2.1
Quality4.4
Difficulty25%
Would Retake90
Reviews25%
Would Retake
90
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
90 total ratings5
15
4
4
3
11
2
11
1
49
What Students Say
“i didn't pay 60k in tuition to relive abuse”
ALGORITHM - 1.0 rating“Lots of homework every week”
CSCI310 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
33%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.12 avg changeRatings by Course
ALGO1170
5.0
(1)FUNDA
4.0
(1)CSCI102
3.1
(10)HONORSTHEORY
3.0
(1)FASECT
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
FUNDALG1170
5.0
G1170
5.0
HONORSTHEORY
5.0
FUNDA
5.0
FASECT
5.0
Reviews (89)
Just Awful. His lectures and class notes are disorganized and rambling. The homework assignments cover material not discussed in class or in class notes. Extremely ambiguous requirements for homework assignments.
Terrible teacher. Very unorganized in class and homeworks are much too complicated to complete in the given time period. Lecture notes are overly-complicated and utterly useless. It's easier to get material from other prof's websites on the Internet. Smart man but poor teacher for this course...
No Comments
worst professor! I wonder why he still can teach in the university...
Terrible! Lectures were scattered, irrelevant to the homework. Readings were convoluted, error-prone and terse. Homework and exams were ridiculously difficult. Assigned 2 NEW readings the week of the final, with a lecture 2 days before the final. 1 day for review. New material was 30% of the exam.
Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, confusing, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, confusing, hard, hard hard. HARD.
Worst Professor concerned only about his research, doesnot know how to teach - unorganized, confused, makes easy things very difficult, difficult HWS, Midterms, Finals. I would give this prof F on my grading. Lectures are word puzzles, notes are terribly badly written- i wasted this class trying to understand them all the time and losing to it
Took three theory courses before this, loved the subject going in, had a newfound hatred of theory coming out. Smart man, but no clue how to assemble thoughts into a coherent lecture or course. Wrote a horrible manuscript and made us use it as the main text. He does try to help you if you have difficulty, but has no ability to actually do so.
Professor Yap is the type of teacher who may be tough but makes you learn more than you thought you could. He does not design the class to be a walk in the park, but if you are able to finish it, you will be a better computer scientist. Also, he is extremely approachable.
Professor Yap is more suitable to teach advanced students, so having him to teach introductory class is a bad idea at the start. The ones that made it through his class are cut out for Ph. D. program.
class average was in the 40s-50s but the smart ones got 90s... made us look bad... He should teach only honor courses. his exams are impossible
Course content is good. The lecture quality and grading is poor
His class is not for entry level students, especially who has taken any algorithms class before. But if you can make it through, you would really learn a lot out of that class.
His course is not easy I have to say, which means if you dont wana attend each lecture but just stay at home or hang out, you may get something around B or even lower however clever u r. Anyway, he is a good instructor and his class is of great help for understanding ( if u have listened 2 other algorithm courses, u know what i m saying )
He is a smart guy but poor teacher. He make the ideas hidden behind his formal notations. The exams are too much difficult than homework and lectures.
Do not expect to understand his lectures if you are not VERY familiar with the topics beforehand. He sometimes even failed to make sense some topics to himself during the lecture. The horrible grader in Fall2013 did not understand most homework problems and expect uniformed answers. This class might kill your interest if you are not strong in mind!
He is insanely smart and very helpful in office hours. His exams are very difficult, but he also curves generously. Definitely the best CS professor I've had so far.
Truly brilliant man, but his teaching leaves something to be desired. Expect homework assignments to take longer trying to figure out what he wantsfixing errors than actually coding. Overall learned a lot but it was through his vague homework make out of class work take longer than expected.
Very smart man, but it is often difficult to understand the point he is trying to get across. Homework is really difficult and takes a LONG time. He gave up 3 programming assignments due the day before the midterm. The exams are difficult but not impossible, and he curves generously. If you do all the homework, you will do fine in the class.
horrible prof. writes a lot of buggy code on the chalkboard - focus is on the algorithm, not the implementation, but it's CS102 - no one's a pro at java, you have to teach good code! doesn't explain concepts well. hw instructions are unclear. gave a huge hw the last week of classes (worth 1.5x normal) and ignored requests for extensions. avoid!!
If you want to go beyond the materials covered on the book and a get a more in-depth understanding, especially about algorithm analysis, then definitely pick this professor. His lectures and exams are adequately hard, but it's worth the pain. You learn a lot at the end of the day. The professor is also very chill, and gives a very generous curve.
The best thing is that he responds to your emails and Piazza posts and the curve is GOOD The worst thing is how vage and delayed his responses are. He almost never answers your question directly and is unclear in just about every instruction or comment he has on literally anything in the material, homework, or tests. Please avoid this professor.
