Abbas is an awful professor. Get ready to teach yourself off Khan Academy and other online resources. He can't explain concepts for sh*t. He teaches complex topics like you already know them. Bad bad bad avoid if you can.

Doesn't explain any concepts, presents pre made pdf slides and speaks over them as true. Doesn't work through any examples to show new concepts except for the ones with all steps listed out already. There is very little learning to be done. This course online in the summer is far superior, been using my friends OnQ to learn the material/utube.

Does not explain concepts or material properly. Reads over slides with no further explanation. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!!!

Lectures are worthless as Professor Abbas reads off the slides without explaining concepts in detail. You're better off learning the material from the textbook and online videos. If you need an idea of what Professor Abbas is like, he assigned an assignment, new unit, midterm, quiz and an assignment for said new unit in the span of a week.

I respect that it's one of the hardest courses at the 100 level. Get ready to read the textbook for a dozen pages per week, 4 ppt per week, one quiz per week, one assignment per week, and probably another midterm or exam waiting for you as well! Please be ready, since professor Abbas does not explain much in his lecture except "umm uhh".

This course is a hard course, and I get that. I can't help but feel that if it was actually taught to me by a competent professor, I would actually enjoy the content. The lectures are useless, as the only 'teaching' that happens is reading exactly what it says on his poorly formatted slides, each word coming with a complementary 'uhhhh'.

DON'T TAKE HIS COURSE!!!! It was obvious that he did not want to teach the course seriously at all. He replied to emails in a very perfunctory and irritating way. In addition to being out of scope, the exam/quiz questions were often wrong.

This professor doesn't teach the class. He finds slides from a textbook and essentially re-reads what is already on screen with a terrible mic. You're better off finding videos online to teach you the material. From time to time you may see things he's posted that contradict his "teaching" such as incorrect answers from an exam review.

He's getting paid a fortune to make some trash powerpoints that aren't even correct(every chapter's powerpoint has a critical mistake in it throughout the whole term), voice-over them at the level of a grade 8 student(read over the powerpoint word for word in a monotone voice), and place the final exam on the last day of class with no prep time...

Ugh just bad lectures were unwatchable with no useful info

Lectures are literally entirely useless as he cannot even be heard when my headphones are at max volume on any device. From what you can hear, you can tell he does not care about education or his students. He reads the slides word for word and I had to teach myself the entire course. Avoid at all costs if possible. Assignments/Exams very difficult.

Terrible teacher who makes slides (which are clearly copy and pasted from the textbook) with very bad quality and MANY mistakes. If you're unfortunate enough that you HAVE to take this course with Abbas, then good luck because the textbook will be your one and only friend / teacher. The class itself is very interesting but NEVER take with Abbas!

Queen's should give his entire salary towards those dudes on Youtube that actually teach properly and clearly.

His microphone quality is terrible, lecture videos essentially consist of him reading over the slides and the audio is either filled with static or background noise. Didn't put the exam in the exam period, meaning students had less time to study. He sometimes puts questions in quizzes which weren't taught until future weeks. Avoid if possible.

Professor Hazam has a mic from 1940s. The course is not that hard but his mic and his lecture makes it hard.

Its very hard to understand this professors lectures. He does not put in any effort in teaching. All he does is read off a powerpoint that isn't even made by him. His microphone quality is also not very good, and sometimes his videos jump and skip an entire section of the powerpoint. He puts questions in his assignments and quizzes that are not tau

Pretty much a teach yourself course since Professor Abbas simply reads off slides.

Took this course in 2021 and the lectures are 144p videos from 2013. This is an introductory course, so you would think they would give you some slack when grading your programs but my first assignments was graded like if this was a fourth year programming course. If you want to learn programming, just take another online course.

quizzes are extremely hard, you are not prepared for them based on the lectures, which are insufferable to watch and really just kind of useless. no valuable information is taught during the lectures, if it weren't for youtube I would have been doomed. terrible experience. avoid this class

Absolute worst prof ever LOL. Couldn't hear the lectures, but pretty sure he just read from the slides anyways. Typos on every assignment and even the exam. Really feel bad rating a prof this bad but he deserves a low rating.

- Poor quality online videos that are very difficult to understand - Slides riddled with spelling errors and confusing phrases - Ambiguous exam questions, frequent grammatical errors - Huge workload for this class with multiple deadlines often converging in a single week/date - Little to no communication regarding exams and assignments

Notoriously unprofessional professor. Throughout the entire course, I got the feeling that he was doing this simply because he knew he HAD to. His lectures were extremely poor quality, including terrible audio and many mistakes. He would make mistakes on tests and assignments and refuse to change them. Assigned the exam prior to the exam priod.

Hazem is an absolutely horrendous prof for CISC102. Even if you can do all the readings and attend every lecture, some of the homework questions are so difficult that you'll barely know where to start. This comes from someone who scored A+ in calc, linalg, and cisc101/121. Take CISC102 with Selim Akl or another prof and save yourself the pain.

