2.0
Quality3.2
Difficulty30%
Would Retake175
Reviews30%
Would Retake
175
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
10
4
12
3
36
2
37
1
80
What Students Say
“The quizzes and final aren't bad; understand the code from the website and processes from notes”
CMPT225 - 4.0 rating“Very unorganized prof with assignments that are very vague”
CMPT225 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
34%
Textbook Required
36%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.48 avg changeRatings by Course
CMPT307
2.4
(17)CMPT126
2.1
(14)CMPT101
2.1
(41)CMPT225
2.1
(80)101104
2.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
ALLCLASSES
5.0
CMPT125
4.3
101104
4.0
CMPT307
3.9
CMPT126
3.9
Reviews (175)
No Comments
Very confusing in his lectures, always late.
Always late!
No Comments
not enough material covered, unclear, unorganized, curves LOTS of grades to A's
Always late, makes people sleep in his lectures.
Late all the time, unclear, wastes time, don't count on easy life at 201
like everyone said, late. lectures are boring, HW is interesting, exams ar tough
boring, takes forever to mark stuff, easy fun hwk, messy finals(not hard)
like his hw, but had to read text book to get the stuff he was talking about
Boring, BORING! Sloooow lectures. Not informative.
easy & few assigns, easy midterms, easy final but you won't learn much!
Drones on and on and doesn't even make it clear.
good guy, but a bad prof
No Comments
always late, gets confused by questions, too few assignments,learn more from txt
Doesn't communicate well, horrible examples, not much progress for his effort,
easy assignments, tests...exams used the exact same examples done in class....just need to read text which is very basic....comparitively better than Evans or Tront
Nice guy. But horrible teacher. I think being a external affair guy kind of took the teaching out of him.
Easy Class. Can't teach. Still wondering how he ever managed to become a prof...
Worst prof ever! Late for almost ever class including the midterm. Can't answer any questions, and does not take any time to prepare students for tests. Should not be a prof!!!
No Comments
No Comments
If u understand the stuff, it doesn't really matter who teaches.
NOTE: Class does not start at 30 past the hour like the sfu calendar says but at 35 minnutes pased the hour. He was late EVERY class. A very disorganized teacher. Make sure you do all assignments properly, for the exams are based on them.
This guy is so nice. Class is easy. Assignments are easy. Doesn't really teach, but who cares? This is university, read from the damn book. Slack course.
useless teacher.. His handwritten notes are not the way to teach comp.sci., and when he finally does show up he spends the whole class answering questions about the assignments(shouldn't we figure these out ourselves?). waste of my money
Cannot teach at all. The only reason students actually pass his course is because they already know the material. If you're a beginner, you will have an extremely hard time since his lectures are so unorganized. Taking his class was so frustrating!!!!
i never had him but my friend, the guy below me says he sucks. i was gonna take the course but not anymore. VOGEL where are UUUUU?
always late for class. you'll learn more by reading the book rather than listening to his lectures. nice guy, but can't really teach well.
No Comments
Doesn't him just encourage you to read the book. The book is far more helpful than him. Read the whole book, do his assignments right, and you get an A+.
very unorganized
Very easy teacher, but he doesn't teach. He's very unorganized and answers WAY too many specific questions in class (PEOPLE, USE OFFICE HOURS!) Some classes, we miss the lesson as he spends all the time answering questions
This professor sucks BAD...He was my first cmpt professor for my FIRST ever semester...he jumps around topics in class, answer questions TOO thoroughly during lec, and is always late...i say sfu should fire this guy.
No Comments
--> a very easy prof.. If you have already taken programming in Java before, take him as our prof! guaranteed A+.. But if you know NOTHING about programming, PLEASE choose another prof if you really want to learn/understand programming.
No Comments
This professor really sucks. -Messy notes -tedious lectures -you ask him a question and he doesnt even know the answer. -he's not familiar with java.wtf..he should at least study it for a bit before teaching it. -his mid term...so many programming questions and the questions aren't really clear
It was quite easy for me because I knew the concepts well enough. His assignments were not bad.