Chee is the only professor I've met in college who actually cares whether the kids are learning or doing well. He practically begs people to see him outside of class for class-related or for fun discussions. No professor is as generous with their time, and no professor will care about you or your success even 10% as much. Talk to him, you'll be gla
He only gives 2 HWs for the entire semester and the test was mad easy. He literally posts the test online beforehand with slightly different numbers. Easiest cclass ever!
Don't take his Data Structure course. He can't clearly illustrate this course and his assignments are very confusing--it is very hard to understand what he wants students to do. Also, the exam is difficult.
Chee is a nice person, and very easy to speak with him after class or on Piazza, where he and his TA are very active. Lecure is useful, but recitation is pointless and the TA didn't teach well at all. However, you still need to go because of pop-quizzes. Exams are difficult (Midterm had an average below 50%) but he gives a pretty generous curve.
AVOID Chee Yap like plague. His lectures are totally disaster. He doesn't know what is he teaching about and always make errors on class. The assignments and homework are very hard if you are not smart or you don't have background of algorithms. The lectures are VERY boring and useless for your future career as programmers.
Prof. Yap is a very generous teacher. If you are lucky enough to find that he offer CSCI-GA-1170 Fundamental Algorithms in your semester, please choose his course. Though the homework is a little difficult, he will curve the final grade.
If you want to learn some ancient and obscure math from the last century that no one is mentioning anymore, you could probably take this course. Otherwise, PLS AVOID.Yap opinionated himself as a master in this ancient math and he wrote his own book on this in chaos.(Yes I know this is algo class, but take it if you want to see him lost in his math)
Professor Yap is quite boring, and the course is full of homework that is always graded a few weeks later. The course was not too bad if you like math/stat-savvy materials or have affluent undergraduate math courses taken. Otherwise, you wouldn't like this course. However, professor Yap is really generous and gives a good curve.
I took this mandatory class with another prof and dropped it as I was failing. Needless to say, I was very apprehensive of taking algo with Yap after reading the reviews below. The homework is difficult and time consuming; so are his tests. Thankfully, the graders were pretty generous and Yap gave a VERY good curve, so I passed. Recommend for algo!
Fundamental Algorithms taught a lot but demanded a lot of effort from the students. However, the final grading was curved well and in consideration of the hardness of the course. On a personal level, Professor Yap really cared about sharing his interest in the field and was very approachable to anyone genuinely interested in the area.
Prof is a nice person, and understands his curiculum very well. Things get very Math heavy a lot of the time, so for people who really want to understand the inner workings in depth, this is a great course, otherwise it might be a little way extra for understanding Algorithms. The Homeworks are way harder than the end-term exams.
His homeworks are long and exams are very easy. Easy to get an A if you solve the homeworks.
Just avoid him. His lectures are extremely boring. Instead of using a textbook, he uses his own materials that are very poorly written (confusing and containing lots of errors) and outdated. He just can't explain things clearly. Also, don't believe in his promises about grading or anything, he will always find ways to circumvent them as he pleased.
Prof is ok. Just prepare to study and ask for help.
Basic Algorithm is hard but that's not his fault, just the content itself. Hes pretty nice and wants us to talk to him for any issues we had. You learn a lot and he does gives extremely generous curves to boost up our grades knowing how hard algo can be. He doesn't want to see us fail. You will pass just make sure to review his work and study.
I have never left a RMP... But I can't stress this enough - DO NOT take him. His lectures are a complete mess. Notes are unreadable (an understatement tbh). Homeworks take HOURS at a minimum. He created a class DISCORD (like why discord) but the TAs NEVER answer. EVER. super inconsiderate- hw due Saturday during Thanksgiving break. Thank you Chee!!
This class is so bad, and I don't mean that the material is hard, it's just that you can't learn anything from the lectures and the notes are so HARD to read and understand. Besides, despite some friendly and helpful classmates in the discord, the TAs never respond to anything.
Weird focus and schedule. Imagine covering number theory, abstract algebra, probability and stats, ... in less than a month! Also, fast fourier transform incoming, stay tuned :)
This course is a total maze. Using remainder sequences to teach the extended Euclidean algorithm? Seriously? And covering unrelated math topics like algebra and probability? The professor excels at making the easy stuff needlessly complex. The homework is a mess too, often with unclear problems and zero timely help from the professor or TAs.
Professor Yap means well, however, his class will turn your hair gray. The assignments have little relevance to what is covered in class and require you to read his notes and textbook which are geared towards his graduate class. I cannot count the number of times my keyboard has been flooded by tears while attempting the homeworks. Good luck.
