2.3
Quality4.4
Difficulty27%
Would Retake95
Reviews27%
Would Retake
95
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
17
4
8
3
12
2
9
1
49
What Students Say
“It was hard to know what to study and work on”
ECE369 - 1.0 rating“This was by far my least favorite class at Purdue”
ECE369 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
17%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.73 avg changeRatings by Course
EE368
5.0
(1)ECE608
3.3
(11)ECE473
3.0
(5)ECE369
2.1
(78)Difficulty by Course
ECE369
4.4
ECE608
4.4
ECE473
4.2
EE368
4.0
Reviews (95)
I loved the creativity & enthusiasm with which he taught Data Structures... it was tons of work, but very worthwhile.
Fantastic Professor. Exams truly tested your understanding of the material. Made what could have easily been a very dull class fascinating.
Has a really good teaching style. He likes to use the overhead and work through problems. Exams are hard because they make you think rather than memorize.
Worst Course Policies Ever. Outcome calculation is a ten page formula. Miss a single homework, and you might as well drop the class. His exams are so bad that he gives 25% credit if you dont write anything.
Terrible professor. Hard to follow. Strange policies.
Just took the final. Just know that if you want an easy A, this is not your professor. This guy is from MIT -> his tests are freaking hard. Also lacks outside help.
Very engaging professor. If you actually go to every lecture and pay attention you will learn loads! Very little out-of-class help though. Odd course policies also, such as homework must be typed, homework grades only affect your maximum possible grade not the grade itself...
Very sharp professor. Uses extremely exact wording and is rarely wrong about what he says in class. Homeworks are long and can only hurt your grade. Tests aren't bad if you understand the material.
Not recommended, very bad prof, lack of material, strange policy
No Comments
He is engaging and entertaining at times. The course is difficult and ambiguous, an he does not fully clarify all topics. The homework is partially out of the book. Exams are impossible. Overall, a good professor.
He had made his course an incoherent jumble of poorly presented topics, which weren't presented in completeness due to lack of text. It was hard to know what to study and work on. He is unhelpful in office hours as well.
I really liked the textbook. My mid-term experience: Answered the proof correctly (minus a minor verification at the end), got 0 credit for the problem. If I hadn't answered I would have gotten 25% . I loved the course subject and the lectures but exams (and therefore grade) is extremely difficult. Take class only if you have to.
If you complain about him, you probably shouldn't be a computer engineer. He makes you earn everything in his class, and the lectures are designed such that you won't be able to find his material anywhere. He teaches 1.5 times of a normal course, the extra half is easy stuff that he expects you to go over the book and do homeworks on. Very bright.
There is not much advantage of taking this course as assignments are not collected. The method of instruction is also not clear. The way he prepares his lecture material is also very bad as he writes notes during the time of class and his presentation of the notes is POOR. Also, the professor doesn't care to clear doubts during the exams.
I really don't have any idea what he taught.
From my experience the professor does not like teaching or students. I got a B even though my exam score was significantly above average. His course is purely based on exams so I am not sure how much of it you will retain after you are done with the course. I would highly discourage any one from taking this course.
Professor Givan's lectures are excellent and his exams are very good at determining whether you learned the topics discussed in class. Homework is semi-useful, as it can show up on exams, but is not fully in line with the lectures. The grading is surprisingly harsh. My score was reasonably above average and I still received a B. I recommend Givan.
I honestly learnt a lot under Professor Givan. Considering how massive the syllabus is, he does give you the intuition you require to understand the topic. But this is a tough class and you have to show up to every lecture , listen and understand. Without his lectures, you can't appreciate the beauty of algorithms.
His lectures are amazing. Instead of just telling you how to do something or what is what, he inspires you to really think. Although homework are not graded, they will affect your grade if you do not do them when he curves. Midterm is ok, final is a bit tougher (especially NP-completeness part). Overall, you should expect to read and practice a lot
One of the best classes I took at Purdue. His lectures are very meaningful and every statement he says has great depth. He makes sure you understand the basic concepts well. However, if you zone out during the lecture, getting back to understanding the rest of the lecture is quite hard. Also, you need to put in effort to get good grades.
