2.5
Quality3.7
Difficulty38%
Would Retake278
Reviews38%
Would Retake
278
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
61
4
35
3
18
2
24
1
140
What Students Say
“Easily the worst professor I've ever had”
CS205 - 1.0 rating“The most responsible teacher in rutgers”
DIS206 - 5.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
97%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.38 avg changeRatings by Course
CS206
2.9
(179)DIS206
2.2
(16)CS344
2.0
(6)DISCRT2
1.6
(14)CS205
1.6
(41)Difficulty by Course
DISCRT2
4.4
DATA101
4.3
Stats285
4.3
CS205
4.2
CS344
3.8
Reviews (278)
This teacher is awesome. I have her right now for Discrete II and she makes the course very easy-going and straight forward. Her quizzes and exams come right from lecture examples and homework problems. She cares a lot about her students and wants everyone to do well, 100% recommend
She is awesome! She is a little hard to understand at times but I can tell she is trying her best to help students. She offers extra credit for attendance and her quizzes and exams come straight from the book examples or notes. She really cares for her students and wants everyone to get an A. I would recommend taking her.
She is a great teacher. She uses examples to explain problems and solutions. And she considers the difficulty of topics to add more examples. She nearly always gets the class involved in solving solutions or to provide information on how well they understand the topics.
As a college student, I never see any professors like Hamidi who gave her best efforts to motivate her students to strive. She is very funny and she is always there to help you succeed. If you are taking a class with her, make sure you do your homework and go to her lecture. This is her first-semester teaching at Rutgers, and I really enjoy it.
She is an excellent professor. She cares for her students and tries her very best to help us anyway she can. Her exams and quizzes are straight out of the homework problems. Even goes out of her way to give extra credit when possible. I really enjoyed her class. Just make sure you do the homework she assigns and attend lecture.
Professor Hamidi has been my favorite professor this semester. She is a very caring person that tries her best to make class enjoyable and interesting to learn. Show up to class, ask questions, and do the homework and you will do just fine in the class. I would definitely retake her class again and recommend her classes to others.
Professor Hamidi was an excellent Professor who made this class really enjoyable. Asking questions and doing the homework even though it's not collected is very helpful in passing this course. She really cares about her students and gives a lot of help because of that.
Despite the quantity of students she receives, Professor Hamidi treats the class like a small one. She is caring and funny and really wants everyone to succeed. However, this also means she is hard on you as a student and doesn't take excuses, no matter how valid they might be - for phones, attendance, etc. The graded material itself is very fair.
This professor thinks she is trying to be nice but in reality she is not secretly and all honestly I would never recommend this professor if you want to pass. She will ruin your GPA and she is taking this class too serious when she can't even teach that well.
This is not a professor for CS but maybe math. You want to learn the CS part of discrete then i suggest not to take her
Professor Hamidi cares a lot about her students and tries her best to make sure everyone succeeds offering many opportunities to make your grade better. all exams and quizzes the questions come from homework, recitation, and examples in lecture so if you keep up with everything youll be good.
She cares about her students and wants them to do well. She also offers a good amount of extra credit. Aside from that though, I wish her class was more organized. She posts material online but it wasn't easy to quickly find what you needed.
She has been the best professor in my First Semester at Rutgers. She cares about her students, wants everyone to succeed. She posts the materials online before every exam, provides lots of extra credits. I would love to take her class again.
The professor is super nice and really cares about her students. She can always answer any questions you have when the lecture starts. If you study what she taught in class/online material, it takes at most 30 minutes for quizes and 1-2 hours for exams. There are no trick questions, once you understand the concepts, you can know the answers.
She wants to pretend to be caring and inspirational, in which case she isn't. She is stubborn and won't accept other's opinions. Don't take with her unless have to.
I think she's a pretty good teacher. Sometimes the class could drag on but I believe that has more to do with online class then here teaching ability. If I could take her class again I would but in the real world. I dropped cs206 the first time I took it so this time it was definitely better.
Lectures felt well prepared, and she has a clear mastery on those aspects. She was very good in explaining various aspects during the class like set theory, and distributions, but not so much about graph theory were there was some confusion. Very understanding, and willing to listen to all students questions and concerns.
Not a good professor, wording on quizzes is unclear and will argue saying students didn't study enough because of her unclear wording, sometimes seemed more interested in calling out students who she thought weren't paying attention, cameras required to be on for points, content was straightforward but lectures were very confusing, glad it's over
Taking CS206 with her largely depends on your willingness to learn. The class is what you make of it, if you are struggling with concepts or problems then you have to ask questions during lectures or office hours otherwise you will probably have a hard time. The prof is quite approachable and has a good attitude towards questions and doubts.
She's a bit tough in class, but she does genuinely care. You can always talk to her after class and she will explain anything you have questions about. There are pop quizzes so you do have to study topics from each lecture, and attendance is mandatory, need to put the time in to do well.
You definitely need to put in work, but prof. Hamidi gives you all the tools needed to succeed in this course. I appreciate that she spent a long time building a foundation of knowledge in students before teaching advanced concepts. Beware of pop quizzes and make sure to go to lecture as she does take attendance, but overall a fairly easy class.
Professor Hamidi is a kind professor who genuinely cares about her students and the material she teaches. Lectures are well organized and interactive, with lots of practice problems. There are pop quizzes, but the professor also offers extra credit and lots of opportunities to improve your grade- would definitely recommend taking CS206 with her!
I took CS 206 from Professor Hamidi on spring 2022. Her lecture is amazing. Participation and attendance is mandatory while she gives out 1 to 2 percent extra credit after all the grading is done, meaning u only need to do the end-semester course feedback to get up to 2 extra points. And her A-grading is from 89.5% to 100%, very generous grading.
She's not really approachable and if she makes a mistake, it's pretty hard to convince her that she's wrong. Grading has limited partial credit, and the low number of questions on exams and quizzes means a single mistake can lower the exam/quiz grade by an entire letter grade. But the TAs were really kind and open to discussion.
Professor Samaneh Hamidi is a great professor for CS206, the quizzes and exams are fair as long as you are paying attention during lecture and do the suggested problem. I like the way she organize her lecture with definition and theorem first, then practice problem, and the next lecture with recap, so it is easy to understand and follow along!
She is a really good professor. Her enthusiasm in math really inspired you to work hard. She also has an extra credit opportunity which let you to get an easy A. The quizzes and exams are fair. As long as you pay attention in class and spend some time to do practice problems afterwards, you can ace this class.
Very optimistic and enthusiastic, and kept students' attention. Understands the subject. She is an outstanding person, and I felt at ease participating in the class. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and entertaining to listen to. In conclusion, I recommend that you take her for the 206 class because she is fair with the effort you put into it.
Cameras on at all times, and you need to put messages in chat frequently for attendance and participation. Likes to give her story about overcoming the hardships of academia, despite actively being hard to work with/listen to. Final is worth 35% of the overall grade. It always feels like you need to jump through hoops to get a good grade.
Professor Hamidi is certainly a good professor. Her main concern is she wants each and every student to listen and to participate. She helped me a lot with my doubts during office hours. As long as you attend all lectures, answer her questions in class, do all material, you should be perfectly fine. She does have pop quizzes, but they are not hard.
