2.2
Quality4.2
Difficulty15%
Would Retake87
Reviews15%
Would Retake
87
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
87 total ratings5
7
4
17
3
10
2
18
1
35
What Students Say
“boring and useless lecture and hw”
CS558 - 1.0 rating“His grading style bothers me the most though”
250 - 3.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
12%
Textbook Required
43%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.39 avg changeRatings by Course
250
3.0
(1)CS553
2.8
(4)CS250
2.8
(48)CS558
2.4
(8)CS106
2.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
CS350
5.0
CS410
5.0
CS320
4.8
CS558
4.3
CS106
4.0
Reviews (86)
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This guy is smart, but has a very bad attitude about teaching and helping the students. He spends much time going off topic about things not related to Design Patterns.
He is very knowledgeable but has a very strong attitude problem. I wish he were more approachable and not snub students in class. His only thing is to remain a professor to get the grants to do his research and do consultancy work for industry. He does not care a damn about students!
the graders do everything very frustrating
The worst teacher I ever had in my entire life. Be prepared for lame jokes, he?s under the sad impression that he is funny and clever.
Told students not to contact him with questions regarding course material. Uses power points created by another teacher. Also periodically has to remove multiple questions from exams due to typos, poor student performance, etc... There seems to be a disconnect between the material presented in class and the questions on the exams.
While the professor is fairly clear, he tests on the fine print of the text book. If you take one of his classes, do yourself a favor and memorize the textbook.
The worst experience I've had in education. AVOID his class if you can. He quickly skims over boilerplate slides, sometimes explicitly identifying the material as boring or too difficult. Unfortunately, he expects you to understand the material (which he hasn't taught) on his scantron exams, which are confusing and contain many mistakes.
Very energetic and entertaining lectures. Professor Antoy is one of my favorite instructors. He conveys his philosophy for thinking about software problems very clearly.
The professor is clearly very knowledgeable.The assignments were easy to moderately difficult.He discussed the solutions in class.I liked the classes but the finals were a complete shocker. Most of the questions were incomprehensible and there was no clarity on what was expected. The last lecture was less than an hour long but the final exam had a
The worst class ever...no clear cut examples and the book didn't help much. Was always lost in class.
The examples in class seemed much simpler than the homework problems, more difficult examples would be helpful for future classes.
The subject is difficult, and the instructor must have some talent to teach this class. This teacher cannot clearly explain even simple things. The exams are much more difficult comparing to homeworks. Most of the students fail on every exam. I didn't notice any grade curving of the final grade. The textbook and probably the TA will be the only sou
The instructor must have some talent to teach such a difficult class. The teacher cannot clearly explain simple things. The exams were even more complicated than HWs. Most students failed the exams. The textbook and probably the TA will be the only sources of learning because Antoy will find any reason to avoid helping you.
Why is this instructor still teaching this class!!!?? He's probably the worst instructor that I've ever seen at PSU. Luckily, I dropped the class near the beginning because the instructor was horrible.
Teaches Discrete Structures in a way that is good for computer science majors. He utilized coding examples in class to demonstrate topics and took time to go over everyone's questions - sometimes he lost patience and wanted to cover more/different material. Takes a video of his lectures in case you miss class which is helpful.
Probably the worst teacher that I've had at PSU. Dropped his class after first test. Difficult to understand and listen to, gets off topic, doesn't make his own slides and reads from slides, difficult tests. Overall no fun at all.
Tough class. Difficult tests. Appreciated (non-graded) quizzes which clarified types of questions which were to be asked on test. Attention to detail required when reading the syllabus. Increased my grasp of CS greatly. Goes out of the way to accommodate students which can't attend class (recorded lectures & such). Two thumbs up.
This class was hard when I took it, but made more sense in retrospect. If you read, and read ahead in the book, yo'll do fine. Put it off, and you'll probably not pass. Very knowledgeable professor, always gave code examples in class.
Antoy gets a bad wrap for teaching the first difficult CS course in the series. However, he is actually very fair in his policies and very helpful with practice quizzes and homework review. I give him two thumbs up.
While the course itself will be rather abstract and advanced for the typical second year CS student, that is not the fault of Prof. Antoy. He does a great job conveying his expectations and keeping students from being overwhelmed, with plenty of opportunity for practice and review.
Great instructor, very tough class, although the textbook is overwhelming at times, the tests actually test you on the basic concepts. He doesnt trick you on exams and prepares you for them every week. Has VERY clear outline of anything related to course on his website. A funny guy and excellent at managing the class. Has a cool Italian-o accent!
weekly quizzes are helpful. the class material are really clearly outlined.
Charismatic, but DON'T expect help. Homework is from the book but grades are mainly from the tests he created. Out of 33 questions, the highest score on the first (easiest test) was 26. His response to request for more quiz questions, "write a program"! Breezes over 'easy' material and discourages questions. Interesting material so it's a shame.
