When asked to provide more coding examples in class, responded "That's really hard, there are all sorts of errors that can come up when you code." Only CS lecturer (not a professor) I've seen that handwrites lines of code. One day, a TA came in and taught the class like a normal CS class and at the end everyone gave him a standing ovation.

She refuses to code in front of class if it isn't handwritten. She doesn't have a list of lecture topics or notes that we can easily follow along with, instead just providing pre-written code. She doesn't post practice tests or questions either so each exam is a mystery of its own. Success in this class is entirely dependent on prior knowledge.

She is by far the worst professor I have come across. The only thing she does is to open up the Java API for whatever topic she is going through and lets us read it. She refuses to give practice papers and so no one knows what to expect of her tests. The absolute worst. Period.

Her class basically throws you a whole bunch of prewritten classes in IntelliJ. and you will see her starts to debug and jumps around classes and lines of code. impossible to follow, TAs does way better job

Worst professor I've ever had by far. Her lectures are extremely unhelpful and basically pointless. She does no work to prepare you for the tests, and refuses to provide any sort of study guide. Besides her teaching, she is unsympathetic, and she expects the class to understand her personal matters when she refuses to understand ours in return.0/10

Refuses to give practice tests because they'd be too helpful to students. Doesn't cover concepts in class, just shows you the code she wrote overnight

For a large portion of the semester, she insisted on writing the lecture notes and code. This wouldn't have been an issue if her handwriting was legible. Finally, after constant feedback, she switched to typing the code. This would be good if she didn't constantly switch between classes and abruptly switch between lines of code.

don't take her if you don't have prior knowledge of java

Lectures left me more confused. She has a bunch of pre-written classes in Intellij and she jumps around the code so you cant follow. Instead of having good notes or example code she just links to Java API. Class curves are ruined by people who already know java, and she doesn't properly curve grades to reflect distribution.

I self taught myself almost everything in this class. The textbook is what helped me clear most of the confusion that arose during lecture. Tests were alright, but the fact that we never received any practice tests made it 10x harder to study the right material. If you're taking Java for the very first time, don't take Phillips.

do not recommend, her lectures are very hard to follow and are often very confusing. People go to class because of pop quiz and just study on their own. She refuses to give practice exam even through TAs are the one doing the work. TA are great though, I had tony and he is the goat from my experience in tech. If you're taking 1331, go to tony

The professor is not knowledgeable about what was taught. Going to lectures is a waste of time but attendance quiz is given out for 3% of the grade. I learn so much more in a shorter period of time online.

She taught 2316 for the summer. And she doesn't know any python. Her TA's teach the entire class. Would recommend never taking again with her.

I took 1331 with her in Spring 19. It was a disaster. Took CS2340 with her during the summer because I had no other choices. 2340 was slightly more organized than her 1331 but still pretty bad. Her lectures were not at all useful for our Android app project. Our group googled everything. I only attended lectures for the attendance quizzes.

You really get nothing from lecture, she goes through everything swiftly, and never explains anything throughly. I am really disappointed, as i believed that this course would be actually helpful, but for me she ruined it

Lectures are somewhat disorganized, and it is unclear why a professor without python experience would be chosen to teach a python-based class. The TAs are able to provide some clarification, but the class has been a bit frustrating overall. Course content is not terribly difficult, but it's unfortunate considering how useful this stuff is.

Horrible professor; refused to help student; zero tolerance at any grading; forget to sign honor code is the best way make you from A to a C; absent without notifying the student and TA end up teaching; TA teaches better than she does; her background is all java but she teaches python; mumbling through slide during all lecture. Never take her!!!!!

Don't ever expect her to help you out if you have policy issues related to the course.

If you couldn't already tell from the other comments, you should try to avoid this professor. 'nuff said.

the worst. We had a total of 16 hw assignments over the semester, and I emailed her about a hw assignment and never responded. She depends on the TA's heavily, and she goes through her lectures as if we all have prior knowledge on java. TA teach better, she has a participation quiz every lecture, does not give it to those who are SLIGHTLY late

Susan Watson-Phillips does not know python, which is the language this class is taught in. The TAs for this class are great and constantly have to interrupt her to correct her during lectures. Even with slides she still gets confused. HWs aren't bad and have extra credit and the 6 assessments are pretty decent.