Very bad teacher =(. Doesn't know Java well enough, makes loads of errors in his notes, that students correct, (and what is students don't find them all 0.o).
if you already know stuff, take the course, if you dont know anything, dont even get close. he cant teach, jumps around subjects, is late, very bad.
Doesn't answer questions raised clear enough, though spends whole classes going over how to do the assignments. very boring class if you already know basic programming. late often. midterm was ok, but too much code writing, final was easy. the text was sub-standard.
omg he's not good at teaching!!! People who have programming experience should be ok. BUT if you aren't good at solving problems then don't take his class. His notes aren't very useful when you have to program his hard assignments...He took the fun out of cmpt ...
I can't believe he cancelled classes for a whole week. This course is about the fundamental of cs and java, the prof is important to us. He doesn't care about students. I don't understand why university hire this guy. I highly recommend you don't take his classes. It will waste your money and time.
Horrible teacher. He never clarifies anything, and teaches the easist materials to us. His tests are also horrendously difficult.
Terrible...unreasonable pacing of lectures (some parts slow and some too fast), unclear and a lack of assignments (only 5 w/ 2 worth 12% each), and most importantly, he does not explain things well.
The lectures are hard to follow and boring. The midterm and final are also somewhat unreasonable. Though, I found his assignments helpful for new programmers.
he is a lazy prof, unclear assignment, messy organization, lack of clarify...
No Comments
Oh my god! I can not imgine SFU have such a professor, he made me know nothing about JAVA and did horrible in the test. If I had a chance to choose again, I will sleep home instead of taking his lecture; If I can add a time to how long I will do this, I wish 10 thousand years!
I thought he was fairly easy and clear in lectures.
Believe me, you have a very good chance to FAIL the course. Espeically, if your 1st language is NOT English. I took the course a year ago. it's boring. But JAVA shouldn't like that.
He teaches clearly and well in his lectures... However his midterms are totally something you wouldn't expect, and the assignments are marked very picky. Although programming java is easy, getting any decent marks in his class is NOT! Why????
From other classes: "Horrible teacher. He never clarifies anything, and teaches the easist materials to us. His tests are also horrendously difficult". Although his lectures are clear, the immense mess and unclarity in assignments and tests (worth practically most of the marks) has made him an unfavorable prof. Improvement definitely needed :(
This prof is a nice guy, always ready to answer any questions you might have. However, he is a poor teacher. Not only he is somewhat unorganized and unclear, but his lectures have little to do with the material he tests. His exams are challenging, although he scales them.
Wasn't that bad, could use work on addressing computer issues with a clearer explanation of them. If you know how to program then this course is easy, if not, hopefully you'll make an effort to ask as many questions as possible.
Dont take his class if ur learning Java for the first time. His material is messy and unclear, and always cancel classes without even emailing us. If u wanna fail, then take him.
just as people said, this prof is terrible
This is the worse professor I've seen. The course content was not an introduction to java programming. Even after reading and practicing I am failing. Professor misses class, is late for class, and never reply emails. If you are a first timer, i suggest you stay far away from him. Probability of failing is high. (Midterms are killer.)
Confusing unorganized lectures
very unorganized and lectures are not prepared
There's not point in attending class. What he teaches is extremely useless. I don't understand anything in his class and he just keeps yapping and yapping. His notes are confusing and useless. His notes are equivalent to no notes. No point in attending lectures
Yes, from what I can tell, his midterms are a far cry from whatever he's teaching in class... however, I say from what I can tell because his notes are so convoluted that it's hard to say for sure. He's got this crazy way of drawing the implementation of a method that makes no sense - and then expects you to be able to replicate them. Be warned.
No Comments
The biggest problem in his class is that this prof is kinda unorganized.Though he explains things well, his lecture notes are messy and always updated late. That's why half of the students failed to catch up. Exams are fair for those who paid attention in the lecture and studied notes carefully.
