nice guy, but lacks teaching skills

I hope for the future engineer's sake that Craig will not be teaching this course in their third year. He has taken a useful course and made it mind numbingly dull. He shows up late to every class and takes at least five minutes to organize is stupid ov

No Comments

This guys is completely useless. Not only can he not teach, but it is troublesome to talk to him one on one. He lacks all people skills, and would do better locked in a dark room programming away from people. Get rid od him!

is unbelievable this guy actually got hired in the first place...wat an humiliation to engineering as a whole. you learn absolutely nothing in class, i've got probably 2 whole pages of notes from the whole semester and 20% of ppl goes to his class

Unfortunately Craig is the most horrible prof I have ever had. The lack of clarity, decisiveness, and overall structure were beyond anything I have ever seen before. Craig is a nice guy, but maybe teaching is not the best choice for him.

useless

Not knowledgeable about the material he was teaching. Delivered wrong technical details. Unable to answer many questions relating to course material. Changed the way that 10% of our grade was going to be evaluated in the last week of classes.

brutal. confuses u even more than u already might be. doesnt follow his evaluation method. seems clueless about material himself.

Incompetant. I really feel sorry for all the lower years how have him for 1st/2nd year courses... You're really not getting your money's worth.

He is completely unorganized. His lectures are boring and usually ends up with him fumbling with his own thoughts. His HW instructions are merely a reflection of his teaching: confusing, wordy, and jargon-ridden. He is a nice person, but that's not what I'm paying for.

Useless professor! Can't teach whatsoever. He writes his notes for lecture on a piece of napkin. Assignments are okay, but if you were to take any higher level classes like 452, you don't get enough practices with Craig. The whole semester is on xModem, you don't get to do anything interesting like the robotic arm....

Craig is useless. I mean not only can't he teach, but his assignments are useless too, you don't learn anything in his class. You can try to pay attention, but it doesn't help, because he can't teach at all. Avoid him at all cost.

DON'T ask him questions during lecture, it will derail him into 15 minute long session of "umm, uh" that will ultimately lead to your painful realization that he has no idea what he is talking about and couldn't convey any information even if he had it. AVOID, take 215 with Patrick Leung instead if possible.

Absolutely useless. His lack of preparation for lectures combined with his monotone voice results in an almost comatose class every time. His assignments are mind-numbingly difficult and his tests are completely unrelated to lecture material.

Assignments are COMPLETELY unrelated to the midterms/finals, tutorials are useless, you will only understand anything if you go to the TA. Very disorganized, rambles when asked questions, can't explain anything himself so is forced to refer you to a textbook he didn't tell you to buy. Nice human being, but HORRIBLE PROF. RUN FOR THE HILLS.

Labs: you just type out code that he wants you to type out, and copy files. The entire time you hear "I know you won't understand this, but do 'this'". Midterm: told after midterm that it can replace final exam, not before. You have to self-prep for it. Assignments: need a lot of TA help or questions, but doable and I suggest working hard on these.

Made us pay around 40 for a website we used around 5 times. Doesn't follow any sort of syllabus. Doesn't even know matlab, admitted he would be "learning it with us" at the beginning of the course. Most disorganized professor I've ever seen, exams have no relation to course material. Scratchley is the man behind everything evil on this planet.

Spends over 80% of the class answering useless questions and discussing irrelevant things. Needs to adopt a much leaner, faster teaching style. Gives really bad canvas quizzes which have incredibly vague questions with multiple interpretations and could have a number of possible answers. I 3 assembly but what the heck is this course

Incredibly disorganized: puts off his one and only midterm to exactly one week before finals! Comes to class unprepared, likely without looking at the lecture slides that the amazing Fabio charitably gave to him. He's teaching ENSC 351 next semester and I'm considering swapping that class for something else.

awful teacher ever.

Had to self study and learn the entire course by myself because none of his lectures or anything he said was useful in any way whatsoever

Scratchley would make a good lab TA or highschool teacher, but a lecturer he is not. He is accessible and helpful on a person-by-person basis, but the lines after kectures and labs can have you waiting as much as 30mins. Lectures themselves are useless, as he literally opens the textbook and reads through and comments on it; class moves really slow

Craig is a nice person. He is a less than desirable professor.

