I was looking forward to this class but Prof Zhu didnt provide us with a good experience. Lectures are useless and unclear due to his thick accent and poor teaching skills as he just reads off the slides. HW was hard to do w/o AI and he isnt accessible outside of class. TAs were useless too. I dont wish to ever use OCaml after this class.

He DOWNCURVED the final grades. HW assignments were unnecessarily difficult that even the TAs couldnt help us. Lectures and recitations are unclear and useless. I never knew what OCaml was prior to this class and now i hate it. Final was hard to do but thankfully the TAs were lenient with grading. I just wish I could have actually learned more

Thick accent and bad lectures. were even worse when he had a sore throat. this class felt like a waste of time and i thought we would learn more languages since i looked at older syllabuses so im really disappointed. I will forget everything from this useless class.

This class was basically a "learn on your own" type of class. I know that's the way most college courses should be but I didnt learn anything from this class. Zhu's lectures were absolute trash and so were recitations. Seriously, I asked the TAs for help with a HW problem and even they couldnt solve it. HW and final were hard for no reason

There was a reason no one came to class or recitations and that's because the prof and TAs absolutely suck at teaching. They just read off the slides and expect us to know OCaml already when literally no one outside of 314 has ever heard of OCaml. I only enjoyed learning about Python because it's actually useful but we barely did anything with it

Downcurving this rating because he downcurved the final grades. He made a 93% = B+. He shouldn't be allowed to teach and doesn't like helping students with problems. He tells me to ask the TA and when I ask the TA he tells me to ask the prof. Idk why they are answering my questions like politicians. also ocaml is garbage and im never using it again

Whenever i feel worried about not being good enough in this current cs job market, i remind myself of the TAs and prof and how they got hired when clearly they suck at their jobs.

what even was this class??? I learned nothing from it and i was looking forward to it. HWs and finals were unnecessarily hard given the dry ppt slides and lectures that dont provide enough info on the applications of ocaml. Lectures and recitations were trash so i gave up on attending them and connecting with the prof and TAs, not like they cared

This professor did not stimulate my interest in the course and OCaml. he was very disorganized and very late with responding to emails and questions on Piaza. His lectures were just him reading off the slides and sometimes poorly explaining OCaml/Verification with his unclear voice and horrible handwriting on the chalk board. Huge waste of my time

Zhu is a chill guy but useless as a professor. He's more of an instructor and this class was not interesting or useful at all. Assignments were difficult given the lack of engaging lectures and practice problems to help us apply OCaml concepts before the assignments. Overall, a very disappointing class

The professor does not know how to teach whatsoever and OCaml is a pretty useless language. He didnt even teach it properly so I really dont care about this class anymore

Elementary Chinese should be a prerequisite to understand this professor's lectures. He mumbles in his lectures so no one comes to class. Learned nothing from him

They should change the name of this class to Intro to OCaml because that's pretty much what we did including a little Python, which can be taken in 210 or other classes. His lectures are terrible and his TAs did not help at all. TAs did not give the prof the feedback i had for his class so it can be improved and more engaging. Overall waste of time

Since this class is too easy since everyone cheats on the assignments and final, the grades will be inflated and he will downcurve. You won't learn much from him tbh

He is not helpful in explaining what outside test cases i got wrong and is horrible at explaining. Most of the times he tries to dodge the question and tells me to read the slides but the slides arent always helpful. He's not here to teach, he's just here for his paycheck.

I've had to talk to him in person to tell him that i asked him a question via email AND Piazza and he takes weeks to answer. Also, he grades the hws himself, not the TAs, so expect to get your assignment grades back after a month of submitting them.

Acts like we already know OCaml and he spends the entire lectures reading from the slides only, no practice writing OCaml code, and he makes his lectures in a way where if he finished a ppt topic, he moves on to the next, just to fill up time, and even then he gives a horrible synopsis on each topic.

kind of a waste of time. Zhu is not a good teacher but he is nice. didnt learn much about functional programming from him. you can just learn this stuff without taking this class

Like previous reviews have mentioned, Zhu is NOT a good lecturer. You have to learn OCaml on your own, which is kind of a bummer given how this is an in-person course at a prestige university as Rutgers.

just learn ocaml on your own, not worth taking this class for it

This professor forgets a lot and wont take the time to make sure his students understand the material. Was also looking forward to taking this class cus i wanted to learn about functional programming but i just shouldve studied it at home

Dont take this class if youre someone whos afraid to use chatgpt on assgs for academic integrity. I didnt cus i actually wanted to learn the material but the professor wont help you so l messed up on the test cases and hidden ones. on top of that, i was supposed to get a B but since he downcurved the final grades with no warning, i got a C. AVOID

I used to think skipping class was wrong until I took this course. The lectures were confusing, and recitations didn't help. I realized I was learning more on my own than by attending. This class forced me to teach myself everything.