A terrible professor. Several canceled lectures, and many canceled labs. Of our few labs, some had absolutely no content when attendance is mandatory. His lectures are boring and it is much easier to learn from wikipedia, or the textbook. If you have no java/non-python experience going into 125/126 with Mitchell, you will have difficulties.
Wears the same thing every day, and teaches the class in a way that even the worst of the unintelligent students can understand(and yet they still fail), making the course painfully slow for those of us who already knew are stuff. He also screwed up an assignment and delayed answering a question brought up in class for over a month(never answered).
Oh god. For our 1st quiz, this guy lied to the class. He claimed that there would be multiple choice and matching but that never showed up on the quiz. Also, he said he'd post details about the quiz soon but he ended up posting it at 9 pm ON THE DAY BEFORE THE QUIZ. He's nothing but a liar and a wannabe prof. Seriously.
didnt learn anything from him, worst prof ever!
Professor David Mitchell should not be in a teaching position at Simon Fraser University. He may be a wonderful researcher, but he is not a competent teacher. He missed assigning mandatory parts of my course. His presentations were confusing. Many students agree: we learned nothing from him.
Ive one taken his course,and it's really horrible...for your own sake, don't take the guy's course; otherwise, you will be very upset about your marks...No one likes him in the class, and you didn't learn anything
Can't teach. Takes forever to give out assignments, there were 3 assignments promised and the first one was posted 1.5 month later while the third one was posted after the classes ended. However, he curves the marks a lot whereby a C+ becomes an A.
If you have python/java background, I recommend you to take the course with him. Since mitchelle can't teach a thing, u'll have advantage over the other poor students.
I should not have to refer to wikipedia every time he finishes talking about a subject in the course! Seriously, I found it so hard to follow what he was talking about. After referring to Wikipedia and other sources, I understood it much better than the way Mitchell explained concepts.
I am still taking his course, but this guy is an idiot. He creates an assignment, gives us 2 weeks to do it, does not release the sample program until 4 days before the due date. 1 Day before the assignment is due he corrects HIS errors. Also the test program had bugs in it when he uploaded. I am going to lose marks because of HIS incompetence.
Won't learn much, but class grades seem quite good. He's a pretty nice guy too that does seem to care about students.
I highly do not suggest taking this course with him. As many would say before me, several valuable cancelled labs, assignments that weren't on a regular schedule, and boring lectures with lots of notes that doesn't flow well. My marks suffered due to these major issues. And I thought he (like other good profs) would care how people learn...
You must be prepared to take notes insanely fast to keep up with his messy/fast note writing. Major headache: his v's look like r's and vice versa. The textbook was useless so you rely more on his notes and online stuff. This makes things more complicated than it needs to be, but he marks easy. Not bad considering other worse profs out there.
This prof is really nice! I don't know why previous comment so sucks. His note is useful,he explain the materials very patient and impressed. I like this prof. The course scheme is not tense, just 3 assignments in whole semester and they are absolutely not insanely difficult. No midterms but has 4 quick quiz.
Lack of clarity is inevitable. Absolutely boring. Myself though, I studied at home and I studied a lot. I am pretty sure I am going to fail with exam a week away. Good luck whoever takes it with him
He is the best prof, he can deliberately explain your question which is much better than most of the Political Science profs that I have seen in SFU, questions are encouraged in the class. For everyone else who left the bad comment, I don't think they can pass any course in any university. Attend class and visit the office hour if u have questions!
Very straightforward. Tests are based completely on his lecture notes and things he uploads to the course page. He is a much better lecturer/professor than the reviews on this site would indicate. Very available too.
Very unorganized prof with assignments that are very vague. TIP: Although the quiz doesn't require you to write code and he says that the final exam will just be a longer version of a quiz, make sure you memorize all the code (eg: quicksort), because half of the exam will require you to memorize the code he puts on his website.