The professor made online lecture mandatory and the TAs did not have authority amongst their own students.
Great Prof with a strict&smart way to teach. She is strict to make sure students listen in class& learns. Her exams & pop quizzes aren't hard as long as you do the hw problems. She wants us to have a strong basis in math so as long as you practice, you should do well. People who don't like her are people who don't like to listen & follow her rules.
She is the best teacher, very understanding and helps you learn the material. She records lectures so her students can go back and watch anything they missed. 10/10
Very good teacher better than the other ones take this class
One of the worst professors here at Rutgers University. This professor does not give any extra credit and love to give pop quizzes. Her quizzes are extremely hard and the TA's does not grade properly. The class has no CURVE what so ever even if the class average is low. No homeworks. Only quizzes and exams. stay away from her.
Please don't take this class with this professor! The class content is easy but she will make it way harder. Attendance is mandatory. Pop Quizzes- Every CLASS. Stressful class.
Prof Hamidi is by far the most infuriating professor I have ever had. It is nearly impossible to get time with her outside of class and she does not respond to emails asking for extra help. She does not give homework, only pop quizzes and tests. She is also very unprofessional. Hard to see her during O.H. as there is usually a line of 25+ students
nasty professor. she teaches 1+1 but tests you on calculus. expect to self-learn. no curve. avoid at all costs
Michmizo's might as well have gotten an auditorium for all the 206 kids because no one came to this professor by choice lmfao
she doesn't respond to any emails. I've sent over 5 emails to her and not one response. she is also very rude and makes absurd rules (like participate/raise your hand in class or you will get minus points on an assignment). the notes in canvas are so disorganized making it impossible to study for exams. save your time and don't take this class.
Her lecture quality is just really poor. She always starts lectures about 10 minutes late, she seems to clumsily stumble through explanations/ practice questions throughout the lecture, and she frequently gives pop quizzes. She does not curve, and her file organization on canvas is a nightmare. Everything I dislike in a professor is embodied here.
Unless you want to take this class again next semester, please, stay away from this woman.
A high school teacher got lost and somehow ended up getting a job here. Can't use phones during lecture, unless you want points deducted and have it taken away. Relies on PTLs teaching a large portion of the class while she sits in the back of the room. Lecture attendance mandatory, can't leave room for more than 5 minutes, or lose half attendance.
Awful
She does not go over examples that you would expect to be on her quizzes and exams during class time. You are expected to attend two one hour zoom sessions per week even though this class is not hybrid course. Pop quizzes almost every week. Very stressful class with an unfair, rude, and disorganized professor. Do not take this professor!
Sometimes doesn't know what she's talking about during lecture, has awful graders, pop quizzes, takes attendance, high school-esque rules (no phones) with strict enforcement, her lectures have been some of the most stressful and uncomfortable experiences I've had at Rutgers so far. Avoid at all costs
the worst choice i made in my life was to take CS206 with her. if i can travel back in time, i would give my self a break and take CS206 when i can get into the other professors' class. The terrible decision i made has ruined my GPA.
She will spend half of the class on one problem only to get an answer different from the one found in the textbook. Exams and Pop quizzes have no leniency, so if you err from her method even a little, you will lose credit even if your answer is correct. She does not even attend her own office hours. Do not take this class.
Really terrible. I felt she don't have any responsibility for her lectures.
Professors class is very stressful and she barely teaches, most dorm by TA. She doesnt use slides, all over place (various unknown websites) in lectures that arent uploaded. Suffered with quizzes on material taught by TA after quiz was over! Prof wont listen to any difficulties of the class. Quizzes are less and 20% of course! WONT TAKE HER!
Gives good feedback about the lectures and very helpful.
Worst professor ever had at Rutgers. Unbelievably rude to her students, always unprepared every class. Her idea of review is to ask you to tell her a problem to do, then she spends the entire class trying to solve the problem, being unable to solve it herself. Most of the class is failing yet she refuses to curve. If shes the only prof, skip
If you actually want to learn the material, take this professor. Even though it might seem annoying to have to deal with pop quizzes initially, I now see why she does them. Those quizzes have forced you to understand the material in incremental chunks, which really leads to a better understanding rather than just studying a lot before an exam.
It seems like she doesn't understand the course materials. Her teaching style completely depends on exercises that TA made. To understand course materials, you do need to learn a lot of stuffs by yourself. Lectures are not useful.
Professor Hamidi is a very good professor. You may see many bad comments about her, but there will always be some people who complain because they got bad grades. You need to take exercises and lectures on her canvas. This is a major course rather than a course for credits. It is necessary to study hard and do the questions. Extra Credits Yes!
One of the worst teachers I have ever had in my life period. She spends the whole semester asserting that she has a passion for math and teaching, but when she is actually tasked with doing either of those, she fails miserably. She gives pop quizzes all throughout the semester. Please do not take her if she is the only option, just wait it out.
The class is difficult, and she is a strict professor, but she is definitely willing to admit when she has made mistakes and do her best to correct them and help the class. She is good at lectures, and I walked away from every lecture with a complete understanding of what was taught. The grading seems tough at first but is very fair in the end.
I'm quite surprised cuz Hamidi's rating is 4.5 here. I cant trust any positive reviews. I couldn't feel any stuffs written in these comments. What I just wanna say: she is the worst prof among whom I've met. Poor quality of lectures, terrible course rules,...
she told us to make our own homework. don't take this class. she doesn't have a standardized syllabus and class is unorganized and dry. She spent a whole lecture teaching how to do a stem-and-leaf plot which is very elementary school concept but towards the end of the semester she starts cramming in difficult concepts. shes a girlboss icon!
Definitely not worth taking this professor. It doesn't seem like she cares about students learning. I was never able to reach her via emails. No breathing space to learn. Let's just say she was on a power trip and treats students like they are in middle school or something. No respect for students time.
She teaches like she's only interested in the paycheck to fund her designer clothing shopping trips and her student loan for her Ph.D. in arrogance. And then she asks us to keep her in our prayers to become a better teacher while disregarding student feedback. How can one fear their students more than God?
Hamidi's class was pretty disorganized in the first half of the semester, which lowers her rating for me. However, she was much better during the second half. She even boosted my participation grade a little bit so I could skip the final. Exams are very straightforward, but quizzes are not. Do the suggested homework problems and you will pass.
This class is definitely not worth your time. She doesn't appear to care about the education of the students. I'm amazed that Hamidi has had a rating of 4.1 on this site. None of the good reviews are reliable. If you wish to keep your GPA intact, please enroll in this course with a different professor.
I didn't like this class for myself, just the professor. The grade is below average. Throughout the semester, she gives pop quizzes. Unless she is the only choice, kindly wait it out rather than taking her. This professor is not worth your time in any manner.
This professor is going to be a waste of your time and money. If you want to take this class and you want mental peace as well, I suggest you take a different professor. She is horrible. She lacks responsibility, organization etc She doesn't teach well either. The TA is horrible too. He solves the question in 2 minutes and moves on. Don't take her.
