Grades everything VERY harshly but doesn't explain the specifications well. He's nice, but his grading will make your life hell. Remember he only need 10% to pass to continue teaching.

This is the only professor I was very reluctant to rate cuz I didn't have words to express my anger against his incompetency. I have taken many bad professors, and I did great with them, with a bit of extra effort from my part. This guy is a no-no. No-no!

Worst professor I had at Hunter. Not clear about his syllabi in terms of when things are due, his conditions of academic honesty, or anything when teaching. Breaks rules himself, unfortunately Hunter is extremely biased over keeping professors. Is obviously learning the material himself and badly. Hunter CS is a joke due to people like him.

He is not a good professor, and in no reality should he ever be considered a good professor. He knows about 70% of the knowledge required of operating systems; however, his teaching style is slow, ineffective, and unnecessary. I spent a majority of classes not there because I learned week 1-3 how ineffective his teaching is.

3 out of 4 main assignments were graded after the end of the semester. Not very flexible when it comes to his rules so make sure if you take him you understand them clearly.

get ready to spend a huge amount of time for this class. no mercy

pretty good at teaching concepts and helping you understand everything. all seems well until you take his midterm, final and do his home project. toughest grader there is. midterm/final consists of short answers with 0 partial credit. definitions: if you get a single word incorrect, he counts it as a 0. beware of his grading!

Easy grader, accessible outside of class, knowledgeable & smart are all words that dont describe this professor. 3 projs, 1 midterm, & 1 final. Mistakes on projects/exams don't receive partial credit. Strict deadlines but hes allowed to grade at the end of the semester (cant see how youre doing) & provides no feedback/ doesnt let you revise them.

Exams 50%, projects 45%, and a paper project 5%. He is a super tough grader. You will get zeros on the exams if you don't write what he taught in the class. Don't expect that you would get good grades on his exams. Just do better on the projects. But the good thing is, there's no final.

He graded most of the exams and the projects after the last day of class. This is the worst class I have ever taken in my life so far.

Avoid if you can. He is toughest grader and doesnt care about students. I heard many students failed his class. He makes you life pain. Too much homeworks but deosnt grade until end of semester so you won't know how you doing in class until you see your final grades. get 0's in exam if answers are right but not what he wanted to read.

There were 5 projects and 10 exams for six-week summer course. He only gave us 10 minutes to finish each exam. I received 7 0s for the exams, not because of I did them incorrectly, but I didn't use what he taught in the class because his lecture was so confusing. Also, I received 8 of exam grades and 4 of project grades after the last day of class.

This professor is undoubtedly one of the worst in the department. Not only did he ignore my emails (I have sent him four emails, none of which he responded to), he also ignored the emails from other students as well. His project descriptions are often very unclear, he grades incredibly harshly, provides no test files to students for their projects.

Quite honestly a bad professor. He makes you work for your grade, so much so that you might as well just learn on your own. He has a constant obsession with catching cheaters, so much so that it takes him over a month to grade projects worth 50% of our grades. Yes, if you worked hard enough you'll probably pass. Just know he's very stubborn

The exams were all leetcode problems, in which he had given us 15 MINUTES to solve each, company interviews generally give you 45min-1hour to solve these types of questions, these tests comprised of 45% of the grade and you either get a 0 or 100, there is only one test where the class average is above 50. Also the ONLY feedback is "wrong solution"

Shostak is one of the worst Professors in Hunter. All he is focus on is trying to find cheaters among students. It takes forever to be graded any work so you would never know how you are doing in class. Try to avoid him if possible. He is proud that 80% of his students are failing his class or drops his class. Not student-friendly. BE AWARE!!

Some of the high reviews given might be from either the prof himself or trolls within the class. So be careful. The sad truth is that this professor is bad. REALLY bad. His grading criteria is ridiculous. At a 50 for a C, most of the class will still fail, according to him. So he's actually thinking of lowering it even further. AVOID THIS DUDE!

To the loser below me go and be a skinny loser somewhere else you no life XD

Hunter does anonymous teacher evaluations. I wrote a 4000 character slander essay. Heres a small snippet; I don't understand how can a professor and a department head can look at the current performance of the class and just stand there and say "damn these kids are stupid im going to have to hard curve just to pass enough of them".

This man is the worst professor I've had between three different colleges and two majors. - Doesn't have lectures/class schedule planned out <- INSANE - Tests don't cover material taught in class - can't solve his own tests in front of class! <- TRUE STORY! - doesn't respond to dm's - no feedback on assignments. How to improve? - forgot a test day

This class is a disaster. Leetcode-based tests that you're expected to solve in 15 mins with no mistakes or you get a 0, while the prof took longer and made mistakes solving his own test. Projects are graded incredibly harshly, which prof admit was brutal. By the semester's end, prof told us "95% of the class will fail" if he doesn't curve.