The first time I took this class I failed it. I took it a second time and received an A. In order to handle the class you must go to lecture. Exams can cover material that was discussed in lecture and not in the textbook. To do well you must read the text chapter, attend lecture, do the homework, and then clarify questions with him in office hours.
Lectures are very informative and you should for sure go. The exam averages are EXTREMELY low which is horrible for class morale. Everyone thought they were failing and disliked Givan for that reason. I failed both midterms and the final (but was above average) and finished with an A- so don't let your horrible grades scare you too much.
Givan expects a lot of students and his class is difficult. He lectures on topics he thinks are very important, and expects students to catch up on the rest via textbook. Your entire course grade is made up of the 2 exams. If you stick it out, you'll master the material. Or, you may end up hating class. It is what you make of it.
Bob Givan is amazing. He really wants you to learn, that is why he will always answer you question on piazza. He is really smart, that's why sometimes it's hard to understand the symbol,language, ,model, world that he is using, but he always encourage students to ask questions. I am really glad he is bringing MIT-liked's quality to Prudue!
you should go to class too pass. Most people pass because the average is low not because they learned the material, well.
you should be good at ECE369 and ECE302 to do well in class. also, you need to be good python programmer. There are lots of videos online that can help with this course.
The way the course is taught just might deter many students from liking algorithms. Givan explains algorithms in very abstract way, it easier to learn from online. Homework load is very heavy with no reward in grading and must be in laTex. Exams are worth 100% of your grade. Conclusion: graduating from MIT doesn't make you a good instructor.
Givan is ok. 369 is a course that is very set apart from other subjects in ECE and that many find too abstract and uninteresting. Givan does a decent job teaching, but can be rather pedantic with his grading. The grading this semester was solely focused around exams and basically how everyone did relative to the average.
no matter how much u pay me , I will never take his course again
Do not take his class. I cannot understand his handwriting.
Harsh grading. Grades based on knowledge, not effort
TA only read answers. Extremely unreasonable grading. If you cannot write the answer 100% same to their key, you will lose point. Plus, his quiz questions are unclear and hard to understand. Never take his class.
I think the professor does pretty well considering the very abstract topics . I think that despite the difficulty of the class he's trying his best - I once e-mailed him about how I wasnt doing well in the class and in general, and he gave me a bunch of advice which I really appreciated, and I thought it showed he cared about what he's teaching.
NEVER take his class again!!!!
He is not good at explaining and he uses last semester old videos for lectures . he barely put an effort to help students.
The worst class I have ever took at Purdue
Do not take ECE369 with him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wish I could give him a Zero rating. The homework are hard and there is not enough help for students from him and not enough TA hours.
Weekly quizzes were very difficult, based on the curve I'm assuming most students failed most of them. The class is very abstract and I didn't find it interesting. Handwriting is a problem, notes were scattered and unorganized. I felt that the material didn't have to be as abstract and hard to understand as it was.
lol.... steer clear of this guy.... insecure, hasn't changed his hws since 2008, then blames people for looking at solutions online
Very weird grading criteria. The grade is based on the class performance not on learning. There few topics that I total do not understand but still got good grades on their quizzes. Lectures are recorded previously some from previous semesters. No live interaction with professor except for one hour during the week( not the same as class time).
Homework are hard and long. Lectures does not cover all the information need to understand the required material to be able to do the homework and pass the Quizzes. Professor is not available for help live. mostly on Piazza and one hour weekly live on Zoom ( had class during that hour). I had to rely outside sources to understand the material.
You will find the most dumbest grading system in this course."Homework won't take part in grading but your final grade can't be higher than your homework grade", by Bob Givan. The best part is he makes asking question extensively hard and count you as cheating if you search and learn the answers online or previous semesters.
Not a well-taught class. Grading is absurd and the professor uploads all prerecorded lectures. The lectures have nothing to do with the homework or quizz.