Very interesting to listen to, incredibly engaging when something catches his interest, but isn't actually that much help on understanding the core material. Don't count on either Professor Antoy nor the textbook to assist you here. It's hard material, and if you're interested and study a lot on your own you may just survive!
Great personality and fun to listen to. He does NOT do a great job of conveying the material, which leaves you needing to really rely on the book...which is also very difficult to understand. I have Singh for CS251 right now and he does a WAY better job of teaching the material.
Guy is an Idiot.. for someone who doesn't know the material he sounds knowledgeable but in reality he knows next to nothing. The quality of his work is clearly shown by his lack of any graduating phd students and garbage research
He's very engaging and the class is not boring. However, it is a difficult topic to wrap your brain around, and requires you to really make an effort to understand the material. He gives very helpful self-graded quizzes every week to help prepare you for the exams. Like he says, it's not hard to pass the class, but it is hard to get an A.
Class expectations are clear, and he only counts the best 2 of 3 tests and requires only 50% of the assigned homework. If you read ahead before class, study the weekly practice quizzes and posted exam objectives, and take advantage of TA hours, you'll do fine. Grade is entirely based upon the exams but he spots you three questions.
Class starts off pretty intense and a lot of material is covered at first. After the first couple weeks the pace slows down. He can be a little intimidating in class, but is really friendly in office hours. Grading is really fair. You only have to turn in half the homework questions, but you won't do good on the tests if you only do the easy ones.
He is the worst professor at psu. Never take programming language under him!
Quiz/test questions lean WAY(!!) too heavily toward "gotcha" questions. Doesn't just test on the core concept, tries to trick you by testing on corner cases of the concept. Really destroys morale quickly. Gives a few freebie questions on each test, but it's not enough to account for these.
worst professor ever
Professor Antoy seems like a nice guy, but this class is really difficult. The actual content is understandable enough, but there is A LOT of material covered and you are expected to understand and remember ALL of it- even/especially the most minute details not covered in class or homework. This is an unabashed weeder course, proceed with caution.
boring and useless lecture and hw
This is a no nonsense professor. He is very helpful to answer any questions you may have, but he will absolutely not deal with stupid questions. He often laughed any time someone asked a stupid question. Pay attention, be a good student, and this will be an easy ride. The tests were easier than I thought they would be. The homework is tough!
Good lectures, easy to learn, and pretty hilarious
Antoy actually does teach decently on occasion, but he flat out refuses to answer questions sometimes. He literally told me something along the following upon asking a question: "try doing it, it's obvious". My neighboring student was more helpful in giving me an answer to my question. It's too bad. He's a nice guy. (no room left to proceed)
If you think that you are an average student, don't ever try to take this course under Sergio or you will lose your confidence ,time and money.
Lots of homework, though you only need to do half which really is just past the first midterm if you get most right. The tests really don't have anything to do with the HW making the HW a waste of time when you could be prepping for test. The tests are multiple choice with lots of gotchas good luck! Antoy really tries to avoid questions in class!
Not a difficult class as long as you do all the homework and attend all lectures. The tests, all multiple choice, are likely difficult for many, however, due to many questions being "definition related"; that is, many of the questions are phrased in a nuanced and nitpicky way to make sure you are getting the definition (i.e. pay close attention).
Antoy is great. He offers to go over homework questions in class and gives non-graded quizzes at least once a week, which were very helpful when studying for the tests. You're only required to turn in half of the hw assigned. Also, there are 3 tests but only the top 2 scores are used to calculate the final grade.
Nice teacher. Although Singh in CS 251 do a better job than him but he is fine. He may go through the lecture a bit fast (hello at-home reading) and no early release (please! why?). The homework would be a little too much ( but graders are easy,and only need to do half of them). It is easy to pass his class. If you faillost, it's your fault.
This is one of the first "real" courses for CS majors. Wake up, make some coffee, and really work through the (unfortunately poorly written) book every day that you're in this class. Pay attention to the small details, do more than just the assigned problems, form a study group, and you'll do just fine. Sergio is clear-cut and no-nonsense.
His tests involve a lot of trick questions, be ready for that. His grading style bothers me the most though. You have to do 50% of the homework. If you do more it gets graded too. This means if you did 50% and got 50% right, you get an A. If you did 100% and got 80% right you get a B-. So it hurts your grade to try the hard problems. Seems off.
Horrible textbook. And he isn't very good at clarifying it. Lectures are pointless. Doing more HW than required is also pointless unless you need to. Only two exams count, so do well on the first two and the final won't matter. I learned more in 251 in the first two weeks than I did in this 250 class all term. Read the text and try to understand it
This is my first expereience with the teacher who really don't care and tries to put most of the stuff to the assistans. Lectures overall not clear enough, though Discrete Math could be interesting and it's imortant for CS major. What can I say: relly only on yourself, work with tutors, they'll explain 2-hour lecture material in 30 minutes.