THE DOWNCURVE GOT ME AN F AND HE REFUSED TO HELP ME. ITS BECAUSE EVERYONE CHEATS THAT HE IS FORCED TO DOWNCURVE.

expected to learn from him and i didnt. super disappointed

easy class ngl. hes bad as a professor but you should be fine as long as you chatgpt your way through the course

Belittles people who stay after class to ask him questions and is never accessible outside of class.

Dont take this class. he wont teach you anything and wont help you when youre behind or stuck on something. horrible late policy

He never helped me with my questions and kept forwarding me to the TAs like a meanie 😭😭😭😭 i just wanted to learn 😭😭😭

sad excuse for a class and a professor

???????????

No one goes to lectures because zhu is bad at communicating. The only people that came to class were still unable to learn. I stopped going after seeing the guy sitting in front of me watching loli anime.

Good professor and easy class

I feel down the stairs during lecture and got hurt real bad :(

Bad lectures. Should've skipped since I was just using his class to do other classes hw instead. Didn't learn much from him

我是中国人，但我仍然听不懂他的课

Never again

Class would feel like a study hall since his lectures weren't really helpful until he occasionally gives us pop quizzes. Get a good partner for group projects

So many essays and assignments and no extra credit or curves that help us in the end

Most of the grade depends on your projects. just make sure you at least pass the ones given to you. he did not provide us with the hidden test cases in later projects. He's very forgetful and disorganized and you won't learn much from him himself. If another professor teaches this course, take them instead of Zhu.

You wont learn anything from this class but you can get an A if you make sure to pass all test cases for the hw. Wouldve been better if Zhu provided recordings of the lectures so we can understand him better.

Like the previous comment mentioned, just do good on the assignments and you should be okay in this course. Zhu is very bad with responding to student's needs and questions. He likes to leave asap after class ends and he's very late with emails and Piazza messages so he wont help you at all. Same thing for the TAs. Learn OCaml on your own

No feedback on the last few assignments, so you dont know which test cases you failed that werent given to us. Very irresponsible with checking emails. Lectures were unhelpful because I can read the slides on my own thank you.

I dont recommend this course because of how disorganized and horrible the lectures are, so youre better off not taking this class at all

Avoid this class at all costs. The professor is disorganized, unhelpful, and grades harshly without clear criteria. Lectures are confusing, and questions are often ignored or met with sarcasm. If you value your GPA and sanity, steer clear—you've been warned.

he's such a meanie 😭😭 when i ask him questions he tells me i shouldve already known it and he then tells me to ask the TA and leaves the lecture hall. i cant go to his office hours because they fall in the exact time of my other class and he's always late with Piazza messages. I had a bad experience with him 😭😭

Have you ever wanted to meet Helen Keller? Because if so, take this class and meet her for yourself. You will not be heard, seen, nor will your professor communicate with you. He does not answer questions well, and when he does it's with sass and annoyance. Tough grader and doesn't help at all with exams or finals, you are on your own.

He is not a good professor.

Terrible class

Take this class if you are willing to sacrifice your GPA, sleep, and mental health in learning a useless and outdated programming language with the worst and most unforgiving lecturer at Rutgers.

Rutgers is hiring anybody these days. You don't even need to speak English properly or know how to teach to become a professor.

Very unprofessional professor as well as TAs. No clear communication between him, students, and TAs. Cannot speak properly and assumes we already know OCaml and ignores students who struggle. Inaccessible outside of class and via email. Lots of students used AI to do all of their assignments and that created a downcurve for the final grades. Avoid.

Took this class thinking he was the goat from previous reviews but he's not. Stressed so much about this class because I couldn't understand anything about the material because his lectures are so bad. I tried asking him and his TAs for help but they all have heavy Chinese accents.

Professor Zhu more like Professor Poo

I'm pretty sure this Professor and the TAs all lied on their resumes to get these jobs.