Worst class ever. The most theoretical class which has no use. The professor makes the class tough for no reason. Weirdest grading policy
Awful teacher, gives textbook homework that is do able, but extra problems that he makes up that are extremely difficult. Makes you type up the homework which take an extra 3 hours. Gives quizzes that have difficult theory questions that he doesn't even cover in lecture. If you ask a question, he will tell you to rewatch lecture.
I HATED THIS CLASS. Unnecessarily difficult for the topic. "Instruction" is him writing a math definition & then being blindsided by different stuff in quizzes. Doesnt attempt to answer obviously piazza posts, his handwriting is bogus, his homework grade limit is bogus, etc I could write a paper on this class but I only have 300 AVOID AT ALL COSTS
A professor that teaches logic, but act like a capricious child and persist unethical decision when he can't come up with a good logical statement that that can reject you from pursuing your right.
Givan clearly lays out the expectations on how to succeed at the start of the semester. He really cares that you learn the concepts. If you take the time to learn the content and get help when you need it, then you will succeed. Givan's lectures are very helpful and reading the textbook is a must. The class is a challenge but I learned a lot.
I enjoyed the class. It had fairly interesting content. The class was easy/straightforward given that there were no exams and the grades are dependent on weekly quizzes so no one thing had a large impact. Grading system is a little weird but fairly reasonable. Content was very intuitive. Homework was a lot. Super quick on piazza responses.
A lot of the reviews give a pretty negative outlook on the course and after taking 369 I can say that they couldn't be further from the truth. Professor Givan is very clear on the course expectations and is extremely active on piazza and has weekly office hours to help you succeed.
Dr Givan is a passionate professor who truly cares about students and is extremely active on piazza all day. That being said, I find his lectures to be VERY densely packed and hard to apply to some homework and quizzes. Supplementing his lectures with examples from the textbook and regularly attending TA office hours is what will get you through it
On April 11th, 2021, Professor Givan posted on the ECE 369 piazza asking students to post reviews on this site, whether they be positive or negative, under the guise of "to not mislead future students". Any post you see here made on that date should be considered with extreme caution. The 1.0's you see are more truthful than the 5.0's.
I would, without hesitation, give 1 star. Lectures were jam packed with difficult material which the prof unnecessarily refused to record. Therefore, lectures were more about frantically copying down than learning.
Dont't take the course if possible
(1/2) More examples and less theory would benefit students greatly, as a lot of the theory goes over your head until an example arises, and you realize you never even needed the theory to solve most problems. I've quickly realized that this class is mostly relearning things you already know in a more formal way, which I guess has its applications,
(2/2) but the extent of mathematical semantics seem unnecessary to me. I'm also strongly against his grading system where he takes the lower of your quiz and HW scores as your course grade. This unfairly punishes students for their weaknesses, and fails to recognize their strengths. However, his typesets of lectures are great and well summarized!
This course is NOT well taught, that's a fact. You can argue all day long it has these solutions but how come other classes aren't like this? Being a professor is like a youtuber, even best youtuber has critics. 1 or 2 bad reviews? Totally cool. Mostly bad? Check your content instead of complaining about reviews. Absurd
Really makes you wonder how tight the budget is in the ECE department. I get it, they messed up giving this guy tenure but if they were doing ok financially they could just eat the loss and not let him teach any classes. Surely they know no one learns a thing from the guy who's so bad he needs to basically beg us to give him a good rating here.
Pros: there isn't much cons cons: you can't learn anything from this course or be graded precisely on this course.
Yes, he is a hard professor and this is a difficult course. However, I believe that despite what other reviewers say he does put in a lot of effort and truly does want us to succeed. The grading sys. is unusual, but I prefer the quizzes. If one keeps on schedule and attend office hours you will do fine. Make use of piazza as he responds in 6 mins.