One of the nicest guys I've ever met. He's super caring and eager to help, but he's also an objectively bad professor. I've taken three classes with him now, and it's always a disorganized mess. You won't get any grades for anything until after the last class, not that it matters because you won't learn anything from them anyway. Easy pass though.

I am a 5th year engineering student at SFU and this has by far been the worst course I have taken. This is my 3rd taking a class with craig. Usually he is not that bad but this course has been something else Problems include the following: -Labs are very disorganized - No lecture notes - each lab requires over 30 hours to complete

Craig is a mess. At this point, I've had him 3 times. Consistently by the third week about 60% of the class stops coming to lectures. He has the most disorganized lecturing style and his labs are guaranteed to be challenging. Not because they are good, but because they are poorly explained. He always ends up extending the deadline.

This class was so frustrating. The exams weren't difficult, but any Craig course is mentally exhausting. Every lab inevitably takes 3 times longer than expected or scheduled. He'll extend the due date at the last possible minute after you've already finished. While Craig is nice, his lecture style is inscrutable and you won't learn anything.

Craig is one of the worst lecturers at SFU. He literally placed the textbook under the document camera and read aloud. This class was so frustratingly slow and I learned literally nothing despite doing really well. The labs were fun, but only because I was taking 3 courses and had the ridiculous amount of time needed to do well. Craig is the worst.

351 is a complete joke with Craig. Honestly, SFU should stop Craig from teaching as he is super unorganized. Lectures slides are useless since they have no explanation. Labs are super long (+30hours) and 2 out of 4 TAs we had were useless. Get ready to study on your own and reading the textbook; although I believe the textbook is not good at all.

avoid him at all cost, he is a total rubbish in transferring he's knowledge to students

Good luck. Labs take a lot of time since most of the time is spent figuring out how things work. Go to tutorials and ask questions as they will help.

easily the worst prof in the ensc department

This course is not a difficult course by no means He teaches the class with consistent "uhm, you know, so". He is unsure about his slides, he cannot solve what he has there, and always fixes his mistakes. The most unstructured professor I ever had. Not that it is important cause anything he teaches in class has no relation to the exam, or lab work.

You have no idea what percentage does each lab/assignment affect the total percentage. You just know that 50% is for everything you do except for the exams. That is completly nonsense, because as students we take many classes, and we will spend the most time on more useful stuff to get higher grades. Not a nice lecturer, lost 10 years from my life

Has the intellectual equivalence of a donkey

im constantly fighting back tears in his lectures because of all the yawning. super boring. i literally have no idea what he is talking about or teaching half the time due to his inability to keep the lectures interesting and engaging. he seems really nice and caring though.

He just spent 5 minutes explaing how 3 + 4 + 5 = 12, right after he spent 25 min talking about bits and processors before showing us the answer to 3 + 4 + 5.

This man is horrible at teaching. Like God awful. He'll go on random unrelated tangents, and forget to actually cover material. He doesn't give out small assignments, which makes learning C++ basically impossible without prior knowledge, since we are graded on difficult large assignments. Coding is experienced based learning, not reading.

AVOID THIS PROF! If you are already stuck, and have no programming experience, I recommend dropping / requesting refund. Grades are based on assignments (in which you will do a grand total of 3!) and two tests. Neither of which the professor prepares you for. You'll get assignment grades months later, when it's too late to drop the course.

- HE DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO TEACH!!! - no structure w/ the lectures - 3 assignments that were ALL on fibonacci numbers. what is his craze w/ fibonacci numbers??? - all assignments were incredibly vague & HARD. the instructions were blocks of huge text & were worded exactly how he talks - u will only do well if u have experience w/ C++ BE WARNED!

WORST PROF AT SFU. You'll only succeed in this class if you have prior C++ experience. It took so long to start the coding for assignments because he couldn't figure out how to install Eclipse on the students' personal laptops. Stutters for the whole class and mumbles when talking too.