Terrible professor in the beginning, strict on everything where half of class is failing. however her attitude and her giving away partial credits became lenient towards the end. Her "offers" changed everything. i would rate her 0 stars at beginning, but now i passed with B, 5 star. expect to self-learn. not an easy class!
shes the boss
Very unorganized and disrespectful during the first half of the semester (Nov 2nd). Very stubborn to admit her mistakes. Only because she got reported, she was able to improve on the second half of the semester in terms of exam and quiz grading. Expect to self learn and focus a lot on this class to pass. It was a very stressful class overall.
Disrespectful & Rude. She acts like she is teaching middle school math instead of college statistics. She is typically a CS professor, so I don't know what Rutgers was doing here... Woman doesn't know the difference between calculators, so if you have an LED screen, she will assume you are cheating despite the function or lack thereof.
Prof. Hamidi tends to be misunderstood. My impression is that she does care but she can't properly express it. Regardless, everything that happens in the mandatory lectures are useless - only reason I got an A was because I never listened. She teaches wrong things sometimes too. The only + with her is her "offers" and the grading curve is fair
Unorganized class and terrible professor
The organization was horrible, the teaching could've been better, and she was unnecessarily rude.
As well as other reviews, the organization was horrible. Unnecessary and strict class rules were imposed. Prof Hamidi never used lecture notes. TA's practice problems might be helpful to get better grades
Absolute joke, I've never been more stressed for a class. Pop quizzes every class, I got a string of 0%s on quizzes and came so close to failing. Hamidi ridicules students in class and treats the classroom like a high school
People are giving good ratings to her so you choose her instead of other professor, and they can take other professor. Think about it.
Everything is done by hand, and she does not keep up with the grading, so you never know what your grade actually is, also very strict.
Prof. Hamidi cares about her students and will try to ensure everyone is paying attention and learning. She will gladly provide more statistics examples if needed. Pop quizzes are not difficult and cover material from prior lectures. If you have coding experience and are attentive this class is a breeze.
Class was in a high tech room but failed to use anything to help people in the back see. No notes were uploaded
We're in a lecture room with projectors and everyone's using a laptop, but she uses none of these. It's shocking. She still uses a chalkboard, reads out of a textbook, and gives textbook problems in class. Even my calc classes didn't give textbook problems. She's like a high school teacher but worse. Should I have taken this course in high school?
Straightforward class. Pop quizzes are easy as long as you pay attention or practice from the textbook. Not difficult. The teacher is very easy to understand during lectures. You do get points deducted for phone usage, however, the simple ->attend lectures->study->fully learn material->get good grade is honestly very refreshing.
Not even going to lie the people who keep say Hamidi's a bad prof are probably the same people who never did any work outside of class and get surprised when discrete 2 materials on a discrete 2 test. Profs exams questions are literally pulled from the textbook. If you do the suggested hw, you'll be fine. Is it hard? Yes. Doable? Yh.
She's much better than I expected going in, so don't insta-click the drop button if she is the only option. Her exams/quizzes are fair if you do the practice problems provided, and she gives a few ways to boost your grade. However, quizzes are stressfully common and you're treated like a high school student. Stressful class, but she isn't awful.
Good teacher and an easy class if you keep up. She passes around a paper with student names for attendance same during recitations. Quizzes are simple as long as you study and she gives her previous semester's quizzes and midterm keys. This semester one quiz was the same as she gave last semester. No HW but textbook problems are recommended.
Worst teacher ive ever had, 2 quizes every week and her teaching was very poor
The worst professor I've ever had and probably the worst I'll ever have. Seems to not care about being a good professor as she rarely posts lecture notes, not to mention the extremely disorganized canvas, and never responds to student emails. Her attitude can be very unpleasant at times and lectures often consist of her reading off the internet.
Hamidi is not as bad as you imagine. He is a strict and responsible teacher who encourages students to actively participate in class and answer questions. I really like his policy - if you score 90 or above on both the midterm and homework, you can skip the final exam and still get an A.
The most responsible teacher in rutgers. Her teaching style is the same as middle shcool. I think those who give Hamidi a low rating are people who skip class, be lazy, and try to get an easy B or A without understanding the teaching content or participate in class . At the same time, these people would also be complete losers in the field of cs
Could not understand a word she said most of the time. whenever there was a code that was presented in the class she could not explain it and a TA had to come and help
If you meet her expectations (IE: pay attention/participate in class, put some work outside class), you would find that this class is not only actually easy, but the amount of effort required is actually less than one would imagine with a CS class.
I was so scared going into this class with the negative reviews but if you went to class and did the suggested practice problems every so often, this class should be an easy A.
Hamidi the GOAT. Most of the reviews giving 1 star prolly either never showed up to class or never did work outside of class. You really have to go out of ur way for hamidi to fail you. No required hw but most test/quiz questions come straight from txtbook so you shud rlly do them. She even lets you skip final if u average a 90 throughout the sem.
She is a terrible professor who doesn't know how to teach, explain concepts, or conduct proper exams. There is 0 communication between her and the TAs. She doesn't know R very well at all, so that part will be done entirely by the TAs. Her exams are disorganized and often contain concepts that she has never discussed in class. Don't take her.
I am awful at math and had to work extremely hard for a B. If you're anything like me, this class will NOT be a piece of cake. She gave extra credit which was goated. I went to every office hour, did all the practice problems, studied b4 every class. All old exams/quizzes are posted tho. Lectures are sometimes hard to understand and shes strict.
Prof Hamidi is a good teacher, her teaching methods are a bit insane. Pop stats&rquizzes every class.She's generous at the end of the year and doesn't let anyone fail the class. She makes sure everyone passes and gives extra credit opportunitiesif you just attend office hours of hers orTAs. Pay attention in class for the stats part, and ytb for R.
Sounds like people haven't had the best experience with her for data 101 because of how she teaches that course, but she seems to be a lot better for other classes (specifically 206). She gives tons of extra credit and is extremely helpful, ensuring that you do well in the class.
The course itself and material weren't that bad, but she can not teach.
Just reads off a textbook which can be done by yourself. If you do not have prior coding experience the lack of guidance for R can be very challenging.
Throughout the course, I have found myself struggling to grasp the core ideas and connect them to the assigned readings and assignments primarily due to the lack of proper teaching during lecture time. So unless you attend many office hours and spend extra time understanding what she is saying, it is definitely hard to succeed.
Cannot teach, most studying needs to be done on your own.
Does not know R at all (she has a math background so not sure why CS department chose her for these classes anyway). All of the R quizzes are created by the TAs who are graduate students in CS. The R portion of the midterm was created by another professor--and Hamidi does not teach anywhere close to the way he does, so it was unfair and hard.
Super disorganized, bad at teaching and very unkind. To teach, she would literally google concepts up and use search results from google images as references during lectures. Uses Imelinski's tests but does not teach like he does. Does not know R programming at all. she relies on TAs for R stuff; only teaches statistics part. Very mean. Avoid.
I never wore my seatbelt while driving to college because I wanted to un alive myself before making it to her class
aVOID! she dragged me through the rbs pavement when I asked her if I could be excused from a pop quiz I missed because my grandmother had passed away that day. I literally fell in front of the LX but unfortunately did not get runover by it. Hamidi just spat on me and left. not that hot either
The syllabus threatens points off your final grade for phones and showing up late. Seen her bug out on multiple people for that. No homework, all grades come from attendance, tests, and paper/pencil pop quizzes in a lecture hall with 150+ people. Hard to understand. Only redeeming quality is that her extra credit policies can save you from failing.