His lecture is good but his quiz are terrible (unless you do a lot of Leetcode). He does not provide feedback for projects. If you get 25 in any projects then you will not know why he gave you a 25. He does not grade any projects on time. He dose not answer email. if take his class then do not cheat in his class. Most people get like C in his class

Here's the truth - He's a bad professor. You have to understand that despite all the 5 reviews people are posting, they're either the professor themselves/fellow professors OR students who look down on others. A majority of students who have passed his class will tell you this: You will hate him, and he will be a rude but you need to pass with a C.

as a warning to those planning to take this course a student was recently doxxed (full name and discord ID) by either the professor or a TA. The post was deleted but another mentioning the same student and referring to them as an anime character is still there. Dont take this if youre outspoken and value your privacy , the prof is also uncaring

BAD Professor. PhD doesnt mean excellence. Very obsessed with the cheating policy he created. 15 min for quiz code he does in 30 min with PhD included, big JOKE. We are students and not supposed to know whole material. He grades assignments late. You dont know if youre failing until he posts grades a day before Christmas. Great gift. MISERABLE.

Dolboyob, if you can understand Russian. Such an awful piece of garbage. Literally did the project myself, didnt copy anything online or from anyone else. And yet, still accused me of cheating which can result in me getting expelled. Man is a crazy lunatic. Never take his class. Heavy grader, Bebe responds, cant teach if his life depended on it.

Took him in Spring '20. The man is insane. For every hw, he supposedly caught several cheaters. I remember some of those hw's had a limited number of solutions, no way he caught that many people cheating. I heard this semester he wrongly accused a lot of students of cheating so I suspect he did it when I took the course. Good luck if you have him.

This is a bad professor I take in Hunter. right now my gpa is 2.2 because of him. I can't imaging my job in the future and I think nobody want to hire me. Be wire everyone. Don't trust any postive comment left in this webs. I think these left by himself.

please don't take his course. I never copy any resource from other student but he report my project to student conduct and he affirms that my project are copy from two students. right now, school reserve my record that I copy someone's work. Nobody will hire me in my career.

There are more than 50 students were reported by him, and he believes that they are copying resources from the website. If u take this professor's course, you don't think u can rise ur GPA because he only cares about how to bomb ur GPA and beware this time bomb, and I will be Suspension because of his reported. good luck, everyone.

Avoid this gpa killar as soon as possible. My GPA is less than 3.0 because he and shankar give me a C this semester. I can't go to graduate school even finding a job. Do u want me to say thank u?

Let me remind you, he has a PHD. Once again, he has a PHD.

See him for yourself. Good luck.

Just one word to describe him and his processes SUCKS. Thank You.

I hope that you will teach all my courses

He is loved by everyone in college. His lectures are lullabies that will put anyone in sleep. He truly care students and thats why he never responds to them.

Where do I start? How about that it's next to impossible to get in contact with him if it's not during class time? He doesn't respond to emails, and grades tougher than any professor I've had before. There's no partial credit on exams (which are worth 40% each), and he takes forever to grade the midterm (over 2 months and he still hasn't finished).

HORRIBLE. The only professor available for this semester for this class. He does not give partial credit on exams. And its May I still haven't recieve my midterm grade nor MOST of my homework. S I don't even know if I'm passing his class. I truly think he hates his life to put such hell on students.

No promise for curves, but there is a guarantee that he will take off 20 points of your test grade for submitting an online test 5 minutes late during a global pandemic. Absolutely no empathy in this man. No care for the students at all, took 2 months to grade a midterm but deducts points asap. Does not record lectures or post notes either.

Honestly he's alright teaching 260, and answers most questions students have. But he's still the same paranoid guy who will accuse you of cheating for the most insane reason. Save yourself the headache and stress and e-permit the class. Not a guy who cares about students.

Calling him a professor is an insult to the other professors. He is the polar opposite of every tag I can choose to describe him here. He responds once in a blue moon to emails. He grades all assignments and tests last minute. Practically no partial credit, so on the final you get -15 because you missed a word or two. E-permit the class, please.

No Extra Credit, Exams take up 80% of your grade. 2 weeks before the semester ended he finally finished grading the midterms. Doesn't post his lectures nor does even provide partial credit on the exams that are again worth 80% of your grade. On exams if you do not post the solution he is looking for it will be marked wrong despite multiple methods

If you love yourself even a little bit, please do consider taking another professor, like literally any professor and if no one else is teaching the course, e permit or wait for a semester till you find someone else to take the class with.

Not Cooperative with students. he doesn't see that the student is trying their best to answer a question. he gives his own answer. does not record the class. gives your test results after a month. no slides, no answers given to the exam. WORST PROFESSOR I EVER HAD.