He rambles for two hours and you leave the lecture not learning anything. Assignment instructions are terrible too, and if you ask him questions he'll tell you to read the instructions. Assignment content starts a month or two into the term. Midterm was hard, and the practical exam won't be bad as long as you know how everything on Eclipse works.

It's not his fault that he doesn't know how to teach. He is a kind, caring, and good hearted person. Anyway, kindness won't help with learning. At this point, I don't even want to think about him, I just want to meet the person who made this guy a prof. Talking about the course, this course IS NOT beginner level at all.

if you're going to take this course, take my advice and learn C++ beforehand.

Nice guy, but genuinely awful at teaching. Goes off on various tangents during lecture, and the primary bulk of your grade is based on three assignments only. They don't even hand back your grade until way into winter break, long after the term's finished. You seriously won't learn anything from this man. Prepare to teach yourself everything.

-Very nice guy -terrible at teaching -no structure to lectures or clear learning objectives -DO NOT BUY AN ONLINE TEXTBOOK TESTS ARE OPEN BOOK ONLY IF YOU HAVE PHYSICAL COPY -read text book section ahead of when he teaches it if you want any chance to understand -complete assignments well ahead of time -it will seem useless but show up to class!

NO clear learning goals to this class. Scratchley's head is so unorganized, his exams are terrible, and there is not one thing in C++ that I am confident about after taking this class (coming from someone who has prior programming experience in different languages). You're screwed. You should know a lot of C++ already to succeed in this class

All the other reviews accurately analyze the grit of his teaching style; you truly won't learn anything conducive to your future exploits with C++ in this class. You'll have to self-teach yourself everything. Craig really needs to sit down and carefully reevaluate his teaching approach, especially given so many valid complaints and criticism.

These 2-hour lectures are the bane of my existence. Absolute torture to get through. The 5 min break in between is the only reason I'm still alive. If you know nothing about coding then be prepared for him to just jump right in.

do NOT take this course. this man is a actual POS. if you want info about exams, TOO BAD. you'll get 90% of that info 10 hours before the exam when you're about to go to sleep. now you're gonna have to stay up late even though you have exams on wed AND thurs just because craig doesn't know how to do anything in advance and give you necessary info

A joke. An actual joke of a class and a prof. If i could use all the words I wanted to describe Craig, I'd be banned. He literally only posted the code for the FINAL exam the night before, at 10PM. FOR THE FINAL EXAM. Like are you serious ?? How unorganized, uncommunicative, and last-minute can you GET ?? AVOID THIS CLASS IF U CAN!!!! SERIOUSLY.

Idk how this guy was even hired as a prof tbh

craig will @#$% you over for the final exam. he is so unorganized, and does not give enough information, leading you to failure. we literally DEPEND on this man to teach a course, and he can't even do his job. why are WE penalized for doing badly in his course if he doesn't properly teach us? please avoid this class at all costs. unorganized prof.

L, I watched highschool dxd 26 times during the whole semester

For those who have taken ENSC151 with him, I'm sorry to disappoint but nothing changes for the better. Skipping both 2-hour lectures was the easiest choice in my life. Marking from him and TA's is painfully slow as was in 151 (Our 1st assignment marks were returned 2 weeks before the semester ended). Just avoid if you can, gl if you can't.

Craig really needs to get fired. They shouldn't demote him any further since having him teach any other course is a waste of everyone's time. The way he teaches really shows that he doesn't even want to be there and just wants to get fired and collect that severance pay.

BROOOOOO, I'm sorry but whenever he teaches, he's all over the place and his teaching is not organized. Goes on too many tangents. I don't know why but he just makes this course so hard. If he actually taught and made sense then life would be so much better. Not taking another class with him ever.

Honestly the worst teacher I have ever had in my life. He is very disorganized, his teaching skills are terrible (with lots of um, alright, ok), the test makes no sense whatsoever and are hard. Most people failed the midterm test.

I can fall asleep to his voice. We love Craig. Watching youtube vids is better than this guy. PHD in Yappology.

Lectures consist of um and uh. Just read the book. Assignment instructions are as clear as his lectures (not at all). His midterm and final are bizarre. *The only lectures worth watching are the ones right before the midterm and final.* Craig please come up with lecture plans and clarify your instructions. Lectures could be so much more efficient.