Took his class after hearing he's the GOAT but he's just A$$

No wonder why this prof was so bad. He was more focused on getting the NSF award for the FMitF project (which I have a feeling he didn't contribute to it at all) than teaching his students. Struggling in class? Oh well dropout. Need help from him? Go ask the TAs (they told me to ask the prof when I went to them 🙄) and don't bother emailing him

Academic honesty and willingness to actually learn the material rather than just passing this class will not be rewarded. I tried doing the assignments and final honestly, while most other students used ChatGPT and other AI tools for both of them and they got A's in the class, while I got a C+ because of the downcurve and the prof wouldnt help me.

This course was frustrating. The professor offered minimal guidance and expected students to learn the material on their own. Lectures lacked clarity, and only a small part of the textbook was covered. Communication was inconsistent, and the classroom environment often felt uncomfortable and unprofessional.

most delusional professor at rutgers. thinks ocaml is the superior programming language and everything is better and easier with it. acts like everyone in class already knows ocaml when literally no one has heard of it before taking this class. also bad at teaching he reads the ppt until class ends, no engagement and leaves to avoid questions

if the qualifications for being a professor or TA at rutgers are heavy accent + no recent knowledge of the course + poor communication/teaching skills + horrible time management + no teaching experience, sign me up! I need the money in this job market 🥲

Getting any sort of help from this class is like taking to a wall. I'm a student so I have never taught anything to anyone before but I'm 100% confident that I could teach this useless class way better than the professor. I swear they just let anyone be a professor nowadays.

DO NOT TAKE THIS PROFESSOR. I was sold on a lie last semester when registering that this guy was light and the class was chill. WRONG! The material is already non-engaging and extremely boring as it is, and the professor just MUMBLES off of a slide deck for every lecture. Literally fell asleep and stopped going. Thick accent and hard to understand.

i stopped showing up to lectures cus theyre garbage. just use the 80 minutes to goon or something. dont bother learning ocaml

Do not choose the professor.

this professor is genuinely so boring and lectures literally feel like hell to sit through. the subject is hard to understand and he really doesn't go over how ocaml works that much. basically reads off the slides the whole time and his accent is very hard to understand at times especially since he speaks very monotone.

He pronounces "Syntactical Sugar" as "Sheen-tac-tee-cuuuuhl shoo-gaaahr". Lectures feel like they're full of confusing buzzwords and horrible.

MOST INCOMPETENT PROFESSOR IN THE CS DEPARTMENT. THAT EXAM WAS HORRIBLE AND HE JUST MUMBLES OFF THE SLIDES AND OFFERS NO HELP, GUIDANCE, OR ENGAGEMENT. EXAMS ARE NO LONGER TAKEHOME CUS THE IDIOTS FROM LAST SEM CHEATED AND RUINED IT FOR US AND PEOPLE WERE STILL CHEATING IN THIS CLASS. I SWEAR IF HE DOWNCURVES AGAIN LIKE LAST SEM IM GONNA LOSE IT!!!!

Does not give the slightest damn about his students. He grades using AI and his announcements are AI-generated so he can make himself sound quirky and caring. Like be for real. He doesn't even speak properly, much less with any personality.

This class is such a scam man. They should just remove it from Rutgers. Also remove Zhu's bum ahh compilers class ain't no one taking that crap

Absolutely horrid. Lectures are him mumbling and buzzing like a bee. Completely unintelligible. Cannot understand a word. Course material is boring, old and dry. Exams are STUPID hard and he purposely makes them that way so if you do good on them, you're flagged for cheating. Assignments are just problem sets that get exponentially harder as you go

I hate this class so much bro. I only go to lectures just to see where we're at in the material. I just play Umamusume and listen to Hatsune Miku just to pass the time instead of paying attention to Zhu's incomprehensible lectures. Like I didn't know squat about OCaml before this class, and now I know less about it. Also exams are hard so I cheat.

Falsely accused me of cheating when I literally sat in the front row of the class during the exam plus I had my phone in my bag while there were dozens of other students having full-on conversations and taking pictures and didn't get caught. Basically, you will NOT be rewarded for trying to make an honest effort to learn the material in the class.

This dude gives us leetcode hard problems for hw and we have to solve them in OCaml, which makes things worse. I asked him help with a question and he just mumbled something and scribbled on the board so I tried asking the TAs for help and they didn't know how to solve it or explain it. This course is such an embarrassment. Take algos before this