Do not take this teacher. She is hard to understand and her teaching methods are archaic. The biggest one being that she cannot allow any other methods to be done to reach the answer and takes points off if it is the case. She uses chalkboard, goes on rants about her personal life, exams are worth your entire grade failing one will fail DO NOT TAKE
Failed to properly teach Dijkstra's algorithm in ~1 hr of trial&error today. Also dismissed class 6 mins LATE for the 2nd time only 5 wks into the semester. Ppl need that time to go to Busch! If it happens again complaints will be made to dept chairs/deans. Was hoping her class would work out but same problems that were mentioned b4 are now evident
There is a reason why she's the only one available for the course near the end of registration. Don't let that go over your head. She refuses to adapt to new learning styles that would help us learn better. Cares more about what students are doing outside of class rather than whether or not her teaching styles are actually effective.
She will mumble at the end of class some random homework problem. She will pull up a *completely new* textbook page and will ask students if they read it or did the hw and will get upset when no one obviously did. Throws tantrums instead of posting this stuff on canvas like we have asked. Walked around class screaming once. TAs are wildly different
warning - DO NOT TAKE HAMIDI!!! im writing this write before finals week and the class is a mess! there is NO communication between the TA and the prof. the TA didn't know there was an exam until the day before or the morning of! (class was at 8:30am) she's always bragging about how many hrs she spent for her phd but then comes late to every class
AVOID AVOID AVOID! ABSOLUTE WORST professor I have ever taken. Terrible teaching, DISGUSTING attitude, atrocious behavior, EXTREMELY disorganized. She yells at people when they ask questions, she accuses people of cheating when they didn't do anything. The material is not bad at all but she makes it unnecessarily difficult. AVOID AT ALL COSTS
We spent one day on trees, and she gave us two significant tree-related questions on exam 3? How is this even real? How is she allowed to keep teaching? The CS department is so disappointing here. And why is she trying to trick us by not providing the first part of the question?
Very bizarre attitude toward teaching, uses a significant amount of class time giving paper pop quizzes and passing around attendance sheets in a lecture hall of hundreds of students, probably because nobody would come to lectures otherwise. The material is frankly easy and mandating attendance is out of touch and insulting.
Waived final for me and everyone with 90+. She puts on a strict act during the first few weeks but chills out over the semester. Only missed one lecture and can say that was the most important factor in me doing well in this course. I barely studied. Be present in class (not just physically) and it's an easy A. Ask questions. She knows her stuff.
When first going in this class, I heard a lot of bad things about her. Although there were a few mishaps with homeworks and test questions, I believe that overall she's a good professor. She was mostly fair with the material she said would appear on exams and quizzes, and if you studied and tried in her class, it would definitely pay off.
Her later sections of 206 get easier exams, and massively higher grades, so make sure you sign up for that! If you're in her earlier section, you're SOL! It's Rutgers policy according to Santosh! Avoid the bubonic plague.
She sticks with her old, ineffective teaching style. She prefers to talk about more on her PHD experiences rather than teaching us. Randomly picked someone up for homework which are not counted towards the final grades but affect participation criteria. Always talk about how important to attend the lecture instead of making the lecture interesting.
This is the worst experience I've ever had. There are multiple Reddit posts about how awful she is, they are on the Rutgers subreddit. Check those out for more info. For the last exam, we spent 2 classes on all the material on it. We skipped so much stuff that was on the exam then she held an online review and blamed us for not doing enough, crazy!
Can definitely be mean and go on random tangents during lectures, but overall a decent lecturer, always answers questions, and very lenient and forgiving if you actually put in the effort. If you go to office hours you get a free letter grade bump, and she lets you skip the final if your avg is an A.
I think her teaching style can be improved by using the projector more, it's difficult to see whats written on that board in an auditorium especially for counting and probability questions. I will say, my thoughts on her changed throughout the end because of how many opportunities she gave so that we pass ... no one can be mad at that!
EXTREMELY UNFAIR professor. 60% of her Wed students were able to skip the final. Only 5% of Thurs class students could skip due to much harder quizzes/exams all semester. Deranged policies too - have to go to board for full participation but calls on less than 10 ppl the entire semester. Also bans hoodies and headphones around neck in class.
While it is true that she has some unreasonable policies (pop quizzes etc), her exams are very easy and they are very similar to the past exams which she releases all of.
Very underrated teacher and gets a lot of undeserved hate. Sure, some of her policies are strict, but I think she's very straightforward. Provides a lot of study resources, and exams don't have any new or unvisited things. Pop quizzes can be tricky If you pay attention in class and do a little bit of practice/prep for exams, getting an A is easy
I liked her a lot. She requires you to go to lectures and recitations and grades participation, requiring you to go to the board. All of her quizzes and exams have some version of something in class. She also writes a lot on the board and uses all the textbooks a lot. I personally liked her teaching style and think that she is very fair.
Her teaching is decent but you will fear every time you sit in the class. She cold calls people for whispering, phone usage etc which wouldn't be too bad except it's meant to humiliate you so she won't stop even if you answer the question correctly. Her grading is harsh & she talks about her life a lot, keeping you more than 15 min after class ends
i dropped her for a reason because she drops exams either before the break and or after plus she will also throw in another exam RIGHT BEFORE THE FINAL. do not take her dont waste your money shes the only one that does this class take her if you NEED IT if not wait for another teacher to sign in but dont do it she aint worth it on god
Pros: The exams are basically like the practice exams, and honestly the course material is relatively easy. Especially considering no proofs are involved, only basic knowledge across graph theory, distributions, set theory, and counting and probability. Cons: Otherwise, she is inaccessible, unreasonable, and inconsistent. Unresponsive to emails.
This professor is as bad as it gets. She is unwilling to help, requires participation in classes of 200, and consistently belittles her students for no apparent reason. She claims to have a photographic memory, and has thus far accused students who were legitimately enrolled of not being in the class. Overall, DON'T TAKE. This is a self study class
The professor seems to be annoyed at her student's presence. Shows up to class in a grumpy mood, condescending, VERY easily annoyed. WILL CALL YOU OUT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE IF YOU ARE TALKING/SLEEPING. I think I only saw her smile like twice the entire semester. Very uncomfortable sitting in class. Material is ok though, but I do not recommend.
This genuinely might be the worst class I have ever taken at Rutgers. The material is simple but she makes it way more complicated than it needs to be. She also forgets to teach specific topics then decides to throw them on exams/quizzes causing everyone to fail that assignment. Avoid at all costs if you can.
Terrible. Avoid at all costs.
She is not mean! There are a lot of quizzes, almost every lecture. But no homework. She posts sample quizzes and exams from the past. She even posts the textbook chapters so you don't have to buy it. You can get 100 on everything by just studying those. Exams have no curveballs. Do not be afraid to take her class.
