw requirements hours before hw is due Worst CS class ive ever taken at uh,if u dont wanna listen to reviews, take at ur own risk
After all the neg reviews, prof made a statement. As someone who took his class: no, exams/HWs aren't vague & class isn't disorganized. He thinks Pascal's best (I disagree) but supports AI use. Great if you wanna learn algo theory. Only con: exam/HW weights not listed, but due dates are clear. Tough course, but coding in C++ wouldn't make it easier
Just be prepared to see grade guidelines changed suddenly and expect your complaints to be shot down by this "professor." He only has a 3.2 because he convinces students to give him a good rating on RMP, but realistically, he should be at least a 2.5 or lower. Find someone else, please.
Run as fast as you can when you hear his name
Professor Ordonez is a stickler for theory and hates weak understandings. He is a solid professor at explaining concepts, and his TAs are absolutely amazing. Removed 2 stars due to the disorganization of the course. TAs did great with what they had, but the class felt too spontaneous. Please do not listen to reviews rating him low.
TAs really carried the course as they are lenient with grades. Prof is great and all, he makes it obvious he is passionate and wants you to learn the material. Lectures don't really help for the lengthy homeworks or exams. This course heavily relies on reading textbook he provides. Be prepared to do a lot of self teaching for SQL/Python/WebDev.
"Very disorganized course. Lectures consistently run 1–2 hours over the scheduled time, making it difficult if you have a job or other classes. Every assignment is a group project, so your grade depends heavily on your peers. Communication from the professor is last-minute. I wouldn't recommend this if you have a busy schedule."
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
22%
Textbook Required
25%
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