She doesnt know the material she is teaching.

Dr. Watson Phillips is one of the worst professors I've ever had. She doesn't know Python3, which is the majority of the class. Her lectures are dull, and most of the time she just reads the powerpoint. Still, though, she has us do a participation quiz for every single class. It's a waste of time. Terrible professor, definitely don't recommend.

Worst professor I've had at Tech. She doesn't know how to lecture and does not teach concepts that end up being on the homework and tests.

Theres homework every week that is unreasonably long and difficult, & there are "assessments" every other week that are midterm length and difficulty. There is a participation quiz on canvas every class, so you cannot skip, even though the lectures are not helpful for learning. Professor also has a bad attitude and TAs teach better than she does

DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. If you want to be confused, upset and talked down to then take the class. She does not know Python but somehow is trying to teacher it. I have never seen someone talk down to students for having questions like she does. Also, "assesments" tests and they are every 2 weeks. This class causes me anxiety with no end.

Only take her class if you already know Python and/or can teach yourself. She for some reason is teaching this course when she doesn't even know python and constantly makes mistakes and is condescending. The TA's are wonderful and teach much better than her but know that she will be of no help if you take her class. Be prepared to teach yourself.

I don't really understand how could she be a professor, who is unable to teach.

Lectures are useless. No answers to practice exams. Take a different professor.

Teaching methods are subpar. Not easy to follow in class. Concepts not explained well. She was late to multiple classes. In class quizzes didnt seem to match material on multiple occasions.

Had to learn everything myself. Lectures are extremely boring, slow, and hard to pay attention to. Complicated examples are demonstrated in class instead of just teaching the concepts.

I self-taught bc I did not want to fail. The lecture is not useful for people who have learned OOP and not useful for people(me) who do not know OOP. I only go bc she takes attendance. The class is so dry that it is just torture of 50 mins. I wake up in the morning and I'm never excited about my day because of WP. If you have her GL, dont cry.

She literally resigned a TA just because they gave the students practice problems. She doesn't teach, I learned more the day before tests and from TA's.

Even if you have a strong background in programming, you're liable to not do particularly well in this class. Lectures are long and boring, assignments are contrived, and her test questions are oddly specific. If you can avoid taking her, do so. If you can't - get ready to work harder. Go to every lecture or walk the line between letter grades.

Disjointed, unorganized lectures full of vague hand-waving at pre-written coding examples and condescending tone makes you feel like this class was intended for people who know the concepts already. Exams are applying concepts vaguely addressed in lecture by making sense of intentionally awful and confusing code. At least the TA's are good. Avoid.

The most useless and non-informative lectures I have ever attended in my life. The TA's are the only gleam of redeeming hope for this class. She depended on the TAs to basically teach the class and was not helpful at all for anything. The tests did not test your knowledge. One multiple choice Q wrong was sometimes 10 points off your grade.

Having suffered through this course I can easily say this was truly one of the worst experiences class wise. Watson-Phillips does not know Python in the slightest & never made the effort to try. She gets confused mid-lecture (in the rare event she is the lecturer) & asks the TA's for help. I would not have passed without my TA's shout out to them

Teaches a class in Python, but does not know Python. TA's taught most of the class. I loved the material but she almost ruined it for me. It's not that the material is all that difficult, but her tests are challenging and was very rude and unaccommodating when I had a concussion. Made a short multiple choice final and last test that were very hard

The worst professor I have ever had. Is straight up incapable of teaching. Exams are unnecessarily hard and misleading. The only people that get A's in this class are people that have already had plenty of Java experience.

Avoid!!

I learned nothing from her lectures. She was not helpful, was often rude or brief with students, and constantly used circular reasoning. TAs were great and recitation was helpful. A few times, the TAs would teach lecture, and they would get an applause at the end. Hw was frequent and participation quizzes counted everyday.

Her lectures were useless, was often rude or brief with students, and explained things like "instance data is the data of instance variables". Lots of homework, many participation quizzes count, and if you have no java experience, good luck, read the book and get help from TAs. TAs were amazing, and deserve so much appreciation. Try to avoid her.

A boring class that will test your willingness to go to lecture just for the mandatory quizzes. Had it not been for that, I would have substituted the 45 minute lecture time watching anime.