Super disorganized. The content itself is easy but Hamidi manages to make it overcomplicated. Super great for discretes2 but horrible for algos.
too exam heavy, quizzes unnecessarily difficult, scary
Hamidi is a professor that makes basic counting, probability, set theory, etc. into hell, not because of hard exams or quizzes, but with arbitrary difficulty like quizzes during lectures (i.e. missing might mean missing a quiz) and no alleviation of the grade with homework. The policies will have you pulling your hair out, but the content is easy.
If you don't have to deal with her personally, she's a good lecturer (never went to office hours) but heard she's strict, hard to negotiate with and some sections were quizzed unfairly. Do textbook problems if needed and all the old exams; must self study. Participation grade is finicky; if TA knows you, it'll help.
Make sure to do the book problems and practice exams cause she will pull out problems from there on her exam so knowing them can help you pass. She isn't a bad lecturer just rude and difficult to work with. Just make sure to go everyday so that way you won't miss a quiz and study a lot.
No homework. Super clear lectures, shes very knowledgeable regarding the content and can explain well
The teacher spent a lot of time being rude instead of teaching. Would lock the doors after 15 minutes of when class starts and would refuse to let student take the pop quizzes if they were late to class. Overall, not a great experience in class unfortunately.
Attend lecture/recitation, and GO TO OFFICE HOURS. She'll help you out.
She's a strict but supportive professor who aims for the success of her students. Provides resources like past exams and notes, and her helpful lectures cover many practice problems. While the class isn't easy, regular attendance and paying attention will help. You need put in the hours to understand the material but she's there to help.
She isn't that bad. She is very passionate about teaching and her tests are fair. She gave many chances for extra credit. She was good at answering questions and is supportive of her students and wants them to succeed.
Material is very simple. Hamidi is good in the sense that she gives many opportunities to do well (grade replacement policies/skip final if you have A). She is VERY clear about the material, so lectures were exactly what showed up in exams. However, her 15 min late policy was a bit obnoxious, which I don't agree with. Tip: REVIEW PAST EXAMS/QUIZZES
Do not take this class if u have a heavy course load with other classes. Very time consuming but the resources are out there for you to succeed. Pop quizzes so gotta go to all lectures. Very exam heavy but she does have policies in place for bad exam grades and does drop lowest quiz. Idk how I got a A but I did. She is strict but knows how to teach
Very good professor
She is super strict, hard to understand, and makes rude remarks when students ask questions making you feel stupid for asking them. Also, I am taking this class online over the summer, and she will literally call you out if your camera isn't on. You'll get kicked out if you have it off for too long. Try to take this class with another professor.
She is the best professor I've had since attending Rutgers. She is so helpful during class, in office hours and via email. Not sure why she gets bad reviews because she is very patient in class, will answer every question, tell you what you need to know in order to succeed in class/on exams/on quizzes. She grades very fairly and is so nice.
Bottom of the barrel. Said friend's passing wasn't personal emergency difficult to work with. Had to visit Dean of Students to resolve things. Attendance not mandatory but gives pop quizzes. Hard to reach. Asking for help was a bother to her. Class material was fine. Added unnecessary stress. TAs do grading, befriend them. Self taught course. Avoid
Hamidi is not a good person but she somewhat is good at teaching, she doesn't like when you ask questions but if you try your best and listen to her you do learn and understand the material. But I recommend just reading the textbook. Her TAs grade so go to office hour and talk to them. She had a lot of mistakes on her exams as well.
Hamidi is complicated. Her grading criteria will make you question yourself. She enforces her non mandatory attendance by remembering your face and making it your participation grade. And half the examples she gives don't make sense. But she's legitimately inspiring, very clear one on one, and wants to make sure you understand the material. Study!
Worst professor I have ever had. She doesn't know how to teach. Do anything you can to not be in her class because she will make your life miserable, and will destroy your interest in the course material.
There aren't many ways to pass this class. Quiz, tests, and attendance.
Good teaching style
Currently taking her right now. Do everything in your power to avoid her. Terrible teacher, half the class has no clue what's going on. Would rather go to an 8:30 on cook with a different professor. DO NOT TAKE.
icky yucky
discrete is not too tough of a class but she made it awful :(
She makes the class harder than it needs to be with her pointless policies. She is hard on you and literally feels like she is threatening you but then cracks a couple jokes? She teaches well but but the amount of stress cuz of pop quizzes gained from this class doesn't even top off the hardest class I took as part of CS core:ALGOS.
Hamidi is the reason why my hairline is receding. she is the reason why i want to jump into the raritan, even though it's only the 4th week of the semester. i get that there is a midterm tomorrow, but do we really need a quiz right after the midterm? really? right after the midterm? i guess the only decent thing she did is tell us when we have one.
Terrible professor; DO NOT TAKE. So unapproachable, tough grader, yells at students for no reason.
I went to office hours at the beginning of the semester, and she told me my question was not good enough. She doesn't create a welcoming learning environment. However, discrete is not too tough of a class. The professor makes it more difficult than it should be; she is very stingy with her grading and unclear about the directions.
For CS 206, Hamidi is among the best lecturers and has great exam preparation materials. If you are a good student, you will get an A in that class. This only applies to CS 206 though, given that I've heard people praise her in CS 206 but say she's bad at teaching Algos.
She is actually a really good teacher. her classes are very well structured and makes you work hard to earn the grade( you're gonna end up learning so much more than in any other course). she is approachable if you ask her questions.
She doesn't give clear learning material, at least for me, as she doesn't give any homework, and a lot of the stuff you just have to self-learn from the textbook, and the quiz and exams are tough for no reason. IDK I just failed my midterm so I'm here to rant.
Instead of encouraging students to participate, she yells at them for no reason. If you look at your phone for too long, she will stop in the middle of the lecture and ask you what you are doing in front of 300 people (yes, this happened). Very strict and harsh. I also think her pop quizzes are very unnecessary.
Hamidi can be a challenging professor, but her teaching style works if you engage with it. Textbook and study tools like Unstuck AI are helpful. Stay focused and you'll learn a lot.
Easily the worst professor I've ever had. She's unnecessarily rude and dismissive, making students feel incompetent at every turn. Office hours are a nightmare—rather than offering any real help, she gives responses that leave you even more confused. If you're looking to actually learn or get support, avoid her class at all costs.
Must listen during lecture, need to work/study outside of class weekly since no HW. She did pop-up quizzes, she has past semester quizzes on file. People slack because of the no homework, then boom a quiz they didn't study for and then they fail the quiz. Your given the impression that the class is lenient, but it is not. Just do textbook problems!
(Fall 2023) first semester teaching this course, tried cs206 system, but the approach didn't work. She lacked sufficient original materials and relied on scattered resources that didn't effectively support students. To make it easier she used textbook questions she told students to learn and study from for exams but many still struggled. Freebie!