Extremely difficult prof. Grades as if its a 4th year advanced computing course. extremely unprofessional and rude towards students with unclear grading schemes. Insanely difficult final exam that you must pass to pass the course.

Run away

I dont really know him as i didnt attend but my friends don't like him especially my girlfriend

Worst professor ever, avoid him by all means. Get ready of self learning if you have to take his courses.

Run. Drop his class if you're looking him up for the first time. I wish I did. Without a doubt the worst professor I've ever had the misfortune to attempt to learn from. Does not care about students at all, barely puts in any effort to teach the class, and is extremely disorganized regarding course info. Get ready to teach yourself.

His lecture are poorly presented, often having to scramble through previously shown slides in order to further back his incomprehensible writing. His tests are hard with too many questions and not enough time. He does not care about how well you learn, be aware. Be ready to read everything carefully and expect the unexpected.

This guy might be a good research prof, but he is horrible at teaching. All teaching material is useless and convoluted especially when explained by him. Everything I learned from the content was from online resources, he even steals all his assessment material from online too.

Horrible prof, terrible at explaining material and has incomprehensible slides. Rude to students, very hard late penalties but never gets grades back to students. NO guidance for final project and does not respond to discussion posts. Run as fast as you can from him and any course he teaches.

The worst class I have taken at Queen's. If you're in the AI spec or looking to fill your timetable, take any of the other options and learn the content of this course on your own.

I have never written a review here, but I feel compelled to after taking his class. Given that CISC 867 is a Graduate course, I would have expected a decently taught class. However, I can safely say that in my five years at Queen's this was the most disorganized and poorly taught class I have had. Please, for your own sake, avoid if possible.

Before starting this course I saw a review that said "Run away". I found it funny and wondered if it had anything to do with being an undergrad course. But I took a graduate course, and oh boy, I wish I had run away. Very tough grading, unclear expectations, extremely disorganized. I have 4 years of experience in the field and only managed a 90.4.

Just drop this course. It's a shame because the material is genuinely so interesting but is ruined by this terrible prof. I came into this course excited to learn about the topics taught and instead I felt crushed and discouraged by the end of it. This is not an uncommon reaction to his teaching methods as well, many many others felt the same.

You are better off doing this course from home he directly reads off slides and doesnt even give you time to try coding. He has no idea what hes doing lmao.

This professor lacks the essential tools to teach. Run away...

Thought COGS would be easy, but Abbas genuinely cannot teach. Slides are confusing and incorrect. Lectures are disorganized and convoluted, making it hard to understand. Course is supposed to be easy, especially given my psych and phil background, but Abbas somehow teaches too much and too little. Listen to the ratings and stay safe out there

I was interviewed by the head TA. Due to her inability to understand English, I received a 0 for an assignment because she didn't understand my explanation of try/except. My assignment was flawless as I did computer science throughout highschool, but Hazem and the TA are friends... The teaching team is unbelievably strict and cynical.

Tests and assignments all have extremely unclear criteria/questions

He just reads off the slides during lectures and his incompetence shows whenever he is asked a basic question by a student. Assignments are extremely unclear or have concepts that are unrelated to the content taught.

Inspirational to never do this again! I don't hate programming and I really don't wanna hate it, but this guy really takes fun out of everything. He has poor presentation skills and he basically wastes your time attending any of his lectures. Tests were ridiculous and assignments had zero correlation to lecture slides.

Absolute abomindation of academic. The lad clearly has no experience with teaching and his voice makes your want to kill yourself. It's more draining to attend the lectures and listen to him rather than reading and revising the powerpoint slides yourself. He comes into classes very unprepared. Lectures are incomprehensible and unmethodical.

He does not support you, he does not clearly outline any of his assignments, the only reason people do well is because everything is online non-proctored. The active learnings are absolutely ridiculous and half of the stuff is not even included in lecture. He does not teach and it is not beginner friendly.

Such a horrible prof. Never did I think someone could teach a compsci class on a google slides but here we are. He never coded once for us and only taught us theory - which the majority of the test questions were based on. However the assignments were all things you had to learn from external sources. Not that hard if you actually put in effort.

Avoid Hazem Abbas like the plague. This guy refused to give accommodations when my faculty had approved them, and structured the course like it's an advanced comp sci seminar. Avoid like the plague !!

I TAed for this course three times and always felt super bad for the students. If you felt like marking was random and inconsistent, that's because sometimes the rubrics would literally just say "completed all requirements" and nothing more. So we would have to guess at what marks to give for what. I would avoid taking this course at all costs.

he's on some insane power trip and tinks his policies supercede queen's academic regulations. i have email proof of him doing so and am seriously debating whether i want to report him to queens upper management just bc dude this is legitimately insane.

Wrote a review before but took another class. I don't want to say anything bad about Abbas. You need to read a lot to understand content. You really need to focus during lectures since there is a lot of content. Try to ask questions if you don't understand something.