Please PLEASE AVOID this professor. Shostak never records his lectures and makes it clear that anyone who does record his lectures will be heavily penalized. He does this because he knows he DOESN'T know how to teach. He's never responsive through email or through slack. He also false accuses for cheating and makes your life a living hell. AVOID

Just terrible. Cares more about catching cheaters than having all students master the material. He's lectures are "audio lectures". He won't post the slides and if you don't obtain a transcript of his lectures you won't get a good grade. Then he wonders how come most students failed to understand basic concepts. Time for him to look in the mirror

Youre more limited on time on his exams than on any standardized test. all we were assigned this semester was 6 short homeworks and the exam had 9 questions- he doesnt want you to do well. He assumes knowledge from courses which this course is a prerequisite for which is ridiculous. Very outdated approach to teaching. Doesnt respond on slack.

Seems like a good guy but a bad teacher. Knows a lot about the workings of a computer; human brain?- not so much. Almost barbaric way of teaching, guess thats how they did it in the Soviet Union where he got his degree. Taking this course at another college on permit is worth considering. Gives partial credit for some problems but not others.

No partial credit on the exams! He told us he would automatically give As to everyone who earned A-. Other than that, there is no curve which is so unfair: He basically adds 2.5 points to the final grade to some but not others. VeRy slow paced lectures but on the exam you have to hurry up! I doubt he could solve his own problems that quickly.

The professor is super slow and it feels like he is teaching to a set of first-graders. It is just hard to listen to: out of a hour and 15 minutes you get maybe 5-10 minutes information. Also, for somebody working in a CS department, surprisingly inadequate with technology and setting up exams.

Awful. No preparation for what will be on tests, and NOTHING uploaded for students to study on. An online class and he absolutely refuses to record lectures. Admittedly extremely paranoid (his words) about catching cheaters to the detriment of all else. Does not have lecture ready ever, and spends the majority of the lecture creating the slides.

I doubt that Professor Shostak knows the material and neither do the TAs who grade. The grading itself is extremely inconsistent and is a problem.

As a student do not take this Professor. I would highly avoid for your mental and GPAs sake. One of the worst professors by far. I have met harder professors with much higher qualifications and they have been more understanding than anything. Easier on grading. Its a shame Hunter has horrible professors. The good ones all left.

Can't lie, you have to give credit where it's due he is a really good lecturer, at least one of the better lecturers in the CS department. But boy are his projects insane I spent 30-40 hours doing his projects to no avail, he simply expects too much. If you look at the previous projects for 235 with other professors, at least they were reasonable.

This guy needs to realize students have a life too and other classes. We cant be spending whole days doing his projects.

Don't be brave. Read these reviews. Don't take. Save yourself. I did my part.

Thank you shostak! because of you, I cannot go to graduate school and change my major

Gives crazy projects then expects us to solve leetcode problems for tests the class right after. How does he expect us to study leetcode while doing the project? At least give two classes after.

Think twice before enrolling you will be up contemplating life this guy and his paranoid tendencies of catching cheating are off the charts. This class is not easy and don't think it will be a breeze he is really nice to talk to outside of class though but when it comes to exams prepare to get wrecked. Shostak is the final boss

Great lecturer, compared to other professors he is a godsend. However, his class was extremely unfair. I spent 30+ hours doing one of his projects and I was 80 percent donejust couldn't figure out why the output wasn't correct..he gave me a 0! I could have not done the project at all and got same grade. On top of that, Leetcode quizzes every week.

He over-complicates this course by scribbling confusing diagrams on the board to explain difficult concepts. It's so easy to lose concentration when he's teaching. His teaching style only helps if a student already has some prior knowledge about this course. Unfortunately, Hunter doesn't care about the quality of professors. I don't recommend him.

This is not a professor, and he is worse than any professor. He catches some students use the i,j,k variable and he says that this is copy from other student.

He may be a good programmer but he is a horrible professor. He does not know how to present the material. He does not work how to work with diverse students nor provide accommodations. Have learned nothing from this class (the material itself was easy) apart from the fact that the only thing he cares about is cheating.

I took this Professors class in the fall semester. Do not take this course. Let me start off by saying, he won't offer any additional outside help in case of unforeseen circumstances. His grading is terrible, he does not give partial credit, and he is outright rude in his emails to students. Furthermore, he doesn't post the slides on blackboard.

Taking 340 with Shostak is extremely risky. He isn't an effective CS professor; he scribbles on the board and talks without conveying the material well. His assignments are nearly impossible, so you need to excel in two exams to pass. Hunter College has two incompetent professors for this course. Be smart and take 340 at a different college.

Some of his teaching methods are just unnecessarily cruel, like giving the project autograder(that doesn't specify which tests you are failing) days before the due date while everyone is studying for finals and trying to memorize the 100 definitions he gave us. I would say avoid him for 340, but it sounds like the next guy isn't much better

The reviews below have to be some type of joke or written by Shostak himself. There is no emphasis on “understanding” the material. He literally stated multiple times throughout the sem to know his definitions because his graders may not accept other ones

Professor Shostak is probably the worst professor I've ever taken. Period. This class was the first time he taught it -- had no textbook, only did lectures, & misguided the entire class. The grade was split only the final & midterm. He made the final way too difficult and misled us on what topic to study. DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS! YOU WILL FAIL!

Not accessible by email and rarely checks messages.