The good: Pretty good lecturer Exams are fair, not insanely difficult and doable with studying The bad: Certain sections might have easier/harder quizzes so choose right! Can and will come off as rude Very inflexible about personal emergencies ABSOLUTELY MUST study on your own Has an old style of teaching 4.2/5 Lecturer 2/5 Professor 3/5 Class
Not as bad as everyone says. Yeah her attitude is not the best but all she asks of you is to be consistent in keeping up with the material. If u do that, quizzes(pop quiz or not) and exams, are a breeze
Honestly, I tried giving her grace at first because of how bad everyone says she is and I felt bad, but she really is not a good professor. She is very inflexible, rude, and dismissive. The Lectures are fine, but her flaws are big enough to overshadow that. If you can take a different professor, PLEASE do so! Seriously. 😅
She's super uncaring and mean and asking for help feels like a crime. The whole class felt like she just didn't want to be there. Office hours felt like a waste of time because she barely helped and acted annoyed you even showed up.
The professor is very unnecessarily rude. She calls people out in a lecture hall with nearly 200 students for talking in the back. They were not even disturbing the class or making any noise. I believe she must have been actively looking to call someone out. She is very unfriendly, and I would definitely take a different professor if possible.
70% of the class is failing and literally nobody has an A. The lectures have devolved into big book clubs where she sequentially reads the textbook paragraph by paragraph interspersed with monologues where she pretends to be a life coach.
Avoid this professor at all costs. Not kind at all. don't like the type of person she is AT ALL. Does not respect students.
Genuinely a bitter human being who shouldn't have the power to impact hard working students trajectory. Have clear evidence of her being a bitter old lady who creates agendas against students for no apparent reason. She regraded some of my exams before to give me a lower grade all because I challenged her on some concepts. She has human issues
Dont, its not worth it.
She is currently being mass reported by her CS205 class since 70% of the class is failing, not a single person has an A and she has a strict no curve/no lowered grade cut off policy. She also kicked a TA out for standing up to her. Bad teacher as well, her lectures consist of her writing T.B definitions on the board. Avoid at all costs.
She is much better than people would have you believe from these reviews. Clear lectures.
People are sadly being babies about this whole thing. Granted her classes are an adjustment to previous cs classes as the structure is very different. She treats it like a high school class. Her lectures she reads the textbook and jots down on the chalkboard the need to know stuff. What you see is what you get.
Professor Hamidi's teaching style lacks clarity, and the absence of study guides or practice exams makes it extremely difficult to prepare for exam. Despite the majority of the class failing, she refuses to curve the grades, and participation grading feels arbitrary. Overall, her structure is frustrating and not supportive of student success.
She spends lecture time telling students how lazy they are and to study more and then scrawls a couple definitions onto the chalkboards, copying directly from a textbook the entire time. She manages to move slower than any other teacher while maintaining an incredibly high failire rate. It's like the worlds worst magic trick.
An all around unprofessional lecturer who shouldn't have a twitter account let alone a classroom to bully. Anyone who can get halfway thru a school year with not a single A in their entire student body doesn't belong in teaching. There are times it's 100% on the students for not taking their academics seriously, and then there's angry professors.
do not take her if u have a life outside of discrete structures.
Insane ego has 70% of the class failing and not a single person has an A(according to a TA), but puts the blame on the students and takes 0 responsibility absolutely baffling professor, unfriendly, horrible learning environment, lectures are okay and good at best but that does not make up for her horrible attitude 0 clue why she teaches discrete 1
Do not take this class if you value your mental health. She expects you to solve every single question in the textbook and memorise all of them. She wants you to dedicate your entire life into this class. She sometimes picks students and humiliates them, yells at them. She kicked a TA out for reporting her.
A horrible teacher that gets worse as the semester progresses reads aloud from the textbook and does not cover any important topics needed for the course. Heavily antagonizes the students, has an incredibly high failure rate, and, worst of all, "your answer is correct, but I did not teach it this way in class, so I cannot give you full points".
Lots of people hate Prof. Hamidi because of her (very!) demanding nature and random pep talks. Maybe I'm just a masochist, but I found her a lot easier to deal with as the semester wore on. If you don't participate, you will not only fail, but you will probably be accosted at every turn. Don't try cheating. She will literally tear you to shreds.
Great lecturer but grading was harsh and created a tense learning environment.
avoid this professor at ALL COSTS. just take discrete online in the summer and you will get an A.
As someone in the 70% failing portion of her class and relies on the final to help me pass her class, don't take her class. Her pop quizzes stress students sm, and you will find yourself studying for her quizzes/exams during lectures rather than listening to the material she is teaching. Very rude and strict, calls out students. Save your money!
Dr. Hamidi is one of the most over-hated professors at Rutgers honestly. I don't care if I get disliked for this, it is not that hard to get a B+ or A in her class. Yes, there is mandatory weekly attendance and quizzes, but you need to dedicate 2 hours a week to this class and you will be good. She is strict, but very fair, just don't cheat/skip.
literally the worst CS professor ever. DONT TAKE HER CLASS. she does not care about students at all.
She quite literally called out a student in the middle of lecture for looking at his ipad for a long period of time and said "you have not looked up once what are you doing" while the student was actively just reading his notes... don't take her she is incredibly rude and entitled
The most entitled and rude professor I've ever had. Gives students a participation grade but gets upset whenever students ask questions and says we're wasting time. But goes on 15-20-minute rants about her personal life. Accidentally changed my exam grade and scoffed at me when I gave her my exam packet to change my grade back. Never again.
I studied hard because I was scared by the reviews here, and that helped me. She is good at teaching if you pay attention in class, and offers extra opportunities to boost your grade. The quizzes are tough (not pop quizzes, she warns us beforehand). Go to class, do a bunch of TB problems every week, do sample exams, and you will be fine.
People who have A grades are given more opportunity to improve their grades than people on the other more important boarderlines. Don't take her this class will ruin you.
DO NOT TAKE HER WHAT SO EVER! One of the worst professors on the face of this planet. She doesn't care about her students at all. Your entire grade is based off of just pop quizzes and exams. 70% of her class is failing the course, Doesn't know how to teach a single concept. All she does is READ OFF THE BOOK and ASSIGN PROBLEMS. HARSH GRADER!!!
Be prepared to hate learning! Creates a harsh learning environment! Worst grader ever! VERY MEAN!
worst professor ever!
DO NOT TAKE HER CLASS
Worst learning experience ever!
The worst sc professor ever
she makes super reasonable exams and tests for cs206, ppl hating on her mostly hate her attitude but she teaches well and pretty much wants u to pass with a good grade, dont try cheating though she WILL catch you.
don't take her, she is not good
She's average when it come to teach but her exams are tough. Your entire grade is based off of exams and quizzes. Those who put an average of 6-8 hours a week into this class and go to every office hour will easily get an A. The rest of us, basically the entire class, were struggling.
Hamidi the goat. Extra credit opportunities make ending with anything lower than an A practically impossible. Just keep on top of the work. In terms of CS core classes, this really can be considered an easy 'A'.
NOT an easy A. Worst class I've taken at Rutgers. Really aggressive environment. Had to argue every point on my exams and doesn't follow a clear rubric. Only accepts test corrections from the top 10% of her class.
Contrary to popular belief, I think Hamidi is great at teaching. Her lectures are well-organized. I did not need to self-teach myself here as much as I needed to for other classes. However, the problem with her class was the test material. Her tests were more difficult compared to other classes' tests. Our grades as a section tanked because of this
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She gets hate that isn't warranted, simply a bandwagon of mean people. In all honesty, she might be my favorite professor at Rutgers. She really puts a lot of effort in her lectures. Be prepared for pop quizzes, but they are only done to prepare you slowly through the semester for exams, instead of leaving you to cram. Follow her methods and learn!