He is really nice. Quizzes were easy and clear, but his style in final is different. You should memorize programing staff for final. final is difficult. don forget, read codes clearly for final (and some quizzes) He is nice and helpful
Came into the final with an A, did well on it. Got a B-. Came in to discuss and he "had to scale down the class"...? His grades aren't reflective of how well you know the material, only politicsquota.
Class material is very easy but problem is he doesn't upload his lecture slides to course website so you have to come to class and take notes(or copy notes from a friend). He also go over his lecture pretty fast so you need to write fast to keep up with his lecture. Quizes and assignments are very easy.
Doesn't like organizing office hours but his lectures are clear and he will help you if you ask. The assignments and tests are easy, just follow the logic of his pseudocode. Overhead and Powerpoint slides used in lecture with labs and assignments in C++.
Quizzes and assignments were easy and not very helpful. Didn't learn much about coding. However, it's important to go to classes and take notes.
He's a nice person but you'll be too busy catching up to taking notes that you won't learn anything in class. What's worse is that he keeps saying "I know students can't catch up but you don't need to write these down!" okay but what are we supposed to do instead? the textbook is too big if we don't take notes we'll have no source for the final.
Tried really hard to not rate him a 1/5. 2/5 is purely for the sake of gpa boosting he offers. He gives the easiest assignments and quizzes in all the cmpt courses I have taken. The course material is in my opinion, only scratching the surface. Take 225 with him if you just want a high grade. If you do want to learn something, don't.
First of all, it is impossible to keep up with him in class as he throws up slides and expects you to write it down meanwhile he never posts them. 2nd, he grades assignments with a mythical scale where you get 30% even though you matched his test case output. This guy should not be a prof as he lacks the utmost basic skills. Seriously, AVOID HIM!
His notes are all hand written and you are expected to copy them down (no taking pictures) instead of reading them from somewhere else. What bothered me is that his quizzes/tests and his assignments and labs are not in line. We will get a test on a topic that we haven't had the chance to practice because its lab or assignment isn't due for a month!
Either you listen to him and find notes somewhere or you take notes and miss the class, learn from notes. However, he goes through data structures pretty solid but doesn't gets into coding part much. Don't expect to code much in his class
Too easy quizzes and final exam. 40% of the students in the class receive 90%+ but only 1520% can get A grades.
Unsure why people dislike this prof. I think he is a solid choice for 225. You must go to the lectures to be successful as he doesn't upload notes. This sem, he slowed down and you were able to write down the notes. You cant take photos in his class. The quizzes and final aren't bad; understand the code from the website and processes from notes.
Decent prof. He goes over things very slow so everyone had a chance to take notes. Code portion are posted on his site. Quiz were self-explanatory if you read over the notes. Finals were very similar to the quizzes. He doesn't use a mic so make sure to sit in the front.
Decent prof, but be sure to take a lot of notes from lecture since he does not post it. Lab assignments are alright and he does give enough time to complete them. Expect quizzes to cover material from class only, not the textbook.
David teaches computer science correctly by not using slideshows. The material is commonly known to be hard. David is also very approachable. Computer Science might not be the right fit for you if you think this is too hard.
I find it funny that the one professor that is actually competent at SFU has the lowest rating. To do well in 225 all you have to do is attend classes and take the notes - assignments are fair and intro C++ concepts. I wish he taught more classes since he's one of the few profs at SFU who is fluent in English and helpful/approachable.
David Mitchell is quite slow. As in, he never finishes covering what he wants by the end of a lecture, he gives us literally 2 assignments very far between one another that are both really easy, and as of right now he hasn't returned to us our first assignment. It was due a month ago. Kind prof, but I think he needs some improvement. Cover more.
The worst kind of prof, i.e. one that actually has the chops to explain concepts clearly but is let down by a severe case of laziness. We had no labs the whole semester because he said he couldn't be bothered. He promised 3/4 assignments but ended up getting 2. He said 3/4 assessments ended up having 2. A week into the final, we only know 6% grade.
