3.2
Quality3.1
Difficulty55%
Would Retake97
Reviews55%
Would Retake
97
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
40
4
7
3
10
2
14
1
26
What Students Say
“This professor is fine, he gets the job done”
COMSC165 - 3.0 rating“Hilariously bad hand-writing”
COMSC165 - 5.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
23%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.55 avg changeRatings by Course
COMSC210
5.0
(8)COMSC260
3.7
(22)COMSC165
3.1
(38)COMSC200
2.9
(21)CS165
2.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
COMPCS260
4.2
COMSC260AND200
4.0
CS165
3.5
COMSC200
3.5
COMSC165
3.3
Reviews (97)
Boring and slow at teaching
Super boring, he would often take forever to answer simple questions, and his long drawn out answers would eat up a ton of class time. Some of the curriculum was not even covered during class, as so many assignment deadlines were pushed back and pushed back.
Love his class
Grade was about 25% assignments, 10% weekly in class quizzes (3 dropped), 3 tests at 50%(curved, low raised to final%), and a 15% cumulative final. Assignments aren't too hard. Tests aren't the easiest but very similar to quiz questions. End of semester crunch. Really cute if you like awkward pudgy guys. Hilariously bad hand-writing. Good teacher.
He teaches the material well. Show up at least half the time and you'll learn. Most of grade is made up of tests and weekly quizzes. There are always 1 or 2 days to retake every quiz. Most of class period is spent working through examples of the topic being taught in actual programs. Overall, I learned some stuff and wasn't overwhelmed by the work.
He's very fair, you'll learn a lot if you put time into the exercises. He gives many opportunities to improve you're grade. Overall, I would recommend him.
Hes a very fair grader and is always willing to clarify any questions a student may have. Hes a nice guy and you the tests are based on the quizzes so you will always know what to study
Easy grader, gives reasonable assignments and drops one of them and one of the quizzes. One test score can be replaced with final exam score. He is very nice, but lectures slowly. We didn't completely finish all of the SLO's in my class.. and he grades labs slowly, but he's good! Read the book to prepare for the quizzes.
He is one of the best CS teacher I've taken at DVC. He is very willing to answer your questions and went in to detail about important topics during lectures. He also assign challenging problems that would really help you understand the material.
Melvin is by far the most knowledgeable CS professor I've had. His lectures are extremely thorough (although sometimes boring), but he is always willing to help you with assignments or whatever questions you have. His projects are honestly pretty easy (he provides an outline for the code) but his tests/quizzes can be sorta challenging.
Dope Guy, but very slow at teaching and grading. He is good but updates grades very late. He isn't tough on grading though, so that is a plus. He can take very long in lectures at times. He is clear on his expectations but again very late on grading. He is also boring at times. I would beware this is an end of semester crunch which is never good
Solid choice for COMSC-165 if you have the option to take him go for it really been enjoying his class and the environment all semester long he is cool, his lectures are a little long but i've been through worse
Really good teacher!! the only reason some of my classmates did not enjoy him was because they did not want to put effort into there work. They wanted the easy A when in reality that is not benefiting them towards the future! I feel really prepared for next semester thanks to him The only people that don't like him are the people who such at coding
Ryan is a great teacher, he knows what he is teaching. Back in the day he was new and inexperienced but nowadays he can teach things quite well. His lectures are quite long and he does have a high emphasis on exams but that is something to get used to. Take him if you actually want to learn advanced C++. Your grade will be what you put in.
Really good teacher. He knows a lot about object oriented programming. He cares a lot about students. He really wants you to succeed, his lectures are all real life examples. Many dont like his long lectures but the truth is that you learn a lot.
The class was fine. BUT he is constantly restricting access to class materials on Canvas which was obnoxious, supposedly so that you can't view course materials while you're taking a quiz, but with a quiz pretty much every day of class it makes it really difficult to follow along with the lecture when you can't read the tiny text on the projector.
This professor is fine, he gets the job done. He just goes over some presentations throrughout class. That part is fine, but the problem is that more than 80 % of your grade is based off 4 tests. All of which contain tricky problems. On top of this Mr. Melvin has many periods in the class where he is completely silent for 15 to 30 minutes.