She is just as bad as everyone says, but the TAs normally keep you afloat. The homeworks aren't bad if you start them when they come out. You do have to stay on top of things, and the exams are pretty wack.

Terrible at explaining concepts, even though lectures are mandatory.

Please do yourself a favor and don't take the class if you cannot take another teacher. Bad teacher, grading criteria are tough and there is no curve, not even 1 point, not even half a point. NO CURVE!!!! avid or be ready to have an uncomfortable semester of self-teaching and pain.

she is the worst professor I've had at Tech. apparently everybody complained about her the first time she taught the class in Spring 2019 and then ga tech disregarded all the CIOS feedback and made her head of the class...? zell miller should not even pay for this unhelpful, boring class

Easy class to get an A in. Her Powerpoints are sometimes useful. Majority of the time she wasn't sure about how to answer questions, so she would just ask the TAs. If you do the HW assignments and attend recitations, you should do well, but do not rely on the professor because she doesn't have much Python knowledge.

Lectures are boring, unhelpful, and confusing. Tests are not reflective of the content covered in lecture.

Her lectures are very boring and not useful. She spends a lot of time just writing code in front of the class instead of going over useful info. She spends too much time answering questions in the middle of class, so it's easy to get lost. Overall, the class was very easy, but most of the learning was done outside of lecture.

I really didn't like this class, the lectures were indeed boring, and I didn't find them useful. TA's are very helpful and taught more than she had. Skip her if you can.

heavy homework and tests but you learn nothing in her class. She always focus on some useless points and I have to learn everything by myself. Just don't take her class!

DONT TAKE HER. Lectures are extremely confusing, she gets lost in explanations, and does giant live codings that dont really help. Her notes are very vague and dont help in HW or exams, and during lecture she literally just reads the outline. Great person, very caring, but her style of teaching didnt work at all for me. Exams easy but very specific

JUST DON'T TAKE. SHE DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE IN GATECH. THE WORST PROFESSOR

Honestly one of the worst professors that I have. Forgets what she is teaching during the class and expects us to remember them during the exam. Does not give any extra credit opportunities and asks things on the exam that are never taught in the class.

Unforgiving about issues with the 1st online exam until weeks later. Lectures are uploaded in a format that does not let you change the playback speed. On the last exam before the final, she decided to change the format to a single recorded programming problem with a 25 point penalty for being any amount over time and a 0 for non-compiling code.

Literally know all the course content before taking the class, her lectures actually made me more confused about it so I would have to google it. Basically she's so bad at teaching literally nothing is better. What I mean by that is that LITERALLY NOT HAVING ANYTHING is better than being taught by her. Take a dump, you'll learn more.

I'm convinced she doesn't know the course content or has memory loss or something. It feels like she Googled course material seconds before to learn it all and is trying to pass it off as if she knows how to code. If you take this course, sleep during lecture or something. Listening to her is a waste of time.

REALLY bad. Unless you took AP Computer Science, buckle up get ready to teach yourself the entire course.

Would have rather been taught by first time TAs rather than her. Unless you absolutely must, I would not take CS 1331 with her. That being said, the course content is fairly straightforward, so its definitely doable especially if you attend recitation.

Her lectures are very close to useless. Always seem very unprepared, unable to focus on the topic . For couple of lectures(quite a few) she just gave us references to other materials and never went through them. The tests were quite easy, but still it doesn't compensate for the very poor teaching. Avoid classes with her.

Professor SWP's class is not very well organized or structured. She does not teach the concepts very well and spends most of the class doing examples which do not really help our understanding. Unless you have taken AP or IB CS, you would have to teach yourself everything. The TAs in this class will save you however

Before I begin. I do study and have a good work ethic. I gave this prof the benefit of the doubt. I was still wrong. Please don't ever take this prof, I don't even know how she got hired to teach. She makes the simplest of topics confusing and seems like she doesn't even know the contents of her own notes.

A freshman who took CS 1331 with another professor and made a C could've taught the concepts better than Phillips. I'm not struggling because I have previous knowledge, but DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS WITH HER UNLESS YOU'RE PREPARED TO PUT IN 10+ HRS A WEEK TO SELF STUDY OR HAVE PREVIOUS JAVA KNOWLEDGE. SHE WILL RUIN COMPUTER SCIENCE FOR YOU.

Teaching is not great.

