2.1
Quality4.2
Difficulty14%
Would Retake113
Reviews14%
Would Retake
113
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
12
4
11
3
17
2
27
1
46
What Students Say
“I am a student with gpa 4”
2431 - 1.0 rating“He is a disgrace to the computer science department”
CSE2421 - 1.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
81%
Textbook Required
60%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.71 avg changeRatings by Course
CIS676
5.0
(1)660
4.0
(1)CSE693
4.0
(1)CSE675
3.6
(11)2421
3.3
(4)Difficulty by Course
2341
5.0
CS
5.0
CSE230
5.0
CSE34610010
5.0
CSE3421
5.0
Reviews (113)
terrible at presenting the material. every day is a struggle to stay awake.
I don't think he knows what he is saying. No recommended, but you have to go thru him in order to graduate. ha! no choice, good luck.
I think he knows what he is talking about, he is just bad at presenting it. The labs are confusing as hell too because his english is bad. Don't bother going to his office hours.
terrible teacher. everyday i zone out for the whole class.
What the heck? His final was 13 multipart questions across 9 pages... a total of around 45 questions or so... non-comprehensive. Half this stuff I don't recall him ever going over in class. His classes are dry and boring.
Dr Babic is a good instructor. He has a good understanding of the material and is genuinely interested. He is also pretty funny. The other students who rated him poorly probably aren't great students.
CAN I SAY INTERESTING LOL. This guy sits in a dark corner of the class babbling in Babic speak. Writes chicken scratch on an overhead and then tests you on some obscure diagram in the book asking you to redraw it on an exam.
Does anyone else think he resembles David Letterman?
the material is difficult, but he is genuinely interested in helping students in the class. He does have an accent, but it makes the class interesting
Heard a lot of complaints before I took CIS 660 & 675.02. Taking the class, I thought he was pretty easy. Exams and HW not hard, labs in 660 pretty challenging. Lectures boring, but handouts help. Has trouble explaining some topics, but tries hard to help
wow that was an experience... prepare for the quarterlong struggle to stop laughing when he jumps all over the room. The final was 13 pages! Talking about 'lucky' numbers... Paranoid about people cheating. Doesn't explain material well.
The man is a terrible professor. Cannot phrase a question to save his life, but then wonders why no one knows the answers. Absolutely terrible, take it in Spring or Summer with Mathias instead, he rules!
I found his class to be quite exigent. The homework assignments and exams were not easy, and lectures were quite monotonous. He starts off sentences in a shouting voice, trails off to mumbling nothingness, and then repeats this process. I will never ta
His exams are insane. Tests you on obscure stuff in the book he never talked about. Helpful to a degree but if you have any trouble forget about it. Would rather criticize you than help you understand stuff. Lectures word for word from the handouts.
I truly wanted to like this prof. He genuinely does seem like he wants to help his students. But unfortunately due to his large focus on long drawn-out homework assignments and tests/exams, you had better be able to draw your circuits FAST and legibly. He isn't exactly lenient with his grading too.
This guy is great! Totally crazy but very smart and helpful. Ask him about semaphores and it makes him so happy he cries. His office is always dark and he types with two fingers. Every time he hits a key, his computer goes boop.. boop.. boop... It's madness!
Avoid at all costs.
This guy is a teaching nightmare. The material is chaotic, as is his instruction.
what a waste!
He takes a difficult subject and makes it impossible to understand. Most people came out with no better than C+ and few of us can actually program a working lab in assembly.
Exams are completely disorganized. Very boring, speaks with heavy accent.
Explains the material very well: I feel like everything makes sense. Offers several optional bonus questions and makes himself very available to help his students. Always encourages students to visit his office if they are at all confused. His accent is very obvious, but it does not make him hard to understand. Attend class and you will do well.
Not a great teacher. He doesn't controll his speaking volume very well, either.