The professor has a nice personality, but that's about the only thing going for him and his Basic Algorithms class. The homeworks are unclear, overly-complex, and riddled with errors and typos that require 5 announcements on Brightspace to correct from the professor's side. You will learn almost nothing in the lectures either.
homeworks insane resources scarce mental health deteriorated
Really long HWs with no help. TAs and Tutors don't respond, I still have 5+ messages on different instances unanswered. Assigned PSET with 2X the amount of points during finals week, and kept correcting his errors 4 hours before the deadline. Unclear instructions, constant useless tangents during lectures. Overall a bad time, but he's a nice guy.
Confusing lectures, long/tough assignments w/ many errors, & little help from him or TAs. Stopped attending lectures because I learned nothing in class & relied on other resources to teach myself. So much homework: expect extra difficult assignments right before exams. Nice guy & interested in what he teaches, but I can't get over the rest.
Good luck.
HOLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYY, DO NOT TAKE HIM
Professor Yap is a great human being. Unfortunately for Yap, this is not a website that rates humans based on their personality. His teaching method is confusing, dismissive, and disconnected from reality. You will not learn from him, nor will you learn from the TAs he employs, none of which have a single shred of competence. Avoid if you can.
The stuff of nightmares
By far the most unhelpful TAs I've ever met. Refused to solve homework problems and gave wrong answers during office hours (I mean, seriously?). The homework itself had many mistakes and neither the TAs nor the professor fix them timely. The recitations were also useless, teaching extra-difficult stuff instead of just going through the homework.
chee yap acts like he has no understanding of the absolute mental disaster he puts his students through. his hws are outrageous and TAs are unhelpful. by far the most difficult class ive taken, and it's his fault, not the content. the only saving grace was the class discord. discord. a truly horrifying experience i never want to relive. save urself
I have several new grey hairs & had to get a therapist. HW is horrific and TAs and professor are completely inaccessible. taught things that even the professor gets confused on. stuff that is easy gets made 100x harder. no clarity on anything and you learn nothing from lectures. cant even use youtube to teach urself bc he teaches different versions
academic victim is an understatement. i was academically jumped and assaulted, thrown to the ground, and left to rot. DON'T TAKE THIS CLASS!! you will have to dedicate every second possible to doing the hws and even then you won't be able to fully understand the material. im going to need months to recover from what ive experienced in this class.
prof yap is not a bad guy. BUT oh my goddd this class is the worst class i have ever taken. the toll that this class has taken on my body is diabolical. ive lost days of sleep. hw is SO long, recitations aren't related to lectures and r advanced but show up on exams?? + prof yap has his own notes/lectures so you cant go to yt for help. gl troopers.
boi what the hell. this class gave me more trauma than my abusive ex girlfriend. i've never had a professor gaslight and guilt trip me more than my ex, and that's saying a lot considering she's currently in therapy and a mental ward to fix her issues. i didn't pay 60k in tuition to relive abuse
He is kind but cannot explain things clearly. His homework is full of mistakes. He himself cannot tell us the correct logic about the homework and explain the concepts unclearly. However, his TA Zhaoqi is very very helpful and smart. (1 point for Yap, 1 point for Zhaoqi)
SMH, NO FREE SPEECH IN THE DISCORD. I GOT TIMED OUT FOR TRYING TO HELP OUT THE STUDENTS! FREE NORRIS CHANG. LONG LIVE THE CHANG CLAN .
Zhaoqi, 5! Bingwei, 0! Chee, 1! In total 1, calculated using undisclosed weight. For detailed answer please ask Bingwei.
chee is a nice and sometimes very funny guy. unfortunately he thinks undergrads trying to pass their way through a CS degree are trained and skilled mathematicians. this class ruined my social life and caused my hair to start falling out! do not take. run for your life. Bingwei is completely useless and somehow Discord got me through this class.
just don't take
Honestly, he is not a bad person, also very accessible by email. I bet somebody could master his class, but it's going to be lie 15+ hours per week reading his graduate notes and constantly asking questions. His hw was time consuming and difficult; his exams were as hard as I had expected. BUT HE GIVES A GENEROUS CURVE:)
Class is on the easy side, homeworks were not bad at all, in total 7 homeworks for a whole semester. Midterm was quite ez, final was a bit harder but still doable. And he did give a SUPER GENEROUS curve, the cutoff of A is as low as 81!
Friendly and fair professor.