She is completely uncaring about her students and has a "it's not my problem mentality." Her lectures are completely useless and you should make an effort to get a hold of another teachers lectures and notes if you want to learn anything. She uses Professor Landry's quizzes and homeworks regardless of whether she covered it or not. Horrible.

Most of our class got a hold of Staskos lectures and skipped SWPs lectures. Her lectures were just a total snooze fest. Shell have lecture notes posted before class, but then shell copy the same notes word for word in class. Such a waste of time. We know you can write!

Suzy is the worst prof on GT's campus. She doesn't know JAVA. She spent half of the time during lectures figuring out why her code didnt work. She is unclear and unorganized and I would rather wait another semester than to take her class. If you take her class, might as well skip lecture and either watch Youtube or go to another prof's lecture.

Lots of Asynch videos, lots of external sites to read. Lectures are very fragmented and mismatched with the big schedule (e.g contents for the upcoming assignment are not taught 2 days before the deadline) and the concepts are terribly explained. Really don't encourage you to take the section if you get other options. Seriously.

WORST PROFESSOR EVER. PLEASE DON'T TAKE HER OR YOU WILL JUST END UP TEACHING YOURSELF THE WHOLE COURSE

She is not even sure what she is teaching.

Go to API Docs and teach yourself. I think that is what she expects from you anyway. Confusing class structure. Tough grader. No room for error. The skills you need for the HW are not taught until the day before it is due. I cannot stress enough on the fact that you need to be your own teacher in this class. Still manageable.

She doesn't seem to have a great grasp on what she's teaching and complains about things that a professor should be prepared to deal with before teaching a class. Not too hard but be ready to teach yourself the class if you want to do well

The WORST professor at Georgia Tech ever. She has no knowledge about the class she is teaching whatsoever. IMO, she doesn't deserve be a lecturer at GT. Many undergrads TAs are more knowledgeable than her and teach better class. AVOID her class AT ALL COST!

Grading is a mystery and she doesn't release the assignment grades when the letter grade is out and ask us to wait until the beginning of the next semester to see the grades. Just totally SPEECHLESS with this lecturer. She has no respect for your efforsts.

Horrible! She's always super confused with the course contents and often ends up coding entirely wrong in lecture only to correct herself later. She doesn't know how to split time and ends up skipping (literally) important topics in class and told us to catch up ourselves from videos she uploaded. Teach yourself the course and go to recitation!

Showed up for the first few lectures, she was amazingly bad. Just ended up teaching myself the course through Google. Homeworks were easy. Tests were medium. Recitations were amazing.

Without a doubt the worst professor I have encountered at Tech. She has a very poor understanding of the curriculum which is compounded by an inability to teach. Avoid at all costs

Absolutely horrible professor, and I'm saying this as her old TA in CS1331. Her teaching is dry. She has a 0% response rate when I emailed her throughout the sem. Does not check Canvas ever. Grade late. Loves to blame and gaslight students when things went bad cause she refused to pay attention when we brought up problems. Just avoid this class.

she graded assignments with no rubric and clear feedback. Had favorites :)

Worst professor encountered in 4 years. Can't seem to understand students' concerns and won't address the problems students have. DONT TAKE HER COURSE!!!! RATHER TAKE 8AM CLASS THAN HERS!!! AVOID AT ALL COST!

Extremely boring lectures that simply text on slides. Around 150 slides per lecture, and no rhyme or reason to the order, flow, or structure. Tests are pure memorization and luck due to the immense amount of dry content.

I think you can get an easy A in the class but it's just a waste of time. She legit doesn't teach you anything, she rarely comes to class. Easily one of the laziest people I've ever seen. We could be spending time learning how to use Android Studio but instead, she slowly reads over slides that would take a normal person like 15 minutes to read.

Focuses on memorizing random specific details from the slides rather than teaching anything useful.There is some useful stuff like design patterns but it's thrown at the end of the course and isn't really explained in good detail. Easy class to get an A but it's just a bunch of work and teaches you almost nothing.

I would say there is no connection between the lectures, exams, and the project. You have to learn everything by yourself. TAs are not helpful as well. It's easy but time-consuming to get an A.

The professor smells like BS

Speaks bad English, class structure is horrible. You would have a better time blasting taylor swift and cold plunging in a sewage plant for 400 years than sitting through one lecture