Terrible prof and needs to be fired immediately.

Craig needs to be fired by SFU for incompetence. Anyone who has taken his courses agree that he is just a terrible prof with zero accountability. The classes would probably be better if one of the grad students took over.

Terrible. Just terrible. Terrible at teaching, terrible at grading, terrible at explaining. He is good at giving second chances, but thats about it. This is NOT a beginner friendly course. Skip his lectures and learn C++ on your own. Not worth attending. Awful prof, not sure how SFU still has him after so many valid complaints.

Terrible prof if you're going into anything software related. Doesn't explain anything clearly and goes off on tangents. It's pretty hard to fail the class if you get the assignments done. good luck.

Was not an enjoyable class. I got a 69.99% (keep in mind 70% is a B-) and asked if it could be rounded up and his response was basically along the lines of "No because if you were above the grade threshold you wouldn't ask for the lower grade so I can't raise your grade by 0.01%" and "If I did that for you I would have to for everyone".

Craig is a nice person but lacks as a professor. A project worth 35% barely relates to the course objective (OOP). Months go by without getting marks. Lectures consist of "um, uh, ok, oh yea," making it hard to stay awake. Exams are based on the project and are fair. He spends too much time on low-level, boring code walkthroughs.

The ENSC department needs to replace this guy. I don't care if they fire him or move him to a non-teaching position. Craig should never be allowed to teach a course again.

nice try diddy

tanking the reviews

Professor Craig Scratchley has a unique teaching style, but his tendency to curve grades down can be discouraging. While this approach pushes students to work harder, it often feels unfair. With clearer explanations of tough concepts, his classes could be more effective and less frustrating for students.

This guy sucks so bad it's not even funny

The SFU ENSC department needs to either find a replacement for Craig or make sure that he never teaches another class again. This is the second course I've had with him (the first one was ENSC 251) and he has not improved at all. He was terrible in ENSC 251 and he is still the same incompetent professor today.

Don't ever take this class with this guy. This guy is so bad that Ash and the students within the ESSS are filing a complaint to the dean. There are no slides with unorganized lectures and overall class, this guy shouldn't be teaching any course. He is not qualified for any of the courses he teaches.

This guy needs to get fired

I can't believe this guy gets paid $136,837 to do absolutely nothing.

I don't think I've ever had a prof be this lazy. The instruction documents he provides for the class is so poorly written. The laziness is also very obvious in the template code for the assignments.

The engineering department needs to seriously replace Craig. This course is a complete scam.

Listening to Craig is basically the worst way to learn.

Craig is by far the most annoying prof. Super disorganized and never gives clear answers.

This course is so scuffed. Craig is just cashing in those cheques while doing absolutely nothing.

This course is only difficult because Craig is so disorganized. I will be giving him a bad review in the course evaluation.

I am 4th year, so this is my first Craig class, meaning I have no prior bias. Definitely top 2 worst professors I had. No lecture slides, only code demos. Labs are difficult to understand what to do. The understanding comes from religiously asking Craig questions in the lab. No grades have been returned yet, and it is week 13 of this semester.

Craig, if you're reading this, know we still love you as a person. Assignments are hard to understand. Lectures are not concise, very boring, dense. Craig is a nice guy, he just doesn't want to put in the effort. This is my third Craig course. I haven't learned much :( As for exams, they are usually multiple choice so \_(ツ)_/

Craig, if you're reading this, everyone whos taken your class absolutely hates you. your lectures make no sense, no one can follow them , and your code demos are pointless. the labs are too confusing and overall a complete mess. you are, without a doubt the worst prof in my 4 years of being a student.

Craig, there are students in your class who are trying their best to do well in your class. You are by far the most disrespectful professor I've had at SFU simply because you put zero effort into teaching the course. No one can make you try but yourself so start tomorrow, or just leave SFU so students don't have to deal with your apathy.