Class left a bad taste in my mouth. His slides are terrible, he does not posses the skill of clarity and is unclear about what exactly he wants you to know. His tests are brutal. Don't expect to recant information learned from class; expect to invent computers, evaluate ficticious performance scales, and reproduce the most mind-numbing topics.
Took an individiual study from him to learn unix network programming. Basically just an intro thing. On a one on one level he's a pretty nice guy. More disorganized than most though. He's weird, too, real weird. I like him though and I'd take his classes again. His accent is definitely strong but it is not in any way a problem.
He obviously spends a lot of time preparing for class; his slides are very thorough. If you actually go to lecture, he has a good way of making complicated topics more accessible. His homeworks and exams are challenging, but I think this is due more to the challenging material than to the professor himself. I have now enjoyed 2 of his courses.
He's hard, and a little wacky, but he'll make you smart. His exams are an awkward combination of concepts and memorization: make sure you memorize EVERY bulleted item on his slides, and know how to draw all diagrams from memory. Aside from that, his class is pretty easy. The homeworks aren't bad, and he'll answer all your questions succinctly.
Pretty good teacher. Very descriptive and detailed slides. You end up learning a lot in the class because he forces you to study everything for the midterms and finals. His homeworks are pretty hard and tricky, but he will help you in his office hours if you have any questions. Has great passion for the material he is teaching in this class.
He is completely unorganized. We would spend a significant portion of each class just going over the corrections to the previous class slides. The tests were written in broken english. I one test I answered the question that was asked correctly. He marked it wrong because the question he asked wasn't the question he meant to ask.
Tests & hmwks r mostly paper & pencil & involve lots of tedious detail and precision. (e.g. instr states in a processor across clock cycles) Harsh grading--little partial credit. Frequently corrects errors on his own ppt slides--I'm not convinced anybody can (or is even supposed to) master the material. Very frustrating class.
a nightmare in true sense of word! knows how to screw up your grades. no matter how hard you try one cant follow what he is trying to teach. keeps correcting slides and his assignments would have atleast one question where he will ask you to correct a diagram/table in textbook. makes subject more difficult to understand. PLEASE AVOID if you can!!!
Although he's very smart, sometimes he doesn't realize how fast he's talking and it seems that everyone is too intimidated to ask a question. If you do happen to speak up in class, you better hope you're right or he will (unintentionally) belittle you by writing your thoughts off. I dare you to pay attention for an entire lecture.
Absolutely THE WORST professor i have EVER had at Ohio State.
Don't believe all of the comments you read here. Professor Babic makes you work hard for your grade. As long as you work hard, you will do fine. Very knowledgeable and extremely helpful.
Babic was pretty much the reason I changed my major. Take a couple classes from him and you'll know what i mean. First off, he lacks the communication skills that should be required in a college course. Also, he does not explain the homeworks at all, and most students are afraid to ask him for help because he will criticize you ever chance he gets
Had this guy for 675 and 677. If you can recall every detail of the lecture slides, the tests will be pretty easy. It takes a lot of studying, however, to do this--don't put off studying until the night before the test! Wasn't always very clear about presenting material in 677--I had to use the book to decipher a lot of the slides at the end.
Absolutely the worst professor I've ever had. Referenced tiny details on tests, gave little direction on labs. I was warned about him and didn't take the advice and paid for it dearly by having to learn everything by myself (as his lectures were useless).
Makes a relatively easy class somewhat difficult. Much easier as taught by other professors.
Babic's classes is very hard and you pretty much have to go to class to understand the material; he also takes attendance. Buying the book is useless, as all of the information is on the slides. Be prepared to get rocked by the midterm/final unless you study every detail of every slide. Thick accent. I've taken 660 and 675.01.I wont take another.
He knows the material but lacks the skills to explain it. He has an accent(he even writes with an accent), but in general he's understandable. The exams revolve around details. If you can memorize the material and know what every IEEE standard is you'll be set.
