I understood the material in class and did all of the homework but got very low grades on everything, since it was graded by a computer on an all-or-nothing system. When I asked for help he was very rude, and did not actually help me understand my mistakes. This was probably the most frustrating class because I swear I knew what was going on.

Homework and problem sets are extremely time consuming and difficult. He offers extra credit, but only because its hard to do well in the class if he doesn't. Any small mistake you make he docks off all points and doesn't give partial credit. Take James Taylor instead. I heard he's a lot more beginner friendly and easier to get a good grade in.

genuinely the most stressful class I've taken this semester. his lectures are not representative at all of what is on the problem sets + homework, and if you make the tiniest mistake you get a 0. problem sets are terrible and you can't get any help on it, so you're either facing an academic integrity violation or losing 25% of your grade.

Don't take this course if you don't have any prior coding experience. Horrible experience, this class made me rethink my major. Way too difficult for an intro course.

Horrible at accommodating students and will question your intelligence - made me HATE this school

Don't do it to yourself. Not worth it. You're better off taking the course at a CC... He barely teaches and expects you to know how to do everything. Just don't do it.

This class gave me so much unneeded stress, especially as a non-cs major who wanted to take an intro python class. His lectures are not helpful for the assignments, and the problem sets are worth quite a bit of your grade and you can't get help on it or you'll get flagged. He expects you to think through it, but he doesn't go over how to in class.

save yourself the mental distress and take it at a community college, or maybe with a different professor who actually teaches you how to code and not expect you to know how apply his unhelpful lectures

he was lowkey pretty condescending, expects you know how to do the assignments that he doesn't really teach in class, definitely did not feel like an intro class for non-cs majors

hated this class, how it was organized, how he taught it.

safe yourself the distress and don't take his class.

very accomodating to his students that already have prior python experience. if you want to take an intro python class to see if you would be interested or just to learn a little bit of python, don't take this class because this class gave me so much anxiety and stress

He's really knowledgeable, but is horrible at teaching it. I ended up spending hours teaching myself just to get a subpar grades on my problem sets.

Didn't find his lectures particularly helpful. Has lots of built-in extra credit, but it's not really because you can get a whole problem wrong for a simple mistake. Weekly quizzes in lab, weekly modules, and 5 pretty difficult problem sets.

don't take his class if you actually want to learn and want to continuing learning python

Professor is very knowledgeable in the material and is proficient in coding. However, he fails to teach an introduction class. Final was a pass or fail which is stressful enough. As a previous rating stated, take course either through a community college or a different professor, like Bulusu. Heard he is much better in teaching intro to Python.

I recommend you look at his course website because the module information on there is practically all that you'll get since his lectures aren't that helpful. The courseload is quite heavy, and the weekly modules/5 problem sets don't reflect his lectures.

Goldfrank is condescending & apathetic. He accuses eveHe makes you not want to pursue CS any further. This class was easy, but ridiculously stressful for a 1000 level class. If you really want to learn python take some online courses. Avoid this professor at all costs.

Found him to be inaccessible. Lectures were dry, uninformative, and not recorded. There is a textbook associated with the class but he does not teach that material directly, making it difficult to pass if you do not attend lectures. Homeworks will challenge you, make sure to cite all your sources or you will get flagged for academic integrity.

Lectures were unnecessary and if anything added confusion to the class, all can be learned on the course site. Labs had weekly quizzes designed to trick you, just read carefully. Problem Sets were much more difficult than the modules and provided little guidance. The class didn't focus on the application of the code until the very end.

So much effort and stress for a class designed for beginners or those with a surface level interest in CS. Just take another professor.

If you want 1 reason to not take this guy this is it. Because of his pass/fail final, you can have an A in the class and get a 59% on the final and instead of getting a B-, you automatically fail the whole class. 47 people failed the final... great way to encourage non-CS students to be interested in CS by failing them. Avoid this man at all costs.