This is the most incomprehensible class due to the professor's complete inability to teach. If given the opportunity, DO NOT take any of his classes.

Had this professor in first year and hoped he would have improved since then. Unfortunately, problems with his teaching persisted. The slides often make little sense and he does not explain concepts well. He often tries to teach math theory without explaining it's purpose. Expect to learn the material from outside sources.

This professor is the best definition for BPRNG, BS Pseudo Random Number Generator. Slides are awful. Zero skills in explaining the topics. Nasty, unordered slides with no clear outlines which he stole from Olga Veksler, and some other dudes. Seriously, this guy is the worst example of a professor who shouldn't be in charge. Total BS.

Just finished test 1. Went awful and the Instructions were unclear. We learn nothing. Bro doesn't use a microphone during lectures and spends most of the time in lectures getting angry at people who leave 5 mins early bc they gotta catch a bus. Never again will I take a class with him as a prof.

Everything you read about him is true. No matter how close you sit you CAN'T hear him, his mic is off and he mumbles in a thick accent. The cherry on top of all that is that hes SUPER rude and apprehensive when asking for clarification, feedback or any sort of help and is on a complete power trip!

doesn't teach

This professor is hard to understand and hear. He doesn't let students answer questions and uses AI for everything including the slideshows. He uses codes that don't work and expects us to know what he is talking about when most of us are first time learners of coding. The teaching assistant is very good, actually teaches and shows how codes work.

Insane guy, messy Powerpoint with no new information added in his lecture

The worst prof I've ever had. Hazem Abbas is so unbelievably organized. You cannot trust the syllabus, you cannot trust OnQ, you cannot trust his word. Everything contradicts something else. "Is the exam this week? Is it next week? I don't know, better email Prof. Abbas" Prof Abbas: actually, exam last week you get zero Sent from my iPhone

He was not good at teaching and was impossible to understand. His content was riddled with errors, and he didn't even seem to know the dates/formats of his own assessments. Just dreadful.

If you have to enrol in 102 with Abbas, you can kiss your sanity (and GPA!) goodbye. Expect: - Lectures of droning, incomprehensible, repetitive nonsense that barely passes as mathematics, - Tangents and unclear expectations that make studying effectively near-impossible, and - No respect for students or encouragement to engage with the material.

Hazem was probably the most egotistical professor I have ever encountered. He refused to give me my bonus point because he was on some sort of power trip, we spent over an hour emailing back in forth because he did not believe my own calculations and felt the need to be a douche. Would not recommend, major ego issues.

What a joke of a prof. I left this course not knowing how to write a single line of Python. He also accidentally gave me a 0 on a test worth 20% and I had to email him 5 times to get it fixed. For any terrified incoming students, every single assessment is online unproctored, and everyone I know ended with an A+. Just don't expect to learn anything

His quizzes cover material that we're meant to learn in later lectures. He also doesn't answer questions or abide by accommodations.

The professor seems to prioritize higher-level classes over this one, which results in little regard for students here. His tests are extremely time-consuming, with vague questions and unclear requirements. The amount of questions does not match the limited time give.

Our Class was the first the to use AI for Computer Programming, all he did was to read from slides, not worth participating in his lectures, instead follow the tutorial sessions with TAs.

absolute horrible professor do not take cisc 101 you will get your soul taken away. rawan is a horrible assistant prof you will not hear her voice even with a mic you will have your soul and body discombobulated

lectures are mad boring he speaks unclearly and the notes he writes in the slides are unreadable. the head TA does not make it much better as her teaching is boring and hard to understand. the markdown instructions are impossible to follow along too

Worst professor at Queens, without a doubt.

Why take this course in university when you can literally get better education for free on GitHub? This guy is out of his mind. His teaching structure sucks, and the way his assignments are made are even worse. Half his stuff is most likely AI generated. Stay away from CISC101, go to CISC121 instead.

His lecture slides are all AI generated slop that he doesn't look at until the class starts. Course structure makes no sense. No benefit to attending lecture, just learn it all yourself online. No one should ever be that rude of a person and this awful a prof

I have had this professor 4 times over my 5 years at Queens and the professors rudeness and disorganization have remained consistently bad. I would not take any of his classes unless absolutely needed.

There is an expectation that profs should know the material they teach. Hazem Abbas did not know the material at all (which was basic python), and used ChatGPT to create tests and assignments. He is unenthusiastic and does not care about his students. Avoid at all costs!

Awful class. Just awful. The entire class was centered around learning how to prompt AI. The grading was easy, the assignments felt like busy work, and the lectures were pointless. He never stood up once while giving the lectures displaying a clear lack of enthusiasm. The TAs were great, especially the assistant lecturer Dr. Rawan El-Khatib.

Boring lectures. Just reads the slides in a monotone voice. Course was redesigned this year and it's very apparent. Assignments and tutorials were all extremely similar, boring, and mostly redundant, with unclear, messy instructions. When asking for help it felt like the instructors were also seeing the instructions for the first time