Still in this course. Haven't taken first exam yet. Thick accent. Questions are answered in the same way he described it the first time. The "textbook" is an online file of another professor's NOTES on the subject. Very dense to read, and worse to listen to with his accent. He joked that people stayed the first week; I thought "no other options."
Not the best.
His reference slides are bad, with few detailed explanations of anything. The book is only sometimes helpful. Lectures are decent. If you can't understand his accent you're not trying very hard. He doesn't give the impression that he cares very much and out of class resources are sparse. I wouldn't recommended him if you have options.
Gives good lectures that help explain the material well, but grades very harshly. Be sure you understand the way the class is graded before you blindly turn in homeworks, and take the tests. Very helpful during office hours though.
Teaches you how to think about problem solving in different ways. Sometimes his English is difficult to understand. Not the most organized in terms of his lecture material. Very smart, knowledgeable; seems more suited for a research position/upper level courses.
We didn't have a chance to get some of our work back before tests which killed the class for me. the text book assumes you have a lot more knowledge than you should. His lecture slides are terrible and non specific and the lecture does not prepare you for the homework at all. You are better off with any other proffessor.
I've previously taken this course at a community college and received an A. The course didn't transfer to this college, and now I'm taking this course with Sergio and I am barley hanging on to a C-. When Over 50% of the class fails both Exams, something needs to be changed. He doesn't give appropriate homework to prepare for exams. Try to avoid!
Prof. Antoy doest his best to explain REALLY dry material. The book he provides isn't good, but you can google pretty much all of the topics. Grading is straight forward and he's pretty lenient (3 freebies in each exam and 1 in each hw; only 2 of 3 tests count). You just have to put in the time to understand the material and you'll do fine.
Antoy is a really poor communicator. Be prepared to teach your teach yourself. He gives unclear examples and doesn't start from the beginning. His exam and homework questions are terribly worded, he even admits this, and he won't clarify during exams. He doesn't keep a well-organized schedule so it's easy to miss assignments.
lectures are confusing. answers sometimes aren't in textbook or lecture slides; you end up googling everything which is fine but you'd think he'd either design the lectures or homework a little differenlty. he does try but they shouldn't let this guy anywhere near undergrads. he's unorganized and makes no sense
Do not take this class. It's basically a scam. 1) Posts 14 textbooks, has no logical constraint on what you could be tested on." 2) Does not answer questions. I'm not kidding. You will not get an answer that doesn't leave you 3x more confused. 3) Provides 66 minutes for a test. Completely trick questions in multiple choice. 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9)
You can tell you're learning from a research professor. In his attempt to find a solution to a suposedly unpopular text-book he provides several text-books and note-books along side recommended YouTube and web material. If you have a linear learning style you're screwed on the reading. Good grading schema.
havent finished the course as of yet, but its worth saying to avoid professor Antoy's class. You will spend the entire course teaching yourself the material. Lectures are moot, and material is ill explained if at all.
Avoid this class. Prof Antoy goes over material very quickly and without a lot of detail in class. His lecture slides are useless, many of the topics get only one sentence of explanation or are not covered at all. He posts links to videos and articles which can be useful but do not completely cover exam material. Extremely disorganized and unclear.
The TA is your most valuable resource in this class. It is highly recommended to go over the week's homework with the TA before turning it in. The lectures can be confusing and Professor Antoy isn't likely to hold up the lecture to answer many questions. The grading scale is generous and everything has 10% extra credit available.
I would take another of Professor Antoy's courses. The grade is based almost entirely on the midterm and final which is stressful. Super useful course though.
Would never recommend. Lectures are not very clear. Neither lecture nor slides nor his "textbooks" (doesn't require one just recommends like 10) help with answering homework questions or for studying for exam. You will self learn everything/end up going to tutor or TA. Entire grade is based on 2 tests and 5 homeworks. Avoid!!
Very willing to spend time to answer good questions, but isn't going to baby feed you steps you should know by this time in college. Just don't overthink things, keep it simple, and be willing to participate in class and online in discussions. He's actually quite entertaining.
All he does is talk. He wont SHOW you how to do anything. If you are a visual/hands-on learner you WILL fail the class.
I'm very surprised Professor Antoy only has only a 2.5/5. I took 3 classes with him and each term I enjoy his classes more. He doesn't hold your hand and expects you to perform at college level but at the same time, he is always available to help you understand if you need it. A diamond in the rough and really enjoyed his sense of humor. A+++
Sergio is very knowledgable on the topics which he teaches. He is prompt when emailing and willing to answer most questions. I spoke to many of my fellow students who feel he is rude. I chalk it up to teaching style, which doesn't bother me. My issue is he is a tough grader and only has 2-3 graded test's. And they are difficult. This call is rough.