He is so lazy it is actually unbelievable! He doesn't respond to emails from students OR EVEN FROM THE TA's ! Never gave proper assignment requirements and didn't even finish the entire course. If you want to learn data structures and how to implement them take this class with Anne at least she has structure and doesn't cancel class all the time...
lectures are clear and he is super helpful and accessible. My only issue was with organization. We got term project requirements later than I would have liked (like 2 weeks before due date), and the project was worth a LOT of our grade. We expected to have 4 assignments, but only had 2. Other than the disorganization it was totally fine!
Very disappointing class. Mitchell is good at explaining and writes nice notes, but the class was very disorganized and took forever to get marks back, a lot of last minute cancellations, didn't even get to important topics, no labs, barely did any coding at all and only 2 quizzes when we were promised more. Take with ANYONE ELSE.
If getting good grades is your only concern, Mitchell's 225 is a GPA booster. However, he's very disorganized and teaches very slowly. Some topics like caching are skipped because he ran out of time. Definitely not recommended if you actually want to learn something from the course.
He's a really good lecturer. Surprised people complaining about too FEW assignments. Seriously? I guess people want a lecturer who can't speak proper English and gives a lot of useless assignments...? Trust me, if you just jot down notes during lectures & study, you will do GREAT. Also, his pseudocode is great for understanding hard topics
The lectures were pretty decent (albeit a few coding errors). As far as CS classes go, his version of 225 is relatively easy, which means even small mistakes can hurt. I would have appreciated a little more feedback on exams (our first midterms were never returned). He's not bad enough to delay taking 225.
Just an awful professor. Of all my profs, he was the least able to convert to an online class structure after campus was closed down. We missed 8/10 lectures, multiple assignments, and I still haven't received my final exam mark AFTER my grade was finalized(???). Furthermore, my TA was equally, if not more, incompetent. Easy class, little content.
he is the worst professor
David is very ying yang... He's very knowledgeable about the material, however he is very lazy. His lectures are clear, and he posts slides now, but don't expect to go through all of it. His biggest flaw is giving feedback on assignments and midterms (we just didn't get our midterm1/ final back) But you will learn stuff in his class. Solid B prof.
He covers the material rather slowly. Cancelled class 20 minutes in advance once, and twice more with 1hr notice. Lectures and assignments are super simple but the tests are way more in depth, it kind of catches you off guard.
The only class materials professor Mitchell give us are 30 - 45 minutes of video lectures PER WEEK. His assignments and quizzes are extremely confusing and tests us on the things we barely learned. Admittedly, his lectures are very easy to understand and his class would be so much better if he actually care about the class.
DO NOT TAKE HIM ONLINE!! He is super unreliable, doesnt post lectures, doesnt use canvas, doesnt answer emails. This guy basically doesnt do his job, take anyone else. This is the first class ive ever had to drop (Im a second year whos done lots of math classes and I have a 3.5 gpa).
DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR ESPECIALLY ONLINE. I m in 2nd YEAR and i had a 3.5 GPA and here I am worried about whether or if I PASS OR NOT. till now 13 lectures and average lecture is 20 min FOR A DATA STRUCTURES CLASSSSSS . REALLY WORRIED ABOUT FUTURE OF THISS COURSE AND OFCOURSE FINAL EXAM
This course is supposed to be three fifty-minute lectures per week, but instead, you get one thirty-minute lecture. The weekly quizzes are unclear and filled with typos. The assignments are vague and also kinda useless. I feel like I learned absolutely nothing, a complete waste of money. Do not take this online, save your money
Extremely inconsistent and very disorganized. Assignments are vague, instructions are charged up until a couple of days before the assignments are due. Quizzes are scaled where 2 hours of material might be quizzed for 3% of your grade whereas a 20-minute lecture quiz may be worth 5% of your grade. Quiz questions are worded horribly. Avoid him..
