One of the best CompSci profs! Very clear classes and notes. Hard final though!

No Comments

Way better than the one who's teaching now.. I miss Mantis!!!!

Hard course, but he is good in teaching this course.

Operating Systems wasn't an easy class at all, but Mantis is an awesome teacher and I learned a lot from him. Definately the best teacher I've ever had.

Very a communicating complex ideas with examples. The final was a little rough however.

He is the best professor ever had in my university education. He was well tuned to industry, and he preparation and teaching were very professional. His labs were tough, but very useful and interesting.

Very good prof! Challenging though! You need to put in time for the midterms and final or the Preying Mantis will get you....

An amazing professor. Very interesting and funny. Took a very difficult class and made it interesting. His class was very challenging but fair.

Great Prof! Very nice and cracks alot of jokes which makes the class go by faster. I liked how his labs show you how to complete your assignment so there are lots of opportunities to ask questions both in class and labs. Overall a decent teacher!

Very nice guy but difficult to understand. Makes a lot of jokes.

One of the best professors I've had. He made a class that could have been very boring, super interesting! His jokes were really funny. Lectures were clear and was always available for help.

Good prof! Didn't even buy the text book, his notes are all you need, and he posts very detailed notes, and gives links to help you understand concepts. Midterm took me by surprise and was a little difficult, easy final though as long as you put in some effort!

Good teacher. However, tends to repeat himself a little too much. He keeps the class interesting overall.

Good lecturer, he could make his diagrams a bit neater though. As someone previously mentioned, there was a bit of repetition in lectures which may have created gaps in the syllabus; that being said, it helped strengthen our understanding of those concepts in both the lecture + assignments. We had two non-cumulative midterms and no final.

Very funny which makes lectures easy to get through (on a subject that to me, is very boring). He knows this is a mandatory class so he makes it very non-intimidating. He likes to make things as easy and efficient as possible, (no textbook!).

Great prof! Lots of fun. So passionate, always looks so happy to be teaching. No textbook and he supplies sufficient online readings that are easy to understand. Also, his name is Mantis!

The good: Dr. Cheng is very helpful (make use of his office hours), engaging, and funny. Seriously, he's hilarious. The not so good: concepts and definitions could have been explained more clearly and there is no textbook to reference. I also have an issue with his highly subjective grading scheme for assignments.

Friendly, enthusiastic and passionate prof. He clearly enjoys the material. He seems to enjoy experimenting on his students; he ditched the midterms and got us to do team projects instead.

CSC330's material is boring but he made his class somewhat interesting and engaging. Marks are easy enough to get if you paid attention in class. I'll give you a book. I'm not lying to you.

THE BEST PROSS EVER EVER EVER I LOVED HIM!! HE WAS SO HELPFUL AND KIND

*I received an A, but I WORKED for it. If you are more interested in learning than a grade, I suggest you take any course taught by Dr. Mantis. You will gain so much more than a grade.

Great professor. I took the class because I wanted to learn the basics of making a website and was able to learn that.. Did have online in-class quizzes which aren't worth much of the grade are still good to have. Tests can be a little difficult.

Cheng offers many opportunities to learn, including open-book exams. He loves to help and is often available. There are plenty of people that begin the class not even knowing what a computer is and they come out with an A.

I had to take a CSC course for my degree and was dreading it, however Mantis made this one of my favourite classes. He's hilarious if you want to go to lectures, however you can learn everything you need to outside of class. Such a fun course, would 100% recommend and you walk away with extremely useful skills.

One of the best profs at Uvic! He helped anyone who needed it and encourage students to excel! This was a required course but I would take it again based on interest! Tests are hard but doable if you actually listen in class and assignments are an easy 100% every time.

Great guy, makes it fun. Best Prof at uvic

Easy and fun.

Good prof!

Very easy class, lectures were entertaining and informative. Projects were extremely easy, there were open book quizzes and tests that were also easy.

This class was awesome! No final exam, 3 open-laptop tests, and 4 or 5 assignments that take no more than an hour each. As an English major I was terrified to take the course but it was my best mark of the semester. Mantis also fixed my laptop which was amazing!

The good: Mantis is entertaining, passionate about what he teaches, and very intelligent. Midterms were team-based open book reports (teams of 10, you get 6 hours). No assignments. The bad: He teaches completely from his head, so it's VERY difficult to take structured notes. Final exam was tough but not unreasonable. Most took the full 3 hours.

This is a interesting course. Mantis is a cute guy. No assignments for this course and Midterms are team-based open test (5 hours). He didn't use slides and his notes are unstructured. The final was so hard that most of people failed and he had to scale up the grade.

Mantis is hilarious! I would recommend this course to anyone, especially first years! Easy A and you actually learn useful computer skills.

Mantis is a good prof who is well organized. He makes sure you have access to all the necessary information required to complete the labs (which is basically the whole course). Lectures are completely optional, you could go to 0 the entire term and still get an A. Mantis makes videos for everything he does which becomes helpful when you're stuck

Such an easy class, a perfect first year course. You don't need to go to the lectures, and it's Super easy to get 100% the assignments. Tests are open book.