She has a good attitude, just don't push her limits. She has a thick accent and only uses chalk. Lessons were hard to understand because she used the chalkboard, which was hard to see in the lecture hall. Her accent also definitely got in the way, for example, when she would pronounce "DeMorgans Law," it sounded like something completely different.
The most stressful experience ever. I will be honest it got better towards the end of the semester since she understood the needs of students to succeed (practice problems that were actually based on exam concepts) but nonetheless the class was entirely disorganized and anxiety-inducing. However, it was her first time teaching this course.
Don't get confused, she's awesome. Structures her class to force you to be prepared for each lecture. Nice policy of being able to skip final if you have A before the final. She also does grade replacements if you do have to take the final. If you are respectful to her she will sometimes make an exception to her policy and give you points for an A
Taking Hamidi is 50/50-- she'll either be insanely harsh or just an average teacher. She has a special offer to exempt the final, so stay on top of your attendance and quizzes/exams. Your recitation TAs will be a lifesaver if they're chill. Also her participation grading is really subjective-- I didn't participate once and I got full points.
Worst professor ever, doesn't care about students and didn't curve the class when even 70% people were failing.
Overall a g good professor, very organized but also sort of difficult. She has a quiz/exam every week. And they are NOT easy As but not impossible. No homework, heavy exams, the exams take up most of your grade, so make sure to do good on those. If you study and practice a decent amount, you can pass her class
The first half of the class was terrible as everyone was failing but on the second to last exam and the final she just dumped a ton of extra credit on us and made them really easy so that most people passed. She cares but it doesn't make up for the two months of stress leading up to the resolution
She's a great lecturer. If you pay attention you only need to spend a few hours outside of class to study. She's very organized and her policies are clear. If you get a 90 average before the final, you get to skip the final. Expect quizzes every week which aren't too bad and exams that are also pretty easy. She gets too much hate for no reason.
She clutched in the end of the sem if you went to her review where she tried to boost anyone with an 88+ overall to a 90 so that you wouldn't have to give the final. A solid lecturer, pop quizzes can be annoying at times but this is simply a class you will succeed in if you attend lectures, take notes and don't get caught slacking.
The reviews for 205 are warranted, but if you see a poor review for 206, it really isn't. Quizzes are annoying but not impossibly hard, and if you do good on the tests (which are easier), you can get exempt from the final. Also- go to class. I sat in the front for EVERY lecture and she remembered me. Boosted my B+ to an A because of that.
This class was my worst experience at Rutgers University- NB. The way she teaches is horrible and her grading system is even worse. I would avoid her like the plague in 1600s. I wish I never took this class
She is a terrible teacher for 205 and 206. I walked into class and she was calling out people for taking notes on their laptop. She goes on rants about her personal life and how hard her PHD was instead of teaching. I wish her the best, but I wouldn't wish my worst enemy to take her.
Going into Discrete 2 (CS), I was kinda worried considering how many negative reviews Hamidi had, but quite frankly after taking the class, I don't know where those came from. If you do the bare MINIMUM of taking time to study from the LOADS of materials she gives you, and you know ask the occasional question, you'll do fine. She actually cares too
Just nope.
The worst and most inconsiderate professor in my time in rutgers. Constantly 'bullies' students and gives grades based on who is her pet. Gives EC if you come to board but chooses who does. HAS NO EMPARGT. If you need to miss an exam or even need to miss an exam for a valid reason, she will not accept this unless both arms are cut off.
Honestly don't let the reviews scare you she's an easy prof for 206 and the tests and quizzes are straight forward and pulled straight from the hw
Terrible professor, avoid if possible. She somehow manages to take what should be an easy and painless class and makes it unbearable.
awful. would def avoid
she makes me sad
At first I thought Hamidi's rule fair, as there are extra credits. But as soon as you attend Ham's course, you would find that it's none of your business. Ham successfully makes an easy course hard, and disgusts all their students. Seriously Rutgers, go get some good professors please, not some dictator with unreasonable rules or way of teaching.
Class is so easy, but absolutely miserable
She makes a big deal out of class participation and singles out students who might have only attended lecture for attendance that day. She doesn't have HW but sometimes assigns some which isn't scored but class participation is lowered if you don't do it and are caught. Resources are also minimal other than links to explanations of some topics.
Terrible professor. Spends 20 minutes every lecture droning on about her studying habits in college and how it's better than everyone else. A quiz every week. Picks on random students and forces them to go up to the board, solve a problem, and explain it to the entire class. 6% of your grade is entirely up to her and there's no arguing about it.
Sent an academic warning notice saying I'm in jeopardy for failing the course for "poor attendance". I've attended every single lecture. However, I haven't attended recitations because I have meetings at that time. Neither are "required", just preferred. There's no reason she should be teaching at any college institution if she acts like this.
Easy class if you just do practice problems from the text book. All her exams follow the same pattern from the textbook.
Do anything and everything to not have her as your professor.
The material was easy. However, what makes this class unbearable was teacher's attitude towards students. If you want to work alone she will call on you and force you to go the board to solve the problem and she randomly stops teaching and talks about her college days.
I dont know why Dr. Hamidi has such a bad rep. If you pay attention and study even just an hour for the quizzes you will succeed. The exams questions are taken basically right from the textbook. She cares about her students and paused lecture multiple times to give pretty valuable life advice, random but genuine nonetheless.
The professor is strict but explains concepts clearly. Attendance is essential—important announcements are made in class, not on Canvas. Exams include simple but high-weight questions from recitations, practice, and the textbook. Pop quizzes are given, so stay prepared.
godawful. definitely dislikes certain students. will give definitions that are different from those in the textbook, then be dismissive and rude when attempting to clarify. uses twice as much effort being rude than it would've taken to provide the clarification. if the groupme has to spend 1 week discussing 2 definitions, smth has gone VERY wrong.
Not really sure why a bunch of people gave her a high rating just because they got an A and taught themselves...? She's God awful, rude, and has to resort to her class to answer even moderately difficult question because she can't answer them herself. It's not hard to get a good grade here but you have to deal with the worst personality at rutgers.
she was rude to a few TA's and students and on the last day of the course, she guilt tripped all the students in her class to rate her good on the survey after telling a sob story. The material in this course is interesting but as a professor, she is not good at all. You're going to have to self-study and rely on the TA's bc she barely helps
I'm fine with professors telling stories occasionally, and if they're good stories, it even helps me stay focused in class. Hamidi's stories are dull in substance, told in the most annoying of tones - you will have to tune them out to stay sane. Pop quizzes worth 20%. Need to sit closer to the front or your participation grade (6%) will be bad.
The worst professor ever! Don't take any classes with her.
If I am being completely and objectively honest, she is not a bad teacher. In fact, she is pretty good at teaching the material, she explains concepts clearly and makes them easy to understand, going in detail through example problems. That being said, I've never encountered a more rude and disrespectful professor in my life.Take with someone else
I think people are a bit too harsh on her. She genuinely cares about the students in her class and she's a sweet person. She makes her grading criteria very clear and hasn't tested on anything completely different to what is taught - her quizzes prepare you well for the exams. Just go to class, pay attention, practice. You'll be fine.