No compassion, adds stress to the semester, very condescending. Have to pass the semester to pass the class. Attendance not mandatory but lectures not recorded. Weekly quizzes. Problem Sets much harder than modules.

He is extremely condescending and an intro level course like this should not be as stressful as it was. Having a pass/fail final with a pass being above a 60 adds lots of stress and having great grades throughout the whole semester means nothing if you get below a 60. Avoid him at all costs.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. NOT HELPFUL DURING OFFICE HOURS AND WILL QUESTION YOUR INTELLIGENCE. If you have an interest in learning Python, take it with another professor or a different school, you will struggle with this professor.

honestly made me lose my will to live this semester. the most unempathetic and condescending professor I've had my entire time at gw so far. no clue how he's a professor, he doesn't know how to be a teacher. accused students of cheating when they didn't, and tried to tank grades at any cost. felt like he was out to get me. traumatizing.

Bro is atrocious. Probably hacking RMP to figure out who's writing these so he can destroy his students even more. Just take another professor; it'd even be worth waiting a semester if he's the only option.

his final is pass/fail and even if you are one point away from the min threshold and have an A in the class, say goodbye to it as you will now get an F. Lots of assignments that were hard and time consuming and now are useless. Office hours with him will make you feel dumb. hard for an intro course.

Most disheartening class I've taken. Really unfortunate how he treated his students who just wanted a basic intro to programming.

This man views his students from a superior position; he will fear monger, wreak havoc on your self-esteem, and antagonize you and your peers. Goldfrank is sulfuric acid for learning. Take a different professor.

Professor acts like doing his job is a personal favor to you. Will constantly hold over your head the fact that he "spent all night grading." Ex-military man with a perverse sense of discipline and punishment, he will claim to show leniency and show you none. Has no problems talking down to students and belittling them either. DO NOT TAKE.

final is pass fail so even if you are doing great in the class and something was going on during the final and you did poorly, you fail: unfair. Lots of assignments that are time-consuming and hard. Go to lectures because he will get to know you

He goes on about fairness and even serialized final exams, but he doesn't actually put in effort to teach a class of students who mostly don't have python knowledge. The problems are often really difficult and he's quite condescending when you ask a question that he thinks you ought to know. This was the worst class I've taken.

condescending, emotionally abusive, unhelpful, nobody likes him; if you get a 59% on the final you fail the entire class

Manipulative, patronizing, and personally made me cry in his office and just continued berating me. Failed 1/3 of the class because he doesn't know how to lecture so no one shows up.

The worst professor I have ever had. He genuinely does not want his students to succeed and is extremely tough. He has made several people cry and reported people for cheating on homeworks when they did not. He has a god complex, failed 30% of the class, and another 15% dropped the class. I am telling you do not take him, take Prof Bulusu instead!

Professor has a God complex and regularly goes on power trips to intimidate students. Overall treats students without respect and not a good human being. DO NOT TAKE HIM

He is a terrible professor who wants his students to fail. Checks over the homework multiple times to accuse people of cheating and does not give them a chance to defend themselves. Fails 30% of the class and does not provide many resources to succeed.

He studied at Stanford and has an outstanding understanding of python. However, this does not mean that he will remotely transfer any of that understanding onto you. Out of this world God Complex, treats students like sh*t and perhaps emotionally abused in his childhood so he feels the need to pay it forward (Belittling students into the GROUND)

He is an inadequate professor with an abusive personality and should not be teaching. Avoid if you want a professor with human decency.

Trust me when I say this, you're better off not taking his class. He does not know how 2 teach and as someone already said, he has a god complex. I don't care where he went to school, he's bad at teaching and not a nice professor at all, those are the facts. The least I could say is "This is not how one should teach/grade/interact with students"

If you all willing to put in the work, you can do well in this class. However, it's very hard, I learned to dread the weekly classes and the tests. He isn't very approachable, but his office hours with the TAs will be your best friend. I wouldn't take again but if you have to you can do it! Believe in yourself!