Mantis is by far one of the best professors I have ever had. He is hilarious and really good at explaining things. Labs and tests are super easy and grading is clear. No final. 11/10 would recommend.

Attended 1 class all semester and ended up with a high A+. All lectures are videotaped and posted online. Only excuse for less than an A is a lack of effort. Without a doubt, the easiest course I've taken at UVic.

Mantis Cheng was an amazing professor who was funny and caring. He posted everything online and if you show up to the weekly tutorials, he will basically show you step by step how to do your assignments. He also helps outside of class with personal computer problems which would normally cost hundreds of dollars but he does it for free!

Mantis is a great prof, kinda hard to understand at times but the class is so straight forward it doesn't really matter. Would recommend this class to anyone looking for a fun and easy class.

Useful skills in web design

Such a passionate and helpful professor. Always happy to follow-up with students and provide feedback. Lectures were relevant to everyday life and I learned so much about computers and technology. Highly recommend!! :)

Each assignment was super easy and well taught before hand, was a breeze! Mantis is a wonderful, approachable prof as well! The tests are giveaways as the answers to it are given in the practice exams. Each assignment give you a chance to be creative and have lots of fun! I recommend this class to everyone! I would take it again just for fun!!

Mantis Cheng was a wonderful professor, and he goes above and beyond for his students. He has his own website to help you, and records lectures so if you miss one you can just go online. Really appreciated all the extra help he offered to his students, and he genuinely wanted them to do well. Would recommend him as a prof for sure!

Dr. Cheng is very patient and will explain the same concept over and over again until everyone understands. He posts tons of online resources, including videos of lectures. CSC100 is fun and useful, with only 4 or 5 assignments and 3 midterms when I took the course in Fall 2015, but themidterm questions didn't always match up with lecture material.

Extremely easy course, Mantis always gave a very clear idea of what he expected for projects, and gave sets of practice questions that were very useful for midterms.

Easy Class if you have some basic understanding about computers. The assignments are very interesting as a 100 level course and really got me interested in computer science. Lectures can be boring but if you memorize the slides you will be fine on the tests. Would recommend.

Loved class with Mantis. He is extremely clear about what is expected, so it wasn't hard to do well. It's nice to have a prof that actually cares about students doing well. Really funny guy, interesting material. Overall great experience

The concepts in this course are really straight forward and easy to learn, and Mantis uses professionally made slides that are great . The assignments/projects and tests are pretty easy too and require little programming. Came out of this course feeling super comfortable about computer networking concepts. One of my favourite csc courses so far!

The best class I've ever taken. I literally received 97.3% overall. It was also very fun, you learned how to code for websites which allowed for your own use of creativity. Tests are open book and laptop, and he provides a practice test which has the exact same questions as the tests. DO THEM, and you will have no problem with the tests.

The labs are extremely easy, you're guaranteed to get 100% if you just follow the instructions he lays out clearly in class. I put that it's an easy A because I know it is for most people. However, if you get stressed out during multiple choice don't bother. The midterms are 42 multiple choice questions in 30 minutes and the content seems trivial.

The best teacher I ve ever seen. Thank you so much for your help.

Thoroughly enjoyed his class. Makes all of the class resources easily available online, and posts video recordings of all lectures/tutorials. Class is both interesting and fun and you can do well if you have a fairly basic understanding of computers. Easy elective.

I love Mantis!! the labs are incredibly easy to get 100% on because he lays out all the instructions for you. He is amazing outside of class and the most accessible prof I've ever had, he literally replies within minutes. The course content is a lot of fun, it doesn't even feel like work. 10/10 recommend.

Overall, Mantis was a super acceptable prof for CSC100. His lectures were helpful, but as long as you skim the lecture slides for his tests you will do well. All of the tests were open book which was sooo helpful. The labs/final project were tedious but very doable, pay attention in lecture when he talks about labs!! And no final. Great prof!!

If you put enough effort to follow his slides and his instructions, you will find this course really easy and interesting. He provides a lot of materials to study, also the lab quiz and assignment super clear and easily to get full mark. The best prof so far with CompSci course in Uvic.

Mantis records and provides you with any lectures and examples needed to get an A in the course. He made programming enjoyable and interesting.

Would highly recommend csc 100. This Prof teaches this course very well and if you are struggling the tutorials are there to help you but also if you are ahead of the game you can basically just never go to class and get a great grade

Mantis was a great professor! Super helpful as he records and posts all of his lecture videos online making class not mandatory. Labs can be tedious but super straight forward and easily marked. Would definitely recommend this class as a GPA boost!

The mandatory attendance was kind of annoying but his lectures were good and the course was straight forward.

Mantis makes this class very accessible. Recordings and online resources mean you don't have to attend. The workload is manageable, and unstuck ai can be helpful for study prep.