As others have noted, the tests are straightforward IF you memorize the slides. I studied about every other day for several hours and aced the course. Someone else pointed out that his lectures were very unclear at the end of 677. I agree! Be ready to spend lots of time using the book to decipher the slides at the end of 677.
Babic really wasn't near as bad as everyone made him out to be. Yes, he was boring, but it's not like the subject is inherently exciting. His expectations were clear. He was willing to answer questions. His exams were very straightforward if you studied. There were no tricks in this course whatsoever. The grader's the one you have to look out for.
I think he goes out of his way to put misleading details into exam and lab problems. For example, he has you code a process to print when an account doesn't equal 3000. So this implies that it should be possible for accounts to not equal 3k, so you code accordingly. WRONG! The 3k process should never print anything!
Really one of the worst professors of all time, easily the worst in the dept. Really without redeaming characteristics. Incomprehensible, awful lectures that get no information across. A ridiculously rigid assignment schedule almost no one can keep to with no flexibility. The only truly awful prof Ive encountered in this dept.
If you are academically ambitious and REALLY care about getting straight A's, then you shouldn't take Babic's CSE 660 -- take it with Mathias or Shareef or anyone else. If you don't really mind stressing like crazy and still getting only a B, then Babic's class might be fine for you. You have to memorize the slides - say everything the he wants.
His tests are incredibly difficult. The labs and homeworks are very time consuming and can be graded harshly. Do not take 660 with Babic, take it with anyone else.
Very difficult professor, take class with other professor if possible. Labs were out of the difficulty scope of the class. Office hours are helpful to attend but not if you are completely lost in the class. Exams based on small details of notes.
Babic is a great professor. Ive had him now for 660 and 677. He is one of the most knowledgeable teachers at OSU. His classes are challenging but know that you will walk out of them with confidence in your knowledge about the topics you cover. The last statement applies to students who actually want to learn and push themselves to do better.
He is easily the most nit picky grader I have ever had. On exams, even if your logic is flawless, he will deduct points if you use a word that seems vague to him, regardless of how specific it is within the context of this course. That may be fine for a research paper or code documentation, but not on a timed exam. He is also insulting and rude.
Feedback on labs and homework nonexistent. His exams are unreasonable
Alright professor, his accent can make it hard to understand some topics. Really nit-picky about details for exams. If I were to take this class again, I would start the labs the day they are assigned, and then go to his office hours whenever possible. If you get stuck and don't know what to do, you're on your own. Replies to emails after due date.
His lectures are dry and sound unprepared. He knows what he's talking about but that doesn't mean you will. Despite this and his accent, he'll test you on vocab from his lectures verbatim. Lab specs are riddled with vague language and typos, and clarification responses are slow. Known to fail over 30% of his class. Would not recommend.
If I quit school it's because he is crazy and is the worst teacher ever. Projects are impossible and there is no place to go for help.
He has a good heart if you go and talk to him during his office hours and genuinely want to learn. However, his exams are a bit ridiculous. The first exam was straight from the textbook and the second exam was nothing compared to the first exam, so you never get a feel for how he tests. It is hard to prepare for his exams but it is not that bad.
He's a great professor. Hard to understand due to his accent but 100% knows what he is talking about, obviously since he's been around for years.. Those who rated him poorly are probably just looking for easy A's and not looking to put the work in. He does grade hard but in a field where you should be graded hard.
Literally THE WORST!!!!, in every sense of the term. If you care even a tiny bit about your GPA, AVOID! Taking him even after so many constant warnings about how awful he is was the biggest mistake of my life. Not only he is a ridiculous teacher, he is mean, rude and deep down, just wants to fail you. Avoid by all means possible!
Never take Babic's class! He is terrible... Dropped his OP Systems class at the mid of the semester. Cannot stand him any more.
Extremely difficult grader. Marked me off 40% from midterm for drawing extra boxes on a few of the diagrams, which did not change the actual meaningreasoninglogic of the diagram (marked me off for putting TOO MUCH detail). But, did not specify in clear English how to draw them. Lab assignments take 15 hoursweek. Probably withdrawing now...