1/2 The recording and typest lecture notes were helpful for you to learn discrete math. But, The time you need to spend in this course is much greater than the time spent in other three-credit courses. Because if you want to succeed in this course, but you are also taking other ECE courses, you may sacrifice the time you should have spent in others
Your grade is the lower grade between quiz and homework. Your homework will only be graded by 5 to 10 questions out of 20 to 30 questions. he believe this can evaluate your knowledge precisely while letting the graders to loaf on there jobs. The bad reviews are a lot more helpful to read before taking this course. If you are not superhuman avoid it
Please dont take him. If you wanna pass the class.
Honestly, this class is no cake walk. But two things I'll give him, 1) quick responses on Piazza (even if it's unhelpful at times) and 2) he knows this is a hard class and he make sure you know it too, setting the expectation early. The dude seems to want us to learn but doesn't seem to understand that letter grade matters a lot to a lot of us.
Your entire grade for this class is the lower of your homework and quiz components. Homework takes forever as you need to type all work and quizzes are graded extremely harshly. Professor's response when asking for help was to rewind lectures to "understand every single statement." However, Piazza is extremely active for those seeking help.
He makes you work really hard for your grade. If you do you will be fine and learn a lot. There are a lot of spiteful reviews below maybe because he will fail you if you cheat. Prof is almost always available on Piazza. Handwriting needs work but typed versions of lecture notes available as a supplement. Keep up with lecture or you will suffer.
This was by far my least favorite class at Purdue. I think it has potential to be interesting and useful, but the execution of boring lectures (even at 1.5x speed) and pedantic homework made me loathe any time spent on this class. To his credit, I do appreciate the consistent quizzes as I think I learned more this way as opposed to 2 huge exams.
The ineptitude, useless lectures, callous and autocratic grading system of this class, compounded with the overarching uselessness of virtual learning for Purdue ECE has incinerated my mental stability. Constantly wondering whether I will fail every single assignment for this poorly taught class is too much. TL;DR: this class made me go to therapy.
The toughest course I've ever taken and I got mental problem this semester because of 369. Just wish Prof Givan will let me pass.
Givan is interesting. He seems like a good professor given his Piazza Q&A response time and lectures but to be honest, the textbook and YouTube make for a better professor. His grading guidelines are unclear and he doesn't tell you cutoffs for grades making it harder and stressful. His lectures do not prepare you for the homework and quizzes.
Prof givans methods do not align with current teaching standards, it is unreasonable to expect everyone to tolerate the ridiculously complicated lectures with lots of rambling, piazza "answers" which are non answers even if the reply was quick, and scary looking negative quiz averages. Please strive to be a better professor.
I enjoyed taking ECE369. I found the materials very interesting. Use Piazza and office hours. Professor Givan is very quick when responding. His responses are helpful, but he often uses really specific terms, requiring some time to process his words. Ask follow-up questions if you want clarifications. He is supportive of the students' learning.
The Professor used old lectures from previous semesters, and he was only available one hour a week on Zoom. Piazza was not helping. TAs helped a bit during the course. The homework was grading based on few exercises only. Video lectures were made in a rush, especially at the end of the semester. This was the worst experience for me at Purdue.
Not a great professor. Does not change HW questions but you cannot use any source. No relation between lectures and quizzes. Overall vague course with most of it having no real application.
U need to type all the math equations for HW and quiz because he had a terrible hand writing. He is too lazy to refilm his lectures to improve his hand writing even though he started to teach this class since 2003. He responses questions on piazza really fast but with useless answers. Any 10min lecture video on YT is better than his 1hr lecture.
Never cares about the painful experience for students to comprehend his nasty handwriting. Really weird grading policy. Have to nail both homework and exams. Do bad in either of them? Be ready to get a harsh grade. His lectures have near to nothing related to homework. Homework is required to be typed including all the crazy math expressions.
To the students who gave bad ratings, rly? So u put in mediocre effort, then whine/blame others when u get a bad grade? bro this isn't high school. If you found it hard and didn't bother asking for help until you actually understood the problem, that's on you. Not the prof. The topics are not useless, even Veritasium made a YT vid about it. grow up
One of the worst professors I've had in ECE, really disappointed by purdue this time. The lectures are not made to be remotely interesting and he goes on on random tangents. Very rude when responding to students.