9 lectures in 13 weeks. Seems to make up the syllabus on the fly. We hardly did anything until the end of the semester. Suddenly within the few last weeks we're overloaded with assignments and quizzes. Grade weights seem almost random; 5 standard questions worth 14% while a project worth 20%. Yes, these are tough times, but this is unacceptable.
Mr. Mitchell, if you read this, it is not a rating of your character, but a representation of the quality of education we received. The quality we received was unacceptable, our futures are at stake. When this much lack of effort and organization is displayed by a professor for a crucial course, you're collectively condemning students to fail.
This is the laziest professor at SFU. His lectures are fairly easy to understand but we only have 30 minutes of material per week. Quizzes and assignments are worded horribly and try to trick students most of the times. The grade distribution doesn't make sense at all. He uses Coursesys for quizzes which is infinitely harder to use than Canvas.
I am pretty worried that this course will not prepare me for future CMPT classes that require this class. You are supposed to get three 50 min lectures every week. We basically only got one 30 minute lecture per week so we didnt learn a whole lot. 1 lecture of class time every week was used for a quiz. What a complete waste of money.
Letter grades are out but we haven't gotten back 80% of our marks. I did very well but some others failed and have no clue why. Students have a right to know how their letter grades were determined. It should be against a university policy to withhold marks like that. Don't take a course with this prof.
DO NOT TAKE IF IT'S A REQUIRED COURSE! Things get canceled, weighting shifted and announcements made well past when expected even after days of asking. No time to learn, you'll be focused on trying to navigate through the confusion of the class and worrying about missing chunks of the final grade. Stressful to be taught by, lazy and doesn't care.
Please dont take 225 with him for the online course, lecture videos are too short to explain the concepts completely, never reply my e-mails, give the weekly-quiz grade so late. Assignments would spent lots of time for you, you may need to do some research by yourself, I do learn something from those, but not related to test. No idea why I got B+
He is the worst prof to take for online learning. I would suggest rather to take a semester off than taking this teacher who doesn't even know how to use zoom properly being a CS instructor. Throughout the course he was unsure what to teach and what not to. No clarity about the grades was given to us. Total waste of money by taking this course.
If the prof reads this I will be really happy as he should be aware that he is putting students future at stake. I don't know why SFU has kept him as an instructor. Most disorganized class that you could ever take. This is one of the important course that will prepare you for future and this prof didn't teach us anything. He wants students to fail.
Horrendous
I was worried about taking DM before the course started, but I've been pleasantly surprised. It is true that he is pretty lazy, with less than a dozen video lectures all year, but he has quality Q&A sessions and very reasonable quizzes. His lectures are informative, but do require self-study to reinforce. He's way better than his reviews here say.
The best professor for teaching 307. It's a challenging course but his teaching style is best among all the professors. A GPA booster for sure if taken with David
Just run away and take this course with someone else. He doesn't respond to email nor does he care about students.
Worst Prof ever!! Just take the course with someone else!!
He took very long to provide grades for the midterm. Hard to track progress throughout the semester. Lazy and unresponsive.
WORST PROF EVER!! Exams were lengthy and quite difficult. The teaching style is horrible, do yourself a favour by taking the course with someone else.
David is probably the laziest teacher I have ever had in my life. He doesn't even have a lecture for every class (online). However, this class wasn't too bad. He's pretty good at explaining, and the class takes minimal effort since there were no assignments. He takes forever to mark quizzes though, and the grading scheme was a bit unclear.
Lectures were few and far between, and not always posted on time. However, his Lectures were good and he explained concepts well. If you want lots of content and a strict environment then he is not for you. He definitely made 307, which is know to be difficult, an easier experience as it felt like he cut out some of the extra material.
Worst prof ever. Laziest and doesnt care at all. His syllabus is the laziest could be. Just take it if you wanna ruin your mental health.