Lecture is very confusing and dawned out. I'd do better with just the book alone if only he didn't have equally confusing exam and lab questions. He doesn't give us back our grades for the whole semester until after the final is done. Good luck.
I have to learn everything on my own with this class. His lecture are straight from the textbook but more dreary. Exams are ok only he likes to throw in odd balls problem to show how smart he is.
Melvin is a traditional teacher, tests are worth a lot in his class, yet they are not hard. His tests are a compilation of all his weekly quizes prior to the test. He is lecture heavy, but you will learn everything you need to move onto the next course. Overall, he is a solid choice.
If you don't compare his class with another professor's, you never know how slow his lecture is. Array topic lasts for 3 weeks, seriously? My friend's class is 3 chapters faster than mine! He can explain things clearly. But his reaction is slow. Following his pace will take you away from Berkeley.
I really enjoyed his class. He lectures slowly, but deliberately and covers just about everything you need to know to pass. As long as you pay close attention in class you won't even need to use the book. Tests are most of your grade and require a deep understanding of the material so if you're lost during his lectures be sure to study at home.
Ryan is a great man, unfortunately he isn't the best professor. His 3 hour hybrid courses are all lecture and very boring. Tests make up about 80% of your grade and contain very tricky questions that are not gone over before the test. He also covers all the important topics towards the end of the course. I highly DO NOT recommend taking Melvin.
Ryan Melvin is not a great professor. He dosen't really explain the concepts in a clean manner. All he does is read over ppt slides, which is why only half the class shows up. He is also late every class and lets students out late as well. His class also consists of long quiet periods where he just codes long examples. Then shows it and thats it :(
This professor is ok. Lectures were clear but really boring. You should read textbook. There were 12 assignments. The only problem I have with him is that he returns assignments really late (I got first 6 returned at once after 7 weeks the first one was submitted, still waiting for the other half after 7 weeks...).
He's nice and willing to solve all kinds of problem. He's lecture is good but his tone really makes people sleepy and the writing is dreadful. Homework is usually easy. However, the quizzes are difficult and all related to concepts in lecture. Fortunately, most of the exam questions are similar to quizzes' questions.
Horrible
Don't take him. There are 12 quizzes, 12 assignments and 3 exams + 1 final. The lowest quiz and assignment are dropped and the lowest exam can be exchanged with a grade in the final exam. The lectures are super boring. He is not clear in the lecture. Questions on the quizzes about the things we haven' covered or we will cover in the next lecture.
I liked having professor Melvin last semester. He's very awkward at times during lecture but if you can overlook this. He's pretty helpful if you ask questions during and after class in person. On the other hand, His hand writing is very bad and will take a few classes to get used to. His exams consists of the quiz chapter concepts.
The class was very dreary and topics were not explained well.
Pretty good prof. Although lectures could be a little more engaging, he knows C++ very well and will answer any questions you have. Just keep up with the class and you'll do well and learn a lot.
he is one of the best professors i have taken for coding. if you study everything you will get a good grade. not as bad as these comments make it out to be.
After getting past his awkwardness you will learn a lot. You can tell he is a good coder and you have to put in the work into this class to receive the grade you want.
He really knows his stuff. Assignments are pretty straight forward and his tests are pretty much his all his quizzes (2 tries, takes top score) combined so if you study those youll do fine on the tests
He knows what he is doing which I admire. The only thing is he grades really slowly.
tests are worth a lot but are just repeated quizzes so study quizzes
take him if you had a solid comsc class before. Not easy but not hard either
Reading the textbook is key to passing. He is a knowledgeable professor, just awkward
Is good at explaining really abstract topics. Go to his office hours for help
tests are hard, but are exactly the quizzes word for word. He does try
if you want a really independant class take him. zoom classes were optional and he just uploaded lecture videos
Good teacher just late grader
He is a good teacher, will prepare you well in c++.
He's nice and willing to help students. His lectures are good and clear, but the voice makes people sleepy and makes no one survived/awake. Hard and lots of quizzes but the exam is easy, since the questions are 80% the same as previous tests. Reading the designated textbook is important.
Basically just read the book, quizzes are hard but gets higher score out of two. labs are easy.
easy a
His grading is completely unbalanced. There are 3 tests and a final exam. And each of this tests is worth 200pts, where the weekly homework assignments are worth 10pts. Many of these homework assignments require much more from you than the exams, which are just multiple choice questions. Also posted the exam on canvas, the day of the exam. Avoid.