Prof Yap actually cares about his students, and he is really helpful and accessible during office hours and after classes. I won't say the materials themselves are easy, but they are definitely not as hard as some students are complaining here. Read the book, do the homework, come to office hours, then you will be fine
Definitely do not go
Lots of homework every week. He will change the homework after publishing it. Students often find their homework IMPOSSIBLE to do. Then he will realize that there are some mistakes with his homework. For instance, he changed 3 out of 4 questions for homework 1, all of which were previously hard / impossible to do. WHAT AN *******
Really? SKILL ISSUE? His lecture notes conflict with each other. Look at "Basic Sum" and "Summation Rule Theorem" in his slides. They conflict, and it's trivial to show one is wrong. It's HIS skill issue to make his slides and homework error-free. Students are confused not because of their skill issues but because of HIS skill issues.
Never have wished DOWNFALL upon anyone more than I have, taking this class. Gave us six days to complete an assignment during midterm szn (fair) but there was a bug in his code. He was aware of said bugs but did not alter the assignment until the DAY IT WAS DUE! SPECIFICALLY 8 HRS BEFORE SUBMISSION! AND THE CODING PART IS LONG ASF SO LOL JOKES!!!!
DO NOT TAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never again
runnnnn
the fact that the students who rated this prof 4+ stars have an A in this class should say enough. he is fairly lenient with the curve, but then again, class avg is like 40 so he has to be. his assignments wouldn't be too bad if he was clear with the instructions, but he is not. and he's bad at teaching. and he teaches GRAD level. not so basic!
Not a good teacher, not literally explain anything clear during lecture. So much homework and some of them are just meaningless. Never take this course ever.
Homeworks are hard but they really teach you a lot. Yap is a very knowledgable professor and very helpful and caring in office hours. Tests are fair, based heavily on hw problems. It's simply a tough and dense class but meaningful if you want to deeply understand algos and cs. (It's true there are often errors in hw but this isn't a huge issue)
I was a happy bubbly person until I took this class. the course could have been useful, but the execution was TERRIBLE (on Chee Yap's part). Now, every time I come out of the shower, I genuinely feel depressed. Like I just stand there naked and start questioning life. Sleep deprived, constipated, broke.
I started pulling my eyebrows and my hair because of this class. Quite frankly, I no longer know who I am and lost a sense of self after the final exam. What is life? I lost the purpose of life for a good 10 minutes after I walked out of the exam. I started giggling, laughing, going hysterical, then a sudden struck of depression hit me.
I have 4 new gray hair and lost so much hair. Possible to pass the class but you're going to want to pass away first.
There will be a pop quiz, but the quiz is a very small percentage of the total score. A lot of students commented that what he teaches is a bit difficult, but he gives a lot of curve, and I think if you make enough effort to understand what he teaches, you can get an A and gain a lot of knowledge.
Prof Chee is smart, capable, and fair. Complex topics require mastery of basics, which later become assumed knowledge. Prof Chee sometimes forgets he's teaching undergraduates. Ask yourself: Are you taking this class for an easy grade with ChatGPT, or for genuine understanding?
If you are also math major, go for it, otherwise RUN! About 50% of the teaching involves high level pure math and the assignment requires a lot of self-study and research. No coding requirements though.
don't take it
its possible to do well in the class but the cost was not worth it. made me question my life choices so many times throughout the semester. hes pretty bad at explaining topics and would make mistakes while teaching (whole class was self-taught basically). even his TAs looked like they were being tortured. bro should think about retiring soon...
Very messy organization.
If you do wanna learn and train your brain, I recommend to choose Professor Yap.
I don't understand why so many students gave low ratings. He is clearly a responsible and caring professor, with very sufficient office hours, and he answers questions promptly and thoroughly. I understand that the assignments are difficult, but is it really fair to give a professor low ratings just because the assignments are hard?
Despite the depth provided by the notes, Prof Yap makes it no easier to help the class understand, often making mistakes. But that was much more helpful when compared to the TA, who could not communicate effectively for a single recitation during the entire semester. Lots of homework, but completing them will ensure the curved grading saves you.
I think he's too old to teach now, confused all the time, im sure he was a super smart professor maybe 20 years ago now he just forgets everything and confused himself
The material was interesting, he made good connection between algebra/num theory and algorithm topics. But topics far from application, didn't help my actual skill e.g.Leetcode. Also, lecture boring. The course was also structured in an extremely stressful way e.g. No late submission under any circumstance, no grace day, no dropped assignment.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
33%
Textbook Required
75%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Stable
+0.12 avg changeRatings by Course
ALGO1170
5.0
(1)FUNDA
4.0
(1)CSCI102
3.1
(10)HONORSTHEORY
3.0
(1)FASECT
3.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
FUNDALG1170
5.0
G1170
5.0
HONORSTHEORY
5.0
FUNDA
5.0
FASECT
5.0