I'm not mad, just disappointed

I think this class took a decade off of my life. No lecture slides, no assignment feedback until finals season, barely any embedded systems in an embedded systems class, and just overall bad. Thank you Craig for ruining my chances of getting a hardware job in the future!! :)

lol how is this guy still teaching

If Craig is still teaching either 151,251 or 351 next year then it's a clear indication that the SFU engineering department does not care about its students.

I've taken ENSC 251 and now 351 is exactly how I imagined it would be: Horrible. Craig is a nice guy but he cannot teach at all. In both classes I've had, I have learned genuinely nothing. For the sake of current and future students, I beg the Engineering department to please replace Craig. On behalf of everyone, this is a cry for help.

So many of these reviews keep saying that Craig is a nice guy. Are you guys ok? Craig is the definition of a grifter. He knows all too well that the department won't do anything even if he puts in zero effort. He didn't even mark a single assignment for ENSC 351 until it was already finals season. Craig is a not a good person and he knows it.

Another wasted semester with Craig.

I was a TA for Craig, and I'm sorry to the students for how the course was handled. The semester was chaotic and disorganized, with no clear structure in tasks. Craig often gave short notices and expected TAs to stay until midnight, which was unreasonable. This made it hard to support students. Be prepared for stress if you work with him.

Craig is a nice guy, records the lectures, and offers a zoom link. Craig's exams are fair. He did not provide good practice exams, does not use lecture slides, and does not take his content directly from the textbook, so studying for the exams may be difficult. His lectures are bland, unstructured and he often goes on tangents. Avoid.

This guys is THE WORST. His lectures are awful. The material is useless BS that is not even related to the course description. The exams are hard, and there is no scaling. His projects are so unclear and hard that I spend 90% of my effort of this semester on them, and still got a mid mark. Only take this prof if there is a gun to your head.

As a student working part-time to subsidize tuition and living, I have to remind myself why I work so hard everytime I sit in Craigs lecture. His classes lack structure, his lectures go off on pointless tangents and his assignments are so unclear even the TAs are confused. Craig is a top two worst professor and he's not #2. Students deserve better.

Never take this guy, If you have to wait a whole semester for a chance with a different professor, take it.

Trudeau just resigned. Do everyone a favor by retiring as well

These classes waste of 12k dollars in total. Learnt nothing , didnt know where to start from. If you're planning to go in comp eng , taking CS classes 120, 125 are better for basic clarity .Cmpt class after craigs class will be extremely hard. People who are saying he is a nice human ,well I am too maybe I should teach as well lol. .

Ain't no way this guy is teaching ensc 251 next sem

Failed this class lol

When will he stop yapping??

This guy is a con artist

этот парень ужасен, кто позволил ему преподавать?

Craig gets worse each time.

This guy is absolute dog water. I imagine craig reads these reviews every night before crying himself to sleep then wakes up the next day and doesn't care to improve his teaching skills.

At least he is a bit more likeable than trump

To anyone who has no choice but to take with craig. I dont know anything about coding and could careless about coding and I also failed both the midterm and final horrendously and I still passed lol

this guy is a pos

holy sfu doesn't give a f about their students that's why Craig could teach for more than 20 years now. honestly feel sad at this point

Istg this guy and Lucky know they got favored cause they went to sfu, so they can do whatever they want

Horrible, very disorganised.

I dont know how after all the bad reviews he still doesn't wanna admit that he's the problem. Every prof i had in the past admit their own mistake and change to be a better prof. This guy is close minded. Feel like he still thinks his students are lazy and overreacting. So sad this is what our department has become

I remember having an interview that asked me about embedded projects that I had in the past. And I was embarrassed to talk about the ymodem stuff that this guy taught in 351. That stuff is not even remotely close to embedded. What a joke

I feel like he actually tries his best. It's just he is no good at teaching.

it takes real talent to be this bad at teaching

I imagine this guy copes to himself. "Oh, I am actually the best professor in the world. Students cannot comprehend my greatness" - William Craig Scratchley

Craig FORGOT to mark my grade for a group project worth roughly 10-15% of my final mark. When I confronted him about the mark, he told me either I write a whole new quiz, or I don't get credit for the mark... Terrible classes, lectures are just updating his own project, meaning if you miss one you're screwed.