Simply horrible Should be fired
Lectures and handwriting are trash you have to read the textbook or you won't understand anything, Homework takes 6-9 hours to finish, you are only allowed to use latex editors so it wastes even more time. Harsh weekly quizzes. Grading system takes the lower grade off your hw and quiz, so if you had A in hw and C in quizzes you get a C. Brilliant.
Professor Givan makes it really hard to enjoy his class. His lectures are not helpful at all in my opinion. It seems as though he spits a lot of theory with little application as to how to use that theory. Come quiz time, it's all about the application of theory and even with hours of studying you still feel stuck. His piazza responses are terrible
Grade is the minimum of your HW and Quiz scores, incredibly harsh grading (one quiz 36% of the class got a 0), and long/hard HW. By far the largest workload of any class I took this semester and the content isn't easy even if Givan wasn't teaching. Givan made things 10x harder than they needed to be. On the bright side he was very active on Piazza.
I really appreciate Professor Givan's quick and great responses on Piazza. This semester the weekly in-person lectures were very helpful for me to prepare quizzes. The TA office hours are also helpful. I took efforts and learned a lot from Professor and TAs, and I found the discrete math is super interesting! I enjoy this course by Professor Givan!
B Givan try to teach a core essense of a topic, and he expect you to entail most of the variations by urself.(U will be tested on weekly quizzes). If you pay 200% attention and try to listen, configure, learn every word he says, you will see that he truly understands discrete math. Sadly, he does not speak or write very articulate most of the time.
Givan gets some hate from a lot of students, but he is very transparent in his grading and teaching. I would rather have tough than surprising. I dropped out of 473 as soon as I heard he wasnt teaching because of how well I was able to learn from him in 369. Go to lectures. Ask questions.
Ok, he is a fairly nice person with quickest response on piazza. However, all these cannot hide that he is a very very bad lecturer. For 473 he never did that. Besides, the quiz is unpredictable and ridiculously focused on details he even not write down as it supposed to be a checkpoint quiz???? Even open book and open internet dont help
Professor Givan is great at responding to questions but his lectures are very boring and difficult to understand. Passed after multiple attempts and the best tip I can give is to utilize piazza, TA, and study groups/friends. Only passed because the content finally clicked after taking the course a second time. HW and Quizzes are still brutal.
Professor Givan is a very intelligent Professor. He has a strong background in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. He is quick to respond on Piazza and really knows the content well. The content of the class is difficult, but if you put in the effort (lectures, homeworks, quizzes) you will succeed.
This class is very difficult but professor Givan is very helpful on Piazza and responds within just a few minutes no matter how late you post. I wish he would give more examples during lecture because the concepts are very abstract, so when it comes to homework, I spend a very long time trying to figure out how to implement the concepts from class.
Hands down the worst professor I ever had. His online lectures were extremely hard to follow and his hand written is unreadable. In addition, beware of his grading policy, your grade will only depend on the lowest between the weekly quizzes and homework, which is ridiculous to say the least.
The professor was the worst I had in ECE. Some of the grading tools used were antiquated. The horrible course website is from the 90's, it's comically bad!
My exp. with this prof was so terrible that I made an account to post this. NEVER take a course with him. For ECE369, very obscure & punishing grading methods that make >35% of the class fail. At no point did I feel like he wanted us to succeed. The class was a "sink or swim but let me arbitrarily throw objects at you while you're drowning :)"
Even the school counselors felt bad for me when I had to re-take his class. I would not wish this experience upon anyone. Not sure if anyone's been reading the news since 2020 about him, but I would bet there's a lot more at play than "academic dishonesty" for failing people. His answer keys were public for years and he just now noticed? Fishy.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
15%
Textbook Required
17%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-1.73 avg changeRatings by Course
EE368
5.0
(1)ECE608
3.3
(11)ECE473
3.0
(5)ECE369
2.1
(78)Difficulty by Course
ECE369
4.4
ECE608
4.4
ECE473
4.2
EE368
4.0