EVIL!! I didn't think python could be this difficult, he makes everything 10x harder than it needs to be. Barely any practice, barely any examples, if you ask him questions he is condescending asf. I put everything I could into this exam, and practically failed. If you think that you can pass this class, you're wrong. Take it somewhere else. RUN

Don't take this class. They trick you with the "flexible" grading. It won't help you much. Most of the work, quizzes and exams, are hand written, you learn nothing in lecture, and the hw is far too advanced for what you learn in the chapter. There is no room for small mistakes. I'm dyslexic, and mix O with 0 and that's why I lost 25 points.

Do not take...prof is so hard and not a good teacher at all. Has a HUGE ego and honestly I would just avoid unless you love spending your whole entire Sunday doing coding.

This class was so much harder than what it needed to be. The prof overcomplicated the material, and the quizzes/homework were not even reflective of the notes. We had a quiz every week in lab, and we would have only one week to learn a new topic. He barely taught too, it was mostly his assistant.

Worst professor I've had at GW. His intro class is so much harder than it is supposed to be. Also, his TAs are much more helpful than he is. Has a god complex. Weekly quizzes are very hard, as well as the exams if you don't have any python background. Please, don't take his class if you care about your mental health.

Horrible. Yes, some people do cheat and complain ab their bad grades, however I did not cheat in this class at ALL and still ended up with a grade bad enough to drop. Joe is condescending and unhelpful, the assistant prof and TAs do most of the teaching anyway. Built-in curve is absolute B.S! Teaches us as if we are actual C.S majors (1/2)

Doesn't give partial credit. Says he does, but UNTRUE. TA said that we would get credit for tracing our code on quizzes (right or wrong), yet I would never get credit. Once answered a question correctly, but in a different way than was taught, got zero credit. The extra credit stuff is untrue by the way. You're better off w/ Shaban or Bulusu. (2/2)

Same person from previous 2 reviews, last one lol. He is also EXTREMELY condescending, straight up told me he wouldn't answer a question I had. He is notoriously nicer to upper level C.S. students, heard this from RMP and some I know personally. Don't know why he teaches intro classes if his only goal is to mentally abuse intro C.S students.

Condescending teaching style, exceptionally tough quizzes and tests, and a harsh grading system(no partial credit) made this a very difficult and discouraging class. Did not use ai and study real hard to get a solid grade but I did not learn anything out of it. Really don't recommend him.

Tough grader, very difficult tests and quizzes with no partial credit. Can come across as condescending. Not recommended.

god complex, TA is better than him. Expect very hard quizzes, the grading curve is nice but it is needed because of how hard everything is. Grading is tough, his feedback can be condescending. I did not cheat and studied very hard just to get a passing grade.

AVOID THIS PROFESSOR AT ALL COSTS! Goldfrank is extremely egotistical and condescending with the biggest god complex you will ever see. I almost cried during office hours with him. Quizzes and HW are nothing like the lectures and are graded very harshly. I missed one tiny thing on one line of code and lost all points for that problem. AVOID HIM!

He is very rude to students. Once, he stopped by during TA office hours and was very rude and condescending to a student he was helping, so much so that I found it shocking. I think he wants to come off as eccentric, but this does not translate well. He is also a bad lecturer for beginners. He overcomplicates things and moves too quickly.

Honestly, this class is one of those classes where if you can devote 10+ hours a week, you'll be fine. Otherwise, try to avoid. Goldfrank is insanely challenging and low-key sexist. That being said, they're many changes to do well as he curves. Even though the class was tough and he's a horrible prof, python is a really good skill for internships.

not a tough class but prof makes it tough, self learn got me through the class, gradings are really tough and kind of unfair. Curve is solid.

Knowledgeable but very rude and dismissive. Instead of clear answers, he often responds sarcastically, making students feel uncomfortable asking questions. If you're confident in coding, you'll definitely manage, but beginners will find his lack of patience and respect discouraging.