If you are interested in low-level theory and willing to work without limit, you can learn a ton from him. I find his lectures to be reasonable, and he's always been helpful to me in office hours. I definitely know like 100% more about CSE in general than I did before his class. However, his tests are exceptionally difficult.
Actually sticks around after class to help students, and doesn't cancel his office hours every other week, unlike other CSE professors I've had. His slides are sometimes difficult to wrap your head around, but once you do, you genuinely have a good understanding of the concept. His examples are well-selected.
Awful professor. I've had to drop two of his classes because he is so bad. Hard to understand and never finishes his train of thought.
Extremely hard to understand, partially because of his accent, but mostly because he will trail off when trying to make a point. He is always available for help, but he usually isnt helpful, I got the impression that he knew how to explain things one way, but if you didnt understand that way you were kinda screwed. Avoid if you can.
Would not recommend. When explaining what is fairly technical and advanced topics he is unclear and often trails off without explaining anything. Has a hard time realizing that some students won't understand material off the bat and is rude when answering questions. Fairly nice guy but is not a great teacher. Exams are hard too.
HORRIBLE
Babic is the worst teacher I've ever had the misfortune to interact with
I took his CSE 2421 class and though i passed, I would never take a class with him again. Its not that he's a bad person, he is just a bad teacher. He knows his material, however he is unable to relay that knowledge to you. If forced to take his class memorize the slides well for first exam. Beware he offers negative points on the final.
I took Babic for systems 2: OS, and contradictory to what everyone else is posting he was actually surprisingly easy. Although he is difficult to understand at times, the exams come straight from the slides. Yes, the information is difficult in general but I just studied the slides the day before the exam and did really well.
I am a student with gpa 4.0, now my gpa becomes 3.0, god bless me.
Most of his homework was not that hard. If you find that the assignment is hard for you, please drop this class because his exams are much harder. To people who concern his exam: 1. Don't put too much details on short answers. He will mark your points if you make mistakes on details. 2. Remember the slides! 90% is minimum request!
This guy doesn't even deserve a single star!!! He should have been fired or assigned to teach 1000-level courses!!!
You will learn a lot from him. His exams were hard, but if you study his slide and go through the homework, you will be fined. Offer extra credit. However, he said I didn't turn in final exam and gave me B- without any point from final! Problem is still not solved! Take photo with him when turn in exam! Or you will be blamed for not turn it in!:((
horrible! OSU should be ashamed of having this guy teach systems courses. such bad usage of English. such bad organization. terrible. poor teaching. I can teach better than him. gives points for attending: I don't want to attend your class Dr Babic because I can't stand you speaking. such waste of time. how unfortunate is that he teaches nothing!
He lectures from slides, but the slides only have half the material so you need to listen. He makes it clear that he has more important things to do than be teaching undergrads. If you go to his office hours, he isn't very understanding when you don't understand something from class. Expect, "I said this in class already" and "Did you take notes?"
A true terror. He will fail you harshly (50) on the tests if he didn't like your answers, even if they are partially correct. Homeworks and labs are medium difficulty, but take ages to complete. If you take him, memorize all the slides and research the topics on your own, including practice problems since he gives none. I tried hard but failed.
This is an extremely difficult class. This professor seems to really care about making students understand and I feel bad giving such a bad review. The guy's English is pretty bad and that's a major problem when asking questions. I also found myself falling asleep in class which I really never do. This was a boring subject and needed a better prof
While the grading criteria and feedback aren't all that clear, he is a fantastic teacher. His lectures may repeat or skip some things, but he always gets to them in some form eventually. The labs are hard but rewarding to complete.
Gojko Babic is the worst professor I've taken. Most students are almost always lost in his lectures, which include trail off sentences and information almost entirely irrelevant to tests and projects. It's rough, since he seems like he means well, but his difficulty is too great for how little his ability to teach is. Read the book, or fail.