Had Mitchell for CMPT 225 two years ago, thought he was awful - lazy and unprepared. Took him again for CMPT 307 and he has improved tremendously, really good lectures and he provides video recordings. His quizzes are probably the most fair quizzes I've taken for any class throughout my entire degree so far. Went from Not Recommended to Recommended
Look overall Mitchell is solid imo, yes at the start he kept forgetting to post the slides on canvas, kind picky with tests mark scheme. Yes he was messy. But for 225 just make sure you go over the slides and understand them and you'll do well in tests, exams are very very fair. Nothing was surprising from any of the test, it's about how much u do.
Hi Everyone, As I am writing this, I'm almost done with this course. I wanted to say this was he was the most unorganized prof I've ever had. More, his explanations are not clear at all. The only good thing is the tests are fair, and they're from the lectures; however, the assignments doesn't have clear explanation. Don't take class with him!
David is disorganized but he is an OK professor otherwise. The assignments felt like they were created overnight. His lectures can be boring but this is a data structures class. The tests are actually fairly easy as long as you understand the examples in the slides. Expect to receive your marks a month after the due date. A bit overhated imo.
The course was graded by only 6 quizzes and a final exam. The content felt very dense and hard to get into. This course feels like it should be more credits. The handwritten slides adds somewhat unnecessary complexity when using them to study. Needs lots of extra time outside of lectures to properly study the content.
Terrible assignment organization, distribution, doesn't zip assignment files when handing them out but expects students to zip submissions. Marks assignments way too late. His exams are easy although he provides no practice exams.
David Mitchell is a great guy, his lectures are very good and he answers everyone's questions very well. The class was super easy too. However, he takes forever to mark (and assign) the assignments and the instructions are super vague on what to actually do. I don't know why everyone is hating him so much though he's pretty good overall professor.
Professor Mitchell's lectures and explanations in the second half of the course were confusing for me and I often had to look at other resources. Lecture slides would always be posted late. Assignments had very confusing and vague instructions. Overall, he's chill and exams are not too difficult if you understand the concepts from his slides.
Assignments were poorly organized, causing confusion among students and constant catch-up due to inconsistent deadlines. Grading delays left us uncertain about our academic progress. Lectures lacked engagement and humor, and his tardiness disrupted classes, worsened by restrictions on photographing materials. Very superficial lectures.
Assignments were not graded and returned in a timely manner, syllabus was disorganized and he expects you to attend class to receive the complete lecture. He provides very little guidance on what we should scrutinize when submitting our assignments, and his TAs were as disorganized as he was. Overall a nice man, but prepare to expect the worst.
David only gave back a single assignment during the semester out of four. Our second assignment was given back a day after classes had ended, with no feedback. Don't take David if you like knowing your grade.
Great teacher. Wish the class had more practise homework so we dot have to search to practise data structures practise by hand. Practise midterms would help too.
The lecture is pretty boring, hand-wrote powerpoint kinda hard to read, grading takes long time makes me feel annoying, no practise questions that can help the quizzes and tests.
Professor Mitchell's lectures can be hit-or-miss, but using Unstuck study for extra practice really helped me stay on top of the course material. The assignments are a bit disorganized, but overall a decent class if you put in the work.
Yeah no, this course is too hard and with him it becomes impossible. Dont make the mistake of taking this class in the morning otherwise you'll just sacrifice your sanity to listen to this early in the morning
David is a middle-of-the-road prof. His lectures are alright, but by nature 307 requires a lot of time studying outside the lecture hall to fully understand the concepts. A few errors on sample solutions and notes, but he made corrections and responded to questions on piazza in a timely manner. He only grades by 5 quizzes + final, so study!
This class is graded by 5 quizzes and a final, with each quiz feeling like a midterm that takes an entire lecture. It's like having 5 midterms. Don't take this class in the morning—algorithms are dry and hard to follow. Lectures are handwritten and confusing, making it tough to decipher without watching YouTube videos to understand the material.