Guy is so old school , had to download lecture videos and assignment from the Linux server despite having a D2l site.
You have to download and watch lectures... So if you have slow internet good luck. In addition have fun using linux to find the lecture material since it's not up on d2l. We learned haskell and prolog over the span of the weeknd... Litterally my lab was on thursday, and I had the assignment due on Tuesday Morning... I would not take this again.....
One of the most stressful CS classes I've ever taken. The professor expects you to learn and program in a whole new language in the period of 5 days or less & labs don't help a lot either since he only goes through a very basic understanding of the language that doesn't relate to the programming assignments.
This course formally introduces Haskell, Prolog, and elements of Java. While OOP is familiar to most, the nature of functional/logical programming should not be taken lightly. Homework was perplexingly different from the lab which was hugely frustrating. CS333 offered so many more resources despite being harder on paper.
Refuses to answer questions and just responds to them with "it is obvious" or an insult. Cannot compile his own code in labs. Gives us less than five days to do lengthy homework assignments and doesn't elaborate on them until the night before it is due. Doesn't answer questions during exams, and gives you a 0 on non-exact answers.
Homework assignments largely require concepts that are not covered in lecture nor lab sessions and we get less than a week to do them. Prof has admitted to concepts not covered in lecture but still requires them in assignments anyway. Grading seems arbitrary, a friend and I did the same amount of work but we got wildly different grades for it.
Prepare to be "humbled" if you decide to take this course. Labs offer the bare minimum such as basic compiling, printing, and other such trivial topics. This results in little to no correlation to the actual homework, which is frustrating and makes the lab seem useless. Communication about the grading is arbitrary and non-existent.
Terrible experience so far in this course. Take another professor, don't even bother with this trust me. You pretty much have to teach yourself 2 programming languages to do well with the homework. 30% HW, 30% Midterm, 40% Final. If you mess up in mid or final you are done for. Good luck
You're expected to program in Java, Prolog, and Haskell. They're very different from one another, and if you don't know any one of them, have fun teaching yourself because the homework expects you to know more about the language than what is covered in lecture and lab and you get less than a week to figure it all out. Hope you're good at exams.
While Professor Antoy seems like a nice person he is a horrible professor (at least for this class). You are left to fend entirely for yourself relying heavily on other classmates. You are expected to learn pretty much everything on your own and lectures are spent going over syntax and little theory. Save yourself and take this class w/someone else
This professor is the worst educator I've ever met. His teaching style and assisting students are borderline bare minimum, when asked for help by multiple students he just gives one word answers expecting us know everything like we have been dedicating our life to the materials. Save yourself and your time and take it with any other professor.
Avoid this professor if at all possible. Points on tests and homework assignments are marked down for the most arbitrary reasons. Labs are basically worthless. The homework assignments in Prolog and Haskell are assigned with virtually no instruction on how to use these languages. Expect to spend A LOT of time on stack overflow.
This dude would legit just read from the book and not teach. I took his class and learned more from some Indian on YT, than I did from this clown of a "teacher". The labs mean nothing, a mute person would have a better time communicating than the riddles he would spout out. Dude was legit the Riddler's sidekicks cerebral palsy's cousin. stay AWAY
We were not told what the final that was worth 40% of our grade would cover until the night before, and all we got was that it was "comprehensive". Also covered only syntax and theory while asking for extremely complex structures on homework and exams. By the way, only five days per assignment. I've seen Jigsaw ask people more reasonable things.
This professor is unprofessional. Lacks the ability to give ample amount of time to study for hw and tests. Other reviewers say they support this professor because of tough love but that just means he leaves you to teach yourself with unrealistic timeframes. The class asks for you to have the chaos emeralds to slow time just to turn in hw.
As you will realize by reading the 15 reviews below, you do not want to take this guy. It honestly feels like his sole purpose for the term was to make his students feel incompetent. This class will deplete whatever passion you have for CS. I think half of the class dropped after the midterm. This guy will make your life miserable.
Ahh Professor Antoy, where do I begin. He only gives 5 days between homework assignments which are hard to complete with all of the requirements. Test preparation was vague. Labs were utterly useless since they didn't cover anything related to the homework. Half of the class dropped after the midterm. Save time and money and do not take his course.
Had Principles of Programming Lang with him at the University of Oregon, because apparently they couldn't get anyone else. Sort of demotivating to have a CS prof who can't think of a better way to collect test scores than by having people email him their (self-graded!) marks. His GE had to set up a Google Form for him.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
12%
Textbook Required
43%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
B
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.39 avg changeRatings by Course
250
3.0
(1)CS553
2.8
(4)CS250
2.8
(48)CS558
2.4
(8)CS106
2.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
CS350
5.0
CS410
5.0
CS320
4.8
CS558
4.3
CS106
4.0