The most difficult and tough grader at Rutgers. Will not hear any feedback and will not change your grade. Teaching style is archaic you are better off learning from Kimberly Brehm on youtube. 100% would have taken this class online
She is my favorite professor I've had. If you put forth the needed effort in her class you will succeed and truly learn the material. If you do not put forth effort, you will likely not succeed, which is how college courses should work. She truly cares about her students. If I could have her as my professor for every class, I would!
I was scared going into this class because of previous reviews, but Hamidi was a pretty good prof. She was a good lecturer, though sometimes lectures were daunting because she would call on people randomly. The only annoying thing about the class was the quizzes, but they helped to keep up with the material and have it fresh in our minds for exams.
I was also afraid to take her class given previous reviews but it's manageable as long as you do practice problems from previous quizzes and the textbook. I messed up on some quizzes because I didnt do enough practice. But she does have a very mean attitude and she judges people who ask questions so that's why a lot of people ask the TAs instead.
BEST PROFESSOR EVER AND I LEARNED A LOT FROM HER. SHE IS SO NICE AND ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP. LOVE HER SO MUCH
Great professor and she's so pretty. would love to have her teach me for every cs class!
learned a lot more from her than blackmore. she's also super nice and lenient with grading.
Her class was so easy. She gave a lot of extra credit and more than half of the class was able to skip the final for having an A prior to it. would recommend
She scary me
Terrible professor. Extremely strict and curved by only 1 point??
This class was by no means easy. However, you can tell Professor Hamidi wants every student to succeed in this course; she just wants you to put in the work. She is a good lecturer, but my two main gripes are the weekly quizzes, which can really make or break your grade, and how she can come off as pessimistic at times. Still, she's not bad.
The class was really challenging, but if you actually commit to doing all the work (missing/doing average just one quiz or exam can totally flop your grade) then it is very rewarding. I'm pretty sure well over 2 thirds of the class skipped the final as they had an A beforehand, so it's really about how much work you are willing to put in her class
All of the quizzes and exam Qs are basically either 1. The exact same problems she assigns as "practice problems" but with different numbers 2. Very similar problems that're on previous exams she posts in canvas I can only speak for her discrete 2 class.
She requires attendance and gives frequent quizzes, sometimes back-to-back. She expects you to understand topics immediately after teaching, with no homework, extra credit, or curve. Quizzes start easy but suddenly get much harder, and some make no sense. The class feels disorganized and overly difficult.
Lectures and recitations are mandatory with lots of class discussions, and she often calls students to the board. Exams aren't too hard and there's a final exemption. But she often runs overtime and doesn't let you leave early. Good for confident, outgoing students, but tiring for someone like me who just wants to sit quietly.
This class is a total waste of my time. The lectures are totally useless and I learned nothing from them. Perfection is required and it is easy for you to fail. If you can, please take another professor. I mean it. I made a horrible decision by taking this class. DONT RUIN YOUR GPA.
WORST CLASS
I feel like hamidi's classes are kinda overhated ngl. the material is straight forward (for 206 atleast, i heard she's worse for 205) and exams are similar to the past exams that she posts on canvas. she's a meanie tho and will belittle you for asking questions in office hours. also if i took algos with her im pretty sure i would fail so take gavva
Overhated teacher, she cares about you learning. That said, the class is definitely tough, and you need to put a lot in to be able to do well in the class.
This is the worst professor I have ever seen. He is extremely strict. The content is relatively simple but there are many exams. There is almost a quiz every week and they account for a considerable proportion. The difficulty of the exams is sometimes uneven.
Surprised at ratings here, so thought I'd add one. Lectures are on the blackboard, recitations cover lecture material, weekly quizzes based DIRECTLY on recitation problems. There are no surprises! Prof is strict, but clearly cares about student learning. Solve recitations and past exams to study for the quizzes/exams, you will do well.
She genuinely cares about all of her students and I feel like shes only disliked because Discrete math is hard, and attendance is mandatory. Be prepared to go to office hours, she'll give you extra credit, and help you out if you show her that you care.
Worst professor ever. I'm a commuter student w/ a disability. Given my situation, it is not feasible to travel for mandatory 8:30am lectures (which have pop quizzes). To pass the class, I'd need a 100 on every exam. Her system is extremely unfair to disadvantaged students. She expects you to cope or withdraw from the course.
Her final exam was magnitudes more difficult than any of her previous exams. We were not adequately prepared for this exam, nor does she lower grade boundaries or curves.
She's nice and cares about her students, but the overall learning environment is not for me. It's way too fast-paced and she expects a lot out of you. That would be fine if it were my only class … but that's not the case for anybody. Made me hate Discrete 2. Learning style felt outdated and very straightforward (in a bad way..)
She'll fly by material mention some problems you could practice and never speaks about it again. Then on the quizzes if you do not solve a problem EXACTLY how she would she's taking points off. And if you happen to miss something, the whole problem is wrong, no extra credit at all. Do not take her.
She has taught me why it is important to find a good professor. The lectures were excruciating. Many included of at least 20-30 minutes of irrelevant rants. After disrespecting our time, she would start a new chapter at the end of the lecture, and then stop teaching in order to complain when people prepared to leave. Take CS206 with anyone else.
final exam was very difficult. clear & organized lecturer but she teaches incorrect info at times. changed grading policies multiple times at the end of semester. she is good at making good use of students' time in lecture and gives mostly fair quizzes.
I do not even know how I passed. The quizzes are extremely difficult and final exam too. Very tough grading. Make sure you read the textbook and do all the problems if you want to pass. Also try to get extra credit and if she see you are getting extra credit, then should not would fail you. Make sure you communicate with your TA.
Although people are right about her personality she made discrete 2 very easy. Almost all exam questions are copy/pasted from previous ones that are posted on Canvas, so many ways to earn extra credit, TAs were very lenient with grading esp. for the final. That being said I'd avoid taking her for any other class, but for discrete 2 you'll be fine.
She scares me a bit. Her tests and quizzes came off from the past exams and quizzes she gave, but her final was very hard. If you sit in front of her class, do the extra credit, and show that you've been putting effort, you will get an A. I did over 300 problems for exam 2. If you're not ready to put in the effort, this isn't the class for you.
had her for disc 2. her tests are pretty hard, but its not like she doesn't cover all the material she goes over. quizzes can be brutal though and the class can eat up more time when you have a full schedule. overall pretty good, she does care for her students. also noah carver was a great ta, very kind grader.
The material itself isn't hard. the challenge is the amount of practice required. She assigns many problems and past exams so lots of time studying. I did poorly on quizzes but performed well on exams, used a special offer, and finished with a B+. It's a class that truly requires time and consistency.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
97%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B+
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.38 avg changeRatings by Course
CS206
2.9
(179)DIS206
2.2
(16)CS344
2.0
(6)DISCRT2
1.6
(14)CS205
1.6
(41)Difficulty by Course
DISCRT2
4.4
DATA101
4.3
Stats285
4.3
CS205
4.2
CS344
3.8