David is very helpful, providing clear answers to questions outside of class and assisting with problem comprehension. The quiz and final exams are fair as long as you review the slides and problem set.The slide is a bit confusing though.
our class average was c, the final exam was too difficult
Gives somewhat reasonable exams. He's pretty lazy as assignments and solutions often posted late and gives us only the weekend to complete them. Average teaching and the handwrote slides were hard to follow at times. He was very approachable and responsive on Piazza. On the other hand, the TAs were invisible the whole term and did nothing but mark.
If his life depended on writing coherent instructions for assignments, he would die.
He is a respectable prof, he teaches with a soothing tone, easier to grasp the contexts. BUT, if you don't attend his class, even if you knew the material before, you're cooked. Because in exams he would ask you to recall what was taught in the lecture to be the standard for grading. If do can't bring it up, you're cooked (even "useless" details)
Just like the other computer science profs. Withholds informations, teaches topics that personally interest him, and but tricky.
This professor would give you a hard time understanding his assignment. He underperforms at writing an easy-to-understand description, always leading to confusion and sudden changes in the process.
Released the assignment the day after it was due. Gave me back my marks for my final after I graduated 2 years later. Can't recommend David Mitchell enough 👍🏿.
handed in almost 6 assignments, but only 2 were released until the final exam date.
he's a sweet heart, despite late grading, bro really cares about his students
His lecturing is basically circling his slides. His assignments are vague no clarification. His class is heavily on exams, even though the exams are ez, and you study the lecture you are fine. But then you get above 75 on the exams and you end up with a B, because he decided to change the boundary for letter grades (doesnt have on in the beginning)
David began the course by setting up his canvas page about 2 weeks after classes started. One section, included textbook readings, he updated it once and never again. He was slow at getting assignments out and even slower at grading them and by slow I mean getting assignment 1 back 2 and a half months after it was due. (1)
He encouraged the use of the online forum yet ignores all important questions. Don't bother asking about the promised exam review, he won't respond to you.Don't bother asking if we will receive grades back months later, he will simply ignore you.Your students aren't dumb it's very obvious that you ignore all the questions that ask something of you.
David is the perfect example of everything that is wrong with CS professors at SFU. David makes ~161K annually paid by us students ofc and yet he doesn't bother to answer our questions or put out any of the content he has promised his students until it's too late. For example, he released the final exam review, a day before the exam.
Morally bankrupt, maybe even evil.
I hate courses where all you do is stare at the lecture slides. No practice no nothing. The way he teaches CS is archaic, should utilize more practice and coding on a computer e.g leetcode style, while paper tests should only be reserved for stuff like big-O and similar. Dunno if it's the problem with him or SFU CS tho. Horribly late grading btw.
Worst prof ive ever taken. He is super slow in grading. Doesnt bother to answer any questions and he acts like he is the smartest person in the room. His notes have issues in them but he doesnt bother to fix them before releasing them. He also scaled down, making everyone's grade much worse than it should be. How exams seem easy, but grading bs.
I think it was his last semester but if you ever had to take him dont. Not only he didnt curve but he scaled down, his exams were easy but whats the point if i get 87% in the course and end up with and B+.
ending his career on a bad note
Boring lecture style, but they can be helpful. Lecture slides are handwritten and barely readable. Assignment instructions were never clear and always had to update instructions because even TAs were confused. False promises on test prep and solutions. Test difficulty and grading standard were on the lighter side. Nice guy overall
I got an A but this guy is doomed. How did he even had a teaching career?!!!
Tests n Final was easy lectures were dry and unclear yet tests r based off the slides. Assignments would be handed out late with no instructions, took 3 days to update the instructions to something half bad, leaving u 2 days to finish the assignment and don't expect to get marks back on time Assignment 1 part b was released right after the final XD
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
34%
Textbook Required
36%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Improving
+0.48 avg changeRatings by Course
CMPT307
2.4
(17)CMPT126
2.1
(14)CMPT101
2.1
(41)CMPT225
2.1
(80)101104
2.0
(1)Difficulty by Course
ALLCLASSES
5.0
CMPT125
4.3
101104
4.0
CMPT307
3.9
CMPT126
3.9