If you don't read the textbooks, you won't pass the class. His lectures are incredibly dry, and don't really explain everything that well, but most of the homework and labs come directly from the book. Make sure you put in a lot of effort on the homework and labs, because the tests are impossible.
For a student who use hardwork to complement intelligence like me: He is the worst professor I have ever had! No ability to give lecture, rambles around, too thick accent to be heard, and even rude with my effort! Studied hard júst to get a D+ in his exams and going to withdraw fron his class soon!
I'm not sure where a lot of the other reviewers are coming from, but I didn't find him as hard as everyone says. Everyone receives a copy of all the lecture notes and reading from the book was never necessary besides homework from it. Homework/labs and exams were challenging, but not unfair. His accent wasn't that hard to understand
Get in a study group EARLY in the class to do labs and homework assignments as they are the only way you will pass. No partial credit on exams. You can get negative points on tests. The curve built into the class is the ONLY curve that will be applied. SWITCH IF POSSIBLE.
Babic is easily the hardest professor I have ever had to deal with. His exams never test the relevant, important material for the course topic, always something arbitrary that you skimmed over because of its lack of important. His labs can be tedious, especially considering the code given to you is horribly written. Tough class to do well in.
The biggest problem with Babic is that he does not recognize the fact that different students are differently abled and may have problems in class. He doesn't do anything to address this fact but if you are willing to put in an effort to reach out to him, then you will be greatly rewarded and you will end up loving this class.
Babic is, by far, the worst professor I've ever had. He's impossible to follow because he has a thick accent and his idea of "lecturing" is essentially just wandering around at the front of the classroom and mumbling incoherently. If you have the chance, drop his class. I'm sure that anyone else in the department will be better than him.
You have to ask yourself first what kind of a person is a professor, before anything else. This prof. is a bad, bad person, bad character. Avoid by all costs
There is a direct correlation between how important the topic is and how badly he mumbles. He rarely does in-class examples. His homework is hard and tests impossible. All of that being said, he isn't as bad as these reviews make him seem. If you give effort he is willing to work with you. He is great in office hours and has a HUGE built in curve.
This is a difficult class. I recommend taking notes on the optional readings before class. Babic's lectures are fine, but it is easy to miss important information if you get lost somewhere. He gives you printouts of the slides which is very helpful. He is also very accessible outside of class. You need a strong grasp of the material to succeed.
Poor lecturer. Rambles off-topic and is unclear when explaining key concepts. Not clear during office hours either. Exams are challenging, ambiguously worded, and harshly graded. Homeworks take a long time to understand but are graded leniently. However, he does give out handouts of the slides. Regardless, avoid this professor if possible.
Doesn't explain things well, and isn't any more helpful in office hours. A quote: "is easy, I don't know how else to explain it to you". Much of exams is diagrams from lecture - memorize them. Illegible handwriting during lecture. He runs into things at the front of the room, and will randomly sit and lecture to one person in the front row.
He is a disgrace to the computer science department. He doesn't explain things and grades very very tough. One bit mistake causes you to lose the entire question. I think it's time for him to retire.
He teaches horrible and grades very harshly. He has a terrible accent and mumbles too much that it forces you to sleep. Worst professor I've ever had in my life. He is too old and senile that he doesn't understand questions. Avoid at any cost!
This professor is the worst one at the ohio state. AVOID his at all costs!!!AVOID his at all costs!!!AVOID his at all costs!!!
This guy is terrible. Run and save your lives!
Drop the class if you have Babic. I would graduate a semester later rather than taking a class with him and getting a low score.
Worst class I've taken in my life. The networking class was full so I had to take this class instead (DONT). The homeworks are way to difficult, the exams are as hard as homework, meaning you gotta memorize diagrams by heart and regurgitate them. Gives very little partial credit and the material sucks and you wont ever use it. Avoid this class.