This professor is the reason why I changed majors. Although, DVC's computer science department is not the greatest, in fact if you are a computer science major you are at the wrong college. The classes at DVC will not help you, make sure you prepare outside of classes since they teach you C++, which is not a widely used language in the workforce.
Grades very late. Gives assignments that are due after the end day of the semester. It ends on friday and gives you assignment to submit on sunday. you will need to study quizzes to get the grade on exams. homework is a lot to handle for this class. Is good at helping you, but you will just need to look for answers anyway since workload is heavy
Just avoid this prof. Moreover, doubt about the positive comments because 6 of the comments that were uploaded on Apr 30th, 2020 were all positive and 11 comments that were uploaded near this period were all positive. I think his overall rate is manipulated.
Worst cs teacher I have taken. I can tell he is caring and tries his best but he graded assignments the week after the final, so I did not know my grade until then which is bad. Tests are worth 200 points which is so much compared to hw assignments which take a long time to complete. (10%) Grading is really unfair, avoid this teacher.
Lectures aren't very engaging. Homework assignments are okay, but worth very few points. Quizzes and tests are multiple choice, but are unreasonably difficult and worth a disproportionate amount of points. Assignments were not graded until months after submission. Nice guy and does care about students, but I had better luck reading the textbook.
A 30mins reading of the book covers almost everything he talks about during a 4hrs lecture. Quizes and tests are easy but unnecessarily complicated and redundant, very time consuming. Easy A in terms of no intelligence is needed as long as you study the book; Miserable A in terms of impractical assignments & meaningless quizes/tests.
Prof. Melvin is very kind. He gives very detailed feedbacks and I think he prepares his lectures very well. I have to agree that he's lectures sometimes get very dry during the summer class, but it's understandable since summer classes usually are very long. Textbook is very helpful for homeworks and quizzes, I also appreciate his lecture notes.
AWESOME professor. If you work hard, attend lecture, and start programs early, it's not difficult to get an A. His lectures are slow at times, but his ability to help make sense of abstract topics is 10/10. There are some questions/answers on exams that seem to be written to intentionally confuse you, but paying close attention will save you.
He is very knowledgable and does his best to give us all the material during our one meeting per week. Go to his office hours.
I think lectures could be more interesting, but if you watch the videos and read the text FOR REAL you will do fine. You can't fake your way through his HW assignments so don't fall behind! Tests are hard multiple choice format and timed w/Proctorio but he gives you many many opportunities to boost your grade at the end of the semester!!!
Just make sure to go to his office-hour if you have any questions, he will try his best to help you understand the context. For the 260 class, I found watching his lecture video is especially important since sometimes the textbook is a bit hard to follow. Overall I really like prof. Melvin's class. just hope he grades assignment sooner tho.
Professor Melvin is just fine, he tries to do his best, but his voice sounds very boring during lectures. Also be very careful because one time his exam didn't show up on the Canvas calendar and I almost missed it. Also takes forever to grade things. If you ask then he'll explain better.
He's an alright professor. Very traditional. Starting programming assignments early definitely helps with this class. Quizzes are not too easy, but not too hard. Tests usually have similar questions from the quizzes. Study previous quizzes and test, and you'll do fine. Lectures are really long, but are helpful in a way. DON'T PROCRASTINATE!
He is an alright cs teacher and does his best to explain things. His lectures are ok but I mostly read the book and slides. Do the programming assignments early and practice the quizzes for his tests and you should be ok. Tests are worth 52% of your grade. I had a few questions I was stuck on and he helped me solve some of them.
Professor Melvin is amazing. His lectures are really good and explain everything clearly. He has long office hour during which you can ask him questions and he is very nice and friendly.
He gave me much help during office hours.
Professor Melvin was very generous with his assignment deadlines. The pandemic has been so stressful and he basically allows you to submit most assignments like a month or two after they are due. He is very knowledgable so go to his office hours to get the most out of this class!!
I took COMSC 165 and 200 w/ Melvin, both asynchronous online. Good guy. Definitely takes a while to grade programming assignments but other than that I don't really have any complaints. Go to his office hours for help when you need it and actually watch & take notes on the lecture videos and you should be good!