AVOID him as possible. A shame of OSU CSE department.
I might be the only person at this campus that thought Babic wasn't that bad. Far from my worst class and definitely nothing like I read here or on reddit. He mumbles, yes, but if you show up to every class it's quite easy to follow along. There are far worse professors on this campus than him. Never went to his office hours, so no opinion there.
Seems like a nice guy personally, but an absolutely terrible professor. Arrogant and uninspiring. The subject material is definitely tough. I went to his office hours for clarification and he made me feel stupid for the question I asked. Sorry we are just learning the material and you've been teaching it for a gazillion years. Avoid this professor.
Dr. Babic gives very boring, dry lectures. Often, he responds to students' questions a bit angrily, saying, "we've gone over that," before begrudgingly answering. Tests are extraordinarily difficult. He is a VERY knowledgeable, intelligent person. He is just an awful lecturer.
Avoid at all costs. Dry boring lectures that don't explain concepts well. Tests are insanely difficult. The final exam had a question that SUBTRACTED points if you answered it incorrectly. Yes he is knowledgeable but anyone would be knowledgeable if they have been teaching the same content for 20+ years. Nothing at the systems level has changed.
Professor Babic makes Systems II deceptively easy in the beginning. Projects are not hard at all. Homeworks are graded slowly, so you don't get a look at his grading until the first midterm. He doesn't give partial credit, and his test questions can award negative points. His tests are long and pedantic. His lectures are not bad.
Babic is a great teacher. Grading criteria are clear, and he's excellent at responding to questions. Assignments are appropriate and challenging. I wish more in the department were like him. For example, the "networking" professor I had was not even capable of ordering a decent book.
Very knowledgeable and clearly passionate about computer architecture, but fails a bit in the professor department;he's obviously more research focused. Lectures are 120min and tedious because he speaks slowly. A fun class, but despite Babic. I recommend you take this alongside ece2060 because the first half are similar. Accent Level: 3/5
Dr. Babic's lectures are hard to follow. However, if you can spend enough time to figure out the stuff he is teaching, you will be truly rewarded.
Extremely difficult to follow. I passed the class based off readings and online research. He is terrible at answering student's questions as he is often condescending and fails to understand what the student is asking.
Avoid at all cost. Grades extremely harsh, TA's are more understanding. Can get negative points on exams, Also does not help he asks questions and then belittles the person who asked if they get it wrong
Babic is a terrible lecturer.
Labs are haaaard. Exams are haaaarder. I pass out every time this professor talks, especially with that projector fan giving off that noise that complements his monotone voice perfectly. Great place to sleep, horrible place to learn. Im a senior, I dont wanna go thru this freshman stuff. Let him teach freshies and put some fear into them, not me.
Life is hard in quarantine. Life is even harder when you have Prof. Babic during the pandemic.
Avoid if you can. The class content is difficult enough, and Babic does you no favors in making it any clearer. He is somewhat condescending towards students and does not do a very good job with student questions. I will say that the labs and homework are relatively straightforward, so make sure you get these perfect.
Avoid this class! This was the hardest class I have ever taken at Ohio State, and Babic doesn't work with students to even try to help. I would take another semester of college rather then taking this class with Babic
I took several classes from Babic, back around 1999. Most notably CIS675 and 676 (computer architecture classes). Remembered him randomly after a recent conversation, amused he's still a tough grader. Advice to new students: You will appreciate him decades later if you make it through. He'll be rough on your GPA but you'll learn a lot.
He was literally awful. Rude to his students, graded exceptionally hard, and couldn't teach to save his life.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
81%
Textbook Required
60%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.71 avg changeRatings by Course
CIS676
5.0
(1)660
4.0
(1)CSE693
4.0
(1)CSE675
3.6
(11)2421
3.3
(4)Difficulty by Course
2341
5.0
CS
5.0
CSE230
5.0
CSE34610010
5.0
CSE3421
5.0