Really great prof, very understanding and takes a lot of time to explain to during office hours. I wasn't a big fan of the recorded lectures but when I did join his office hours he would take the time to explain to me anything I didn't understand. His exams are proctored but only record our screens and not us.
His assignments for the class are so bad. The instructons are very confusing and don't make sense at all. He needs to add more details and give you an overview on the instructions on why they need to be the way he wants rather than just expecting you to figure it out
Professor uploads hours of low quality lecture videos you're required to watch but no walkthroughs for the labs. Quizzes are insanely nuanced, including one on the syllabus. Office hours are strangely conducted. Highly encourage you avoid.
Format itself is standard online COMSC class. Material is posted in weekly Module and every Sunday there is a discussion post, quiz and assignment due. Everything builds on itself so slacking off will make later assignments impossible to do (they are tricky as is). Not a fan of the 50 multiple choice questions in every 3 Exams 1 Final. Exhausting!
Tends to overcomplicate simple concepts by going on long tangents. The recorded video lectures are unorganized. For some strange reason, he writes his notes and code examples on a messy Word document which is not helpful to learn from. Better off just reading the textbook.
Beware of this professor. If you are a beginner in programming then don't take this professor. He doesn't care how the students are doing. The teaching style is Jurassic, confusing, and boring. He keeps asking the same questions in all the discussions. All in all, you are not going to learn anything in his class.
Overview of the class: every week you have already recorded lecture videos to watch and a quiz and a programming assignment to do. The programming assignment could be simplified a little bit. The first few weeks were okay but then got a bit harder. Wish he could explain more in the video. he also gives you like a month to do the assignment.
His lecture videos are very low effort and disappointing. He posts recorded Zoom lectures from pandemic year. The lecture videos are poorly executed, unedited, too long, and feature heavily his favorite technique of typing into a MS Word share screen. His test and quiz were too hard (like brain teasers) and assignments too easy. Requires Proctorio.
the lectures are just recorded Zoom meetings with sporadic lengths and random intervals of silence for minutes. the quizzes are difficult and weekly. the main issue is that he is very slow about grading. the syllabus says anything will be graded and returned within 2 weeks but much hasn't been for a month with a few assignments going back further
Professor Melvin didn't respond to my email, but he kept grading and sent messages via email.
Comically poor quality in the zoom recorded lectures. Doesn't respond to emails. He gives exhausting and bizarre quiz questions. One multiple choice question on the final is worth more than a whole programming assignment so beware of weird weighted grading system. He makes everything tedious such as 3 discussion posts/week. He has no industry exp.
Uses textbook, about 3 hours of lecture each week, & provides outside source notes & notes from weekly lectures. Lectures are very insightful & focus on the major topics of the week. Textbook should still be read thoroughly as other topics not covered in lecture will be on tests. There are weekly programming assignments with concise instructions.
Bro's quizzes/tests contain some of the most unclear and oddly formatted questions you will ever see, usually paired with earth-shatteringly braindead and convoluted solutions where the straightforward and obvious solution is simply assumed to not exist. Other than that he's alright I guess.
He very thoroughly explains topics in lectures. Test and quiz problems are a little tricky, but he provides a lot of resources to help prepare us, especially for the exam - practice quizzes are provided. The trickiness of the quizzes helps us prepare for the exams which are worth a lot more.
Professor Melvin is fine, but if you care about your grade, I recommend taking another professor. The way he forms his quizzes is very tricky. discussion posts, quizzes, and Assignments combined worth 25%. Final and test worth 75% of the total grade. However, Expect harder questions in the test than the quizzes. Good luck.
About 3 hours of lecture per week on top of textbook review & slides. Weekly programming projects are due. If you apply yourself, you should be successful in this class. Be prepared to invest much of your time understanding concepts and logic of OOP. I do not recommend skipping the lectures if you want to develop the thinking mindset needed.
If you are serious about learning OOP in C++, I highly recommend taking this course. I gained a lot of valuable knowledge from it. Consistent effort is necessary due to a challenging series of quizzes and exams. However, the instructor is always available for Zoom meetings and takes the time to carefully address your questions.
Truly one of the worst grading schemes for any cs class. Coding assignments are 15% and 3 exams and the final are 75%. Exams are all multiple choice but trying to find the difference between answer choices take 5 minutes because he only changes one variable in a massive block of text for each one. 2x speed on lectures are necessary. Avoid, not good
Grading scheme is extremely test heavy, video lectures, assignments are pretty easy, but may not help as much with the tests. Workload is low, but be prepared to learn a lot on your own and read the textbook for the tests. I would skip if you are looking for an easy A.
All 3 tests and quizzes were fairly straightforward, easy to get a high score. However, the real problem is the difficulty of the final exam. There was material tested far beyond the scope of the tests/quizzes/coding HW, and because all problems were stricly multiple choice, there was no opportunity for partial credit. Class average was D+ on final
Class quality was decent, although I wish coding assignments could be longer/have more substantial content to better prepare us for the final exams.Multiple choice tests went quite well, but the vast majority of the class struggled with very difficult final exam. Unfortunately, no amount of reviewing/studying would have better prepared us for final
Quizzes were mislabeled for the chapter they covered and even with studying were easy to fail. video lectures were hours long and didn't cover the homework or the quizzes I can't say enough to avoid him. Took someone else and passed with flying colors.
Get ready to read a lot for this class. Exams make most of your grade, but there are plenty of opportunities to get an A. Quizzes are pretty tough, but the exams are made up of similar, if not the same, questions. Be sure to read the comments in his code examples and watch his lectures to succeed in this class, as it requires a lot of work.
Nothing to add. Pretty much the same as the previous reviews. Professor posts lectures that were recorded from zoom during covid. Notes were long and useless. Graded heavily on 3 exams and a final. I learned more from self-studying than going through his lectures and notes. Do not take him if you want to succeed or learn.
This was easily the worst CS class I've taken at DVC. Rather than the actual coding assignments being the heaviest weighted part of the grade, it's the 3 exams + final. Also instead of Melvin actually putting in the effort to be present in the class, he used lectures from 2020 when he was doing them on Zoom. Took weeks to grade, and pacing was bad.
Professor Melvin is unfair. Despite averaging 98% on homework, I got an 88 on a test and was stuck in that range forever. His quizzes are tricky. Discussions, quizzes, and assignments are 25% of the grade; the final and tests are 75%. Expect harder questions on tests than quizzes. Good luck.
DO NOT TAKE, he never responds to emails, always grades the assignments too late. The quizzes are tricky, and he doesn't post the correct answers, so you don't know where you made mistakes. He posts the correct answers before the test, but it's too late and doesn't help. The tests are hard too, and it's only one attempt.
Tricky questions, doesn't reply to emails/questions. Takes forever to grade. Difficult homework, excruciating quizzes/exams. Yes, he does drop your lowest DBP, HW, Quiz, and Exam. Still almost impossible to get through. Lecture videos didn't make sense. I was confused for most of the class. Take another instructor, save your tears.
Genuinely the worst class I've ever taken at DVC. The quizzes and exams are unnecessarily tricky and difficult. He reuses lectures from 2020 Covid quarantine, and they are not beneficial to your learning, barely covers content on the exams/quizzes. If you take him, expect to do hours and hours of self studying.
DO NOT TAKE. Worst class I have ever taken. The quizzes and exams make absolutely no sense and are worth so much of the grade that I can't get my grade back and will probably have to drop the class.
If you enjoy outdated, low-quality videos, incoherent quizzes with questions that make you lose your sanity, pointless discussion posts, zero feedback, chaotic deadlines, and mandatory spyware, then congratulations! This disaster of a course is precisely what you're looking for!
Probably the most boring lecture videos on gods given Earth. He updates Canvas and is Accessible but this class' lectures were so bad that I think I didn't watch a single one the entire semester. I had to teach myself every single concept because I couldn't bring myself to watch a COVID lecture with such bad pacing. Save yourself dont take him.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
23%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.55 avg changeRatings by Course
COMSC210
5.0
(8)COMSC260
3.7
(22)COMSC165
3.1
(38)COMSC200
2.9
(21)CS165
2.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
COMPCS260
4.2
COMSC260AND200
4.0
CS165
3.5
COMSC200
3.5
COMSC165
3.3